As a content creator or entrepreneur, getting your audience to pay for your content and services can feel a bit like pulling teeth. Delivering free content and enticing people to paid content forums and sites such as Only Fans or Patreon can seem like a tricky endeavour, and it isn’t always as fruitful as you’d like it to be.
But while you still need to offer glimpses and tasters to pique people’s interest, much in the way podcasters deliver free episodes periodically and then offer much more content in different styles and on different topics behind paywalls, it’s is not as easy as asking people to part with their money, especially in a world seemingly saturated with creators doing precisely that same thing.
Whether your goal is to climb the ranks of top earners on Only Fans like Bella Thorne and Bhad Barbie or to grow a paid subscription service for fitness and nutrition content or your recipes, there are ways you can boost your income. With the right strategies and approach, you can pave the way for significant growth and success in your content creation journey.
Increase Revenue Streams
Multiple revenue streams are a must, regardless of the platform you are using to gain subscribers. Offering ongoing subscription levels at different price points and tiers is a great place to start, as this will appeal to a wide range of budgets and demographics.
Pay-per-view content, paid live streams, tips, one-off downloads, subscriptions, and even merchandise sales are all options for you to utilise across your platforms and social media channels to diversify your income and not rely on one source alone. Look into your options, look at what other creators in your sphere are doing, and find out what your audience wants so you can deliver content and sales points that appeal to them and their budget.
Build Exclusivity
Building exclusivity means you’re creating a sense of urgency and ‘FOMO’ (fear of missing out) with whatever you are selling and offering. You want people to feel they’re missing out if they don’t snap up an offer or join you immediately. This sense of urgency and FOMO can be the push people need to commit. Whether it’s time-sensitive offers, bonus content, or ‘closing the doors’ at a certain number of people, find what it is that captures the attention of your subscribers or potential customers and hooks them in.
Real Life Chatters
Automated messages and canned responses won’t cut it when it comes to engaging with your paying subscribers. While dedicating your entire life to replying to messages isn’t feasible, it’s crucial to find a balance. Engaging with your audience in a meaningful way not only makes them feel valued but also helps maintain their interest and commitment, making them an integral part of your content creation journey.
For instance, consider an Onlyfans chatting agency. This is a service where real people send out real chats with a human response, generating additional sales by targeting followers and accounts that might not otherwise be actively participating or committing to spending money. From gentle upsells and relationship-forming chatters to more aggressive upsellers, you can find a chatter agency that can help you grow and monetise your accounts authentically, delivering exactly what your fans want from you in a way that makes sense to them.
Improve Content Creation
While your exclusive content that is behind a paywall really needs to hit the mark and deliver on your promises regardless of the content you are selling, what you put out into the world for free also needs to be appealing. Think of it as the appetiser to the main course. If you are not getting people licking their lips wanting more, they won’t stay or pay, and your income streams will take a hit.
Use professional photographers if your skills aren’t up to par with those of another creator (who are most likely using the same services for some, if not all, of their content creation). Get marketers to tweak the direction of your content and use graphic designers, copywriters, and high-end editing tools or editing services to help you create the aesthetic you’re aiming for to hook people in.
You can benefit from a wide range of free and paid-for tools that help you elevate your content standards, as well as professionals who can help you add the right touches to the content you create so it’s more impactful.
Consistency is Key
This goes for any subscription platform you use, as well as social media accounts. People want value for money, and you need to be able to commit to a regular and consistent schedule so people know when to expect new content from you and assess if you’re worth investing in as a creator.
Building subscriber loyalty is based on repaying them for their time, views and their financial support. This is done via high-quality content, which they can expect on a regular basis. Set guidelines for how much content you are going to create and when, and then be sure you can stick to it. Some creators adjust their fee schedules and membership processes to account for time off during the year, i.e., taking holidays off, thus reducing the cost of a month’s membership to account for lack of content during this time.
They’re upfront about it, and subscribers know what to expect when committing to the package. Others work on a schedule that benefits their fans on a personal level, and this is something you can explore once you have built up a loyal following as a way to boost income and maximise your potential.
Bonuses, Offers, and Loyalty Rewards
Discounts aren’t just great for new subscribers or fans wanting more content from you. This is an amazing way to engage those who aren’t paying as frequently as you would like or might be interested in boosting their membership tiers or buying add-on content or supplementary packages. Think of it as gamifying your accounts. You can set goals, using analytics to identify where you can focus your efforts and what will work well, and then incentivise your effort to help you hit targets and reach your goal. Combined with offers and initiatives to support this increase in uptake for your paid content, you can expect to see beneficial results from simply directing your efforts where they need to be and motivating others to be a part of your journey.
Lean on Your Skills
Part and parcel of building a successful paid subscription service as an influencer or entrepreneur is simply knowing where your skills lie and relying on them. Instead of trying to do it all and do it alone, you need to look at where your skills can be utilised and where you can bring in help and support.
While many people need to manage any aspects of their accounts alone for the bigger ones or the ones with more growth, there’s likely a team behind the account that is pulling up the standards in areas the creator lacks. Whether it is editing images or video content, hair and makeup, engaging with subscribers or anything else, look at where you can benefit from support to help you boost the output you deliver to people and raise those standards because the higher the quality of your content, the more likely people will be to pay for it.
Attracting and retaining subscribers across your social media platforms and paid-for accounts on various platforms isn’t easy, and it pays to learn how you can adopt new ways of thinking and approaches to help you deliver exactly what people are willing to pay for so that not only do they take a chance and sign up but also stick with you month after month.
