FOMO is real when you see all of these huge businesses making six figures and bloggers traveling the world off paid trips, and here you are trying to figure out how to maintain 1,000 page views a month. Ever wondered if it’s possible to make money when you don’t have a large following?
Well I’m here to tell you that you can!
In today’s post, I’m going to share with you how to make as little as $500 and up to $17k+ in extra income per month when you have a small following.
How to Make Money When You Don’t Have A Large Following
Brand Collaborations
Yep! You read that right. If you don’t have a large following, you can still collab with Brands AND get paid.
All you have to do is provide value that exceeds your follower count.
For example, instead of just offering to try out the product and post about it on your Instagram, throw in a blog post, and offer to take a bunch of photos that the company can post across their social media accounts.
If you really want to snag that collab, offer video content such as a Youtube review or product demonstration.
As someone who has negotiated deals between Top Brands and Influencer’s, I’ve helped small Influencer’s with 1000 followers get compensated $500 for just filming a simple video post that a Brand could post on their Instagram.
And as someone who still also reps Brands, I’m constantly searching for Influencer’s to work with that produce video content.
Something as simple as video can be the difference between getting product for free, and actually getting paid for it.
It’s funny because 98% of the Influencer’s that I’ve worked with, most them won’t do video.
Is the fear of video stopping you from growing your business?
Well consider this.
Most Influencer’s that chose to skip out on video, often times only made a fraction of what the Influencer’s that offered video made if they even got paid at all.
This is because video content is seen as premium and most Big Brands have to shell out thousands of dollars to hire someone to take video for their Instagram page.
A lot of small Influencer’s, don’t offer video content to Brands.
So if you haven’t started honing your video editing skills, it’s time to get on it.
Currently 50% of all Internet traffic is video, and a lot of Brands are noticing how video is revolutionizing their relationship with their audience, resulting in a huge surge of sales.
Become A Coach
If you’ve been blogging or in business for awhile, chances are you’re an Expert at what you do. Not only are you an Expert, but there is someone out there looking for help to get to where you’re at now.
And guess what doesn’t require a ton of followers to make significant income?
Becoming A Coach.
Want to know a great way to start getting client’s as a brand new coach?
Connect with leads over Skype.
Face-to-Face interaction is the easiest and fastest way to build client trust.
When you video conference with a potential client, it’s way more engaging than a phone call and it allows you to instantly build a personal connection with your target client.
Video is so powerful, Business Builders found that businesses that use video, closed 33 percent more deals than those who didn’t.
So no matter what type of product or service you want to have, you need to have a video marketing strategy. It’s important for Brand Collaborations just as much as it’s important for Coaches.
Webinars & Courses
For the past few years, webinars have become an explosive Income source for bloggers. A webinar that takes a few hours to put together can create hundreds and thousands of dollars of passive income for a blogger with a focused niche.
The best thing about webinars, is that any blogger in any niche can create a successful one. Webinars are great for someone with a small following, and even BETTER for someone with a focused niche.
According to Femtrepreneur, Jenna Soard from YouCanBrand.com made $17K with a tiny audience of less than 100 people.
The first $5k she earned with an audience of only 30 people.
Want to know something even more impressive? She did it under 30 days.
Femtrepreneur explains that the success of this webinar was due to having a TARGETED audience, and NOT a large audience.
The other ingredient to her success was having an email list. If your brand and business is struggling to grow your email list, check out this FREE TRAINING that will help your email list grow like a weed here.
So if you’re still blogging about wide variety of things, it’s time to niche down. And if you think you can’t make money without a large following, well there are folks like Jenna Soard making $17k with fewer than 100 people.
Social Media Management
If you have a small following, I’m sure you’re wondering why the heck would a brand want to hire you if you have yet to build up your audience?
The truth is, there are still a ton of brands that have thrown their social media to the dogs.
If you come across one of these companies, consider providing this potential client some data on the importance of a business having a digital identity and show them the curated feed you’ve built for yourself.
If they’re related to your niche, you can easily land a gig as a social media manager (especially if you meet with them via video conference ?).
Now unless you’re creating content for your new client’s social media account and not just managing it, at first you may not be able to claim the same rates as established social media management companies but it’s still a great way to bring in an extra $500-$1k a month.
Sell a Digital Product
When I talk to a lot of bloggers about why they’re not selling digital products it normally goes something like this…
“I’m working on an ebook.”
a few months later…
“I’m still working on that ebook.”
Two years later…
“I gotta finish that ebook.”
Look. You don’t have to write an ebook to provide value.
Something as simple as a social media calendar or a Brand Identity template can be seen as incredibly valuable to your audience–and honestly, even more valuable than a long ebook that could take a few hours for someone to read.
Want to know what the first digital product that I created?
My first digital product that I put into the world wide web were apps and themes for Blackberry, back when Blackberry used to be the must-have thing!
I listed my apps in the Blackberry Store and the iPhone store.
I wasn’t sure if it would actually do anything. I honestly didn’t care. I had no fear because to me, it was a test.
Once I put it in front of the right niche, I sold hundreds and thousands of Blackberry themes and apps. Suddenly, I realized how EASY it was to sell a product. I literally just sat it in front of the right audience, and they ate it up. I
I honestly didn’t feel like I had to work all that hard and I ran my business solely with Twitter and a Tumblr.
Even after I stopped creating them, I generated a regular, extra $1K worth of income until the phone completely fell out of style.
So you see–your ability to create income for yourself is only as great as your mindset. If you allow a small following to convince you that you don’t deserve wealth and happiness, you won’t receive it.
I had no following. And I didn’t even have a site. I just had twitter, a tumblr page and my ambition to lead the way!
So the question is, how will you take your blog and business to the next level? Which one of these methods will you use to grow your income? Will you start incorporating video into your blog and business strategy?
