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- V2.0 Creator Monetization Framework (Part 1)
V2.0 Creator Monetization Framework (Part 1)
(2 min read) If your audience is smaller, use this framework to decide how to optimize your monetization strategy
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I’ve revised my Creator Monetization Framework into a new 2.0 version; today, we’ll focus on the half for the vast majority of Creators: those with “low reach”.
I consider myself as a LinkedIn Creator to fit in this category, as there are much larger Creators on the platform who talk about similar things. There’s no shame in that though - I do quite well for myself (~$200k+ in income will be attributable to my LinkedIn audience directly and indirectly in 2024).
Low-reach Creators can do even better than their high-reach peers, as long as they are leveraging the right business models. That’s what today’s article is about!
Inputs to the Framework
There are two ways to make money, at a high level:
1) Selling a product, service, or knowledge.
For example:
Product
Courses
Community Memberships
Content Subscriptions
Digital products
Merch
Tickets
Consumer or B2B products
Affiliates
Service
Consulting
Professional services
Referrals
Knowledge
Q&A
Advising
2) Marketing others’ products, services, and knowledge.
For example:
UGC
Advertising
Sponsorships
The specific blend of these that work best for a given content Creator depends on a bunch of factors, including but not limited to:
Topicality - different niches beget different business models
Length - longer content often leads to more invested audiences
Depth - higher levels of detail often indicate greater expertise
Credibility - greater expertise can lead to more detailed content
Engagement - more passionate audiences engage more aggressively
Size - smaller audiences often convert better, but larger audiences have scale
Distribution - social, podcast, email, storefront, in-app, etc.
Modality - audio, written, video, photo, games, apps, etc.
For simplicity, you can distill all of these down to three variables:
Reach - How many people actually consume each piece of content - e.g. your average impressions per post or growth trajectory. Today, we’re focusing on low reach.
Intensity - How passionate your audience is about you / your content - e.g. they actively seek out your content, form fandom communities around you, and/or aspire to be like you.
Impact - How much impact your content provides to consumers beyond entertainment - e.g. does your expertise and/or content help people make money, achieve goals, feel a sense of belonging, or accomplish something they otherwise wouldn’t?
Takeaway: Based on your Reach x Intensity x Impact blend, you can determine what monetization types will work best for you. Today, we’re focused on low reach.
One more big change from V1.0 to note - I’ve added Monetized Q&A as a tactic to this framework, and I’m excited to have AsqMe - the most holistic platform for Monetized Q&A - as today’s sponsor!
Let’s learn a bit about what Monetized Q&A actually is:
.Sponsored.
Does your audience ask a lot of questions in your DMs or comments? (Sponsored by AsqMe) |
Monetized Q&A is a la carte monetization of one-off questions posed by members of your audience. It’s different from subscription memberships or paid chat because each question is monetized - either through direct payment or indirectly by sending affiliate links.
Benefits include direct revenue (of course), but also lead generation for upsells like consulting, affiliates, and merch. Additionally, monetized Q&A helps to deepen engagement from superfans, and enables the creation of additional content as you’ll learn your audiences’ pain points.
Right now, Creators are hacking monetized Q&A through platforms like Venmo and Stripe, but it’s a bad, inefficient experience for both them and their fans.
Monetize your expertise with paid Q&A
The problems with responding to questions, comments, and DMs are 1) it takes a lot of time, and 2) it doesn’t immediately generate revenue.
That’s why AsqMe is such a unique tool. It streamlines and monetizes audience Q&A, so your fans get the answers they need quickly while you get paid for your expertise.
How it works:
Set up an AsqMe account, and get your unique AsqMe link.
Set a price for answering questions, or choose to accept tips.
Connect your Youtube channel to enable FirstDraft and AsqMe will pre-draft responses for you based on your content (it even includes links to relevant videos).
Share your AsqMe link across all your social profiles.
Repurpose your answers as content for your socials.
If one person is asking a question, a dozen (or a thousand) more are thinking it, so this creates a virtuous cycle of monetization, engagement, and growth.
CreatorLogic readers can get 3 months of AsqMe Pro for free by using the promo code CREATORLOGIC. Let me know how you like it.
V2.0 Creator Monetization Framework - Low Reach
Casual Audience, Low Impact
Strengths - You’ve got infinite room to experiment and nothing to lose.
Weaknesses - You haven’t established a direction yet.
Example - The average person just getting started as a Creator.
Outcome - You’re going to have trouble monetizing.
Recommendation - Don’t try to monetize yet. Instead, focus on building audience intensity or refocus on a more impactful niche. If you MUST monetize, I’d suggest trying UGC.
Casual Audience, High Impact
Strengths - Your content provides a ton of value.
Weaknesses - Your reach and conversion potential will vary from post to post.
Examples - Industry experts getting into social content creation. This is where I would put myself as a LinkedIn thought leader at the moment.
Outcome - People and companies may pay a premium for your expertise. Consider offering your knowledge to your growing audience via Q&A (check out our sponsor, AsqMe). You can also offer higher-priced services (e.g. consulting), provide content to brands to use as ads (user-generated content), and seek referral revenue by matching your high-value followers to companies in your space.
Recommendation - Q&A, services, UGC, referrals
Intense Audience, Low Impact
Strengths - People love you and your content, and that’s a great sign that they’ll buy from you.
Weaknesses - You are the product you’ll have to sell.
Examples - Small Twitch streamers and podcasters
Outcome - You want to sell things that serve fans’ passion for you - ideally that repeat or can be purchased multiple times. Consider monetized Q&A so your fans can pay to get to know you better (check out our sponsor, AsqMe) or create a paid community where they can hang out with you and each other. Apparel and merch could also be a great way to let them showcase their fandom while monetizing.
Recommendation - Q&A, community memberships, apparel and merch
Intense Audience, High Impact
Strengths - Your content creates a lot of monetary or emotional impact for your fans, and you’re the vehicle through which that happens. You’ll have real selling power.
Weaknesses - This is the best position to be in if you have small reach.
Examples - Indie musicians, personality-driven educators
Outcome - You’re creating niche content for a passionate but small audience, and your audience may be willing to pay a premium for access to you. Consider selling high-price Q&A (check out our sponsor, AsqMe) so your audience can learn from or get to know you better. Educators could generate outsized revenue with high-price courses, consulting, or community membership. Lifestyle experts can move a ton of product through affiliates, while artists can sell tickets and merch.
Recommendation - Q&A, affiliates, referrals, courses, consulting, community memberships, merch, tickets, consumer products
What do you think? Reply to let me know!
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Written by Avi Gandhi, edited by Melody Song,
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