15 Ways I'm Making Money Online as a Freelancer & YouTuber

A lot of people started to work from home in 2020, but the idea of working from home has been the ultimate dream of so many people beforehand, and so many people, after the WFH boom finished, and they had to go back to the office. The possibilities for people working from home are endless. You can work from any place in the world; there’s no ceiling on how much money you can make, so of course, a lot of people want this type of reality for themselves. However, most people have no idea how to get started with it. Especially if you worked all your life in 9-5. How does one get out of the grind?

So in this blog post, I will share all the ways in which I make money myself (online and offline). as a Content Creator and a YouTuber. Hopefully, this video inspires you and gives you some ideas on how to make money online for yourself.

About YouTube

A lot of people believe that all the money YouTubers or content creators get is through websites and brand deals, while I tend to disagree. The possibilities of making money online (and not only as a content creator) are absolutely endless. And don’t get me wrong: a lot of them will not speak to everyone, but a lot of them may give you some ideas. Those are my personal experiences, and some of them work better than others for me personally. This does not mean that you have to follow my exact journey because you may have better success with some of them. Ready?

Income streams?

First of all, I want to just underline that diversifying your income streams is an important component of free life as it ensures that if one thing fails - you still have a lot of others.

1. YouTube AdSense
   Yes, I want to start with the most obvious ones. YouTube AdSense is a partnership program of YouTube, where creators are paid for the ads on their videos. Creators are being paid 68% of Ad Revenue and not per video view, subscriber or anything like that. It’s pretty random. I would say that YouTube payments are the ones that are… the least safe of them all due to the randomness of the results. One can never be sure how much one has earned. YouTube also allows channel memberships, super thanks, selling merchandise, and… Of course, if you are also live-streaming, you can get extra money from super chats. Still, though - YouTube takes 32% fee for that.

2. Brand Deals
   Another pretty obvious thing for creators are brand deals. Those vary greatly as well. I am against working in exchange for the product because… you need this product to make a video about it anyway… and I am usually charging a fixed fee + the costs I have for each video. If you are interested in my brand deal pricing template - it is available on my website store, along with other useful templates. Now, brand deals come and go, and sometimes it’s hard to get them coming. I am sending tens and hundreds of emails asking for collaborations, sometimes, I am being reached out to, and sometimes the deals are just not worth it. I know that later in my career, I will be able to secure some cooler ones for sure, but for now - it is what it is.

3. Online courses
   This is a great way to sell the knowledge that is hiding inside your brain. And I have personally done this myself many times. I am currently selling 2 online courses through teachable #DreamLife University (teaching you everything about monetizing your passion/hobby) and “Get brand deals that PAY YOU MORE” (this one is self-explanatory) as well as some smaller courses on Udemy or Skillshare. Under the nickname MaiOnHigh. I do prefer selling on Teachable, but adding your smaller courses on Skillshare lets you use an existing audience of those platforms and get them straight to yourself. So it’s some sort of marketing. Skillshare pays per minute watched, while Udemy has a set price for your course, which they unfortunately changed and I still cannot believe that my 30$ course gives me sometimes 2-7$ per purchase. Like… I’ve never got more than that and it’s insane.

4. Digital products
   This is another great way to sell things that are in your brain or your creative assets. I am selling my own Media Kit templates, email pitch templates, pricing templates, lightroom presets etc. on my website, and this is one of those things that is just there - you don’t need to take too much care of it as there’s no process for selling. You do things once, and they get delivered to your clients right away. It is harder, though to get your own clients, so I would highly suggest selling your stuff on other platforms such as etsy, creativecrowd etc.

5. Memberships
   YouTube memberships, Patreon or membership websites are a nice way to collect a great community of like-minded people. For as little as 2EUR a month, people can connect with each other, you, your knowledge and just have fun around. It’s a support group, and it requires a bit more work, but it’s absolutely amazing and can skyrocket to enormous amounts of people.

6. Fiverr
Fiverr, revolancer etc. are freelancing platforms where you can sell your skills or time to do something for other people. I personally sell my customized email templates, create media kits, write blog posts and copy write people’s books on Fiverr, and it’s a pretty steady income source once you find your niche. There are a couple of things to keep in mind though, such as Fiverr fees, times you need for the work and the fact that it’s getting pretty saturated. If you want me to make a video series on how to succeed on Fiverr - let me know in the comments.

7. Content Creation for Companies
If you are good at camera stuff or writing - you are in luck. I create some content for different companies. It includes things such as writing blog posts and written social media content such as captions, newsletters, etc. I am also creating pictures and videos (without my face in them) for some products. This is an ok way to earn money, but you need to find your client base yourself. I have found mine through LinkedIn, and networking.

8. Public Speaking
This is one of my favourite ways of making money because it allows me to have a positive impact on other people’s lives. Standing on the scene and seeing people being inspired by what you have to say and share is… one of the best experiences on the planet earth…. hands down. It also is a bit complicated. I started with smaller public speaking gigs, and then, once I got some experience - I started requiring transportation and accommodation from those events, to start charging speaker fees finally. Now this fee is different depending on the organisation or company I speak for. I obviously treat everyone differently and take their situation into consideration. But as a public speaker the most I have ever charged for was 10.000AUD. For 3 days of work. Although it was hardcore. The bare minimum for me now is the transportation and accommodation.

9. EVTOL Test Pilot
Yes, you see it right. I am a test pilot for EVTOL aircraft. These used to be 9-5 jobs, but… let’s face it… no company ever as enough for pilots to do to keep them in the office for that long. So I have switched this one for contracting. So I am being paid per time I spend somewhere or event that needs to be carried out. I am also charging for transportation and accommodation for the time I am needed on-site. If you are interested in this part of my life, or general “what are you doing with your life?” then head to my Vlog channel - MaiOnHigh- to learn more about that.

10. General Freelancing
I tend to search for clients and always look for new opportunities. Sometimes it’s making some website content for a hotel or a tourism board, while other times it is writing some blog posts, helping out with newsletters and correcting texts. I do my best to keep all of my contracts and jobs remote, so I can stay flexible and work from wherever I want to be in the world. And yes, it does get complicated… But hey… I am currently making a video about living as a digital nomad, so if you are interested - be sure you are subscribed so you will not miss out on that.

11. Publishing deal
I am actually a published author, and you can buy my book on Amazon at this time and it’s about becoming a full-time social media creator. I am also finishing my fantasy book that I am still planning to publish, so keep your fingers crossed for that.

12. Affiliate marketing
I think this one is a double-edged sword. A couple of reasons - especially with companies, that propose a brand deal with an affiliate link - I just cannot. It’s always an affiliate link + a fixed fee because I can never be sure that a person will buy a certain product from the website I am affiliated with. While I do believe that affiliate marketing and linking products in your videos and description is great and that I can absolutely do it and share products I really believe in - I am also not putting as much care into this, because I am just unsure. So for example: If you open my description box - there are links to the gear I am using to make my videos. Those are affiliate links, and whenever you buy something after using them - I will get a bit of a commission. The same goes to epidemicsound which is my music provider, and I absolutely stand by them.

13. In-Person coaching
Previously I have done this much more often, but I am not trying to protect my own time. If someone wants me to teach them how to fly FPV drones - I tend to send them to my courses and videos, but I do understand that some people want an in-person experience. This is obviously not cheap and I am charging around 150EUR for a 2h session. And it just became hard to manage with all the travel and time zones, so I am not doing it too often anymore.

14. Online Events
Ok, this one is not real yet, but it’s in progress… I am planning on hosting some online events to connect with my customers and people that want to learn more, so I will be hosting some online events soon. There will be a ticket to get a password into our sessions, and we will spend 3 days discussing things that people want and need to learn to start their own journey with freelancing and content creation. And this will also be a great way to create smaller communities. Such a great thing.

15. Consulting
When it goes to consulting - it really depends on the topic that a company or a person want to discuss with me or get my help with. This is one of the things that I don’t purely rely on, but it gives a nice stream of extra income.

Uff! That was a lot, wasn’t it?

I know that it may be overwhelming but trust me when I say it - THIS IS NOT THE ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL type of a thing. You may find more or less success on each of those ways of earning money, or maybe you won’t use any of them, but find something better?

If you are interested in HOW MUCH I earned in 2022 in total - check out the video on the side for a full (ok, almost) overview!