How to Make Money as a Content Creator
If you are a freelance content creator, or have aspirations on becoming a freelance content creator, this five part series will help you lay the foundation for making money. In episode two of this five part series, I cover ways to generate active income streams for freelance careers. To do this, I dive deep into what types of active income exist and what the end results will look like. All of these are focused on freelance jobs.
What is Active Income?
Active Income as a freelancer means you are actively pursuing and creating the work you are hoping to sell. This work often takes up the bulk of your time and creative energy.
Another way to think about active income is work you are creating for a client.
Active Income Jobs
Jobs in the active income category have a wide range, but are typically what you might expect in terms of freelance jobs for content creators. These jobs are:
Create Branded Content
As a freelance creative, creating branded content is the quickest way to money. This means creating marketing assets that a company will put their logo onto. Branded content is also the most sure way to get paid as a freelance creative.
Copywriting
If you are a writer, copywriting is a wonderful way to get paid for your craft. Initially, I thought of a copywriter as a person who wrote blogs. That could be true, but a copywriter also writes newsletter, webpages, about me bios, and so so much more. Think of a copywriter as a person who writes for a brand.
Video Creation
Video creation is a growing need for all companies as the rise of short form video is taking over the social world. Outside of short form video editing, there is also long form, and commercial work. Video creation doesn’t have to be branded work, it could be Youtube, educational videos, video editing, and so much more. If you are a skilled editor, you will be in high demand!
Project Sponsorship
This is my favorite and most lucrative type of work. Project sponsorship takes the most work as the freelance creative must do everything and a company simple exchanges money for the opportunity to be apart of the project. This type of work isn’t for the faint of heart as you never know if the work will see the light of day, get funded, or gain traction. I like to think of project sponsorship like gaining VC funding for Entrepreneurship. You are seeking a backer who believes in your work for a return of assets.
Building a social media presence
The modern way of becoming a creator is to build an audience yourself. As a freelancer, if you can bring an audience to a client you are a step ahead of most other creatives. Now, this isn’t an easy thing to do at all! Building an audience takes a lot of persistence and dedication to the cause you are working on. If you decide to go down this path, good luck! I only kid a little bit here. If you want to become an influencer, just try your best not to wrap your self worth into the numbers.
Repurposing your archived content into new content
For creatives that have been around for a while and are looking to expand their base income level, I suggest figuring out how to repurpose your content so that it works for you. What do I mean by this? Look at your archive and ask yourself, what is sitting around that I could turn into a money making machine? For example, could you start a social media account? Could you develop a blog? Could you develop a youtube channel? Could you sell prints? What can you do to make your old work worth money… again!
Final Thoughts
Thank you for taking the time to read through this blog about how to make money as a freelancer. The goal of this series is to help other creatives find a way to remain in the field longer and make money doing what they love. If you have any questions please, send me an email. We don’t have to do everything ourselves and should rely on each other to grow as a community. That is why I write these blogs and put out these videos. Below you will find a variety of articles that are full of useful information.
Addtional Articles to Read:
Part 1 - How To Make Money as a Freelancer
Examples of Content Creation - Big Agnes