These Are the 8 Best Ways To Earn Money Using LinkedIn
Written by
G. Brian Davis
Edited by
Amber Barkley
Commitment to Our Readers
GOBankingRates' editorial team is committed to bringing you unbiased reviews and information. We use data-driven methodologies to evaluate financial products and services - our reviews and ratings are not influenced by advertisers. You can read more about our editorial guidelines and our products and services review methodology.
20 Years
Helping You Live Richer
Reviewed
by Experts
Trusted by
Millions of Readers
Sure, LinkedIn can help you find a new job to make money through a 9-to-5. But for small business owners, freelancers and gig workers, it’s also the perfect platform to find leads — and cultivate them into paying clients.
For that matter, LinkedIn can help you establish yourself as a credible authority. Which, again, helps you attract and convert paying customers.
Start thinking more three-dimensionally about your LinkedIn marketing with these ideas to earn money.
Find Freelance Clients
Steve DiMatteo founded Cleveland Vintage Shirts, an online business that does, well, exactly what it sounds like. But not long ago, he used LinkedIn to drum up clients as a freelance writer.
“In my freelancing days, I would simply find editors at publications that I liked and respected, who [I] wanted to write for. I’d make a connection with those people on LinkedIn and, perhaps surprisingly, that proved enough to get work.
“Here’s the thing though: You have to showcase a genuine interest in the publication in order to get a pitch heard or be on an editor’s mind the next time a story or column becomes available,” he said. “That genuine connection was the entire point of LinkedIn in the first place, and too often it feels like we’ve gotten away from that initial purpose.”
Build an Audience To Feed Your Sales Funnel
It takes time to develop trust with customers online. Most online businesses start building an audience by producing helpful content — and then offering a freebie in exchange for the prospect’s email address. Digital marketers call that freebie a lead magnet.
Saul Marquez founded the digital marketing agency Outcomes Rocket. “In exchange for contact information, professionals can create lead magnets such as free whitepapers or webinars,” he explained. “Once you collect leads, they can be nurtured through email marketing campaigns or direct LinkedIn messages. You can then convert them into customers by offering paid products and services, and then keep escalating them into higher-value services or products.”
Marquez was referring to a classic sales funnel: You attract new prospects by offering free content or tools, collect contact information, and then build relationships with those prospects by staying in touch with them. As you make sales offers to them, a certain percentage will take you up on those offers.
Of those new customers, another percentage will buy higher-end products from you as they get to know you better. Your offers could include anything from coaching to consulting, online courses to membership businesses, communities to live events.
Become a Paid Influencer
The larger your audience, the more likely other businesses are to pay you to access them.
That can take the form of businesses paying for ads in your podcast, website or newsletter. Or it could take the form of your endorsing their products or services, on LinkedIn and anywhere else you communicate with your audience.
“As you build an audience, you can position yourself as an influencer-for-hire,” explained Kris Flank, head of growth at digital PR platform LunarLinks. “Partner with brands to share their tools, products or services through your posts, and get paid for it.
“Just be sure to make it feel natural rather than salesy.”
Earn Money Through Affiliate Partnerships
You can also make money on LinkedIn through affiliate commissions.
It works like this: You partner with another company, who gives you a unique affiliate link. You then receive a commission for any sales that come through your affiliate link.
Best of all, it doesn’t have to feel like you’re shoving products down your audience’s throats. You can offer honest comparisons of different products or services, or promote good-quality things you genuinely enjoy, for example.
Find Affiliates To Promote Your Products
You can also come at affiliate marketing from the other side, as the one paying out commissions in exchange for referred business. And LinkedIn can help you find affiliate partners to promote you.
“LinkedIn is unmatched for networking,” explained Echo Wang, CEO of bookkeeping service EpicBooks. “Connections can lead to partnerships, referrals or even unexpected projects. It’s an efficient way to expand your network and uncover opportunities without the need for constant in-person events.
“The bottom line: Use LinkedIn to bring attention to your brand,” she said.
Grow Your Network Through the Comments Section
That networking doesn’t just happen passively through posting content. You can also build connections by interacting with prospects who comment on either your own or other people’s posts.
“Post engaging, opinionated content that sparks conversations, then follow up with consulting offers in the comments,” said Flank. “It’s like throwing a party and handing out business cards to everyone who shows up. Just don’t overdo it — nobody likes the guy pitching during happy hour.”
Again, you can also start conversations in the comments of other influencers’ posts, but be careful not to pitch anything there. Simply start a human conversation, which you can then continue through direct messages if the other party is game.
Non-Spammy Cold Outreach
LinkedIn makes it incredibly easy to find your ideal prospects and to message them directly.
But there’s a fine line between outreach and spamming. The more personal your communication, the better, especially if you share something in common with the prospect and can use it as a launching pad for a genuine conversation.
“I think one of the best way to make money on LinkedIn is by using LinkedIn’s Boolean search function to find your target client,” said Holden Andrews, founder of Helpful Home Group. “The search can get incredibly granular, depending on how fleshed out you have your customer avatar.
He said to send connection requests to your ideal prospects, and when they accept, “send a 30-60 second personalized video referencing their website or their profile about some way you can help them achieve better results.”
Keep the video short — it’s to pique their curiosity, so they’ll want to schedule a call with you, he explained. “On the call, you can explore whether you can help solve some of their problems, and potentially bring them on as a client.”
This approach is labor-intensive and works best for higher-ticket sales and services.
Paid Ads To Grow Your Business
Finally, you can use LinkedIn Ads to attract new customers.
“Don’t ignore LinkedIn Ads as a revenue-generating tool,” Marquez said. ” You can generate leads and increase your brand presence.”
As with most online advertising platforms, LinkedIn Ads offers great analytics, which, Marquez explained, can provide insights into the performance of your ad campaign and allow you to “calculate the tangible ROI of your ad dollars.”
LinkedIn can prove a goldmine for growing your business, whether you’re a solopreneur or an established business with dozens of employees. Get creative to find leads, grow your audience and nurture them into paying clients — all on a platform where people go specifically for business activities.
More From GOBankingRates
