How to develop multiple revenue streams as a speaker
By concentrating solely on one revenue source as a speaker (such as getting paid for your talk or training session) you put your speaking business at risk from the unavoidable ups and downs of economic and industry cycles.
You can earn a higher income and reduce financial risk by creating additional streams to generate cash flow.
The way to do this is to look at what you have to offer, and figure out how to reformat or monetize your content.
Reformat your content
Could you turn your talk into a training session or your training session into a talk?
Look at this example. At the moment, this speaker offers:
They could double their offerings by using variations of the same content and additionally offering:
What content or expertise do you have that you could reformat into a different kind of presentation?
Here is a short list of some of the different formats you could diversify into:
- Public speaking, such as
- Keynotes
- Panel participation or moderation
- Webinar hosting
- Conference talks
- Training, such as
- Workshops: ½ day, full day, multiple day training sessions
- Public seminars
- Online training (such as webinars, established online training academies like uDemy or edX, or creating your own training course online.)
- Coaching or consulting, such as
- One-on-one
- Small groups (max.3)
- Teams (small, medium, large teams)
- Boards (or higher seniority teams)
- Professional services based on your expertise
For example, are you an online trends expert? Can you help a company with redesigning their website or online marketing?
By looking at ways that you could take your content and turn into a variety of different kinds of offerings, you can expand your market and generate new avenues for income.
Monetize your content
“To get rich, you have to be making money while you're asleep.”
-David Bailey
While you can make larger sums immediately with live performances and presentations, the downside is you must be there in person, and you will ultimately become limited by time.
What if you could earn income by having clients pay for content you’ve already developed? Here is where monetizing your content comes in.
The workload is substantially less. After the initial push of creating the content (and the occasional refresh,) all you have to do is market it and let the sales build.
So, what exactly does “monetizing your content” mean?
Simply defined, it means you actively make money from content that already exists. This could mean anything from advertising on your website, to turning your presentation into a book.
How can you change your content into paid-for content?
Transform your:
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Talk or training session into a book, article, white paper, or research paper.
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Training session, coaching, or consulting into a paid-for webinar, a video (CD, DVD), or online-training course, or training guide.
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Blog posts or LinkedIn Pulse articles into an e-book or book, or sell your posts to other publishing sites.
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Podcast into an online audio course or start making extra money by advertising on your podcast. (See more ways to monetize podcasts here.)
The beauty of monetizing your content is that it is constantly working whether you are providing a talk to a conference in Nevada or sleeping!
While it may take some time, work, trial and error to get your multiple streams up and off the ground, within a few months, you could be enjoying the benefits: the financial security and freedom that comes from diversifying your revenue sources.
What are the most important revenue streams in your speaking business? What advice would you offer new speakers? We’d love to feature your advice in an upcoming article. Contact us here.
