How To Make Money On Social Media (Methods That Actually Work)

Want to learn how to make money on social media? I’ve got you covered.

If you have a large, engaged social media following, you can monetize that audience to make tens of thousands of dollars every month.

You just need the right monetization strategy to pull it off. 

In this post, I’ll be sharing 15 powerful monetization methods that actually work. Read on, and I’ll show you how to use them to start making real money on social media.

1. Sell courses with Thinkific

My favorite way to make money on social media is to sell courses.

All you need is an audience that sees you as an expert in a particular subject—that could be beauty, fitness, finance, business, dating, or anything else.

Then, you can build an online course to share your expertise in that area with your followers and teach them something they want to learn.

The awesome thing about this is that you only have to create your course once, but you can sell access to it as many times as you want for a lifetime of passive income. 

What’s more, courses have a higher perceived value compared to other types of digital products, so you can charge a premium. 

For instance, I’ve seen a lot of creators charge as much as $99 to $499 for their courses. At those rates, you only need around 10 sales a month to earn a full-time income.

You can use Thinkific to build, host, and sell your course. 

It has everything you need in one place, including a website/landing page builder, a drag-and-drop course builder, an interactive course player, marketing tools, sales tools, analytics, and more.

Once you’ve set up your online course website, promote it in your social media posts to drive sales. Don’t forget to add a link to your course in your bio too!

Bonus tip: Think carefully about your course topic and try to solve a problem or pain point for your customers. Incorporate videos and assessments into lessons to make them more interactive and engaging. 

Also, consider course pricing carefully—do you want to charge a single flat rate for lifetime access, or would you prefer a subscription model where users pay a recurring fee for ongoing access?

2. Sell digital products with Sellfy

Aside from courses, there are lots of other types of digital products you can sell directly to your audience on social media to earn big bucks.

My top recommendation is to write and sell an e-book, but other options include artwork, music, games, photography, apps, and printables. 

For instance, YouTubers Rhett & Link from Good Mythical Morning have sold thousands of both print and electronic copies of their books on the Mythical Store.

That includes their popular ‘Book Of Mythicality’, ‘Mythical Cookbook’ and debut fiction novel, ‘The Lost Causes of Bleek Creek’.

You’ll need to set up your own online store to sell your digital products through. I’d recommend Sellfy as it’s simple, easy to use, and built for creators.

Just sign up and log in, then go to Add New Product > Digital Product. 

Next, upload your digital files, add a title, description, and product image, and set your prices.

You can change the look of your site through the built-in store customizer and connect a payment processor through the settings page. 

Once everything is set up, promote your digital products on social media to drive traffic to your store and start making sales.

3. Sell merch with print-on-demand

Create your own line of branded merchandise to sell to your fans on social media.

I’m talking about custom printed products like t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, bags, accessories, and so on.

It’s a lot easier to do this than you might think.

Sellfy has a built-in print-on-demand catalog. So, all you have to do is choose blank products from the catalog, upload your designs to them, add them to your store, and promote them on social media.

When someone buys one of your merch items through your store, Sellfy will print the order and send it to the customer from one of their global fulfillment centers, then bill you afterward.

That means you don’t have to buy any stock upfront or worry about fulfillment—and you only pay for what you sell. It’s totally hands-off.

If you don’t want to sell on Sellfy, another option is to use a plug-in print-on-demand solution. 

For example, if you have a Shopify store already, you can connect Printify or Printful to import print-on-demand products to your catalog.

Bonus tip: Use native in-app social shopping features on networks that offer them (like TikTok Shop and Instagram Shopping) to sell directly to your followers without having to send them to your store. This reduces friction and boosts conversions.

4. Dropship physical products

Another way to sell physical products on social media without having to deal with inventory, storage, or shipping is through dropshipping.

With dropshipping, you sell products on social media, either through in-app shopping or through your own online store. 

However, instead of fulfilling orders yourself, your supplier ships them directly to your customers as they come in. That means no upfront inventory costs—just pure profit.

The key is to find trending or niche-specific products that your audience will love.

Use dropshipping supplier platforms like Spocket to source relevant products, then set up a Shopify store to list them for sale. The markup you add on top of the price the supplier charges you is your profit margin.

Once your store is live, market your products organically on social media through posts, stories, and videos. 

Bonus tip: In addition to organic social media marketing, you might also consider using targeted social ads to promote your products. This can help you to drive sales faster, but you’ll need to get your targeting options right to ensure a positive ROAS (return on ad spend).

5. Sell exclusive content 

Your social media audience follows you for content. 

So, you can monetize that audience by offering exclusive, premium content that only those willing to pay can access.

This could be anything from behind-the-scenes videos and bonus content that your fanbase might enjoy to private Q&A sessions, exclusive live streams, or even personalized shoutouts. 

Just look at social media creator Corinna Kopf. She made headlines after launching an OnlyFans account through which she sold exclusive photo and video content to fans and reportedly earned over $1 million in just 48 hours.

While most creators won’t see that level of success, it proves how powerful this monetization method can be.

Bonus tip: Platforms like OnlyFans, Patreon, and Ko-Fi make it easy to set up a subscription model and charge your biggest fans for premium content. You can also use native features like Instagram’s ‘Close Friends’ and YouTube’s Channel Memberships to gate your exclusive content.

6. Sell your services

If you’re in a position to monetize your social media accounts, chances are that you already know a thing or two about what it takes to grow a social following.

So, why not sell your services as a social media expert? 

For example, you could offer consultancy services to brands that want to grow their social presence or act as their social media strategist for a monthly retainer fee.

You could also offer other types of services to your audience, tailored to your niche. 

For example, if you’re a social media influencer in the fitness space, you could offer one-to-one training and nutritional advice. If you’re a lifestyle influencer, you could offer life coaching services. You get the idea.

7. Promote affiliate offers

Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn money by recommending products and services that you’re an affiliate partner for to your social media audience.

You get paid a commission for each sale you refer. That’s usually a percentage-based commission. So, for example, you might earn 10% or 20% of the sale price. It can also be a flat fee, like $50 per qualified sale.

Referral sales are trafficked through cookies. You get your own unique affiliate link, which you share in your promotional posts. When someone clicks that link, a cookie is stored on their browser. If they buy the product in the cookie window, you get paid.

This strategy works best if you recommend affiliate products that you genuinely like—and that there’s a good chance your audience will like, too—so be selective about the affiliate programs you sign up for.

For example, if you’re a fitness influencer, you might become an affiliate partner for your favorite brand of protein powder and promote its products to your audience. That’s a natural fit, and as a result, you’ll find it much easier to drive sales.

Bonus tip: Use bio link tools like Shorby or Pallyy to promote multiple affiliate links at once. This comes in useful for social media channels that only let you add one link in your bio, like Instagram and TikTok.

8. Sell sponsored posts

Brands are always looking for social media influencers to promote their products to a wider audience. 

So, if you have a strong social media presence, you should be able to get paid to post sponsored content for brands, featuring their products or services.

For example, fitness influencer Kayla Itsines has partnered with Powerade. She regularly promotes its energy drinks through live events and sponsored Instagram posts.

How much you can charge will depend on factors like your follower count, engagement rate, and niche. 

Influencers with 100K+ followers can earn anywhere from $500 to $1,000,000 per sponsored post, while micro-influencers (10K–50K followers) often charge around $100–$500 per post.

Aside from sponsored posts, you can also make money through other kinds of brand deals. For example, brands might pay for product placements in your posts.

Bonus tip: Sign up for influencer marketplaces like Aspire and Upfluence to connect with brands looking for sponsorship opportunities. You can also reach out to brands directly through email and social media DMs. 

Stick to working with brands that you genuinely like and feel comfortable promoting. They should be a good fit and align with your audience, values, and identity.

9. Create & sell UGC

If you don’t feel comfortable sharing sponsored posts on your own socials, another option is to create and sell user-generated content (UGC).

It’s similar to selling sponsored posts, except you won’t need to post it to your account. You just make the content for brands to use in their own ads and marketing campaigns.

You don’t need a massive following to make money this way—just strong content creation skills. Brands are looking for creators that can create authentic-looking, engaging content. 

UGC platforms like Billo and Trend can help to connect you with brands willing to pay for your work. 

You can also try signing up for native programs like TikTok’s Creative Challenge, through which creators earn money by producing high-quality UGC for brand ad campaigns.

10. Become a brand ambassador

Brands will often pay popular social media creators a fortune to act as their ambassadors. 

Unlike one-off sponsorships, being an ambassador is more of a long-term partnership—you’ll be promoting the brand regularly across multiple channels for the duration of your contract.

Given that you’re in it for the long haul, it’s important to only sign contracts with companies you genuinely love and would feel comfortable acting as the public face of.

For instance, Twitch and YouTube livestreamer Ludwig became a brand ambassador for Crocs, his favorite footwear brand.

He’d already been promoting them for free by talking about them positively in his streams for years, just because he genuinely loved wearing them. So, when they reached out and invited him to their ambassador program, it was a natural fit.

Bonus tip: To become a brand ambassador, engage with the brands you love. Talk about them on social media, tag them in your content, and comment on their posts. 

Once you’ve built a relationship, reach out with a professional pitch. Many brands also have dedicated ambassador programs listed on their website, so check if you can apply there, too.

11. Get paid for appearances

If you have a strong personal brand, businesses and event organizers might pay you to appear at their events, like corporate functions, conventions, and private parties. 

This is common for celebrities and top-tier social media influencers, but even smaller creators can land paid appearances at industry events.

For instance, YouTubers and TikTokers often get invited to conventions like VidCon or TwitchCon, where they’re compensated for meet-and-greets or panel discussions. 

If you have an engaged audience, start networking with event organizers to explore this income stream.

12. Start a paid community

Another easy way to make money on social media is to create your own paid community and sell subscription memberships to that community.

For example, you can set up a gated community space on Patreon. Then, sell membership packages that come with community access, plus other perks like access to exclusive content or coaching.

YouTubers Rhett & Link have their own private members-only community, named the Mythical Society, which they host on their website. 

With thousands of paying members, it’s one of their main revenue streams.

13. Collect donations from your fans

Some fans are willing to financially support their favorite creators just to see them keep making content. 

You can make it easy for your biggest fans to support you by setting up a donation page. Buy Me a Coffee is great for this—it only takes a few minutes to set up your site and add it to your social bios.

A lot of social media platforms also offer native features to make it easier to collect donations. For example, on Twitch, viewers can donate directly through live chat by sending their favorite streamers cash donations and Bits (the platform’s in-app currency).

14. Enable ad monetization

If you have a large audience on social media platforms that offer ad revenue sharing, you can earn a passive income by running ads on your content.

For instance, YouTube’s Partner Program allows creators to make money from ads displayed on their videos. 

Likewise, Facebook’s In-Stream Ads and Instagram’s Ad Revenue Sharing program offer similar opportunities.

You’ll typically need to meet certain criteria to qualify for these programs—such as a minimum number of followers and watch hours—so focus on growing your audience first.

Bonus tip: In addition to ad revenue, you might also be able to earn money from impressions on your social media content through platform creator funds, such as the TikTok Creator Fund, Instagram Reels Bonus program, Snapchat Spotlight, and Pinterest Creator Fund.

15. Drive social traffic to monetized channels

If you’re struggling to make money on social media despite a large, engaged audience, another option is to use your social media presence to drive traffic to channels you’re able to monetize more effectively.

For instance, bloggers use social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest to send traffic to their sites, where they make money from ads and affiliate links on their content. 

Similarly, YouTube creators often use platforms that are harder to monetize effectively, like TikTok, to drive viewers to their monetized long-form videos.

This strategy works best when your content is designed to funnel followers into your other revenue streams.

Final thoughts

There you have it—15 ways to make money on social media that actually work.

Keep in mind that you’ll need a large, engaged audience on social media before you’re ready to monetize. 

These methods won’t work unless you already have that, so focus on growing an organic following in a profitable niche first.

Check out some of our other blog posts for tips on how to achieve this. We’ve written plenty of guides to help you nail your social media strategy and grow your audience fast. 

Good luck!