You're Monetizing Your Content Wrong

[00:01] income feels random as hell, like one month is really solid, but then the next for you. Because most creators that I talk to aren't bad at content. They're not lazy. They're not shadowbanned from being able to make money. They're just

[00:14] missing a few paths of income that's honestly way easier than what people make it out to be. And once you discover them, you can't unsee it. So today I money is actually coming from. Some of the changes in 2026 and a few things

[00:30] that I wish I would have known earlier like before I wasted time relying on the wrong things that added stress to my life. the part nobody really has the balls to say out loud. Most creator income feels

[00:46] random because it's built on a foundation of things that you can't specifically control. For example, ad revenue is great, but you don't control [music] CPM. CPM depends on advertisers. Advertisers depend on the economy and

[00:59] platforms [music] change the rules constantly. For context, ad rates can change 30 to 50% depending on the time of the year from like Q1 to Q4, for [music] example. Same views, same value of content, but

[01:13] completely different paycheck. So, when people say just let the platform pay you That's just hope. I know countless creators that just rely on this hope. months, they also create a lot of stress. So, where does creator money

[01:28] actually come from? Before we talk about trends, AI, the future, let's just bring Right now, the average creator income usually comes from five different places. One being ads, where it's baseline and can [music] be consistent,

[01:41] sponsorships. You can make a lot of money in that [ __ ] but not guaranteed. Three is digital products, which is extremely slept on. Four is memberships and subscriptions, some kind of service option. And five is direct audience

[01:54] Now, here's the crazy part. Most consistent [music] creators that create consistent revenue, ads are typically less than half of their income. That's what's the future of content monetization look like? Now, there's a

[02:08] lot of hype coming into 2026, especially [music] from large creators like Gary Gary Vee and others talk about the combination between content creation and live shopping and how it's the next trillion dollar thing. Whether live

[02:21] shopping actually works for you or not, there's a pretty important thing to take successful creators are [music] trying to point out is platforms want creators closer to transactions. Ads are indirect, brands are indirect, selling

[02:35] something or helping somebody sell something is indirect. But when creators are closer to the transaction, they usually earn two to five times more per viewer compared to [music] ad type content. So this isn't about trends.

[02:48] This is about real leverage that we all have. And this is how I'm testing it out myself. This is exactly why I launched one of my hopefully many creator focused year. I wasn't asking platforms for revenue. [music] I was asking for my

[03:01] audience to engage with me all while trying to solve a genuine problem I know people [music] have. People aren't against or allergic to spending money. money. This is why myself and many other creators have started to move into the

[03:16] from building up our websites and [music] email list and having more direct communication, taking Discord servers serious and using messaging applications because emails and direct audience typically convert three to five

[03:31] times more than just social media post. And what's great about this is it doesn't mean that you need a massive audience. You need a clear problem and you actually adding to somebody's life? And I would say this is where a lot of

[03:44] creators go wrong. [music] They think that they're just generating some content online so they can't have that personal connection with their viewers way. From gaming content creators that just make Call of Duty videos to

[03:57] creative influencers who make stuff on their post. Coming into 2026, it's healthy for you to generate this idea of your target customer or your target that relationship and the things that you could do to help that person because

[04:12] that's the way you'll be able to bring real value to yourself as a creator and a brand to monetize even [music] more in 2026 and moving forward. Let's talk a creators monetize [music] to make it easier for you to understand. So, on the

[04:26] to [music] a certain point and you have an ads option to where ads will be placed next to your streams and videos and advertisers who pay the platform for that ad space will give you a cut of those rates. Ads are fine and they can

[04:40] be insane. They're just not dependable. Ads, in my opinion, should always be treated as a tip or a bonus and not necessarily the direct focus, which is crazy to say for some people. I had a viewer on this channel who's had a

[04:54] years say that the last month they generated a quarter million dollars in ad [music] revenue on their channel. So for some people, I know it seems absurd it's like that is is extra. That's a part of the piece. It's crazy because of

[05:09] how much money it is for some people. But the point being is that can go away so goddamn fast. one channel termination or bad update to the economy or some shitty thing that happens to the platform like we've seen in 2018, you're

[05:24] [ __ ] man. So, yeah, on YouTube and Facebook and Tik Tok, I've seen people generate 20,000, 50,000, 100,000, $200,000 in a month in ad revenue, but imagine if you had the stability from everything

[05:37] extra funding month. Let's talk memberships and subscriptions. This one confused, especially in the world of streaming, but it's honestly becoming the most normal thing in 2026. Like, the best way this relates is to streamers.

[05:52] If you get a 100 people to subscribe on a platform like Kick [music] or YouTube, for example, that's anywhere from 350 to $475 of cash a month because those people are are locked in. or other creators that

[06:04] utilizing other platforms like [music] Patreon for example. That could be a service. You could do the math on that. Where a lot of streamers go wrong is they only just try to incentivize streaming subscriptions as like a part

[06:19] of the community, a fun little addition. But even myself, I've taken advantage restructuring and trying to [music] own my brand and I'm building different memberships on YouTube. for example, like we have the $15 a month membership

[06:32] membership. And through this membership, whenever we do our workshop streams, we go and check in on those creators and we see what they're doing right and wrong of just having a [music] monthly subscription to where you're just

[06:45] supporting me as a person, I as the creator found a way to give value back to those individuals that would invest that money to hopefully make it worth their monthly subscription. Creators with even small memberships often see

[06:58] per [music] fan two to four times more than ads. Now, let's talk about digital products. This is where I feel like some people over complicate this. This Like, the first creator focused things that I've launched over the last few

[07:12] make your videos look better. And then what I just launched recently was a streamer and creator 90day system blueprint which is 100% built around building a system that will actually work for [music] you as you grow. Other

[07:26] templates, guides, checklists, playbooks, recipes. Essentially, if you have answered the same [music] thing 50 [ __ ] times, there's clearly value in this. What I've learned so far is this

[07:39] that creators have to get over. Like people don't do this out of the fear of other individuals criticize them for [music] trying to sell a course or already has that negative mindset and doesn't want to invest into something

[07:55] to [ __ ] on you no matter what. I highly encourage you guys in this year, don't hold back from creating things you know can be valuable for you on the idea that let's talk monetization through sponsorships. Guys, brand deals aren't

[08:10] dead. They're they're not bad. They're [music] just not distributed evenly. I can tell you, hey, get a brand [music] deal for $5,000 on your Tik Tok or Instagram reel. But if you're not like the top 5% to be able to build that

[08:24] relationship at that ad rate, you might not be able to get that. And now, while [music] there's more brands than ever investing money into the content creator space, we're seeing some of the worst deals this year, too. Like, brands want

[08:37] more this year, but want to give [music] you less. And one of my challenges for the things that I do encourage is actively reaching out to brands. I would treat brand deals like sales. Why not reach out to 20 companies this month and

[08:51] see if you can't generate an extra one, two, or $5,000 in revenue for your brand? And then mentioning sales, let's not sleep on [music] direct audience thing to get over and understand, but even at small levels, as you grow a

[09:05] community, people that [ __ ] with you want to invest with you. Like even at my size, it took me so long to just get over that hump and launch my own merch. The amount of people that were genuinely excited that I just finally sucked it up

[09:19] the other day on stream and even people that could influence [music] 50 people over a 3-month period are easily losing out on a few hundred a month just from simple shirts. Now, this brings me to the elephant in the room. Using AI for

[09:33] monetization is the legit cheat code, guys. Here's the thing. AI just makes content easier and that's a good thing. I understand the push against AI and like replacing people. But that extreme fear and standing 100% against that is

[09:47] leverage because when content creation becomes easier and more solid creates more trust and the trust becomes more valuable. AI can't replace a [music] relationship but it 100% can help you scale. like even launching my blueprints

[10:01] for the year. I used AI heavily to organize and structure that. It's been like my personal assistant over the last few months. Instead of trying to use it to just do [ __ ] for me, I use it as input on things [music] that I need to

[10:16] fix. And with these tools, that's why ownership matters more now than ever. So, here's the honest reality for creators in 2026. Creators who win in 2026 won't necessarily be the biggest. They'll be the most intentional. It's

[10:29] into their target audience. Not niching down, not just trying to become one thing, but creating a fictional character of who they're really making now. I'm generating that content creator in my [music] head that's very

[10:44] start that business or they want to start giving their fitness advice or an insane gamer. I'm making this video today hoping that after you hear it, you gain the confidence and understanding that you can do these very things to

[10:59] the new year. Because at the end of the day, building a direct audience relationship and using that to have predictable income all while creating clear value, that's the stability you're going to need at any size. At the end of

[11:12] the day, you don't need a million followers. You need a hundred [music] people that genuinely [ __ ] with you and will stick around and a way for them to support you at any level without [music] friction. Let me know if any of you have

[11:26] been thinking about some of these monetization changes, how you can expand streamer or a content creator, make sure you guys are locking into my 90-day got for you guys today. I'm [music] out. Peace. Deuces.