Turn Your Knowledge To Cash: Become An Infopreneur

A growing percentage of the workforce is turning to freelancing, whether it’s developing a side hustle for extra income, or replacing your full-time job. Freelancers enjoy the freedom and flexibility that traditional jobs lack. Nearly half of millennials freelanced in the last year, and freelancers are finding it easier to find work than ever before.

If you’ve thought about freelancing, but aren’t sure what you could offer, consider becoming an infopreneur. Infopreneurs engage in knowledge commerce, selling their expertise through online classes, consulting, and media. Chances are you’re an expert in something, even if you don’t realize it.

Finding Your Expertise

If you’re looking for a skill or expertise that you can turn into a successful online business, start by assessing what you already know. What are your strengths, passions, and interests? What unique experiences can you offer? You might even take a career aptitude test to see how your skills line up with different fields.

Consider these popular subjects for online learning. Do you have knowledge or skills that would lend themselves to one of these topics?

• Web design
• Yoga and fitness
• Mining cryptocurrency
• Playing an instrument

Where to Start

You don’t have to know everything to become an infopreneur, passion and skill are enough to get you started. Your first step should be to develop an online following. Start a website or blog and social media accounts, making sure each of the platforms is linked to the others. Share content and articles about your topic, post about new insights or things you’ve learned along the way.

Expand your reach and recruit new followers by appearing as a guest on podcasts, writing guest posts for blogs on similar topics, and offering freebies and discounts to new followers. As soon as you can, start offering one-on-one teaching and exclusive, subscriber-only content.

Making Money

Start by adding Google Adsense to your website and using affiliate links in posts. Sell courses and materials through memberships and one-time purchase downloads. Reach out to companies with products that relate to your content and ask them to sponsor your YouTube account in exchange for promoting their product.

As you gain more followers, you can branch out into influencer marketing by promoting products in sponsored posts on social media. You might even design and sell branded merchandise to create a passive revenue stream and market your personal brand.

Tips for Becoming an Infopreneur

Whether you’re teaching people to keep organized at work or how to play an instrument, your personal brand is a big part of what you’re selling as an infopreneur. Here are some tips to help you stand out:

• Google yourself (and common misspellings) to learn how others will see you
• Sign up for mention alerts through a service like TalkWalker
• Determine a vision of how you want prospective clients to see you
• Use that lingo that matches your image and market
• Post articles that will spark discussion on social media

Learn more about turning your hobby or passion into income in this infographic: