Experts in their niche fields spend countless hours perfecting their online personal brands through their social media pages, endless blogging, and constant media relations — or even dish out money to hire people to do the behind the scenes work for them! But, online traffic doesn’t pay the bills. So where is the money?
A great article written about how to monetize your personal brands delves into a case study of Chris Brogan and how he earns whopping amounts of money for his services while providing daily, free content and advice via the Internet. Love him or hate him, we all can learn from him.
Developing your personal brand takes time and usually some money as well, but the long-term benefits make it all worth the effort. By investing in your personal brand today, you will be able to charge a fee for your services in the future – and people will be willing to pay for them.
Invest in your brand today
- Give value – Are you blogging regularly? Utilizing your Twitter and Facebook to link back to your own expertise as well as the tips and trends of others? Are you building strong relationships through networking and consistently engaging in conversation? If so, great. But, the key is to be sure you are adding value. Though this is often the unpaid nitty-gritty work, this is your foundation and the basis of your success. By offering your unique perspectives for no charge to the public, you will begin to gather a loyal following.
- Establish credibility – Credibility needs to be delivered – not by telling us about your credibility, but by showing it. The most telling aspect of credibility is what others are saying about you, not what you are saying about yourself. You know you can monetize your brand once others trust in your expertise and believe in what you have to offer. If you do good work, you will not have to hype yourself up by self-promotion.
- Be the “go-to” – once you have developed yourself as a thought leader in your industry, the demand for you and your expertise will be high. Though you are a human, your personal brand is much like a product brand. You want your current and potential customers to prefer your offerings over any of the other generic competitors in your field.
To make money in the future
Your time and effort of developing your personal brand without a paycheck to show for it will soon pay off. Your wealth of knowledge generously provided for free online will call for bigger bucks to receive it in person. Your options are quite endless. Here are just a few opportunities to take advantage of:
- Bookings
- Webinars
- Speaking at events
- Coaching programs for individuals and groups
- Private consulting
Though you cannot expect to become rich overnight, the benefits of building a strong personal brand are reachable. The investment is worth it.
