Having a successful social media presence that makes money doesn’t have to mean you have a huge audience or “influencer” status. You can apply your expertise,
build genuine relationships, and provide real value to a small, engaged community that will allow you to monetize in a business model through affiliate sales,
dropshipping, digital (downloads) products,
or offer services.
Niche-Based Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the practice of getting paid a commission to advertise another company’s products and/or services.
As long as you don’t have a massive audience, your success depends upon being authentic and
trustworthy and on your efforts to target and promote your affiliate links.
Key strategy: Deliver value, rather than a pushy sales pitch
Instead of asking the audience to purchase your chosen product, create valuable,
educational content that naturally links to your affiliate link. For instance, if you have an engaged but smaller community and are passionate about fitness,
you would write a long-form blog or video reviewing your favorite fitness items with affiliate links to each item.
Strategies to use:
Join brand affiliate programs: Once you identify brands or products that you genuinely love and use, search for “[product] affiliate program” on Google, or check out Amazon Associates, ShareASale, or ClickBank.
Product recommendations: Instead of only recommending brands or it’s okay to write the place you found the products or safety aspects or enjoyment. Focus on products that are evergreen like “Best [Product] for New Users”,
or “How to Get Started [Hobby]”. This can continue to drive organic traffic and sales for years, even when you have low social footprint.
Be open and honest about the relationship: When establishing trust and credibility, be clear and honest about your affiliate relationship while referring to FTC guidelines.
Social Media Dropshipping
Dropshipping allows individuals to sell products online without touching inventory. The definition of dropshipping is being a middle man, while the supplier takes care of all the logistical stuff. This model of selling online works well for people with good marketing skills that do not want to spend a lot of money to start their business.
Strategy: Create a niche storefront
Instead of trying to promote a random range of products, build a social storefront that represents a selection of products to a specific, passionate audience. For example, you can have a store already dedicated to unique accessories for pet owners or sustainable home décor items.
Implementation Tactics:
Select a dropshipping niche: Utilize resources like Google Trends and product order volume on platforms like AliExpress, to determine a manageable, profitable dropshipping niche.
Generate content that makes the product appear interesting: Use appealing pictures and videos to showcase the products on social media, specifically on Instagram and TikTok. Only focus on the benefits and features of the product, rather than the price.
Utilize social media features: Use features such as Instagram Shops or even Facebook Marketplace to sell directly on the platform, as well as taking advantage of the option to use targeted advertising to find potential buyers based on demographics or interest.
Digital Product Sales
If you have a specialized skill or area of expertise, considering that you might not have a large audience at this time, creating and selling digital products is a good passive income stream. Digital products can be anything or sell anything that can be physical, but what we mean by digital product is; you can sell things like ebooks, online courses, or templates or things similar in that nature and sell them over and over again with minimal additional effort.
Method: Educate to convert
Instead of a relatively direct ask, use your social media, to deliver valuable and educational content relevant to your area of expertise. Educating customers builds authority, and puts you in a trustworthy resource position. This will make it feel automatic for your audience to dive into a paid digital product immediately after you have been educating them.
Action steps for using the checklist:
Find a market need: Paying attention to your audience’s questions and needs, whether that’s in your comments or DMs, is a big first step. For instance, in the case of a graphic designer, if people keep asking, “How do you create your graphics?” that could potentially be a market need and you could create, and sell, templates.
Create social proof: If someone gives you positive feedback on your product or service, share that! This may help someone else decide whether or not to buy.
Leverage marketplaces: Consider selling your digital product on a marketplace like Etsy, Gumroad or Whop. Those platforms have consumers that are already looking for digital products!
Offering Services with Authority
A social media platform can act as a portfolio and lead-generation tool to help you obtain clients, regardless of your followers.
Strategy: Exhibit your value
Your social media presence has to clearly communicate your services and consistently exhibit your value by providing free, helpful information.
Tactics to implement:
Create a professional presence: Your biographical information on social media should clearly spell out what services you provide, and offer a link to your website, portfolio, or booking page.
Create some case studies: Don’t just talk about your skills, show them. If you are a freelance writer, share cut and paste snips of your writing, or share articles you have written for clients.
Be active in communities: Join and actively participate in Facebook groups, Reddit communities, or LinkedIn groups that are relevant to your audience. Don’t be overly promotional, but do dispense helpful advice while demonstrating your expertise. This establishes trust, and helps position you as an expert practitioner.
Closing Thoughts: Change your Thinking
To make money from social media without being a traditional influencer, you need to change your thinking from a numbers game to a trust game. Instead of reaching for the vanity metrics of followers, think of it this way: building an engaged, loyal community, no matter the size. By providing value consistently without concern for what converts, sales and revenue will come as a natural result of being real with your overall audience.