How Creators Really Make Money (Ranking Every Income Stream)

Some creators are going to be pissed at

me for making this, but I don't care.

I've been a full-time creator for over 5

years. I've made more money than I could

possibly imagine by posting simple

videos online. And I'm going to go

through all the different ways that I've

made money and break them down, expose

how much money I've made, and then rank

them from S to [music] F tier. What you

see online isn't always true, and I want

to guide aspiring content creators in

the right path. That way, they learn

from my mistakes and hopefully do better

than I have. So, I have a tier list

pulled up here and uh we're going to be

going through and ranking all these

ridiculous images from S to F tier and

kind of breaking down each one of them.

So, the first one I have pulled up here

is this guy shushing you with a bag of

money. You can see here and this is

meant to signify brand deals. This is

probably one of the most common ways of

making money as a creator online. And

there's some good, there's some bad, and

there's some real ugly stuff that comes

with brand deals. And I just want to

give my perspective on it. I think brand

deals are an insane way to make a lot of

money. But the reason I have this guy

shushing you in front of the bag of

money is because you're basically kind

of just getting paid to say something to

your audience. And depending on the

brand you work with or how much creative

freedom you have, it can be a little bit

different from but from my experience,

every time I've worked with the brand,

I've had to do revisions. I've had to

change stuff and it's been mostly my

content. but you are getting paid to say

something to your audience. Now, brand

deals are great. I've probably made tens

of thousands of dollars from them. I

haven't really done too many. And that's

because I want to talk about brands that

I genuinely care about and I only

promote stuff that I like. So, I've

worked with like Adobe and Netflix, but

other than that, I haven't really done

any brand deals just because I'm not

someone to like get paid to promote like

SeatGeek or like Body Shavers or

something like that. Like I that just

isn't me. There is money there, but it's

just not something that I necessarily

like. So when Adobe or Netflix

approached me and I was like in that

space and actively using their products,

then that's when I take a brand deal. So

these can be a great way of making money

as a content creator. Oftent times you

do have to have a decent following

before you start getting paid properly.

When I made a few posts for Adobe,

probably not supposed to say this, but

you know, they were $5,000 plus, we'll

just say, per kind of post. So there's a

lot of money in brand deals. And just

imagine like I'm a creator that has a

following, but like definitely not the

biggest online. So, there is space for a

lot of money with brand deals. I'm not a

huge fan of them because I love just

talking about what I like without having

to say specific things, but just

depending on where you are as a creator,

this can be a great way of making money,

but it also can kind of like shift you

to make content that you don't really

enjoy to then get brand deals. So,

that's something important to note. My

piece of advice, if you want to do brand

deals, try to do it in an ethical way.

Work with brands that you actually enjoy

and that you would use and then get paid

to do that. there's like this gray

middle area where it's like a product

that you necessarily wouldn't use, but

like it's not bad. And that's where like

I kind of cut it off. Like it's like has

to be something that I enjoy, but then

also am getting paid well from and I

want to promote to my audience. For

example, like the ones that are like

SeatGeek and like the bigger like VPN

brands and stuff like that just doesn't

excite me. I don't think there's necess

necessarily anything wrong with that,

but it is kind of like that weird area.

And then to take it a step further, I

think there are like disgusting brand

deals where like you're promoting like

gambling to your audience and you're

essentially just like taking money from

your audience and putting into your

pockets. Because like think about this,

as a small creator, I've made like

multiple multiple thousands just for one

simple post promoting a software.

Imagine like how much that check is to

like promote gambling to your audience.

It's insane. So, I think if you're doing

brand deals, be aware of what company

you're promoting. Make sure to negotiate

always for a higher price because they

have the budget for it, but do it in a

way that like you would feel proud of

creating the content around. So for

brand deals for me, I'm gonna put them

at C tier. Not because they don't make

money, just because I'm not a huge fan

of actually doing them. But if the right

brand comes around, I'm not going to say

I'll never do them. Just like very

unlikely that I will do it. It's one of

those ones that's hard to make money

from at the beginning. And then once

you've already built an audience,

hopefully you've already found a way to

make money where you won't have to like

sell out to some extent to make money

for your content creation. Now the

second way here we can see YouTube in a

king chair with a penny on it. That's

because I think YouTube is the absolute

goat of social media platforms and their

AdSense programs pretty good. But for

creators like myself that don't really

pull massive amount of views, like I

have a I have a video like with over a

million views. I've had some videos that

like perform really well. But for the

most part, I like creating content that

just resonates with like normal people

and I'm not doing the whole Mr. Beast

entertainment style content where, you

know, I have this huge production and

there's cuts every few seconds. So, I

keep an entertainment and I get a whole

bunch of views. So, I don't get that

many. I've made I think around a little

bit under $40,000 from YouTube AdSense

over the last four or five years. So,

really not that good. But, it's a

platform that I'm going to use

regardless. So because of that, it's

pretty sick that I even get paid to post

videos that I would post on the platform

regardless. So for me, I think YouTube

AdSense is like an A tier. I don't think

about it at all. I never like cut out

music or anything because, oh, I could

make more money on AdSense, but I won't

deny the money that they give me when I

post the videos. So that's cool. If

you're a content creator that's like

more of like the chill kind of vibe,

like you just want to document your life

and impact and like make fun videos that

you enjoy without going super mainstream

like entertainment style videos, AdSense

probably won't be a big chunk of your

income, but it is a nice little bonus.

But if you're going like I'm trying to

be the next Mr. Beast, AdSense will be a

huge percentage of your income and uh

you definitely have to get more views,

but it will be awesome. So regardless of

what kind of content creator you are, I

still think YouTube AdSense is a tier.

They can always change the rates so

you're not like fully in control of how

much money you make, but they do pay out

pretty decent. And for someone that

doesn't focus on it on it at all, I'll

take an extra $10,000 a year for posting

YouTube videos. Now, the next one is

client work. So, I'm a creator that has

worked for other people to create

content for them. And the reason it is a

iPhone message with 99 notifications on

it is because client work for me is like

the least enjoyable kind of content

creation. It almost feels worse than

just like working like a normal job

because I think content creation should

be fun. It should be something that you

enjoy. And I want to create to help

people and express myself creatively.

And when I'm working for someone else,

it's kind of just like getting paid to

create something that I wouldn't have

created otherwise. This is another one

where I haven't made too much money.

I've probably made tens of thousands of

dollars through client work and stuff.

It's great. It pays pretty good. It's

normally quick. I've never really gone

down the path of like retainer client

work, which I think is probably the

better client work. I've always done

like a lot more freelance stuff. And

from my experience, freelance clients

are like pretty flaky. They normally

don't have a budget and then they kind

of expect a lot more than their budget

really can pay for. So, I've always

found that I get paid the least and have

to do the most work for this kind of

work. And because of that, I'm putting

in F tier. I think client work is it's a

way to make money off creating content

when you don't have a brand for

yourself, but I think it's almost like a

way of tricking yourself into being

like, "Yes, I get paid to create

content, but it's for someone else." And

I think there's actually a better way of

getting paid to create content. And that

is, this might be a surprise to a lot of

you guys, having a normal desk job.

having a job that's not just like a

normal job, but a job that allows you to

learn the skills of content creation and

get paid consistently and predictably.

Because with client work for me, it's

never been consistent. It's not been

predictable. I would never feel

confident being like, "Yes, I make this

much money per month as a strictly

freelance content creator." But I've had

a job in the past where I was working

for this beauty care company and I did

their social media marketing. I did

photos and videos. And while I wasn't

getting paid a lot, I think I started at

like $11 an hour and eventually got up

to like 20 something. So, not really

great money, but I was getting paid to

do something creative and create content

and learn stuff like Facebook

advertising and photo and video lighting

and important things that translated

into my content creation journey. I

think having the right job is way, way,

way overlooked. I think nowadays 9 to

fives are like completely like talked

about in a really bad way, but having

the right job is actually really

enjoyable. I loved working there. I was

doing that client work and my own

content creation all at the same time.

And I was literally just taking all the

money from that job and buying new gear

and stuff for my videos, education for

myself. And that taught me a lot and

also paid me at the same time. And I

think it's like literally the step above

like going to school for content

creation because you get paid and you

learn at the same time. and schools like

you pay to learn and you pay a lot of

money. So if you are starting your

content creating journey right now, I

think having a normal 9 to5 job that

teaches you the fundamentals of content

creation is something you should look

for cuz it's it makes all these other

things so much easier. Now next we have

this caveman over a fire with a PDF. And

the reason it's like that is this is

digital products. This is I felt like

this caveman when I found out about

digital products because I think by far

hands down digital products is the best

way to make money online as a solo

creator. I've made well over a million

dollars through digital products. So way

more than all these other things. Uh

this is the most obvious S tier ever for

me. It allows you to build something

that you're proud of, help people in

your audience, and make a whole bunch of

money. If you're not really familiar

with what they are, it's like a way of

turning your skill set into something

that people can buy that's a

downloadable file. So, for me, I'm a

video editor and I package all my

editing skills into these preset files

that video editors can download and use

in their workflow to speed up and make

their edits look better. The reason it's

S tier is because not only have I made

over a million dollars with it, I've had

a bunch of my friends make a whole bunch

of money through digital products doing

like vocal stuff, people doing gym

content. There's a digital product for

any kind of content you make. And I

think it's the easiest one to get

started because it costs practically

nothing to get started and everything is

pure profit. And as you make more sales,

you just get more money without having

to do more work. Out of all these things

that I've listed, it's probably the most

passive thing maybe besides YouTube ad

revenue because I didn't really think

about it other than posting videos. But

I like digital products because you

control the price of the product. You

control if people see it. It's not like

an AdSense thing where like your video

can get demonetized. If you have a

digital product in a video and your

YouTube AdSense gets cut off, you can

still make a whole bunch of money from

that video without being monetized by a

platform. It's a lot more like owning

something because it's really hard to

take away that source of income where

like clients can fire you, YouTube

AdSense can be demonetized, you can get

fired from your job, or brands can stop

working with you because they don't like

your content anymore. Digital products

is like the way where you can express

yourself completely freely and as long

as your audience thinks the thing that

you sell is valuable, you can make money

regardless of what you do in your

content. Off the top of my head, five of

some of my best friends create content

and sell digital products full-time. And

I've helped countless creators start

selling digital products online. I

actually have a community and private

mentorship where I teach people and help

people start becoming a full-time

creator online with digital products. If

you're interested in learning

[clears throat] more, DM me apply on

Instagram and we can see if we'd be a

good fit to work together. I don't work

with everyone, but creators that I

genuinely think I can help, I help them

get started with digital products and

scale to tens of thousands of dollars a

month with posting the content that they

actually enjoy. Now, the next one is me

holding a screen print machine in my

hand. So, like I'm I'm making clothing,

so making merchandise. And this is one

of the tricky ones. I think a lot of

YouTubers or creators think is a great

way to make money cuz they see like all

these big creators have merch. But in

reality, this was other than being fun

the worst way of making money. And even

if it was successful, it would have

became unenjoyable because I would

either have had to hire people to make

it or I would have been just making

t-shirts all day every day. It was more

of a fun creative outlet and less of a

way of making money because I think with

this I've actually probably lost a few

hundred bucks buying the material and

the the screen printing ink and the the

hoodies and stuff. I I never really sold

too many. So, I've probably lost a few

hundred bucks on this other than being

fun. I would not recommend it. I think

there's a lot better ways to monetize

your content and a way better use of

your time. But, I did really enjoy the

process of it. But because of that, I'm

putting it in Dtier. I would not

recommend it to anyone starting. And

even if you're already making money

online as a creator, there's probably a

lot better ways of monetizing like

digital products or even brand deals

other than making merch for yourself.

So, you really have to like enjoy

creating clothing or building a brand if

that's your case. Now, the next one I

have here is me live streaming. And

honestly, I kind of forgot I did this.

This is probably another one where I

made like tens of thousands of dollars

doing. I would stream for about like 4

hours and just review people's videos

and give them pointers. And in like a

4-hour window, I'd make like a,000

bucks, which is really insane, honestly.

Like, it was a super great way of making

quick money and enjoying it and

interacting with my community. The only

issue with this one is, you know, you do

the math, 4 hours of streaming for 1,000

bucks. You're making $250 an hour. Why

aren't you just like streaming 24/7,

right? At least with my size and my

audience and everything, if I were to

continue streaming, it wouldn't keep up

at that rate. Like, I don't think there

would be enough people submitting their

videos for like days and days on end.

Like, if I stream for 12 hours a day, I

wouldn't make, you know, $3,000 or

whatever it would be. I think it would

die down. But, this was something that

was great that I would do like once a

week, once every other week, and make

like a,000 bucks, really enjoy it, react

to people's videos, interact with the

community. And because of that, I'm

going to put it at Btier. It wasn't like

a really stable source of income, but it

was a fun way to create content and

interact with people while still making

great money. So, I'm going to put that

at Btier. And then next, we have these

two guys kind of coming together and

uniting. And that is to simplify

affiliate marketing. This is one that I

think is way overlooked if done

properly. Affiliate marketing can be

really, really great. I've made at least

six figures doing affiliate marketing.

It's something that if done right and

it's promoting a product that you

actually enjoy. It's like this coming

together between the brand, yourself,

and your audience because it's like

you're recommending something that's

useful to your audience and then you're

just getting a percentage of that sale.

So depending on what company you're an

affiliate for, the percentages really,

really vary. You can go anywhere from a

few percentage to 50%. There's been

programs that I've done that have paid

50%, I made a whole bunch of money.

There's been programs that pay 4%, but

still I'm going to like refer stuff on

Amazon if I if I talk about something.

So, affiliate marketing, it's kind of

like the brand deal, right? If you just

do affiliate marketing to make the money

and you don't really care about the

thing you're talking about to your

audience, I think it comes off really

disingenuous. It's probably not even the

best way to monetize your audience. But

if it's just like you're sharing

something that's useful in your video

and you happen to have an affiliate

link, no one's going to get mad at you.

It's a great way of making money and

often times it actually really helps

your audience. So, because of that, I'm

going to put affiliate marketing in A.

It's something I've never really focused

too much on, but for how little I

focused on it, I've made a whole bunch

of money doing it. So, I think affiliate

marketing uh definitely deserves an

eight tier. And then lastly, we have

this monk holding an iPhone with some

Wi-Fi signal. And this is to simplify

mentorship and working with people,

teaching your skills to them. This can

be done in like community or like

one-on-one mentorship stuff. And this is

one of the ones that I would, if you're

a beginner, caution you to probably not

do. It's a little trickier than you

think. I think something like digital

products, AdSense, affiliate marketing,

brand deals are all way easier to do

than this. But if you have a genuine

skill and you really like helping people

and you don't mind spending some time,

this is a great way to make a whole

bunch of money and have a serious

impact. I've made multiple six figures

with mentorship. It's something that

I've started recently, so I think this

for sure deserves an S tier. But if you

don't have a skill to teach people,

please do not do mentorship. I think

mentorship and courses get a really bad

reputation online because there are a

lot of fake gurus, a lot of people that

like scam their audience and stuff like

selling like a $1,000 course that like

doesn't really show them anything

unique. But if you're someone that's

actually skilled at something and you

can really help people and help people

get results, this is a really great way

to make a whole bunch of money and also

help your audience do the things that

you do. So, if you can't prove that you

can help someone do something, I would

recommend staying away from mentorship,

some easy ways to get started or either

do it for free, like when I first

started helping people sell digital

products and make money online as a

creator. It was just to my friends and

then like enough of my friends started

making money online that I was like,

"Oh, I'm like pretty good at this." Like

they obviously put in the work, but like

I can get people results. And that's

when I started charging people to

actually help them because I had a clear

understanding of how to get someone from

beginner to making money online as a

creator. That's what I have creator pass

for. If you're interested in starting to

make a full-time income as a creator

online, go ahead and DM me the word

apply on Instagram. We'll see if we're a

good fit to work together. Like I said,

I don't work with everyone, but if

you're someone that's like really

serious about it, wants to enjoy what

they create, have time, location, and

financial freedom. I've helped tons of

creators go full-time. I've helped

countless of creators make tens of

thousands of dollars a month online and

uh yeah, it's a tight-knit community,

private mentorship, but it's literally

my life's work packaged into a community

course, weekly calls with me. So, if

you're interested, check it out. So,

wrapping up everything, if you're a

creator just getting started, I think

one of the best ways to get started is

finding a job, working for someone or a

company that is similar to what you want

to do. That way, you can just have a

consistent, predictable source of

income. Even if it's not a lot, you can

learn the skills and get paid at the

same time. And then I would start

looking into selling digital products,

affiliate marketing, how to make money

online through AdSense. I think this is

something that kind of just happens

without you really focusing on. If

you're going to do brand deals, you're

probably going to need an audience. If

you're going to stream, you're probably

going to need an audience to at least

start making money with them. Merch is

one of those ones that pretty much

everyone that I've seen do. It's never

like the huge needle moving factor. It

might to some creators be like a good

way of making money, but it's very rare

that like that's their primary source of

income. And for me personally, client

work is the absolute worst. But I do

think early on it is a good way of

making money because you can reach out

to someone and have work done. But I

think I would probably rather just have

a normal job. If you found this video

helpful, drop a comment down below what

you guys thought. I'd be curious to hear

which ones you guys think I ranked

properly and which ones I kind of ranked

incorrectly and maybe where you'd put

everything and maybe even some things

that I've missed out on down below in

the comments. Like I said, if you want

help being a full-time creator online,

DM me apply on Instagram. That's all I

got for you guys in this one. Peace.