I am passionate about helping you tap into your potential and getting paid to be you. It’s my mission in life. It’s the reason I get up in the morning. That’s why we’re looking at 10 fantastic ways to monetise you.
I want to know that women all over the world are smashing life (and their bank accounts) with goodness, just by being them. That’s why I put together this beauty: 10 fantastic ways to monetise you.
I could walk up to you in a cafe and you could tell me a tiny snippet of your life story and I’d launch into a whole THANG about how you could get paid to simply be you.
I’m not joking. It’s my superpower.
I’ve been monetising myself for over 12 years now; at any one time in my business I’ve had up to 10 different revenue streams on the go.
I have built online businesses simply by being myself and packaging my skills, strengths, experience, and my unique personality into products and services that make me an income and make an impact in other people’s lives.
Think about it: What if you could take a skill you already have and monetise it?
We’re talking about an income stream that you can create with all the stuff you already have bubbling inside of you: your knowledge, your personality, your uniqueness.
Pretty amazing, right?
If you’re ready to monetise you then best you get in on all the action at the Monetise You Virtual Summit: 10 ways to $10K months!
What can more money bring you?
Financial freedom, opportunity, and being able to invest in others, that’s for sure.
Some freaking time off to get your business to a point where it is ticking along with great recurring revenue and you are in flow doing the work that you love? Yep!
That’s why I’ve got 10 fantastic ways to monetise you and build a business around your uniqueness, right here in this blog. Let’s go get em!
#1. Digital Products
When I started my business in 2009, one of the first products that made me money was the humble Ultimate Entrepreneurs Toolkit.
It was a beautifully designed PDF of my go-to tools that I absolutely loved using to build my online business. People paid for it. And that was fantastic.
I had done all the groundwork and the research. I understood how to use these tools to build a thriving online business; I was passionate about them as a tech geek; I still am a little. And I put them all together in one easy-to-find-and-use PDF resource.
I sold it for $47, and got tools to sponsor it!
At the Monetise You Summit, Neta Talmor dives deep into this.
You can sell a lot of $47 digital products and make a really good profit. If it helps people save time and money, and helps them to feel a little less overwhelmed, people will buy it.
People want a solution that gives them more time, and more space, and the ability to actually just make a call and go with it and take action. I also created a course that went with the PDF that you could upgrade to for $97 total, and have more in-depth short videos on how to use those tools.
It was totally in my zone of genius at the time. It was easy, it was fun, people valued it, and there was no coaching involved. It sold while I slept and without any real effort from me.
Once you’ve invested in digital products, marketed them and created them, they can just continue to sell, especially if you’ve really hit the nail on the head for your target market. And it’s something that is very valuable for people.
Digital products don’t just have to be ebooks. They can be audios, mini courses, video trainings, workshops, webinars, and master classes. These are all things that you sell on autopilot, on your website or through social. If you set them up with a great sales funnel, they should just make you recurring revenue every single day for the rest of your life.
You can also scale at any point because if you scale your marketing, your advertising, your organic reach, and your content, then you make more sales, especially if you’ve got a great product.
Often, if they are smaller digital products, like a book or an audio or short training, you can create them in a weekend or less once you get really good at it. And you can just keep layering the revenue that comes from those digital products. The best thing is that these babies live forever.
#2. Published author
One of my amazing guests at the Monetise You Summit is Joanna Penn, who has built a multiple six-figure business almost purely from writing books.
Unlike the 3 books I’ve now published, she has written over 30!!!!
The reality is that this takes a lot of hard work, and potentially many years, but it’s entirely possible. One thing Joanna and I talked about is how creating a book series is a really great way to become profitable, because you’ve become better known as a writer. Once somebody buys one of your books, they buy many more.
Self-publishing is becoming more and more popular, affordable, and accessible, and a fantastic way to add income to your business. If you love writing, this is a great way to monetise yourself.
Like Digital Products, once you’ve gone through the major project of writing and marketing a book, provided it’s timeless content, it will continue to sell on all the distribution channels like Amazon, Kobo, Book Depository, and of course your website.
Off the back of books, of course, you can use affiliate links in your books or on your book resource section; you can build a course to bring your book to life like I have; you can sell merchandise; get paid to speak and so much more!
#3. Paid keynote speaker
Whether you want to be a full-time professional speaker, or you want to incorporate this as an income stream into your business and get paid to be you speaking, this is awesome for so many reasons. Just ask Carol Cox , keynote speaker and CEO of Speaking Your Brand.
Becoming a paid speaker builds confidence, resilience, ability, resourcefulness, and it is an amazing tool and platform for you to really hone in on what it is that you do and what you want to become known for. It helps you to build your credibility and your thought leadership.
When I did my TEDx talk, The Surprising Truth About Freedom (over 71,000 views) in 2016, I had to really dig deep to pull my entire Suitcase Entrepreneur and Freedom Plan framework together in 15 short minutes into a concise way of getting across a very important powerful message that resonates with other people.
Once you’ve got your signature talk behind you, everything else falls into place in your business. You can inspire an audience to take action; to help them ponder on something; to get them thinking deeply; to change their minds or expand their minds, and to really see potential in themselves.
I think that’s a real gift and honor to be able to stand on stage and educate people, share stories, and touch their lives.
Not only can you then get paid to speak, you can turn your signature talk into a book, an online course, a workshop series, break it into digital products, create a consulting arm or move into coaching.
Again you can spin this into multiple complementary revenue streams to monetise YOU!
#4. Coaching
Every single person benefits from having a coach. When you get coached by somebody else, you grow; you thrive. Even coaches need coaches. So, with all the millions of people in the world, there’s plenty of room for coaches, from all different industries, all different experiences, and different niches and credibility.
I interviewed the amazing Sigrun Gudjonsdottir on my Summit about this, who has built an incredible seven-figure business from starting out with one-to-one coaching services at $180 an hour.
Coaching can be done on a one-to-one basis, if you just love working deeply with people, and really focusing on fewer people with amazing results. But coaching can also allow you to do group coaching. This way you can scale and reach even more people, create larger coaching programs, and then develop courses.
Coaching is one of the fastest ways to earn a living, make good money, make an impact, and really figure out how you want to turn up. Whether you’re working five or ten hours a week with a few premium clients, or whether you are running huge group coaching programs, the possibilities are endless.
#5. Podcasting
There are so many opportunities that come with podcasts, it’s an amazing business tool; and it can be monetised up the wazoo.
Here’s a fantastic conversation with Valerie Shoopman, who is a head coach at Cash Flow podcasting all about the ways in which we have both used podcasts to make more impact, income, friends, connections, and complementary revenue streams.
Podcasting allows you to be your own broadcaster, to have your own show, and to reach your own audience, establish you as the thought leader, or if you’re just starting out, use high profile amazing people to interview and build your authority from there!
Having a podcast and producing content every single week is no mean feat, and it costs money and takes time and energy, and dedication but it’s just such an awesome medium.
And you really get into people’s heads. They’ve just got you in their ear, hopefully, and they’re getting your message. You can deliver great value, share great insights, resonate with people and leave them with something that makes them feel empowered, educated, inspired, and entertained.
People love listening. Since the dawn of time, storytelling has been the art of something very special that a lot of us have lost. And I think podcasts are just one of those ways in which we’re bringing that back.
It can also drive new leads to your business; you can pick up new clients; you can promote your own products; and you can get paid through sponsorships, advertising, and crowdfunding to name a few.
#6. Online courses
To me, teaching what you know, teaching what you love, and teaching what you’re good at and experienced in is a true privilege and honour. It’s also a fantastic way to create an amazing income.
You can launch courses regularly throughout the year, or you can create a course once and sell it on evergreen, so people can come along and take that course at any time. Both have their place, their benefits and pros and cons.
Personally, I have always loved live launches because they get you to take massive action and commit to a timeframe in which to run it. You can pre-sell it, create it and run it once, and then continue to run it live throughout the year.
Often a lot of course creators will do that every quarter, depending on how long it is. If it’s a 30- or 60- or a 90-day course they will run it live over that period. And it allows you to have big chunks of income coming in three or four times a year.
One launch could give you an entire year’s income or salary depending on what floats your boat and what your financial goals are. I know when I launched my first full-blown version of the Freedom Plan course in 2015, in just 2 months of hard work I made $180,000!
Or you can go for the more evergreen opportunity where your course is accessible all
year round. This works really well when you set up an awesome funnel that actually drives leads to it and converts people into students/customers. And it will just make you money hand over fist for the rest of your life to come, if you’ve really dialed in that funnel.
Live courses are a lot more effort, a lot more personalised, and a lot more high touch. I’ve just wrapped up my eighth cohort of the Launch Your Damn Course Accelerator and I’m incredibly proud of the students.
I’m amazed at some of the results that they’ve got. Many of them are launching right now; many of them launched and sold out. It’s amazing.
Other courses are perfect for self-study; like a DIY course. They can take it at their own pace. Perhaps it’s something where they simply need to watch the videos, train, and implement.
If you have a brilliant idea, but you haven’t got around to it or you’re waiting on some combination of perfect universal factors and magic happening to conspire to make it happen for you, then I’m going to say, just do it. Take small actions and make it happen.
Think about your Why. Think about what is important to you and get that course out there. One of the biggest things I teach in my Accelerator is how to not overcomplicate it. Make it simple and doable and achievable for the student. You could just turn up on a zoom call and run a live workshop and record it.
#7. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing – say what? Get in on this, because it’s hot. So much is possible!
Maybe you don’t ever want to teach anybody anything. Perhaps you’d rather use other people’s core courses, their products, their tools, their services and make money from those. Then you might want to consider affiliate marketing. And if you’re like Kate Kordsmeier, you may very well end up monetising your blog.
Affiliate marketing means that you are affiliated to something that you believe in and are passionate about, and that you may even use yourself. So you become a seller or a marketer for that product or service that you love, and you get affiliate commissions, or referral commissions in return.
For example, I love Podia. It’s one of my favorite course platforms, and I recommend it to everybody in my accelerator. I give them other options, but at the end of the day, I’ve done the hard work of looking at many course platforms and all their features and functionalities.
I’ve tested them out, used them, and made all the decisions that you don’t need to. If someone signs up to Podia with my affiliate link, I’m going to get commission on that.
Another example: I’ve got a mega-post on my website, the 10 best community platforms for course creators if you’re done with Facebook. And in that post, there are a lot of affiliate links.
When people click on those, I start getting commissions each month from those clicks. That can really add up – especially when the commissions are reaching figures of 50%.
The same applies to other tools that I love and use, but also for course creators who have affiliate programmes. So, let’s say you are a nutritionist, and you have no intention of creating a course or doing one-to-one coaching. And maybe you have a group coaching programme where you recommend nutrients, supplements, and physical products that help people to become fitter and healthier and make better food choices.
If you’re affiliated with those products and your clients buy them with your link, you get a cut every week. You’ve given them a tool or a service that is incredibly helpful and beneficial to them, and you make extra income.
All of these things start to add up over time and can be very lucrative. If you’ve built an audience and you have an email list and a community, the more likely you are to get more people signing up through you and the more commissions you’re going to get.
But, I’ve seen people do really well with affiliate marketing, who don’t have much of an audience at all. They have a small passionate audience or a client base that is small and dedicated. And as a result, they build up a really nice affiliate commission.
I have affiliates for my courses and I pay commissions of typically 25 to 50%. And it saves me from hiring a salesforce.
You can sign up to affiliate programmes and products by giving your name, email address, and PayPal account. Then they give you a unique tracking link. They also often give you resources like images, social media images, and copy that you can just swipe and paste into emails or social, and you’re off and running.
Really experienced affiliates who do incredibly well put a lot of effort behind it. They view it as an actual launch and go all in, and many of them earn a full time six-figure living from it.
They will write dedicated detailed, informational, educational/edutainment blog posts. They may do videos where they share why they love a tool, or a service, a product, a person, or a brand.
#8. VIP experiences
VIP experiences are amazing, for you and your guests. How do you create these and what can they do for you? I talk to Jordan Gill about these powerful days at the Monetise You Virtual Summit.
What is a VIP experience? Well, you might have experienced one yourself. It might have been a day with an amazing coach, where you smashed out your business plan for the year, or your triathlon training plan, or your new brand.
It might have been a mastermind where you got together with eight or ten other brilliant brains and you were facilitated and hosted by your mastermind leader. And together, you netted out your biggest problems and challenges, and worked on growing your business and transforming your mindset, and hanging out with high-level people who just inspired you.
Or it might have been that you were on a retreat, over three or five days, like I have held in Bali, in Barcelona, and Lisbon and other places around the world. And you had a super VIP experience for several thousand dollars, staying in stunning hotels, doing incredible activities, hanging out with like-minded, amazing people, learning a lot, but also just experiencing life fully.
These are the types of VIP experiences that people are prepared to pay a lot for. What if, once a month, or once a year even, you created the best experience, with so much care and dedication that it absolutely leaves people breathless thinking about it forevermore?
Maybe it’s a $5 000 or $10 000, or $20,000 retreat or VIP experience that you put your all into. You might only need eight or 10 or 20 people to come along. Often you can create these experiences with fewer people, at a much higher price.
If you love bringing people together, and if you’re an absolute connector, and if you know that this is something that you could do really well or become better at, then this could be your avenue. You could spend a couple of months a year creating this experience, and then not do anything for the rest of the year.
Think about what you want to create. What experience do you want people to have and be transformed by?
#9. Service-based businesses
With this model, you can end up trading time for money and you may have trouble scaling it. But it can also provide great service for people that they really value. If you price it right and if you get the structure of your services right, it can be incredible.
It’s been an incredibly lucrative business for Prerna Mallik, who speaks about how she’s monetised herself as a service provider, at the Monetise You Summit.
I’m talking about website designers, copywriting, coaches, health specialists, relationship coaches, creating meal plans, all kinds of things. If you do it well, and you get some really amazing results, then you can command higher fees.
Service-based businesses are brilliant when combined with other revenue streams, like group programmes, or online courses or products.
If you provide a service and you get paid for it, you’re off and running. You don’t have to create things or invest a lot of money. You just have to really understand your ideal client, and figure out what problem it is that you want to solve.
#10. Agencies
Agencies are POWERFUL. What if you realised that providing a service to your clients by yourself wasn’t sustainable, but if you put together a team, trained them up to do what you do, and hired them out for a retainer, like Tasha Booth does, you could scale beyond your wildest dreams? Talk about awesome.
Imagine bringing together the best of the best people to run a business, off a specialised service or expertise that your clients pay you a monthly retainer for, and get access to your team.
Let’s say you’re a course creator, you can go to an agency and pay one set fee in return for getting dedicated access to a virtual assistant, an online business manager, a copywriter, and an advertising person to help run your launch for you.
It’s a whole new ballgame because you have agency-level pricing structures. The way in which you can become profitable is quite incredible if you do it well. And if you like systems, and if you like frameworks, and if you get the right people on board, and if you like leading and managing teams that bring out the best in people, agencies can be huge.
What lights YOU up?
Who ARE you? What are you good at? What do you know? What can you teach other people? When you REALLY start thinking about these questions, and you begin to answer them….MAGIC starts to happen.
When you’re lit up, the whole world shines around you. Don’t you want to give that to a ton of other people?
You want to do purposeful work, feel rewarded, leave a legacy, touch people’s lives. You want to live your life on your own terms.
When you tap into your potential and get paid to be you…those amazing things happen. AND you bring in more wealth.
It’s time to get out of your head and open yourself up to all the incredible possibilities out there!
Are you ready to get paid to be YOU?
Join the Monetise You Summit: 10 Ways to $10K Months. It is HOT.
There’s only one of you. Get out there and be everything that you are.
