We live in the most remarkable times in all of human history.
We are able to make a living based on the knowledge we have accumulated in life; not just based on physical skills.
In May 2014, Michael Hyatt released podcast #095: “How to Make $150,000 This Year from Your Platform.” Michael shared an interview he did for Platform University with Dan Miller (of 48Days.com) on the topic of monetizing your platform.
You can listen to the episode in its entirety here.
12 Areas Where You Can Monetize You Message
Here are 12 very quick areas you can get up and running in the next 12 months.
- Speaking
- Kindle Book
- Audio Book
- Physical Book
- Online Course
- Membership Site
- 1-on-1 Coaching
- Group Coaching
- Host a Live Event
- 1-Year Mastermind
- Ad Revenue
- Affiliate Income
Speaking
According to Dan Miller, it is possible to generate $50,000 from doing 20 talks a year based on an average of $2500 per talk.
This requires you to have a core message and a core audience.
You might start with small talks to Rotary or non-profits that will offer little, if anything, in regards to an honorarium. If you do these, make sure you are able to record these speaking engagements for use on your website’s speaker page.
To find paying events, you can look for associations and conferences in your specific arena. If you have attended an event in the past, that would be a good start.
E-book or Kindle Book
Taking your core message and putting it into an electronic format is not very difficult. Amazon offers a free service to convert your Word or Rich Text file into Kindle format.
With your e-book, you will be able to charge more, thus generating more money if you post the book on your site. Amazon typically limits your Kindle book to $9.99 unless you forgo the 70% royalty and go with 30%.
There is a benefit to be on Amazon but it needs to be looked at carefully.
Dan suggests that you can sell 1000 copies of an e-book in a year at $17 each. That gives you $17,000 based on selling about 19 each week of the year. Challenging but possible.
Audio Book or Product
If you are able to convert or clean up your keynote speech, you could sell that as an audio product. If you read your e-book, that could become a product.
Dan and his wife talked for about an hour and a half on how they created the life they wanted and how people can create their preferred lifestyle. They sold that product at $37. If you sell 414, that is $15,300.
Physical Training Book
If you can create training materials, they are often perceived to have more value than a regular book.
Dan talks about the “thump effect.” The louder the sound when you drop something, the more perceived value there is.
He created a single-sided workbook and training book called “Write To The Bank” about how you can create money through writing.
You only need to sell 100 of these a year at $197 each to generate $19,700 in revenue.
Online Course
Dan is one to create a product after he is asked about a topic 3 times.
This has led him and many others, to create a course that can be delivered via email or through an online learning platform.
Online courses work create for subjects that have a process that can be duplicated.
“How To” type of content can help you generate what Dan calls S.W.I.S.S. dollars; sales while I sleep soundly.
There is no limit to the number of courses you can generate. You can come up with an idea on a Friday and launch the course on Monday.
Membership Site
People want to be part of a community of like-minded people. This is true when they are learning or interested about a subject.
If you are able to create a community of 100 people around a topic and charge as little of $15 per month to learn from you and your knowledge/experience, you can generate $18,000 from this membership site.
You can host this membership on your own website (the preferred way) or you can set it up as a private group on Facebook.
1-on-1 Coaching
For those that are seeking to improve their lives, they turn to more experienced people.
As someone with more knowledge than the average person on a particular topic, you have the experience to coach a person.
In offering your services to one person at a time for a set period of time, it is feasible to generate $12,000 over the course of a year. That could be $1,000 per month for 3 months and you do that 4 times. Of you could work with one client for $1,000 per month.
Group Coaching
Instead of charge more for one on one help, group coaching allows you to work with more people at a smaller per person price. Instead of one person paying $1,000 for the 1-on-1 coaching, you can have 10 people pay $100 each.
Host a Live Event
You can bring people together for a half-day, full day, or multi-day event.
The pricing for this needs to factor in the cost of the venue but small local events can generate money in and of themselves. It also provides a platform to promote your other offerings.
1-Year Mastermind
In the 1920s, Napoleon Hill coined the phrase “mastermind group” as a peer-to-peer mentoring group used to help members solve their problems with input and advice from the other group members.
As the old saying goes, two heads are better than one. With a mastermind group, you can have up to 20 or 30 heads that are available to address member issues.
Typically the mastermind helps individuals through what is often called a “hot seat.” The person states a question and members then ask clarifying questions. The person restates the question if need be. The members offer recommendations while the person takes notes and does not talk. Finally, the person picks 3 or fewer recommendations to carry out in the next 30 days.
Ad Revenue
If your website provide content that is useful and produces a large about of visitors, you might be able to generate income via ads.
Affiliate Income
One of the easiest ways to generate income is by promoting events, courses, books, and helpful resources.
Often hosts of events or courses will pay you upwards of 60% of the price of their product in the form of a commission.
Anyone can create an Amazon affiliate account and promote books and helpful resources. Commissions on these are much smaller but one benefit is that if someone clicks on your affiliate link and purchase anything on Amazon in the next 24 hours, you earn a commission on those items as well.
Conclusion
It is very possible to generate a 6-figure income based on your knowledge.
As Dan mentions in the interview, an online herb community of 3,500 people are paying the organizers just under $30 per month to be members. That means an online herb community is generating more than ONE MILLION DOLLARS per year.
If people are able to do that with their herb knowledge, what can you do with yours?
Need help figuring out what your area of knowledge is? Fill out the form below to find your soul filling work.
