Media monetization is all around you:

Everywhere you turn, there’s someone creating something for the world to tune into.

Individual media has replaced mainstream media.

Why work a 9-to-5 when you can create content from wherever you want and get rich?

Well, it sounds easier than it looks.

But the reality is that mastering the media game and monetizing it is no easy task. 

Thankfully, when you know the rules of the game (and you get insider information from someone who’s made money in the game), you can master it too.

In this guide, I’ll break down 7 simple lessons I learned about monetizing media that took me from zero to $100,000+ in one year.

Ready?

Let’s dive in.

Before we get started, let’s cover the basics.

What exactly is media monetization?

Simply put, it’s earning an income through media you create.

It’s a two-step process (and people often forget that), which means you need to master both to get the outcome you want.

First, you need to post media.

This could be posting short tweets on X, doing Instagram reels, making long-form LinkedIn posts, running a daily email newsletter, or hosting a weekly podcast, among many other options.

It could (and most likely would) be a combination of those.

Second, you need to monetize that media through offers. This could be presenting your own product or service, or showing off someone else’s. But you have to present something, otherwise you won’t get paid.

Ready to learn how you can generate revenue by tapping into the creator economy?

Here’s how I did it…

Before we get into the 7 lessons, let me introduce myself quickly (so you know why you should listen to my advice).

My name is Brandon Storey.

And for the past 6 years, I’ve been a full-time freelance copywriter and content writer.

I was the person behind the brand, creating their media for them: emails, blog posts, lead magnets, and more.

Heck, I’m still doing it (hence why you’re reading this piece from me right now for beehiiv).

Two years ago, I started writing a ton of case studies for beehiiv about people who had quickly built $10-$100k+/month brands by leveraging beehiiv’s newsletter platform.

People like Dan Koe, who makes over $2 million per year by writing just two hours per day.

Or Dakota Robertson, who has hit $250,000 months by teaching other people how to become social media ghostwriters.

Or Captain Yar, who reached $16,000/month with his beehiiv newsletter in just 7 months.

And, I noticed a similar pattern over and over again:

And — they got paid. Big time.

Interesting. All these years, I’ve been producing media for other people: writing their emails, their blogs, and their case studies (which I love and still do, by the way).

But, someone’s been cashing in big time in the media: the business owners.

So, what if I built my own thing, too, just like these other guys?

So I did.

In December 2023, I launched my own brand where I teach people how to become six-figure freelance copywriters. 

In the first 14 months, I was able to reach $100,000 in income. And I did it with a small audience of 9,000 followers (mainly on X [Formerly Twitter] and YouTube) and 3,200 subscribers on my email list.

If you’re curious how you can earn money by mastering the media game, then keep reading.

I’ve got 7 simple lessons for you to follow that helped me go from zero to $100,000 in one year by leveraging the power of media.

First things first, you need to choose your lane.

Then own it.

Unless you’re the most interesting person in the world, you can’t just get online and start posting about anything.

Media is all about attention. If you can capture (and keep) attention, you can monetize that attention.

But how do you get people’s attention online?

You have to decide which thing you want to be known for.

People who are interested in topics want to listen to experts. Plain and simple. The more authority you have on a topic (and the more your advice is helpful), the more people will pay attention.

If you don’t what niche to go into, ask yourself 3 questions:

1. What can I learn and talk about every day (and don’t get bored with)?

2. What do I already have experience in (that most people don’t)?

3. Where is the money?

The easiest place to start is your experience. Do you have expertise in something already? A degree? Sports? Music? Math? Insider knowledge on celebrity travel spots? Start there. You’ll have a head start.

I chose the field I had become a pro in for the previous 5 years: copywriting.

It’s the way I make a living online, and I’ve invested thousands of hours into it.

I like talking about it (and don’t get bored).

I have a ton of experience in it (that most people don't).

There’s plenty of money in it (and in teaching it) since businesses need it to grow and generate revenue.

So, find your thing. Don’t worry if you’re not an “expert” yet. You can become an expert by diving in, learning, and sharing what you’re learning. 

People will listen to you even if you’re new, so long as you take the documentative approach of “follow me on my journey as I learn x y z.”

One of the worst mistakes you can make with media is to try to master everything at once.

Don’t launch a podcast, YouTube channel, and Threads account all at once. You’ll burn out and become a master in none.

Pick one type of media and master it first:

Not sure which one to choose?

Pick the one you enjoy the most.

If you aren’t sure what you like, then experiment a little.

Then, pick one primary platform. Remember, you want to own a lane, not overwhelm yourself. You’re not going to be underserving your audience by only being in one place with one media type. 

Countless people have built entire media businesses off of one media type and one channel without any expansion.

I’m a copywriter, so I started by posting tweets on X (Formerly Twitter).

And I didn’t start on a new platform for about 6 months.

Here’s a quick tip: Want to know the fastest path to monetizing media? It’s getting good at one type of media and offering it to other established business owners as a freelancer. It’s what I did, what I teach others how to do, and it's the best way to get paid to learn media.

Here’s what I learned the hard way about monetizing media…

If you don’t have an audience, it’s really hard to make money.

So, the easiest place to start is by posting content on social media and growing a following.

And here’s a quick reality check: 99% of beginners can’t just post great content on social media and go viral to a million followers overnight.

The vast majority of beginners will need to do two things to grow:

Now, step one is the most important. If the media you produce sucks, no one will follow you. No one will listen to you. No one will read what you have to say. So practice and learn your craft every day. Get good.

But that’s rarely ever enough, especially when you’re new.

What I’ve found is that getting your first 1,000 followers fast means playing the comment game. In other words, if you want to win social media, you need to become social (Surprise, right?)

Do these five things every day to grow fastest:

The more you do those things, the faster you’ll grow (just don’t go too overboard, as most platforms restrict mass commenting and following).

Eventually, you won’t have to do as much engaging. Your content and audience size should reach a tipping point where it does most of the heavy lifting for you.

But when you’re new, this is critical to the fastest growth possible.

When you combine a steady engagement and posting strategy in one niche on one platform, you can’t fail.

Now that we’ve covered social media, here’s why it’s not enough.

Because I understand the power of email, I didn’t waste time. I launched my email newsletter, Storey Time, just one week after I started posting on social media.

But why?

Let’s look at some of the numbers:

Plus, social media isn’t enough because you’re renting an audience there. 

Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and other social giants own those platforms (and your followers). If they decide to suspend, ban, or shadow ban you, it’s game over. You can’t ask for your followers back. You can lose them overnight.

Scary, right? It should be, because mastering the media game isn’t just about the quality of the media you put out there. It’s also the distribution you tap into.

Which means you lose the ability to distribute your media to your audience, and it’s impossible to monetize it.

So, email is the best way to combat this. With an email newsletter, you own the channel. You own the contact information (subscriber email addresses). And these can’t be taken away from you, no matter what, because you own the CSV file containing the contact details. 

Email allows you to own your distribution, acting as a protective moat around your media kingdom.

So, what was the result of launching my newsletter from day one of my media journey?

In one year, I grew to 9,000+ followers on social media. And I captured over 30% of them onto my email list.

While social media is powerful to attract and nurture a relationship with your audience, nothing beats the ROI of email (36:1).

You should be hyper-focused on getting your social media followers to your email list as soon as humanly possible. 

You want to have the highest ratio of owned to rented audience members as you can. It protects your brand and enables you to generate the most revenue for every piece of media you produce.

Here are a few ways I grew my list in year one to maximize my “owned audience” size:

Keep in mind, you don’t need a huge audience to make a six or seven-figure income with media. I was able to generate $100,000+ from only 3,000 subscribers.

At the same time, you can’t be passive with your list growth. You have to constantly promote it to your audience.

If you’re not sure where to start with email newsletters, then try beehiiv’s growth-focused platform. Get a 30-day trial of beehiiv for free here.

Okay, now for the fun part.

Let’s talk about how to monetize media content.

Remember how I mentioned Dan Koe, Dakota Robertson, and Captain Yar are earning 6-7 figures with their content?

Well, that’s not always the case.

The reality is that only 12% of full-time creators make over $50k per year.

Sorry, but those viral TikTok dances won’t pay the bills.

So, how should you start generating revenue from media?

It’s simple: offer a service.

In fact, Koe started with freelance web design, Robertson started with freelance ghostwriting, and Captain Yar did marketing.

I did the same.

My first offer was one-on-one coaching with new copywriters who wanted help building up their business.

If you’re not sure where to start, I recommend launching a freelance offer like done-for-you writing, design, development, marketing, sales, or consulting.

As your audience grows, so will your authority in the space. You’ll find people asking you questions and asking for your advice. Once this starts happening, you know people trust your expertise.

At this point, you can then turn this into a done-for-you offer, as I mentioned above, or you can offer done-with-you, like coaching.

Without an offer, your media won’t earn you a dime. So, you have to offer something.

If you don’t want to offer a service, you’ve got other options.

Another way to earn quickly is by promoting other people’s products and services. You can do this through advertising, sponsorships, or affiliate marketing.

Okay, so now you’ve got your core media type chosen. You’ve got a good content creation system down. You’ve built at least a few thousand followers.

And, you’ve monetized it. 

Now, you can keep doubling down on that same type of media and channel. 

Or, you can expand. Choosing to expand is subject to your capacity, your growth, and your current monetization rate.

For me, I had a simple system down before I expanded:

So, I launched on YouTube. And I’ve grown to 3,000+ subscribers in about a year.

Choosing video as my next media type wasn’t random. I got a bit more comfortable speaking and being on video with frequent coaching calls.

So, I was already building the skill of being on camera, teaching, and doing video. And, most importantly, I was starting to like doing it. Then, I tested a few long-form videos on X. And they performed well and started converting followers into clients.

So, I launched video content on YouTube as well.

Keep in mind, I was already posting on X, and I had my weekly newsletter. After a few months, I expanded to Instagram and TikTok with the shorts I was already uploading to YouTube.

Later on, I also expanded to Facebook and LinkedIn.

One of the biggest moves with my media expansion wasn’t actually switching media types or launching on a new platform.

It was switching my weekly newsletter to daily.

While mixing up my media types was a smart business decision, sometimes the best way to get the most out of your content is by doubling down on what’s already working well.

And, since switching from weekly to daily, my open rates and growth have remained almost the same, yet my monthly revenue has gone up.

Once you’ve got your first offer out there (either your own service or promoting someone else’s), the next stage in monetizing media is by introducing your own product.

Don’t get me wrong, you can make a ton of money with strictly service offers. Or by strictly promoting other people through sponsorships.

But if you want to make the most money possible, those two options aren’t enough. Service is highly time-intensive, meaning every time you want to get paid, you have to show up and work. It’s a one-for-one trade. The moment you stop providing a service, you stop getting paid.

And, sponsorships aren’t your business. It’s someone else’s. You’re just the middleman, getting a cut of someone else’s profits. 

The option with the highest margins (that doesn’t require an equal 1:1 trade for your time) is your own products.

So, remember how the first way I monetized media was through one-on-one copywriting coaching? 

After that, I launched group coaching. Then I introduced my first workshop. 

Helping people face-to-face was the best place to start my product development process. 

I got to hear firsthand, over and over again, the biggest problems and challenges my audience was facing. I got to help them navigate it, build systems, and strategies that got them to their goals quickly.

What I found was that, over time, I had built a playbook, or system, for building a freelance copywriting business fast.

I had a product waiting to be built.

So, 9 months after launching my 1:1 coaching, I launched my first product.

In October 2024, I launched The Six-Figure Copywriter Course: The 3-6 month blueprint to your first $5,000 month as a freelance copywriter.

If you’re not sure where to start with a product, the easiest place to go is to your competitors or related businesses in your space. What kind of products do they offer? What are people actually buying?

Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Look at what sells — what people are already paying money for — and create a better version with your own spin on it.

If you’re in the info space, specifically (coaching, consulting, courses), then a low-risk place to start is by introducing a free product first as a lead magnet. And then see how receptive your audience is to it. If there’s a good response, then you may have a version 1.0 of a future product people will pay for.

That’s what I did. I created several lead magnets, or freebies, in my first year in my coaching business.

Not only will a great lead magnet be a guiding post for your product creation journey, but it will also help you grow your email list. But, when done right, your lead magnet can be one of your greatest salesmen to convert those leads into coaching clients automatically.

Here are a few ideas for lead magnets you could create:

Once you have your idea, create your product and launch it. But don’t just put it out there. Ask your audience if they want to preorder it. Offer a discount and limited bonuses for the first 10, 20, or 50 people who order.

This will give you even more clarity on the potential of the product. Plus, it will help you generate income to help you fund its completion.

Getting into the media game is one of the best ways to build or scale a business in 2025.

The world revolves around content, and the power is now in the hands of the individual creator. 

If you want to monetize media, then you need to tap into the power of email newsletters.

With an average ROI of 36:1 (higher than any other media channel), there’s no better way to consistently turn eyeballs into dollars than with email.

The question is, what platform should you use to get started?

I’ve been an email copywriter and marketer for 6 years. I’ve used all the major email services, including Mailchimp, Kit, Klaviyo, Drip, and Kajabi.

But, there’s one email platform that I’d recommend to anyone starting out:

More than any other software, beehiiv simplifies the entire media monetization process.

The software gives you everything you need to turn content into revenue:

I’ve never used an email software that makes writing and sending emails easier than beehiiv. 

Plus, to ramp up your media distribution, beehiiv even gives you a free website. This means every time you send an email, you can automatically post it as a blog post on your beehiiv website. That way, you can reach more people (since your emails live on forever) without having to do any extra work.

One year after launching my beehiiv newsletter, I was able to reach $100,000 in revenue. I wouldn’t have been able to monetize content as fast as I did without the platform.

Ready to tap into the creator economy in 2025?

Get a free 30-day trial of beehiiv today.

P.S. Here’s where you can find me to learn more about building a six-figure copywriting business: