15 Easy Ways For Everyone To Make Money With Social Media

Even though it’s a relatively new industry, there are already a number of ways to make money with social media. Every major social media outlet has in some way helped users turn their hobby into a business or turn their business into a bigger business. Here are 15 common ways people make money with social media.

1. Tantalize Customers With Your Product On Pinterest

Small businesses can benefit in big ways from getting users to “pin” photos of their items on to their Pinterest boards. Create an account, engage in the community by pinning other people’s photos and upload photos that entice people to buy your product.

2. Run An Online Instagram Shop

If you have items that would be attractive to Instagram users, it’s relatively pain-free to set up a shop by connecting your account to the service inSelly. WikiHow has a great guide walking you through all the steps.

3. Copywriting

Twitter and Facebook can be great ways to show off your language and grammar skills. Prove yourself to be adept in the language of your choice to get yourself hired to write for a living.

4. Editing

Editors in particular have found success marketing themselves on social media, since services like Twitter and Facebook are great proofs of concept for their skills with the written word

5. Manage Social Media

There are a lot of companies seeking someone to handle their social media presence. Sadly a fair share of those positions are internships, but there are also many paid opportunities out there. Search “social media” on job boards to find results in your area.

6. Comedy Writing

A lot of new comedians birthed their career on Twitter. 140 character jokes or funny insights can gain you a lot of attention, so if you’re a particularly clever wordsmith consider giving comedy a shot to make money with social media.

7. Creative Writing

Fantasy author Neil Gaiman broke ground with A Calendar of Tales, for which he asked his large Twitter following to submit questions and turned some of their answers into short stories. You can do something similar that involves interacting with your audience, or even serialize a whole novel or short story over many posts.

8. Airbnb

Anyone can become a renter via Airbnb, which gives users a chance to rent places to stay in 190 different countries. Fast Company has a great write-up on how someone made a six-figure income through Airbnb.

9. Monetize A YouTube Channel

Not only can you make money with social media, you can turn yourself into a phenomenon. Just ask Grace Helbig, who’s developed a large audience through the hilarious videos she posts every week. She makes a significant sum just off ad revenue from her YouTube channel.

10. Become An Amazon Affiliate

When you join Amazon’s Affiliate Program, any sales made from a link you provide to Amazon will net you a small percentage. Cultivate a following and promote specific items on your blog, then include an affiliate link to the item on Amazon so that when a follower purchases something you’ll get paid.

11. Promote Posts

Get your sales pitches in front of more eyeballs with promoted posts, available through almost any social media service. It’ll cost you a little cash, sure, but it could net you huge rewards.

12. Sell Your Art

Tumblr and Instagram (Tumblr especially) are great places to post original artwork and get a lot of responses and shares. If your art starts going viral, you can turn that interest into income by selling prints and other merchandise through an online store like Etsy or Big Cartel.

13. Sell Rights To Your Photos

If you take good enough photos, people will pay you to use them! Flickr is a popular place to view photos, and this WikiHow explains how to sell the photos you’ve posted there. You can also license them under Creative Commons, which won’t net you any money but will expose your photographs to a wider audience.

14. Demonstrate Your Musical Abilities On SoundCloud

SoundCloud is one of the best places to get your music noticed, and I’m not just talking about the near-impossible goal of becoming a rock star. If you know how to come up with a catchy jingle, you can post it on SoundCloud to get clients flocking to you to create music for their commercials, radio ads, etc.

15. Innovate

These are just the known ways to make money with social media. The field is so new that many more avenues are likely to open up in the future. Consider how you can utilize social media services to grow your career or even create a new one altogether!

How to Make Money With Social Media

There are more money-making opportunities on social media than you might realize. Social media, in fact, can be quite lucrative.

Many experts say that social media is for connecting with people, and not for selling, but at some point, you're going to want to leverage the connections you create. If you've built up enough trust with your followers, they'll be more inclined to check out your recommendations and the links you share.

Here are six ways you can make money on social media.

1. Promote affiliate products.

No matter what industry you're in, you can find great products to promote on ClickBank. And if that doesn't quite jive with you, you can also become an Amazon Associate, promote products of your choosing and earn commissions on them -- Amazon has no shortage of products.

Next, instead of spamming links on Twitter and hoping for the best, keep in mind that the most honest and effective way of promoting affiliate products is through reviews. If you personally use a product and like it, and know that your followers serve to benefit from it, then write a long-form review on your blog, and share why you like the product. Don't be afraid to talk about what you like and don't like about it. You can even use video if that's more your style.

Also make sure to disclose your affiliate relationships. This is a legal requirement in most cases, but it's also "best practice." Your readers or viewers will appreciate your honesty.

2. Create and promote your own information products.

If you already have a blog, and you've demonstrated your expertise on a specific subject over a period of time, there may be an opportunity to create an ebook, audio program or video course and sell it to your audience. Social media is the perfect place to promote such a product.

Platforms like Gumroad, Sellfy and Amazon's KDP program make it easy for you to publish and sell your PDF, MP3 or video file at a price of your choosing -- keeping in mind that all platforms do take a cut, even if it's small.

As with anything, quality is key to creating something people not only want to read, but will pay to read. If you take extra care in creating great information, designing and promoting it well, you will definitely see more sales.

3. Promote products and services.

There are many opportunities for you to share sponsored posts that promote the products and services of other businesses. This is a very direct way of earning money from social media.

But, if you don't have a sizable following, this may not be much of an opportunity. You also have to beware of over-promoting products for want of money, because if your followers see that you're constantly tweeting about one product or another, not only will they not click on the links, they will also un-follow you.

It's important to mix things up. It's wise to take the time to craft a proper social media posting schedule, to make sure you're adding value to your followers while promoting products. Calls to action should definitely be a part of your social media strategy, but every post can't be a call to action.

4. Use visual media to promote your crafts.

If you tend to create handmade crafts, art pieces, or even articles of clothing and knitting, there may be an opportunity to showcase your products on social media. Instagram and Pinterest may seem like obvious places to hit, but Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are also great channels for sharing visual media.

If you have an Etsy account, you can direct your followers to check out your products there, and between the different channels, you have the potential to make a good living.

5. Promote your coaching or consulting services.

Social media is a great place to generate leads for your consulting business. Whether you're a guitar teacher or a life coach, if you have demonstrated expertise in a specific area, you can create more interest for your services by connecting with your target customer on social media.

Coaching sessions can be conducted over Skype, so this is definitely an opportunity to make money without leaving home. Consulting can be lucrative, so remember not to undercut yourself -- charge a fair price for your time and effort.

This strategy can also work in unison with selling information products, as those who want your advice are more likely to be interested in the ebooks and courses you've created.

6. Join the YouTube Partner Program

Building a popular YouTube channel can be a lot of work. But if you already have a following, or you're determined to build your audience, joining the YouTube Partner Program to make money on advertising might be a path worth exploring.

There are prominent YouTube content creators who have made substantial amounts of money with this program, but they are the exception rather than the rule. It would take a lot of time, strategy and sheer luck to make money on YouTube. However, this is a good thing to keep in mind with advertising in general. Unless you're already getting a lot of views and clicks, you're not going to make a lot of money on them.

Final thoughts

These are just some of the many ways you can make money with social media; there are plenty of other money-making websites for you to explore.

It's important to remember that making money on social media isn't necessarily easy. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit and are willing to work hard, test and experiment, your chances at success will be far greater than the chances of those who just want to "give it a try" to see what happens.