How to make money as a content creator

Ready to monetize your passion? Get the confidence boost you need to turn your hobby into your career.
We’ll cover: how to earn an income from content creation, how to nab yourself an influencer collaboration with a brand, how to make money on Tik Tok, YouTube, and other social platforms, how to charge with confidence.

It’s time to cash in.

Today, I want to talk to you about how to get jobs and how to get started as a freelance creative and start making money.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a filmmaker, a content creator, a designer, a photographer, a video editor, all the things that we’re going to talk about today will apply to you. Here at Artlist, a lot of us started as freelance creatives, so we know how it is when you need to start something from scratch and trying to get jobs and make money. So all the tips that we’re going to talk about today are from our personal experience.

So first of all, you need a portfolio to showcase your work and the level of your skills, so any potential client can see that work and understand if you’re the right person for that job. If you currently don’t have anything that you can show off, try to look for free projects or maybe small businesses that need a video for a small amount of money. Or just create your own passion project that you’re proud of and you can put in your portfolio that can show off your skills. Now that you have a portfolio, you need to present it in a professional way. And the best way, in our opinion, to do that is create your own website.

There’s a lot of easy and accessible tools out there that can help you do that. And once you find that specific tool, go ahead and start creating your portfolio. You need to have an about page explaining about yourself, about your experience, about your style, what you like to do and how you like to do it. And you need another page presenting your work in a nice, tidy way, maybe separated into different categories if you’re doing a bunch of stuff, and another page with your contact details so any potential clients can know how to contact you. You can also open different social accounts. Just make sure you have a clear bio and you know what you want to post on there. It can be anything from your creative process or showing different aspects of your skills. Just make sure you separate your business and personal account.

The next point, which is probably the most important one, is collaboration and networking, and I can’t stress enough on how many times I got jobs, just from collaborating and networking with other creatives. Reach out and engage with as many creatives as you can. Maybe send them a DM offering your help on their next project or just meet up for coffee. These connections and relationships will be key in getting your next job. These people are always receiving job opportunities, and they can either bring you on board for a specific project, or they can just pass on a client to you if they’re not available to do the work themselves.

Also, make sure you’re super proactive. You can reach out to brands you want to work with, small businesses in your area, local artists. Send out emails, DMs, make phone calls or even go door to door. Just don’t sit around and wait for work to come to you.

Another important thing you should do is always share your work, make sure people know what you do and what you’re all about. In these times, sharing your work and potentially reaching thousands of people is easier than ever. The next person to see your work on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram or LinkedIn could be your next client or another important connection. You never know. When you’re starting out, try to take as many jobs as you can, that will, first of all, help you pay the bills. But more important, it will help you gain experience. That will help you understand the type of work you really like doing, what you’re good at and which area of work has the most potential of creating revenue for you. Once you get to that point where you have consistent job offers, you can start being selective and focus on specific niches like wedding videos, commercials, documentaries, or whatever you want to focus on. But until you get to that point, try to get as much work under your belt. Even working as a P.A. can help you out.

Developing a wide range of skill sets can be super beneficial, especially at the beginning. A lot of small businesses with limited budgets will often look for that specific person who can do it all like filming, directing, color grading, editing. Basically a one-man band. The more skills you have, the better the chance you’re going to nail that next job. But after a while, try to focus on a specific skill and develop that. That will probably help you close higher-paying jobs with that specific skill. You’re probably going to get two types of job offers. One are from clients and the others are from production companies and ad agencies. When working with ad agencies and production companies you’re probably going to get more consistent work if they like working with you, and you might get a higher chance to work with bigger brands. You’ll also be able to focus only on the creative process but take into consideration that they will have the final word over your work.

On the other hand, when working with the client, you’re going to have to deal with a lot of the administration side, phone calls, emails, but you’re going to have full control over your project. So make sure you send your portfolio to different ad agencies and production companies. They’re always looking for new talented creators to work with.

So that’s about it. These are the best tips based on our personal experience on how to get you started as a freelance creative and start making that money. Until the next time. Stay Creative.

What is happening, guys? My name is Danny McGee, and in this video, I’m going to be teaching you how to make money as a content creator.

Now, the content creation market currently sits at around $11 billion, and by 2030, they estimate that it’ll get up to 38 billion. There has never been a better time in history to monetize your passion. Just as a quick little introduction to myself, my name is Danny McGee. I am a creator based out of Colorado. For the past five years, I’ve been traveling all over the world, shooting for brands like DJI, GoPro, Red Bull, Marriott, United Airlines, Google, and a bunch more. I am incredibly fortunate to be doing what I do, but obviously, it wasn’t always like that. Before I took that step into the unknown, I was just your average, everyday college student dreaming about traveling, taking photos, making videos, but not having any idea where to start. Back then, the term content creator really didn’t even exist. So I had to spend the last five years learning the hard way. But you don’t have to. I am going to teach you everything I know about making money as a content creator.

In my opinion, being a content creator is the coolest job in the entire world. Because whether you’re into cars, travel, sports, music, comedy, or anything in between. Being a creator allows you to make a career out of those passions. Taking a step into the unknown is scary. Trying something new is scary. But the cool thing about pursuing your passions is that once you start doing it, you tend to get really good at it because you love it so much. Pretty soon you’ll get so good that companies will want to pay you to create that content. So here are my top four tips for starting to charge for your content.

Number one: the biggest thing is to hone in on your skills. I know it sounds really simple, but a lot of people just completely forget this step. Before you start working for companies and getting paid for your content, your content needs to be good to justify that payment. There are a ton of awesome resources out there for you to learn. My YouTube channel, for example. But the biggest thing by far is just to get out and shoot as much as possible. Shoot a bunch of different things, figure out what you like, and become a master at it. And if you really dedicate yourself to learning it just because you love it, you’re going to get good pretty rapidly. I can’t tell you how many people hit me up on Instagram saying they want to be a content creator, and then I just go to their Instagram and it’s literally just a picture of their dog. So get out there, shoot as much as you can. Build your name and your community as the photo/video person and start building that portfolio.

All right so number two is to identify who you want to work with. Is it music artists? Maybe outdoor brands? Car dealerships? whatever it is that you want to shoot. Figure out what you like shooting and hone in on those brands/companies. Now, you might occasionally have to shoot things you don’t like. That’s fine. At the end of the day, you need to get paid. But it’s very very important to remember why you started and remember to shoot the things that you love because then brands and companies will see you making that content, and then they will want to pay you to create it.

When I first started, I really wanted to shoot outdoor and travel content, but my portfolio wasn’t that built out. So occasionally on the side, I had to take on weddings, senior portraits, stuff like that. But it was very important to me to keep shooting the stuff that I love, just to keep myself on brand. Doing other stuff and trying different things is completely fine, but it’s just important to remember your overall goals.

Number three is to shoot for free sometimes. I know this is a big heated debate in the content creation world. Should you shoot for free? Are you undervaluing your work? No. Especially when you’re first starting. You need to build out the portfolio that you can send to brands. So especially in the beginning, you need to be shooting for free to build that portfolio. I like to call this concept free to fee.

For example, early on in my career, I started working for this sunglasses company called Spy Optics. Something that I talk about a little bit later is the process of reaching out to brands via DM and email. I used to do that a ton I would send like 20 emails a day to different brands. And one of them just happened to be Spy Optics. They hit me up and they’re like, ‘Yo, yeah, we’d love to work together. We can send you some shades.’ It wasn’t a paid opportunity. They just sent me like three or four pairs of sunglasses, which at the time I was ridiculously stoked about, and I just did a really good job for them. I over delivered on photos, I delivered them a short video that they didn’t even ask for. But fast forward a few years. Spy Optics became one of my best-paying clients just because I had done a really good job working for free for them in the beginning. Again, it started as free and then ended up at a fee.

Now how do you identify those opportunities where free work will pay off? The big thing to ask yourself is to just never lose sight again of where you want to go. Ask yourself, will this opportunity get me closer to my goals? If someone asked me to do a free senior portrait when I was first starting, I definitely wouldn’t do it. But if they asked me to do a paid senior portrait, I would for sure do it because that money can be used for travel. But it’s not like I want to be doing senior portraits as a career. So if someone didn’t want to pay me, I wouldn’t do it. Another example. Is that a lot of times in the beginning of my career, I looked for photographers and videographers that I looked up to. So people who are already established, people whose work I really loved, and I would just reach out basically saying, ‘hey, I’d love to work for you for free in order to get a little bit more experience.’ I was not getting paid in money for my time, but I was getting paid in something that was much more valuable for me at the time, which was experience. Each opportunity is completely different and you just have to evaluate whether that opportunity is going to take you where you want to go. Even nowadays, I still do some jobs for free, if I judge the opportunity is worthwhile.

Number four is to be authentic. As you grow and start building your personal brand. One of the most important things to keep in mind is just to be authentic. One of the cool things about social media is that whatever type of content you put out, you tend to attract the same type of people who like that content. It makes sense. I start posting a bunch of nature shots and all of a sudden I have this community of people who are into nature and into the outdoors. Same if you start posting for cars. If you post for music, really anything across the board, you’re going to attract that audience. And people will start to really connect with the things that you say and believe in. Compared to traditional marketing working with a content creator is way better for the brand. For example, if like I was an outdoor company, let’s say. If I wanted to run an ad in the past before social media, I’d have to run that ad to whatever audience is on TV, male/female, old/young, whatever it is. But with content creators, you can just basically pick the exact content creator that you want and you can hone in on their exact niche. So if I’m an outdoor brand, I can just pay an outdoor influencer or an outdoor content creator to post my stuff and it’s way more effective than traditional media.

So when you ask yourself what products should you use and promote to your audience just promote and use products that you actually love. As you grow, it’s going to be very tempting to promote things that you don’t actually care about. But you need to stick with your guns and you need to again, just stay authentic. When I started this humidifier company hit me up, which is very off-brand for my travel outdoorsy vibe. So they hit me up and they wanted to pay me what at the time was a bunch of money to do this job, and they wanted me to promote it on my Instagram. So I thought about it for a while, but at the end of the day, I decided to deny the social posts because it just wasn’t on my brand. We ended up negotiating something where I could just go out and shoot photos for them and not post them. So it ended up all working out, but it was very important to me to just keep my authentic brand and people see through that. If you’re constantly promoting things that your audience knows you don’t actually care about, people are going to notice that and they’re not going to want to follow you for much longer. The most successful partnerships are always organic and just come naturally. So be authentic. Try to stay away from easy money that goes against your brand and you’ll reap the rewards down the line.

All right, guys, that is it for this video. Thank you for tuning in. I’ll see you on the next one. Peace.

In this video, I’m going to be talking about all the different platforms you can use to make money as a content creator and just sort of the pros and cons of each.

First one is the OG. Instagram. This platform is where many content creators, including myself, got their start. This is one of those platforms that, in my opinion, will always be around and will constantly just adapt to the current market conditions. For example, when Snapchat started stories, Instagram after failing to buy Snapchat, just made their own stories. And now with TikTok, they basically just ripped off TikTok’s platform by adding Instagram reels. But they can do that because they’re Instagram and they just have so many users already.

Here are some of the reasons why I love Instagram. Number one, it’s always going to be around. Platforms come and go, but if you build up a following on Instagram, it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s going to be there forever. Two, it’s a great place to have your portfolio. Whereas a lot of other platforms like TikTok, where it’s just video-based, especially as a photographer, it’s a really great place for brands or clients to just kind of check out your work and just get a really good idea of who you are at a quick glance. Number three, it’s great for connecting with people. I met some of my best friends in the world through Instagram. I probably use it more for connecting with friends than any other platform. You can just so easily comment on people’s photos, respond to their stories, and just stay engaged with friends and people that you like.

Here are some of the things that I don’t love about Instagram. Number one, they don’t pay their creators. This is one of the things that I think would have benefited Instagram a lot from the beginning if they did, but they just didn’t, and they never have. But when TikTok came around, YouTube’s always paid their creators, TikTok started paying people. Finally, Instagram was like, ‘Oh, no, we need to start paying people, this is weird, We’ve never done this before, I don’t know why we didn’t reward our creators who are literally spending their entire lives helping out our platform.’ It just never crossed their mind. About six months ago, they started paying their creators a little bit. It’s still a new program. I don’t know how well it’s going, but as opposed to a lot of other platforms, Instagram just in the past has not paid their creators.

Two, it’s hard to get your posts seen on Instagram. I have over 80,000 followers and I’m really lucky if I get like a quarter of them to see my posts. Three, it’s becoming harder and harder to grow on Instagram. I’ve seen some people have success growing by using reels, but as opposed to platforms like TikTok, it’s pretty hard. And while we’re on that topic, let’s talk about TikTok.

Here’s a few great things about TikTok. Number one the platform is growing so fast. There are so many creators moving onto their every single day. They’re almost at a billion users already, and it’s just going to be around for a while for sure. Number two, they pay their creators. They started doing this from the beginning, which is awesome. So once you hit a certain amount of requirements, they actually just pay you depending on how many views, likes, comments, and stuff that you get. And number three it’s way easier to grow than any other platform I have ever seen. You are seriously just one video away from having a massive follower growth. Just because there’s so many new people joining the platform and their algorithm is so dialed. You can have one video get a million views or something and go up like 30, 40, 50,000 followers. So if you’re consistent and you work hard, you can grow a following fast.

Now for some of the negatives. Number one, people don’t typically pay as much on TikTok as opposed to things like YouTube or Instagram. For example, if I have like like 10,000 followers on Instagram, I can expect to be charging about one hundred dollars per post. But if I have like 10,000 followers on TikTok, brands will only pay probably up to like twenty-five dollars. So because followers are in general a little bit easier to obtain, brands pay a little bit less.

Number two, you need to stay super consistent on it. Just to please the algorithm you need to be posting consistently. And for someone like me who doesn’t really like to spend that much time on social media, I prefer spending a lot of time on one project instead of a little bit of time on like a million different posts. So for someone like me, it’s definitely not my preferred platform.

And the third thing that I don’t really like about TikTok is it’s not that good of a place to host your portfolio. Especially if you do photography, but even if you do video as well just because all the videos are vertical, brands don’t really get a sense of who you are just from TikTok. A lot of the videos are just short phone, selfie videos, stuff like that. So Instagram, YouTube, those are going to be a better place for your actual portfolio.

Next, I want to talk about YouTube. Now, YouTube has been around for forever. Whereas TikTok and Instagram are kind of a place where people just go to surf through. YouTube is a place where people go to just watch long-form content and really learn something. Here are a few reasons why I love YouTube. Number one, audiences are just a lot more dedicated. Because in general, YouTube content is a lot longer form, people are able to connect with you on a deeper level. Number two, building a YouTube following is one of the best moves you can make as a creator. Because compared to all other platforms, you can make way more money on YouTube, and ever since the beginning, they’ve always paid their creators. Number three on YouTube, you generally put a lot more time and effort into each video, so it’s really rewarding when you put it out. Instagram and TikTok, however, are kind of more quantity over quality.

Here are a few cons of YouTube. Number one, it’s harder to build up a following initially. It took me a few years to get a thousand followers, and it took me another full year to reach 10,000. Number two, it takes a lot more time to create the content. Whereas on TikTok you can just grab your phone, make a selfie video, or something like that. YouTube You really have to put some time and energy and effort into your videos.

Number three, on the same vein, it just takes more time and effort to be successful on YouTube. Whereas you can blow up on TikTok in a few months, YouTube is one of those things where you just have to really dedicate yourself, put the time and energy and effort into it, and slowly but surely, your audience will grow. In my opinion, it’s good to have a balance of all of them.

Lastly, I want to go over Facebook. Let’s go over the pros first. Number one, it’s really good for connecting with friends and family. Some of my earliest jobs just came from people that I went to high school with, my family members that saw that I was posting photos and videos and then just associated me as the video guy. Number two, Facebook is definitely not going anywhere. Even though the audience is changing, it’s going to be around for a while. Number three, you can share vertical videos as well as horizontal videos.

Now for the cons. Number one is it’s pretty outdated. Honestly, most of the people on Facebook nowadays are kind of in the older generation, whereas a lot of the newer, younger users are going to places like TikTok. Number two, it’s really hard to get things to go viral. Because Facebook is such an ad-centered platform. You usually have to pay money to get a big reach on videos. And number three, I have literally never had any company hit me up about a Facebook post. As far as money goes from brands. Their focus is really on the other platforms.

All right, so now let’s talk about the actual content you should be posting on each platform. All of these platforms can be working in tandem and working with each other. And I’m going to use the example of a recent FPV video I did for a drone company. It’s like a three-minute cinematic edit. I’m going to be using that as an example for this whole thing.

So for YouTube, that three-minute video is the actual content. It’s a well-edited cinematic video that people can sit down and take some time and actually watch. The cool part is, this is a video that I already would have made. I love the company’s FPV drones, and I’m happy to recommend them to my audience. Getting sponsored by the company is just kind of an added bonus. Again, when you start shooting things you love and putting out things you love, companies will notice that. And pretty soon you’re getting paid for things that you would have done for no pay at all. It’s truly one of the most rewarding things ever. So the YouTube video is posted, now what am I going to be posting on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook? For TikTok and Instagram I wouldn’t even post the full video I’d potentially posted on Facebook, but the main purpose for these platforms is to build the hype on them in order to funnel them to the actual YouTube video itself.

TikTok is easy. Basically, I’m going to crop the video into vertical and cut it up into probably about three short sections that I can post on there. The key with TikTok is just to make it fast-paced, bite-sized, and digestible. In the captions, I’ll say something like: hit the link in my bio to check out the full video.

For Instagram, it’s not that different than TikTok, but I like to weave in a photo in there as well. So on Instagram, I might post a couple of video teasers of the video and then a photo of me holding the drone, some brief thoughts about the drone, and then also just funneling people to the YouTube video by saying like, ‘full thoughts and opinions on this drone at the link in my bio.’

Lastly, on Facebook, like I said, it’s a little less cut and dry because I’ve had success with vertical videos, longer format, horizontal videos, but I’d probably do a combination of both. I’d probably post a few teaser clips in vertical and then finish off by posting the actual FPV edit itself. Again, Facebook is just a really good place to establish yourself as the photo/Video person in your community. And depending on how you negotiate, you can be getting paid for each individual one of these platforms.

All right. That’s it for this video. Thank you guys for tuning in and I’ll see you on the next one. Peace.

In this video, I’m going to teach you how to pitch brands. I’ll tell you right now, it’s a lot easier than it seems like from the outside. Basically, the easiest way to contact a company nowadays is either through Instagram or e-mail, or both. It’s incredible how accessible companies are nowadays. Back when I first started, I would have to find the brand on Instagram, then visit their website, then spend a bunch of time and go through a bunch of different pages trying to potentially maybe find a marketing manager’s contact. But now it is so easy to just open up Instagram, find a company, and literally, right there it lists: Here you can message us and this is our email. And it usually goes straight to their marketing manager. It is beautiful.

Even if you’re already an established content creator. Working with brands in a freelance way is the ultimate ticket to your own personal freedom. For most of the projects that I work on, I control 100% of that project. So if I want to fly to Bali and film for a month there, or if I want to just live in my van in the States, I can do that. I can pick and choose where I want to go, when I want to do it. Having the freedom to pick and choose that, in my opinion, is the most valuable thing in the world.

So here is step-by-step how to get your first brand deal. Number one, open up Instagram and find a company that you like. Most brands, even really small ones, will have Instagrams. If they don’t just give them a call. Show up to their front door and just ask for their marketing manager’s contact. I’m going to be using SPY as an example, which is a company that I’ve worked with for years. So we found SPY.

Now step two is to send your pitch. Here’s a general template I like to use when I reach out to a company. The idea here is to keep it short and sweet. These marketing managers get a ton of requests every single day and they just don’t have time to respond to them all. So keeping yours short and to the point is something that they really appreciate. So this is what I would say. I’d say, ‘Hey Spy, I absolutely love your guys’ shades. I’m a content creator based out of Colorado, and I’d love to talk about working together on something. I have some ideas I’d love to run by you. Let me know if there’s any interest. I also shot you an email.’ The nice thing about Instagram is that it can basically work as your portfolio, so you don’t necessarily need to send them additional links because they can just look at your page and see your work right there. So, make sure your page has a good amount of work on it. Then after you send that, send the email. The only difference here is that you need to introduce yourself first. So right at the beginning of the pitch, I’d say something like this, ‘Hey Spy! My name is Danny McGee and I am a content creator based out of Colorado. Here is a link to my Instagram so you can check out some of my work.’ And then it kind of goes back to what we said before in the email. DM After you’ve introduced yourself. ‘Anyways I absolutely loved your guys’ shades. I’d love to talk about working together on something. I have some ideas I’d love to run by you. Let me know if there’s any interest, I also shot you a DM. Dan.’

One of the key things here is to say I have some ideas I’d love to run by you. You don’t actually have to have ideas that you want to run by them because you’re going to be sending out so many of these emails. You don’t want to spend a bunch of time thinking about a pitch for a specific company unless you know they’re interested. So you come up with the ideas once they get back to you.

Step number three is to just send a ton of these out. Back when I first started, I would send about 20 of these per day to any number of random companies that I wanted to work with. And the more you send out, the more chances you’ll hear back. So as far as the ideas themselves, once you start hearing back from brands, that can be a set of photos, a short video, whatever content that you want to create, just pitch them on that. For example, if Spy responded to me and asked what my ideas were, I’d say something like this, ‘Thank you for your interest. I actually have a trip coming up that I’m going to Utah and I’d love to shoot a short 30-second video of your sunglasses.’

It’s really important to outline here what specifically you can do for them. The important thing here is just to think of what would be in the brand’s best interest. And a lot of times if I judge, it’ll be worth the extra work. I even build out a short PDF just to propose the project, and if you do a good job on the first one, it can lead to a lot of paid work down the line. And just make it very clear what they will receive. So, are they going to be receiving social exposure on your Instagram or on your YouTube? Are they going to be receiving photos? Are they going to be receiving a video? Are they going to be receiving short drone clips? Reels? Whatever it may be just think of the content that they can benefit from the most to make it easier for them to be like, ‘ya, let’s do that. We need this content.’

Anyways that’s it for this video. Thank you guys for tuning in and I’ll see you on the next one. Peace.

In today’s video, I’m going to be going over how much to charge as a content creator.
As you do more videos, improve your craft, just get better and get your name out there. You’ll inevitably start charging more and more for your videos. But the question of how much to charge is a massive one. It’s hard to put value on your work and just keep in mind that in this video I’m going to be giving recommendations. It is by no means black and white. It’s up to you ultimately to decide how much your time is worth and just feel out the market. There’s a lot to factor in, including your skill level, what gear you’re using, do you need to hire additional people, do you need to travel to make the project happen. But there is a simple way to break things down that everyone can use.

First off is figuring how much time you will be spending on the project. So, how many days will it take to shoot? Do you need to hire additional shooters? How long is it going to take you to edit? And finally, if you’re posting it on social media, how much do you charge for that? The easiest way to do this is just to get a notepad and jot all these numbers down.

These are some rough numbers that I’ve come up with from personal experience and just being in the industry enough to know what people charge at different levels of proficiency. So first off, what should I charge for the shooting itself? If you’re a beginner you can expect between $100-$200 a day. If you’re an intermediate you can expect $400-$700 a day. If you’re a pro you should be charging between $1000-$2500+ per day. As you’ve noticed, there’s a bit of a gap in between each level, and that’s because as you grow and get better, you’re definitely going to be spending some time in between the two levels. It’s not one of those black-and-white things. So then when it comes to hiring additional shooters, if they don’t have set rates, just kind of figure based on their skill level where they would be in the numbers that we just talked about.

Then let’s get into editing. As a beginner editor, you can charge between $15-$25 an hour. As an intermediate, you can charge between $25-$50 an hour. And as a pro, you can charge $50-$100+ per hour. I like to quote editing hourly because it’s a lot easier this way because whereas on a shoot you’re pretty much there the whole day and there’s a bunch of stuff involved with it. But editing, you can kind of just open your laptop, do an hour of editing, close it, come back, do an hour and a half later, and it’s really easy to keep track of.

Lastly, let’s get into social media pricing. Again, these rates are just recommendations from what I’ve seen in the industry. Ultimately, it’s up to you to figure out your pricing. And a lot of that just goes back to kind of trial and error. If you start quoting people and clients are instantly you’re just like, yes, let’s go. Then of course you need to raise your prices a little bit. Keep raising them until there’s at least a little bit of negotiation and back and forth that way, you know, you’ve kind of hit their limit. As a general rule of thumb, here are some guidelines to follow.

First up is Instagram. Generally, on Instagram, you want to follow the 1% rule. So if I have 10,000 followers on Instagram, generally what I can charge is about $100 per post. And then also on Instagram, because there’s stories and posts, I like to offer 3 stories for that same rate. So for example, one post in three stories would be $200.

On TikTok, it’s more like the .25% rule. So if I was on TikTok and I had 10,000 followers, I would expect to charge around $25 for a post. Something you can do to boost your revenue and as well as the effectiveness of the post is to actually do a series. So if a company reaches out to me about doing a TikTok, I would just say, hey, I would much rather do a set of four. So that becomes instead of a $25 job for you, that becomes a $100 job for you. It’s a lot more effective as well for the client because, you know, your followers are exposed to the same thing four times whereas if they just saw it once, they might be like, ‘Oh, we know it’s just like a random post.’ So it’s better for both parties.

YouTube, in my experience, is the most valuable follower base by far, mainly because the videos are longer format, so your audience is more dedicated. On YouTube, I generally go off the 10% rule. So if I have 10,000 YouTube subscribers, I’d be charging $1000 for a dedicated video.

So now that you have all this information what do you do when a client reaches out to you and asks for rates? The simple answer is you just add everything up. So, just calculate how many days it’s going to take you to shoot, if you need to hire additional shooters, how long it’s going to take you to edit, and then finally what you are going to charge for the social media posts themselves.

What’s cool about having audiences on multiple platforms is that you can actually upsell. So if a company reaches out to me for a two-minute YouTube video, I can just say, hey, I also have an audience over on Instagram so I can add a post and a few stories for an additional fee.

So anyways, I hope this gives you a good idea of what you can charge, whatever level you’re at. That is it for this video. Thank you guys for watching and I’ll see you on the next one. Peace.

In this video, I’m going to teach you how to be a digital nomad. Being a digital nomad. It’s one of those things that sounds like super woo woo. And you just imagine some dude who, like, trades cryptocurrency from all over the world and sits in cafes and stuff. Although that’s kind of true for some people. Being a digital nomad is really just a way to get ultimate freedom in your life. If you can work from anywhere, you can choose exactly where you want to be throughout the entire year. As long as there’s an internet connection, you can work from there.

For the past month, I’ve spent it back at home in Colorado, just with family, hanging out with friends, just connecting with people that I haven’t been able to see this past year. And I just value keeping those connections so I chose to be here for the holidays. But if next week I wanted to fly to Costa Rica for two months and work from there, I completely can. It’s incredibly freeing and I genuinely believe the world would be a better place if more people did that. But that’s not to say there’s any negatives to it, as with everything, there’s positives and negatives.

Here’s a quick pros and cons list to being a digital nomad. Con number one, having no boss is great, but you need to have some serious accountability and you need to be really personally motivated because there’s no one telling you what to do when. So you need to be very accountable and figure out a schedule for yourself and hold yourself to that which often is the hardest thing. Another tough part is just the loneliness that comes with traveling and being on the road all the time. I’ve met some of my best friends in the entire world when I was traveling, and when it comes time to leave or they have to move on, it’s honestly really tough. Having a great support system and just consistent friends that are always in your life is a really big key to this.

Lastly you need to have discipline to make this work This is kind of similar to the first point, but it’s really tricky finding a work-life balance when you’re traveling. For example, when I first traveled to Asia, I spent four months there. I was backpacking through Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, and I was having all these incredible opportunities. I was meeting amazing people, but I was there to work and grow my skills as a videographer. So while all my friends that I had met that day were out partying and drinking, I was back in a really sweaty, hostel dorm room just working and editing. And I loved it and it was what I wanted to do. But it is hard to kind of just turn your like travel brain off and transition to work mode. It’s just a fine line between actually really enjoying the experience and capturing that experience, and it’s something that takes time. But eventually, I’ve developed a system where I feel like it works really well for me.

Now let’s talk about some of the positives. The number one thing is just having the ultimate freedom. Life is short, and if you’re like me, there’s a ton of things that you want to do before you die. Being a digital nomad allows you to do all those things that you’ve always wanted to do. If your dream is to scuba dive with sharks, you can pitch a couple companies, tell them that you’re going down to Mexico to dive with sharks. You can reach out to a local dive shop and provide them with photos and videos. You can turn to this trip that initially was something that you just wanted to do into something that’s good for the brands, and you can make money doing it and it’s just good for your own personal journey. It’s something that you’ve always wanted to do. With this career, it’s completely possible to make money doing exactly what you love.

Number two is the people that you meet. Like I said before, some of my best friends in the entire world I met when I was traveling. As you travel and grow and meet new people, your network is going to expand and you’re going to become friends with some amazing people. So now, pretty much wherever I go in the world, I have friends there. I have someone that can show me the town, show me the best food spot, you know, and just have that local perspective on a lot of places around the world. And that’s such a cool feeling.

Lastly, there’s absolutely no limit on how much money you can make. Most jobs have a set salary or hourly rate, and you can’t really make more than that. Even if you work a lot harder, you’re just capped at that number. But when you’re a content creator, you can make as much money as you want. Your income is directly related to how much time and energy and effort you put into your career. I know some people that are making $1,000,000 plus a year at this career, working 12-hour days nonstop. And I also know people that are making $60,000 a year working, you know, just a few days a week, taking everything at their own leisure and just enjoying the journey. Like I said, your energy is directly related to your income. And like I said, it is challenging, but it’s incredibly rewarding. Being on the road all the time also gives you a big advantage over some creators that are just at home. Let’s say a company wanted a short video of their apparel in a tropical location. For someone who’s based at home, there’d be a ton of costs involved in getting their entire team to the location doing the shoot. But if you’re already on the road. If you’re already traveling, all the brand needs to do is send you the stuff and you’re already there and you can just make the video super easily.

Something I did a lot in the past and even still do now is to pitch trips that I don’t even have planned. So I’ll reach out to ten different brands and I’ll basically say, ‘Yo, I have a trip coming up to Costa Rica in two months I would love to create some content for your brand. Would you like to sponsor me?’ And then if no one responds back and no one wants to sponsor the trip, I just won’t go on the trip. But if two or three people sponsor the trip, then I can turn the trip into a money-making venture. I can plan in where, maybe a week I want to just hang out and have fun, and then for another week I’ll actually be shooting the content.

Also, traveling doesn’t need to be expensive. When I was first traveling around, I pretty much figured out how to travel anywhere in the world for less than $1,000 a month, whether it was Asia, whether it was Europe, whether it was Central America. All figured it out for about $1,000 a month. And there’s a bunch of resources out there on how to do this. I personally have a bunch of stuff on that on my YouTube channel.

And also, while traveling quickly is fun, it’s often because you’re paying for more flights. Just when you’re spending less time in a city, you don’t have the opportunity to figure out what’s cheap. So in my experience, traveling a little bit slower is always the way to go. And what that does is also allows you to give yourself time to actually work. Like I said, the work-life balance is pretty tricky when you’re traveling. So if you’re taking it slow, you can spend three days exploring a city and then another three days just hanging out, working at a coffee shop that you really love. In general, I like to travel a lot slower now than I used to. A big reason for that, too, is also I’m just way more productive when I take it slow and you really get time to appreciate and enjoy each community that you’re in.

In closing, being a digital nomad is, in my opinion, the coolest job in the entire world. If you’re willing to work hard and dedicate yourself you can build whatever life you want wherever you want that life to be. Anyways, guys, that is it for this video. Thank you for sticking around. If you want to check out more of my content, definitely check out my YouTube channel. But other than that, I’ll see you on the next one. Peace.