Best Ways To Make Money With Social Media With A Small Following

Most people chasing social media income are working harder than they need to and pointing all that effort at the two methods least likely to pay off. They are grinding toward follower milestones just so a platform will let them into a monetization program that could vanish overnight. There is a better order of operations, and it works even if your account is tiny right now.

In this breakdown I am walking through the seven-method framework Alston covers in the video above: the two approaches that should come last, and the five that can generate income with a small, focused audience today. By the end you will know exactly which method to start with based on what you already have.

What You Will Walk Out With

A clear explanation of why platform partner programs and merch are the wrong starting point
The five income methods that work with a small but targeted following
Real pricing benchmarks for digital products ($7 to $47 and up)
How community platforms like Skool let you charge recurring monthly income
What to watch out for before signing any brand deal or sponsorship
Why email marketing may be the most durable method of the five
A practical sequence for stacking these methods over time
Not sure which method matches your niche or skills? Run your situation through finder.platformproof.com for a personalized answer.

The Two Methods Everyone Talks About (And Why They Come Last)

Before covering what works, it is worth spending real time on what does not, because these two methods dominate beginner conversations and they keep people stuck.

Platform Partner Programs

The YouTube Partner Program, the TikTok Creativity Fund, and similar programs all share the same core problem: you have to earn the right to use them. The YouTube Partner Program requires 4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers before you see a single dollar. That threshold can take weeks or months to hit, and the moment you get there, you are now fully at the mercy of the platform’s algorithm and payout structure.

The deeper issue is instability. Pinterest ran a creator monetization program and then shut it down without warning, leaving everyone who had been building toward that goal with nothing. TikTok changed how their fund pays creators. These programs exist to serve the platforms, not the creators. If a platform decides to restructure, reduce rates, or cancel the program entirely, your income disappears and there is nothing you can do about it. Your income from these programs also fluctuates based on when viewers watch, where they are located, and what time of year it is. That kind of unpredictability is not a foundation for anything.

Merch

The YouTube merch shelf requires 10,000 subscribers just to unlock. You can set up a Teespring or Spring storefront without that barrier, but the fundamental problem is not access, it is economics. Designing and selling physical merchandise demands an eye for design most people do not have, and it requires a very large audience before enough people buy just because they love your brand. Without millions of followers who are personally invested in you as a personality, merch conversions tend to be extremely low. You spend significant time designing products, setting up stores, and hoping your taste matches what your audience would actually wear or use, and the result is usually disappointing.

Alston’s take: merch is icing on the cake. If your audience starts asking you for merch, that is the signal to consider it. Until then, the five methods below will produce far better returns on the same amount of effort.

Method 1: Creating and Selling Digital Products

A digital product is anything created and delivered electronically. That includes courses, ebooks, templates, worksheets, planners, music, podcast episodes, beats, software, and more. The model is powerful for one reason: you create it once and sell it indefinitely. There are no shipping costs, no inventory, no manufacturing delays, and the product delivers instantly to the buyer.

You do not need a large following to start selling digital products. You need a targeted audience, meaning people who follow you because of a specific topic or problem area. A channel or account built around a clear niche, whether that is bass fishing in northern Wisconsin, tennis drills for beginners, or WordPress for small business owners, can begin generating digital product sales almost immediately because the audience already trusts you on that subject.

Alston’s first digital product was called the 602 Business Blueprint. It taught people how to get traffic to and monetize their social media profiles. He sold it for five dollars. People bought it consistently, and they still do. The product was simple, targeted, and solved one specific problem. That is the exact template for your first digital product.

How to Plan and Launch Your First Digital Product

The goal is to solve one small, specific problem for your niche audience. Do not build a comprehensive course your first time out. Find the smallest useful thing you can create and get it in front of people.

Pricing in the $7 to $47 range is a strong starting point. At that price, the buyer decision is low-friction, you build a customer base, and you collect real feedback. As that feedback comes in, you discover new problems to solve. Someone who buys your beginner bass fishing guide will eventually need help with cleaning and cooking what they catch. That is your next product. Over time you build a suite of products that naturally lead from one to the next, each solving a bigger problem at a higher price point.

Alston recommends planning your product out Monday through Thursday and spending Friday, Saturday, and Sunday actually building it. A simple, focused digital product absolutely can be done in a single weekend. You can also hire someone to help create it if production is not your strength. The key is to get something finished and out into the world quickly so you can learn from real buyers rather than hypothetical ones.

Method 2: Building a Paid Community

The second method is building a community off the social media platform itself. Tools like Patreon and Skool let you bring your most engaged audience members into a dedicated space where you offer more depth, more direct access, and more value than you provide on a public feed.

Skool is currently the platform Alston points to most often. It combines courses, workbooks and planners, a calendar for scheduled events, and community discussion all in one place. The setup is clean, it is popular among digital marketers, and there is a 14-day free trial for anyone who wants to test it. Patreon is the longer-standing option and works well for creators who want a simpler monthly membership structure.

The pricing range for a paid community is wide, from one dollar per month up to one thousand dollars per month, depending on your niche, how actively you engage inside, and what additional resources members receive. Many creators run both a free community tier and a paid tier, using the free space to attract and warm up new audience members before converting them to paid members.

The strategic advantage here goes beyond the monthly income. Getting people off the social media platform and into a space you control means you are no longer entirely dependent on algorithm changes. When your content gets buried by a platform update, your community members are still there and still paying. The community also acts as a direct line to your audience’s actual challenges, which feeds directly back into your digital product pipeline.

Inside a Skool or Patreon community you can also offer one-on-one coaching or group coaching calls as an upsell, turning the community into a launching pad for higher-ticket packages. The recurring income structure is one of the most stable income models available to a small-following creator.

Method 3: Brand Deals and Sponsorships

Brand deals are when a company pays you to create content featuring their product or service. They can be a meaningful income source, but Alston is not a big advocate for them and explains exactly why.

The core tension is permanence. When Alston creates a YouTube video, that video stays on YouTube indefinitely. Brands have approached him offering $500 for a 30-second integration in one of his videos. Five hundred dollars sounds reasonable until you consider that the brand will continue benefiting from that placement for as long as people watch the video, which could be years. You get one payment; they get ongoing exposure from your audience.

The other concern is trust. Your audience follows you because they trust your judgment. If you promote a product that does not actually fit your content area or that you do not personally believe in, you risk damaging that trust. Alston’s audience knows him for honest takes on making money online. If he suddenly started promoting a pay-to-play gaming app, that would feel off to his audience and they would notice. Credibility, once lost, takes a long time to rebuild.

If you do pursue brand deals, negotiate. The first number a brand offers rarely represents their actual ceiling. Make sure the payment reflects the long-term value of your platform, not just what they think they can get away with. Ideally push for both an upfront fee and a commission on sales generated through your content. And only say yes to brands whose products genuinely make sense for your specific audience.

Method 4: Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is recommending other people’s products and earning a commission when someone buys through your link. You are not creating the product, you are not handling shipping or returns, and you are not managing customer service. You create the content that sends people toward the right buying decision, and the affiliate program handles everything else.

The setup process involves finding affiliate programs that match what your audience already cares about, applying to join, and then creating content that naturally leads viewers and readers toward those products. Good affiliate content speaks to your audience’s challenges and goals first, then introduces the product as a solution. It does not feel like an ad because it is grounded in something the audience already wanted help with.

There are over 5,000 affiliate programs available across virtually every industry. If one rejects your application, apply to ten more. The fishing niche example works well here: Bass Pro Shops, Amazon, Cabela’s, and individual tackle brands all run affiliate programs. A fishing content creator can recommend gear they genuinely use, link to it, and earn commissions without ever having to manufacture, store, or ship anything.

The same trust principle that applies to brand deals applies here. Promote only products you have actually used or that you are genuinely confident in. Recommending something just because the commission rate is attractive will hurt your credibility faster than almost anything else. Your audience’s trust is the real asset, not the affiliate link.

Not sure which of these five methods fits your situation right now?

Answer a few quick questions at finder.platformproof.com and get a personalized starting point based on your niche, skills, and how much time you have.

Method 5: Email Marketing

Email marketing is the most durable method on this list, and it is the one most beginners ignore because it feels less exciting than social media. That is a mistake.

Here is the core problem with relying purely on social media platforms: only a fraction of your followers will ever see any given post. Algorithms decide who sees your content based on factors you do not control. That percentage tends to shrink over time as platforms prioritize paid reach. When you collect an email address from someone in your audience, you have a direct line to them that no algorithm can cut off.

An email list lets you bring people back to your content, announce new digital products, share affiliate offers that are relevant to them, and promote your paid community. When you launch something new, you do not have to hope the algorithm surfaces your announcement to the right people. You send an email and it lands in their inbox.

Email also works as a research tool. If you are in the fishing niche and you want to know what your audience is struggling with right now, you send an email asking. The people who have been following you and trust you will tell you exactly what problems they need solved. That feedback directly informs your next digital product or affiliate promotion.

As your list grows, it becomes an asset with standalone value. A large, targeted email list, say 100,000 people who are specifically interested in bass fishing, is something brands and vendors will pay to access. That arrangement is called a solo ad, where you send an email on behalf of another marketer in exchange for a fee. This is another reason building your list early matters: the list itself can become an income source independent of the content you create around it.

How to Sequence These Methods Over Time

Running all five methods at once from day one is not realistic. Here is a practical order that builds on itself:

Start with one digital product. Pick the smallest useful thing you can create for your niche. Get it done in a weekend. Price it at $7 to $17 and start collecting buyers and feedback.
Build your email list from day one. Every piece of content you create should have a path to your email list. A simple lead magnet, like a free resource related to your niche, is enough to get started. Do not wait until you have thousands of followers.
Add affiliate recommendations naturally. As you create content, recommend the tools, products, and resources you actually use. Apply to affiliate programs in your niche. Let commissions build in the background while you focus on content.
Launch a community once you have consistent engagement. When people are regularly commenting, responding to emails, and buying your digital products, that is the signal that a paid community will stick. Start with a low price point and grow from there.
Evaluate brand deals selectively. Once you have some traction, brands will start reaching out. Vet every opportunity against your audience’s trust and negotiate the rate up from whatever they initially offer.
Consider platform monetization and merch last. Once the first five methods are producing income, adding platform partner programs and merch as bonus income on top makes sense. They are genuinely fine as extras. They just should not be the plan.

Honest Drawbacks of Each Method

Every method here has a real downside worth knowing before you start.

Digital products require upfront creative work. Even a weekend sprint to build your first product takes real time and energy. And if your niche is too broad or your audience is not well-defined, conversion rates will be low no matter how good the product is. Niche focus is not optional here.

Paid communities require consistent presence. If you launch a community and then go quiet, members cancel. The recurring income is real, but it comes with a recurring obligation to show up, engage, and keep adding value. This is a bigger commitment than it looks from the outside.

Brand deals come with the permanence problem described above. The content lives forever; the payment does not. They also take time to negotiate and manage, and one bad partnership can genuinely cost you audience trust that took months to build.

Affiliate marketing takes time to gain traction. You need enough content volume and search visibility before clicks start building into meaningful commissions. The early months can feel like you are generating nothing. Most people who quit affiliate marketing quit in that early window before the momentum builds.

Email marketing requires building the list before you can use it, which means investing in lead generation early before there is a visible payoff. It also requires learning at least basic email platform mechanics and copy that gets people to open and click. Neither is hard, but neither is zero effort.

Find Your Starting Point

The right first method depends on what you already have: your niche, your existing content, your skills, and the amount of time you can realistically commit each week. A fishing content creator with 200 followers and a clear passion for bass fishing has everything needed to launch a $17 digital product this weekend. A coach with strong one-on-one experience might go straight to a paid Skool community. An Amazon buyer who writes detailed reviews might find affiliate marketing the fastest path to early income.

If you are not sure which method fits your specific situation, finder.platformproof.com walks you through a short set of questions and surfaces the method most likely to work for where you are right now. It is free and takes less than two minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a minimum follower count to start making money with social media?

Not for digital products, affiliate marketing, or email list building. Those methods work with a small following as long as the audience is targeted. Platform partner programs like the YouTube Partner Program do require minimums (4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers for YouTube), which is exactly why the video recommends treating them as a later add-on rather than the primary goal.

What makes a good first digital product?

The best first digital product solves one small, specific problem for your niche audience. It should be something you can plan in a few days and build in a weekend. Price it in the $7 to $17 range to keep the buying decision easy. The goal of your first product is to get real buyers and real feedback, not to produce a comprehensive masterwork. Complexity comes later once you understand what your audience actually needs.

What platform should I use to build a paid community?

Alston points to Skool as his current recommendation because it combines courses, calendar features, and community discussion in one place and is popular with digital marketers. Patreon is a solid alternative with a simpler membership structure. The right choice depends on how much functionality you need and how tech-comfortable you are. Both offer free or trial options so you can test before committing.

How do I find affiliate programs for my niche?

Start with the products and services you already use and trust. Most have affiliate programs you can apply to directly from their website. Amazon Associates covers almost every physical product category. Networks like ShareASale, ClickBank, and Impact host thousands of programs across dozens of niches. There are over 5,000 affiliate programs available. If your first few applications are rejected, keep applying. Someone in your category will accept you.

Is it worth doing brand deals if I have a small following?

Some brands do work with small but highly targeted accounts, especially in specific niches. The concern is not about follower count but about deal terms. Your content lives on the internet indefinitely, so a one-time payment for permanent placement is often a bad trade. If you do pursue brand deals, negotiate hard, make sure the brand genuinely fits your audience, and push for a commission component in addition to the flat fee.

Why does email marketing matter when I already have social media followers?

Social media algorithms decide how many of your followers actually see your content, and that number tends to shrink over time. An email subscriber has opted in to hear from you directly. When you send an email, it lands in their inbox regardless of algorithm changes, platform updates, or account disruptions. Your email list is the only part of your audience you actually own.

What should I charge for a paid community?

The range is genuinely wide, from $1 per month to $1,000 per month. Where you land depends on your niche, how often you are actively present inside the community, and what additional value members receive, like courses, live calls, or one-on-one access. Starting on the lower end while you build out the content and community experience makes sense. You can raise prices as the value compounds over time.

Can I run all five methods at the same time?

Eventually, yes, and that is where the income starts to compound meaningfully. But starting all five simultaneously is a fast path to doing none of them well. The better approach is to get one method generating real results, add a second once the first is stable, and continue from there. Most creators find that digital products plus email marketing is the strongest foundation to build from first.

Sources

YouTube Partner Program eligibility requirements: 4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers
TikTok Creativity Fund terms and structure as discussed in the video
Pinterest creator monetization program (discontinued)
Skool community platform: skool.com (14-day free trial available)
Alston Godbolt, “Best Ways To Make Money With Social Media With A Small Following” (YouTube video, channel: alstongodbolt.com)

Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.