How Content Creators Make $20K A Month (My Breakdown & Tips)

[Applause] Ah, all right! Today we’re talking about money. Now, I got to say this: this video is in no way, shape, or form a flex.

I think these types of videos are really good for other creators who are trying to get into this space because it gives you a realistic outlook on how much money you can expect to make at the audience size that I have. Given that, you can make more money; you can make less money. I know there's a bunch of people making a lot more money than I am, and honestly, the title of this video is being very modest, and you'll see once we get into the numbers.

But this is not a flex, right? This should be inspiration to everybody. Now, in this video, I'm going to talk about the different revenue streams that I have as a full-time content creator.

I'm going to give you some exact numbers on how much I make from these different revenue streams, and I'm also going to give you some tips on how you can start making some money as a creator in the space, whether you're already in it or you're trying to get into it. This video is sponsored by Found, but we'll talk about them a little bit later. Let's get into it.

If we were to look at my money from a P&L standpoint, it would look like this: sponsorships being about 50% of that, AdSense being about 25% of that, and digital products being around 25% of that. I guess it would make sense to start with the simplest form of making money as a full-time YouTuber, and that would be Google AdSense. Google AdSense is when you make money from the ads that play at the beginning of the YouTube videos.

Now, AdSense can vary widely; each creator gets an RPM depending on what niche they're in. Tech content and business content tend to get a lot more RPM than different niches, but this is just where I am and how much I make off AdSense. So, from Google AdSense, year to date, I've made a total of $117,346.

I put up a breakdown so you can see how much money I've made per month. Honestly, I used to not make much money off of AdSense, but now it's pretty substantial. It's handling bills throughout the month, it comes on the exact same day—I’m grateful, I love it; I can't complain.

All right, let's get into digital products. I used to make a lot of money off of digital products, but as of late, I haven't really been creating or promoting digital products, for that matter. But you'll see I've made a substantial amount of money off of digital products this year.

So, year to date, off of digital products, I've made a total of $37,000, and here’s a breakdown of how much money I've made per month. Just looking at these numbers, you can see that I’ve been modest with how much I’m making per month, even in the title. But this fluctuates; I don't want y'all to think that this is a recurring theme and something that happens very often.

I had a $5 sale, and that is why you see this extremely crazy month for digital products. I don't make this much money every single month selling digital products. I’m getting hot, man!

But let’s talk about affiliate marketing. I realized I didn't even put that in my pie chart when it comes to how much money I make, but I've been making a substantial amount of money off of affiliate marketing, and this is probably my favorite way to make money right now. So, year to date, I've made a total of $34,636 off of affiliate marketing, and it's through a couple of different avenues.

My biggest one would have to be Amazon Affiliates; that alone, I've made $26,845 off of this year, and other affiliate programs that I'm signed up for, like Motion V Effects— we have a collaborative pack that I sell and get commission off of— and a couple of different other avenues that add up to that additional $8,500 that I've made this year doing affiliate marketing. So, affiliate marketing is essentially me promoting a product, talking about it in a video; you click my link, you go buy it, and I get a commission or cut off the top of that. I like it because it's not super salesy.

I find that when I'm selling my own digital products, I think they’re awesome, but I just don’t like selling stuff. I would rather just show you how I use stuff, like cheap filmmaking gear. If it benefits you, you like it, you can sit in your kit, you go buy it, and I get a kickback off of it.

So, I’ve been loving doing affiliate marketing lately. Okay, let’s talk sponsorships. Now, this is my bread and butter.

I make a lot of money off of sponsorships, but unfortunately I can’t disclose the specific amounts that I make from different brands because it would ruin my relationship with them, and I'm sure that they don’t want that information out there. What I can do is give you a ballpark figure. I can tell you how many sponsorships I typically do per month, and then you can do with that information what you will.

Your boy was "H. " I had to get out of that car, but what I typically get paid for sponsorships is in the five-figure range—sometimes four—but most of the time it's five. On average, I do anywhere from two to four sponsorships a month.

Obviously, this fluctuates; sometimes I do one sponsorship a month, sometimes I might do six in a month, sometimes I might not upload the entire month. So, it’s up and down, but that’s how much I make from sponsorships. Do with that information what you will.

I don't know if y'all remember this, but a couple of years ago, I uploaded a video talking about me owing back taxes. Very scary place to be in! But the reason why I was in this position was that I got overwhelmed with the process of categorizing transactions.

I didn't save the proper amount for taxes, and the process of filing just seemed extremely daunting. But I'm going to save y'all from going through what I went through. Found is a banking app designed for solo entrepreneurs and small business owners to help you manage your finances all in one central place.

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Now that you know how you can save your money, I got some tips to help you make some more! Let's get into it. I'm going to try to run through these tips really fast because it's getting dark on your boy.

The first one is: showing your process is the easiest way to make affiliate sales. I think with affiliate sales, or just selling in general, a lot of people tend to be very salesy. You really don't have to do that.

The easiest way is to just show somebody what you can make that's cool with the product. Instead of me reading off the specs of what a lens can do or what a light can do, if I take it out and make some cool stuff with it, you'll be more enticed by that than me just sitting there reading off the specifications. The second tip is: AdSense isn't always about going wide; you can also go deep.

What I mean by this is when people try to make money through AdSense, they're thinking about, "Okay, what video can I make that can get the most amount of views? " When honestly, it's not even really about that. A lot of the time, you can make a very niche video that has a longer length, where you're able to put more ads into the video and make more money off of a video that has significantly more views.

So don't think about it always as going extremely wide. Don't try to make the video that's going to get the most amount of views every single time. You can get very specific in a video; you can make it long; you can have people resonate with you on an emotional level; you can tell a story.

In those videos that are longer, you're able to add more ads into those, and essentially, you'll probably make more money. The next tip is: solve a problem with digital products. I think a lot of people go into creating digital products from the standpoint of, "I saw somebody else doing this, so I'm going to do it.

" But if you really think about a problem that you have had and you're able to solve that problem for somebody else, they have absolutely no problem buying that product. People buy things that make their life easier, so if you can solve a problem for somebody, that's the easiest way to make money from selling digital products. Now, this next tip really isn't even a tip; it's more of a harsh reality, but sponsorships can be shallow, and that just is what it is.

Brands put money into creators because they're looking to make money back. If you don't have a substantial audience that can make them that return on investment, they're probably not going to want to do sponsorships with you. So if you're just getting into content creation, I would say don't even think about sponsorships early on because you're probably not going to get anything that's significant.

You're probably going to be doing a lot of work for a little bit of money. When you get your audience up, you're able to negotiate bigger numbers, bigger deals, and it just makes the most amount of sense right there. So sponsorships can be shallow; if you've got the pull, you've got the pull.

If you've got the audience, you'll probably make the money. But if you don't, brands might not want to mess with you, and that's cool. Just know, once you do get that audience, you start taxing them; that's how much money I'm making.

If this video was inspiring to you at all, please drop it a like, drop a comment, do everything for the algorithm, guys! Help your boy out on this upload. All right, I'm out.

See you on the next one. Peace!