Social media holds many opportunities for young entrepreneurs. It’s an excellent marketing tool with a simple business plan; all rolled into one. Through social media, entrepreneurs can build empires thanks to things like residual income and content sharing.
Residual income, in particular, is a powerful player in the social world. In its basic definition, residual income, a type of passive income, is the disposable income that’s left after you’ve paid for all your business expenses.
“In business and money-making, residual income is money you continue to receive regularly, after making an initial sale/lease/another type of transaction,” says a residual income guide from the Income Store.
“In other words, you create a long-term self-renewing source of revenue, then sit back and let the money come at you.” It’s revenue that comes from doing a little initial work and then watching the profits roll in after.
Bloggers and social media enthusiasts are often recipients of residual income. They put forth some initial effort and then do minimal maintenance while their profits grow. Advertising, sponsorship, product royalties, and brand visibility all contribute to higher passive profits for entrepreneurs. Many social media entrepreneurs see upwards of $100,000 yearly using residual income methods.
If you want to generate residual income through social media, it’s important to look at those who have gone before you. Some have set a particularly good model of getting rich using social media as their primary source of business.
1. Lauren Bath
Lauren Bath is a travel and marketing enthusiast from Australia. She uses Instagram for her business, posting beautiful and quality photos that encompass her travels. These photos not only show the different places she’s visited, but also her personality, which makes her a public figure that more than 461k people currently follow.
A key aspect of her residual income strategy is the use of sponsorships. Tourism boards and organizations pay Bath to work with them. In return, she features their location and services when discussing her travels. They pay her thousands for this service, which she does without even going out of her way.
2. Liz Meghan
Almost all social media gurus use advertising to monetize their social media accounts. Organizations will pay big money to post their advertisements on your social pages if you have hundreds of thousands of followers to see them.
Liz Meghan is an excellent example of using advertising revenue on her YouTube channel; I Heart Makeup. It gets an average of 75k views for every video she posts about makeup, skincare, and fashion essentials. Advertisers formulate video ads to precede her videos and also feature popups throughout each clip.
Meghan also gives promotional messages about the products she uses. She’ll use an Aveeno face wash, for example, and talk about why that product is more attractive and better than some of the others on the market. These little endorsements work wonders for organizations, and she benefits from the profits.
3. Grace Ciao
As an artist, specifically a fashion illustrator, Grace Ciao brings social attention to her personal artistic brand. She’s gained more than 61k followers on her Instagram account where she posts images of her latest illustrations.
Because of the heightened visibility, Ciao receives more gigs for her artwork, as well as greater opportunities to sell her art. Social media, as a marketing platform, provides fruitful advertising for the work she has already created.
4. Brandon Stanton
Stanton runs a Facebook page called Humans of New York. He takes photographs of people on the streets of New York City and sometimes different areas of the world, asking them to share a short story or a life motto for his page.
His page now has more than 12 million likes, and he’s received several book deals. The books he’s written are compilations of the many posts he’s written over the last few years. Now, he makes hundreds of thousands per year from advertising and his book royalties, much of which he gives to charity.
With the right tactics and an understanding of residual income, you can make money through social media. It’s an enjoyable and non-strenuous career path with promising returns.
