There was a time when the internet was a sketchy place with no regard for security and if you wanted to buy something, you would do it in person at a brick-and-mortar store.
This is not the case anymore and people trust the internet more than ever now. This has created a whole range of online celebrities and influencers telling people what they should and should not buy.
Social media is full of reviews, videos, posts, and ads and there are only two things stopping someone from becoming an influencer. The first is the lack of a niche and the second is the lack of ideas.
If you don’t have enough time to work on these two aspects while you are in college, here are more ways you can earn on social media:
1. Podcasts
While creating podcasts may seem like one of those options that require a niche, this is slowly becoming untrue thanks to video-based social media platforms.
If you have best friends then you know that the conversation among such close friends often quickly changes topics and is very entertaining and ridiculous.
Many podcasts nowadays are a couple of best friends keeping up with their ridiculous shenanigans and just recording them.
Creators then edit the funniest parts and upload them onto these video-based platforms.
Without doing any specific content creation work, they now have enough content to post a podcast episode and 3-4 videos depending on the length of the episode.
You are essentially getting paid to hang out with friends in two ways. The podcast service will run ads in between episodes and the videos will garner views.
Additionally, if you think that writing scripts for podcasts is the only thing stopping you from creating one, just come up with a topic and hire an essay writer to give you an in-depth paper on it.
This will give you ample information to get started.
2. Custom Products
Creating custom products or made-to-order products is another big market as your products do not have to compete with other online retailers selling similar products at a large scale.
Custom products do not just mean that you will print whatever consumers ask you to on a hoodie or a mug, many large retailers do that already.
Custom products also mean that you design things for smaller audiences that large brands would not know about.
For example, you can design a t-shirt or a sticker with something quirky from a fandom that only people from that fandom would understand.
This easily gives you a great product to sell as there is hardly any work involved on your end besides the actual designing and setting up of the website.
You can find services that will print and ship direct to the consumer. Your website payment portal will handle all the payment logistics and all you have to do is rake in the great reviews.
You can also encourage people to add video reviews of your products giving way to a great UGC strategy.
3. Dropshipping
Another common way that many people make money online is through drop shipping.
Dropshipping is just basic business with no real creativity in it. You just buy something for cheaper and sell it at a premium with your keyword skills and the ability to show up at the top of the list when searched.
However, dropshipping through social media does have some creativity in it. The way to do it through social media is to utilize the shopping section of these platforms.
You can curate outfit layouts, make strategic product placement choices in posts, and allow consumers to go straight to your dropshipping platform to purchase that product.
This also helps you avoid the whole keyword ordeal where you might be losing customers.
Conclusion
The internet and social media have come a long way from where they started.
The advancements are going to continue giving way to more creativity and ways to monetize. This is your chance to jump on the bandwagon. Good Luck!
