Do you ever worry that your current income streams will suddenly dry up, leaving your social media career in jeopardy?
Most social media influencers earn their income through ads, affiliate links and sponsored posts, but these income streams are not as stable as they seem.
In this post, we discuss the importance of social media income diversification and list a few unique income streams that do not involve promoting someone else’s product.
Why you should diversify your social media income
Again, most social media influencers earn a living by running ads in their videos, promoting affiliate links for products they feature in their content and promoting products from companies that sponsor them.
These are fantastic income streams for influencers, and you should be using each. But there are risks associated with them that prove why they shouldn’t be your only income streams.
The problem with social media ads
Social media platforms are free to use, so the developers behind these platforms run ads across them as a way to generate revenue.
This revenue is paid for by the companies that feature in these ads. When one appears in or alongside your content, part of that revenue gets distributed to you.
Unfortunately, social media platforms have come up with a list of ambiguous rules that deem some content as being not “advertiser friendly.” When this happens, the content is demonetized, which means the creator is not able to earn ad revenue from it.
Even worse, these platforms use AI and bots to detect content that violates each platform’s rules, and they often detect false positives the creator isn’t able to appeal.
There’s also the existence of adblocking software, which internet users install on their browsers to block ads from displaying almost everywhere.
The problem with affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a simple income stream any creator can use, even small creators.
It’s simple: you, as an influencer, promote a product in your content and provide a link your audience can use to purchase that product.
However, this link has a special attribute that contains your unique affiliate ID, which means you’ll receive a portion of what your viewer pays for the product as a commission.
Unfortunately, this income stream is reliant on the actions of the company you’re an affiliate of.
They decide whether or not they want to keep the affiliate program running. They also decide what commission you’ll receive. They also decide who gets to become and remain an affiliate of the program.
Amazon famously decreased its affiliate rates in 2020, leaving many creators who relied on it as a primary source of income in jeopardy.
Even lifetime commissions aren’t always lifetime either. These types of programs are harder to find and usually limited to companies operating some kind of subscription business model. SaaS is a good example.
We’ve personally experienced brands changing lifetime commissions to one off CPAs and wiping out huge chunks of our earnings over night. Sometimes accompanied by an announcement email that blames affiliates for their inability to run a profitable business. Ouch.
Other times, brands won’t even announce changes. They’ll just make them and hope affiliates don’t notice.
The problem with sponsorships
Sponsorships are special deals influencers make with companies in which companies pay influencers directly in exchange for appearing in their content.
It’s one of the most effective ways to increase your revenue from your social media content.
Unfortunately, sponsorships are often one-time deals. Some companies sponsor certain influencers continuously, but for the most part, you’ll need to find new sponsors and negotiate new sponsorship deals quite often.
The more, the better
Even if the income streams you’ve built with ad revenue, affiliate links and sponsored posts seem pretty stable at the moment, it’s always best to find new ways to grow as a business.
You might post comedic skits to TikTok, Instagram and YouTube and not worry about ever selling your own products, but as long as what you’re doing is earning revenue, you’re a business, and businesses need a healthy amount of growth to ensure sustainability for the future.
Increasing your following is one way to secure that growth, but you can also add more revenue streams that aren’t dependent on someone else’s product.
21 creative income streams for social media influencers
1. Merch
Branded merchandise is the easiest way to branch away from sponsored posts and start selling your own products.
Some influencers find a printing manufacturer and have merch printed in bulk, allowing them to handle shipping on their own.
Others use a print-on-demand service, such as Sellfy.
This type of service handles printing, shipping and returns on your behalf. They only print merch when an order is placed, so you only pay for the printing service when you make a sale.
Some of these services will integrate with your existing online store or a third-party marketplace like Etsy. Gelato is a good example.
What we like about Sellfy is that you can use it to build an online store and add other types of products.
2. Membership subscriptions
Membership subscriptions allow creators to earn a predictable monthly recurring revenue (MRR).
You can set up a subscription service with a third-party service like Patreon, or use the built-in subscription options from YouTube and Twitch.
Offer subscribers exclusive content, access to subscriber-only livestreams, wallpapers, Q&A sessions, behind the scenes photos and clips, and more.
3. Regular livestreams
Livestreams are very engaging. They allow your visitors to “hang out” with you and have you respond to comments in real time.
Because livestreams have become somewhat performative, it’s not uncommon for subscribers to want to tip or donate to creators they watch live. They also make it easy for creators to promote or show off products.
If you host livestreams on a regular basis, this can become a fairly lucrative income stream for you.
4. Ebooks & audiobooks
You don’t need a book deal to share something with your audience in a structured format. Ebooks and audiobooks will work just fine.
Nonfiction will likely work best if you’re an influencer. Write a memoir or share details about an experience you had, or teach your audience about something related to your niche.
You can sell your ebook on your own online store with Sellfy, sell it on Amazon, or both.
You can do the same with audiobooks. If you don’t want to narrate your book yourself, consider hiring a voice actor from Fiverr.
5. Online courses
If what you want to share with your audience is a topic you can teach, teach it in an online course.
Online courses are presented in a software, such as the one offered by Thinkific, that breaks topics into different sections, and breaks those sections into individual lessons, which you teach via video or text.
6. Worksheets and workbooks
Typically, worksheets and workbooks are something you’d offer to your audience as a lead magnet for an email opt-in form or as teaching materials for an online course, but you can also offer them as information products.
Physical or digital would work here.
7. Planners
Productivity is a popular niche, one you can integrate with your own niche if you’re creative enough.
One way to do this is with a planner, a physical notebook or journal filled prompts for your audience to fill out to manage tasks and schedules.
A creator from the book niche might create a planner that doubles as a reading log, for example.
8. Templates & blueprints
Consumers love resources that give them projects they can complete with helpful step-by-step instructions to guide them along the way.
This is why premium templates and blueprints are hot commodities in certain niches.
Examples include knitting and crochet patterns, bullet journal pages, coloring pages, air dry clay projects, and 3D printing projects.
9. Services
A lot of your viewers watch your content because they also partake in the niche you target and want to learn more about it.
Others would rather have someone more experienced do it for them.
For this second group of people, consider offering your services, such as taking special commissions for art projects, providing web design services and even offering a repair service for your niche.
10. Coaching
Some members of your audience do want to perform tasks on their own. They just need a little help.
In this case, you can offer coaching and mentor services to guide them along the way.
You can even turn these coaching sessions into content.
11. Stickers
This income stream can fall under a few different items on this list, but it can also be an income stream on its own.
Stickers, particularly vinyl stickers, are quite popular among consumers. They’re relatively cheap and can be placed anywhere.
They’re also easy to make. The hardest part is coming up with and creating designs.
12. SaaS products
A software-as-a-service product, or SaaS product, is a great way to earn extra income and increase engagement among your audience.
You can build an app yourself, use a platform or application that allows you to turn your website into an app, or hire someone to develop it for you.
13. Longform guides & tutorials
If you have a niche you can teach but don’t want to write an entire ebook about a subject, consider creating a longform guide or tutorial and selling it as a premium PDF file instead.
This is especially a good idea if you don’t plan on creating a blog. It gives you a way to distribute written content to your audience.
14. Digital art
If you have talent as an artist, consider selling digital art.
Consumers are willing to pay for digital art prints, which they can print out and frame themselves.
You can even charge a little more if you accept personal commissions.
15. Assets
A lot of graphic design artists, bloggers and social media managers create images for content on their own.
To create branded images, they need to stick to a certain style and use the same icons, fonts and logo every time.
Consider using your skills as an artist to create digital assets for those who need it. Again, you can charge a little extra by accepting commissions.
16. Photos and videos
A lot of companies need stock photos and videos to complete their content or to use as padding in ads and marketing materials.
Consider capturing scenes from your niche with unique photos and videos, then selling them.
You can sell them to a library like iStock, but they’ll only give you a small percentage of what customers pay as royalties.
17. Notion templates
Notion is a hybrid software that combines productivity with notetaking.
You can do a lot with it, and a lot of users don’t know where to get started.
Consider creating premium templates related to your niche for Notion, then selling them on your own store or a marketplace like Etsy.
18. Fonts
If you have unique handwriting or enough artistic talent to create new fonts, consider selling them.
You may need to hire an artist if you want to sell your own handwriting as a font, but if you are an artist, creating an asset like a unique font is a great way to generate extra revenue.
19. Audio files & sound effects
Companies and fellow artists also need certain audio assets for content.
Along with audiobooks, you can generate an income by turning sampled beats or solos from different musical instruments and sound effects into audio files.
This is especially perfect if your niche doesn’t have a great selection of sound effects on online libraries.
20. Manuals
Some products in your niche have terrible manuals. They teach consumers how to use a product, but seldom how to troubleshoot issues with it.
Consider creating entire troubleshooting manuals for products in your niche, then selling as PDF files.
21. Digital magazine
This is another fantastic product for social media influencers who don’t plan on creating a blog.
Express yourself through the written word by creating a digital magazine for your audience instead. Sell it as a PDF file.
You can even expand into a print magazine, eventually, but only if the demand is there.
How to diversify your social media income
You don’t have to tackle every item on this list in order to diversify your social media income effectively. In truth, simply adding one of these revenue streams to your business strategy would greatly improve your sustainability.
But which one do you choose?
Start by considering two factors: the problems your audience is facing, and the revenue streams your competitors use.
Consider if any of the revenue streams listed above can be used to create a solution to your audience’s problems.
As far as your competitors go, consider if you’re able to offer a product/revenue stream they’re not offering or if you’re able to create a competing product.
Consider your own skills as well along with your budget.
For example, if you’re able to draw, consider selling art prints or creating unique designs for merch. If you have a large budget, consider hiring additional staff or freelancers to help you add one of these revenue streams to your business.
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