What Love Island taught me about creator success...


Hey Reader!

If you're familiar with Love Island (I beg of you to watch it, it's reality tv royalty), then you'll have heard the term "all of my eggs in one basket" MANY times throughout the series, right?

Stay with me here! πŸ˜‚

Many an Islander have used that expression to mean that they either are or are not putting all of their energy into one relationship in the Villa, which obviously causes tons of drama and is the major reason the show is so successful. For the purpose of this explanation, we are not putting all of our eggs in one basket as creators, 'mkay?

Any by the way, by "basket" here we're talking about streams of income πŸ’Έ.

Now, when I first started blogging, I was sure I was going to go all in on my blog and make a full-time income. While this is certainly possible for some, it typically takes years and tons of work to start making bank. I invested in courses that preached how easy it was to make six figures blogging, spent months building my website and learning SEO because that was the way your blog would be set apart. Fast forward a year later and I wasn't seeing the results I wanted, so I stopped blogging, got "shiny object syndrome" and started focusing on brand deals to make money instead (something had to work, right?).

Wrong, apparently πŸ˜‚

The harsh realization that making money with brand deals also isn't an automatic paycheque led me to focusing on my photography, which led to affiliate marketing, which led to.....I think you get the picture here πŸ˜…

The point I'm trying to make is that 99% of creators make their full-time (or part-time) income from multiple sources. If you've been in the creator-verse for a while, you know this, but there's one thing you don't hear a lot of coaches talk about and that's how to go from one to multiple streams of income in a way that won't make you feel dizzy or overwhelmed.

Because if there's one thing I know to be true, it's that most content creators crave a life making a full-time income by doing what they love and becoming financially free, and that hunger can give you severe tunnel vision.

And I won't lie to you, Reader, I don't make a full-time income with my business yet. What I do have is a few low-to-medium upkeep streams of income as a content creator that allow me to work my retail job part-time and still make ends meet while I continue to scale sustainably and comfortably towards my dream life.

The key when it comes to scaling your income streams is to not put all of your eggs in one basket, but DO make sure you're doing it strategically and sustainably.

This could look like:

  • Taking a few months to focus on landing some brand deals, honing your content creation skills, and learning how to pitch to and negotiate with brands for $$$.
    • Once you have your pitch-negotiate-collaborate system down, maybe you start looking into UGC or selling high-res photos/videos to brands (if you're into photography).
  • Finding a few products that you absolutely love and use every day in your life/business and sign up for that brand's affiliate program so you can organically and regularly share it in your content to make small affiliate sales.
    • Once you feel comfortable sharing that product regularly, maybe you try to reach out to the brand and negotiate a paid partnership using your insights from the content you posted sharing that product. Or maybe you take that affiliate link you share on your stories and start using it in blog posts or adding it to your link-in-bio for more traffic.
  • Creating your own products or services that you know your community will love and benefit greatly from. This means doing some field research about the offer you want to create, polling your community for their input, building up hype, launching it and then marketing the crap out of it lol.
    • This is obviously a ton of upfront work, but having your own offer is something that, once released and is gaining traction, you can start promoting on different channels like your blog, Pinterest, other social media channels, your newsletter etc.
    • Once you have your own offer that is automated or that requires little attention from you every day, you can start adding on one income stream at a time. This would be the time to take advantage if you want to enter your brand deal era, or your affiliate marketing era, or your group trip era, or your UGC era etc.

The main thing to remember is that while you'll eventually have multiple streams of income, you have to get there at a sustainable pace where you feel comfortable managing all of them every month. You'll also 100% find out which income streams are your favourite and which ones you can eventually phase out by focusing on what brings you the most joy.

The goal here is to make the venn diagram of your most profitable income streams and your favourite income streams a circle, got it?

This month I’m releasing an entirely FREE resource bundle for content creators (Merry Christmas hehe πŸŽ„πŸ˜˜), and I’m dedicating an entire section to monetizing as a content creator (yes, even as a smaller creator πŸ˜‰).

This creator resource bundle (fancy/professional name pending lol) is going to be available just before Christmas, so you can start off the new year with a tonnnn of resources and actionable steps to make 2024 your greatest content creator year yet!!

I can't wait for you to get your lil creator hands on this bundle, and all of those who snag it (for free) mayyyyy or may not be eligible to participate in an exclusive giveaway to kick off the new year! πŸ‘€πŸ˜

So keep your eyes peeled and mark your calendars for December 22nd! The [unnamed lol] creator resource bundle will be coming SOON to an inbox near you πŸ€ͺ

And don't forget: we're putting our eggs into multiple content creation baskets in 2024, it's time to level up bb (steadily and comfortably, that is)!!!

Talk soon!

- Amanda πŸ§šπŸ»β€β™€οΈ

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πŸ’Ό Travel Essentials I'm loving right now

  • My new favourite fanny pack/cross body bag! Multiple compartments, adjustable and small enough that you don't even notice it while exploring.
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Amanda Lee


amanda@thehappyplacetravel.com

www.thehappyplacetravel.com

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Amanda - Happy Place Travel

Travel Content Creator and educator from Montreal, Quebec. I share tips to help my millennial audience become content creators on THEIR terms (no burnout or β€œone size fits all advice” on my watch 🫑🫢🏻) and travelling the world while doing it! ✈️

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