11 Legit Ways to Get Paid to Advertise
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There are several ways to get paid to advertise in this massive marketing world.
Despite what some people might claim, you don’t need to have a legion of followers or a massive social media presence online to start making some revenue with your website, blog, or even your clothing.
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You can advertise with anything, and all you need to make some money with your ads is a little creativity.
Below I’ll cover the best and most unique legit ways to earn money from advertising.
Getting Paid To Advertise
Most people seem to think that the only way to make money advertising is to have sponsorships, a legion of followers, and a mountain of content and expertise to become an affiliate marketer.
Like always, most people are wrong. I made my first $100 with an advertisement on my car that someone saw, and I got the affiliate bonus when they made their big purchase. Not to mention the money I made just from driving that car for a month around town.
While social media advertisements, affiliate marketing, and YouTube ads seem to be a great way to market to the masses, it’s far from the only way. You can get the ability to place ads on your car; you can use your body and the clothes you wear as an advertisement.
Even promoting brands isn’t too difficult, as long as you connect yourself with the right people.
There are a lot of people who need to sell content online, and that content needs to reach potential buyers. Even though this is the age of the internet, you’d be surprised what success you can find in advertising without it.
As you can see later in the article, driving a car, taking pictures, and even taking a few seconds to say some ads can give you large returns on investments. Those simple tasks can make you a lot of money if you do them right and advertise the products correctly.
Again, all you need to do is think outside the box. I did when I first started my affiliate marketing career, and now I’m bringing in some good money. It’s easy but does take persistence, and if I can do it, then so can you!
Blogging
No matter what your blog is about, you have some resources that helped to make it happen. If you are blogging about cars, you have a favorite car that you like to mention.
If you are blogging about your home office, you have the desk, chair, and lamp that is your favorite. All of the products you use or write about in your niche are marketing opportunities that are waiting to happen.
Sometimes, companies can notice that you are talking about their products and can reach out to you to write an affiliate post or become an affiliate.
When you mention their product, all you need to do is hyperlink to a location where your audience can purchase it. With each click and purchase, you gain a small commission.
Sponsored content like this is an easy way to get a company interested in your blog, especially if they are within your niche. If you are writing about a product or service that you already love and use every single day, a company should see that passion.
Your passion for the product gets people excited about it, and then they start to want to purchase the product for themselves.
Working with companies to create sponsored content and to write for them is an exciting experience, and it’s a win-win all around. You gain the ability to make some money writing about a product you love, and the company gets to use your market.
Other types of ads can be one of two specific types. The first is ‘per view’ ads. This is where ads pop up, and no matter what, you get paid for them if a viewer sees them.
The ads change depending on who is viewing your blog, the content your blog provides, and the viewer’s browser history. The second main type of advertisement is a ‘per click’ ad, where you get paid if a viewer clicks the advertisement.
You can typically place non-intrusive advertisements on the sidebar, the header, inside of your post at certain markers, and at the end of your post. If the viewer reads all the way through your post, they can continue to make you money.
The ad network that created the advertisements is the one that is paying you, and once you have a large enough audience, you can start making some really good money.
Want to start a blog? Enroll in this free training on how to start a money-making blog. It’ll have you up and running in no time.
YouTube
If your content is very video-based, you can start to make some money advertising on YouTube. The process works about the same as the above video ads for Facebook, just with some restrictions.
You need to have a certain number of subscribers and views on your videos to qualify to make money with ads, but the ads show up at certain spots in your video once you do.
Every time one of the ads plays, you can gain some money from each view, although you might need several thousand views to make it worthwhile.
Companies can sometimes reach out to more significant channels in a specific niche and offer to sponsor them in exchange for advertising.
For example, a makeup artist might get sponsored to do a video on a new makeup product coming from a company. It’s a bit hit or miss as the availability of sponsorships depends on your niche, but it can happen.
Get Paid To Advertise On Social Media
One of the easiest ways to get paid to advertise is by using social media. All social media is a perfect platform for a real connection with an audience, and you can connect your audience to the things you want them to buy very quickly.
Each different social media account has its own way of letting you join its program to become an affiliate marketer or work with advertising for various companies. Here are a few options and how you get started advertising for them.
If you have any sort of content on Facebook, whether it is from Facebook Live, a connection to your store page, or from people inquiring about where to buy the things you post, you can monetize it.
For video-based content, you can get paid with in-stream ads. Similar to YouTube and other streaming websites, these ads pop up at certain times during your videos.
You might have one at the beginning, one at the end, and then maybe a few in the middle. Facebook does have an algorithm that selects the best place to put ads, but I like to choose my own ad breaks.
I typically place ads whenever I stop talking for a bit or am about to change the subject, and a longer pause is needed. If done right, the proper placement of advertisements can help you keep your customer’s attention.
It’s almost like having a commercial on a TV show because now you are waiting with bated breath to see what happens at the end of the cliffhanger.
Each advertisement that you run allows you to make a little extra money. It’s not a lot at the start, but if you take an average of three advertisements in a video and multiply it by all the people watching, you can see that it adds up.
The in-stream ads are best if you focus on video content and if your videos are around 3-5 minutes long. Shorter, minute-long videos that get broken up by ads are more annoying for your viewer than helpful, and that means fewer views and revenue for you.
For Instagram, as it is a photo-sharing application, you want to become an affiliate marketer or offer sponsored posts. Affiliates are all about raising awareness for a particular brand and influencing the audience to buy it.
Then, once the purchase has been made, you should receive a small commission. There are several different ways you can become an affiliate marketer for a company.
One of the first ways is reaching out to the company itself. It often gives credibility if you use the product yourself to review it and promote your followers’ trust more accurately. For example, let’s say I use a water bottle from “Wendy’s Water Bottles” every day, and I decide I want to become an affiliate for her.
I can reach out to her through her website, email, and her social media. I would tell her about my experience using her product, how many Instagram followers I have, and maybe give some examples of content I would use to promote her product. She’d respond with a promo code tied to me, and we would go from there.
A sponsored post works similarly where you’d create a photo with a caption including the brand’s item. The brand pays you a set fee ahead of time for the photo. For the maximum revenue, try to combine sponsored posts with an affiliate link, if possible.
Reaching out to online merchants is a balancing act because you have to communicate value. It can’t just be about you making money; it needs to be about how you can promote their product to your audience.
You might not hear back or get told no a lot. Still, don’t be afraid to keep trying and send follow-up messages in the case of not hearing back. Sometimes being a little persistent is the best way to get a real answer.
Looking for an affiliate program marketplace is also a good idea, as they tend to offer a flat rate commission for every single sale. These can get you in the game much faster than talking to companies, but you often get a little less money for the amount of effort you are putting in.
Make sure to do your research on these companies as well to prevent any loss of your money and only work with companies that fit your values.
While it might seem too good to be true that you can get paid on Twitter for sending out a simple 280-character tweet, it is possible. In fact, people do it every day, and as long as you have a good audience, you can get paid to advertise on Twitter.
One of the best ways to get paid to advertise on Twitter is hosting a Twitter event and getting sponsors for it.
Let’s say that your Twitter is all about cooking, and you decide to have a Twitter party and talk all about your cooking setup. You can reach out to the manufacturers of the pots, pans, spoons, and other cooking items that you use and ask them to sponsor your event.
Since you are talking about them with your fans and drumming up support for the products anyway, most companies are excited to give you a little money and participate in some advertising.
You could even have a raffle where 50 party-goers can win one of those promo codes, and when they buy, you get a commission. That’s a win-win for everyone who is involved.
Get Paid To Advertise For Companies Online
You don’t need to have a substantial social media following if that’s not your thing. I have a social media audience, but the majority of my work is blog and video-based.
If that’s the same case for you, then you can still make some serious money by doing what you love. If you’ve got an extensive reach and some influence, companies can come to you to advertise for them.
Podcasts
Another great way to interact with potential customers is through audio. If you have a podcast, companies can request for you to either run ads or spend a few seconds speaking about their product.
If you choose to run ads, they work similarly to the advertisements on YouTube videos, where you get a small commission for each listen.
I recommend that you space out advertisements, having them at the beginning of the podcast, mid-way through, and at the end.
Use a phrase like “For a moment, I’d just like to talk about…” or “Quick word from the people sponsoring this episode…” The advertisement should be quick and only take a few seconds so you can get back to your podcast topic.
But companies can pay a lot of money to have their product talked about on the air, so if you have a podcast, reach out to some businesses in your niche.
Advertise On Your Car And Get Paid
This was how I first got my start with advertising, and it’s a very underrated form of advertising that everyone sees, but not too many people think to use themselves.
Ask yourself this, how many miles do you spend on the road every day? How many cars and people do you pass by in your car during that time?
If each one of those people were a customer, how many of them do you think would buy your product?
The answer is more than you think, and there’s really no excuse not to be using your car to advertise to people if you spend a lot of time on the road. This isn’t something that you can do on your own, and you need to get a job with one of the companies that use cars as an advertising method.
You can be hired, and then you have to put stickers or wraps on your car. These are a lot like the stickers that you see on NASCAR cars that advertise a product or company.
For some companies, you can choose what campaign you work for, while other companies give you what they have at the moment. The staff puts the wraps on your car, and then you start driving and showing off the advertisement.
Most companies have you drive around a specific area, and you are either paid by the amount of time you spend in the car or the number of miles you drive.
If you love spending some time on the road and want to make some good passive income, then this is a great way to earn money while driving. All those long hours on the road can easily turn into some nice cash!
Using Your Body To Advertise
Of course, you don’t need a blog, a car, or a fancy social media channel to start advertising. You can get paid to showcase a product or service just by using your body.
If you love being social and being the life of the party, then that outgoing personality could translate into some big bucks for you.
Whether you want to get tattoos, wear a particular style of clothing, or walk around with a logo-filled bag, you can make money by being social.
It is certainly not a choice for everyone as you need to have a particular personality type, but it can work for you if you give it a chance.
Tattoos
If you are a tattoo fanatic, why not put some of that ink to good use and show off a company that you believe in? Most companies can give you a free tattoo by renting out space on your body and putting a tattoo of their logo on a body part.
It needs to be visible, and there are stories of people who have made four figures by placing tattoos on their bodies for a period of 30 days.
This requires a lot of discussions, first with the person who is renting out your body space. Where do they want this tattoo to be?
How should you prove you are going out and showing it to people? Is it a permanent tattoo or a temporary one?
Additionally, you need to figure out how this tattoo affects your daily life. Does your workplace allow visible tattoos?
What about other places you frequent? You also need to be prepared to answer questions from people about your tattoo and what it represents.
Getting tattoos in the name of paid advertising might be a bit much for some people. For others, it can be a fantastic way to make some money fast.
I, personally, would only be down for doing an easily removable temporary tattoo but to each their own.
Clothing
The ability to use clothing as an advertising tool is as old as putting logos on t-shirts, but it has been upgraded since then. Most companies have some form of company clothing that is the hallmark of their brand.
If you are a fashion blogger, video maker, or influencer in the fashion niche, then you can get connected with companies.
They can give you a set of company clothes to review and show off, and you might even become an exclusive brand ambassador. You become the mouthpiece and the eyepiece for showing off the company’s new content, and they should pay you well too.
You might wear the clothing in an Instagram live post, give a review of it on video, or talk about the new product on your blog. To get paid to wear company clothing, you need to have a strong online presence and spend some time building a quality audience.
Another way to make money is by using a fashion box program. The fashion box sends you a box of clothes and accessories, allowing you to purchase what you want and then send back what you don’t.
Many YouTubers do unboxing videos where they show off the content to their audience, and most companies can offer you a referral program for your time.
Jewelry
Similar to clothing, wearing a company’s jewelry is another great way to showcase their brand and also provide you with some free bling. Most methods involving jewelry are affiliate marketing programs.
You can promote the jewelry through your blog, social media, or video reviews and share the promo codes.
For every single click and purchase, you receive a small commission. If you love jewelry and are working in the fashion or jewelry niche, then finding a company or storefront where you can affiliate is a good idea.
You might need to work with a third party, as most traditional companies don’t have a lot of jewelry to market.
Get Paid To Promote Brands
Getting paid to promote a brand, no matter the niche or the outlet you try is all about having a following. You don’t need to have a million followers on your chosen site, but you should at least have 1,000 devoted fans who buy anything you put out.
The more you can prove that people are reading and buying your stuff, the more certain powerful brands invest with you. Brands want to get their products in front of as many people as possible. If you can prove that you have an audience, they should work with you.
Be prepared to strike out a lot, as not every single brand wants to jump at the opportunity to affiliate market with you. Don’t give up, and make sure that you are constantly tweaking your sales pitch and improving the audience growth on your social media and other sites.
Once you hear back from a company, you have several different ways to market their products to your audience. Start working on the promotions and make sure to get them right and naturally flowing into your content.
Soon, you can have another stream of passive income coming into your accounts, and that just makes it even sweeter.
Advertising as a Way to Earn Money
As you can see, advertising is a legit way to make money if you get creative. Some of these ideas can be done with relatively little to no online presence, like car advertising.
But a lot of the larger advertising deals and sponsorships come if you’re able to build up a following online. That’s where having your own website, YouTube channel, or social media accounts is beneficial.
These aren’t the only ways to earn money through advertising. Brands like ingenuity so if you find a unique way to promote a brand, they may be more likely to make a deal with you.
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