MODULE 4:

MONETISE YOUR
KNOWLEDGE &
SELL YOUR SKILLS
 MODULE 4: MONETISE YOUR KNOWLEDGE & SELL YOUR SKILLS

This module will look at way that Creative Entrepreneurs can sell their knowledge and
skills as services online. It will examine the differences between selling products (the
focus of the Module 2) and selling services., It will provide inspiration by way of case
studies of creative entrepreneurs who are selling their services online and it will sign post
interested creative entrepreneurs with a service to sell to some of the most suitable
places online where they can advertise and win work.

LEARNING FOCUS

o Differenences between selling Products and selling Knowledge/Skills

o Challenges selling your knowledge poses and how to overcome these
o Things to consider when selling services
o Where to sell your Creative Services Online

o Differenences between selling Products and selling Services

Product Advantages Service Advantages

Products offer a uniform solution to customers' You can be flexible and you can adjust the
needs features of a service to meet the needs of each
If you sell products, you probably sell identical client or customer
versions to numerous customers You can emphasize aspects of your service that
You may offer advanced or improved versions will solve your prospect’s problems
of products, but even those remain very similar
to each other
Once you have developed the product you can
then focus on selling it

Product Disadvantages Service Disadvantages

You must store inventory when you sell
products
you must constantly estimate how much you
need on hand to meet demand
you spend money on products before you make
any income from them
You can find it difficult to describe your service
to prospects
Depending on your service, people may not
even be able to visualize what you do
Customers may express more reluctance when
buying a service, because unlike a product, they
 can’t evaluate it before they use it.

Emerging Business Models for Creative Entrepreneurship (and tips to win at them!!)

FREELANCING
A freelancer: self-employed and hired to work for different
companies on particular assignments. Most people familiar
with the idea of "a freelance journalist“ or graphic designer

You are the Product.

Being successful as a freelancer or creative entrepreneur requires a lot of things: Hard work,
support of people who believe in you, access to finance (your part time job bank roles your
creative work until freelance work starts to pick up). You are the worker, you are the boss —
but you are also the product.

Three traits successful Freelancers have in common

1) Projecting Professionalism:
• Your brand, website, business cards should look the part.
• A video profile or a showreel is a great way of introducing us to you and your work
• An email address which is your name/ or your business name ideally at your web
address.
• Working freelance means that you may work out of hours on a project
• While a lot of your work may be secured virtually, if you need to meet clients be
prepared, look the part, come prepared with questions/research, be on time & make
the meeting worth their time, follow up with a meeting summary and agreed actions

2) You need to be reliable:

When awarded a contract or a new freelance project- perhaps (graphic/web design, a writing
or photography contract you need to
• act trustworthy to communicate with the client to meet deadlines,
• be responsive to calls & emails. The client needs to trust that you have their best
interest in mind.
Successful freelancers will leave clients feeling like they got a very good deal by being
professional and reliable.

If you do miss a deadline, or fall short, then communicate, discuss & try to problem solve the
issue with your client. Give additional support work to the work of that particular project to
get it completed within schedule.

This relationship building can lead to the development of a positive working relationship with
the client and in many cases they will recommend your work to others if they are happy with
the results.
3) You need to be a hustler!
Self-promotion is tough especially for anyone involved in creative pursuits. You are not sales
people and you may feel uncomfortable touting your work. However, to make it as a
freelancer, you may need to move out of your comfort zone to inform people about who you
are and what your services are.

You need to be prepared to work hard at getting noticed to get work and come up with new
and creative ways to get noticed. Being personable, kind, helpful, and informed help hugely
in the self-employment economy.

Monetizing your Knowledge - Some challenges and how to overcome them!

Challenge #1: You are the product. You are essentially selling yourself.

When you sell a service, you are the product, you're selling your time with the promise of a
particular result as opposed to a tangible product.

How to overcome this: Great online branding and marketing (see Module 1 and Module 4)

When you sell a service, you're typically selling a relationship with yourself. And this
requires spending more time and effort establishing your credibility and developing a
rapport with your visitors than is typically required on a site selling a physical
product.

For example, a site that sells a product like gift baskets might include some brief "About Us"
information that gives details about who the website owners are, why they started their
business and how long they've been online.

However, the majority of the site would focus on establishing the value of the actual product-
-the gift baskets--and providing detailed information about guarantees, delivery procedures,
etc. Including reams of misplaced information about the website owners could actually hurt
sales more than help because, in this case, visitors' chief focus should be directed to the
value of the product.

When you're selling a service, however, you are the product. So establishing your credibility-
-essentially establishing your value--is critical to closing the sale. You need to not only
establish the benefits of the service you're offering but also establish the value of you
providing this service.

Challenge #2: Your time is limited.

Unlike someone selling a physical product that can be stored and shipped on demand, you
can only provide as many services as your time allows.

How to overcome this: Taking the example of a graphic designer selling their time to create
a promotional flyer – instead of doing this why not sell a promotional flyer template pack to
customers.

Challenge #3: Meet your clients' unique needs.

People will want to see proof that you've delivered great results for other clients, but they'll
also want to know that you're flexible enough to meet their own unique needs.

So you must walk a fine line, proving that you've satisfied the needs of other clients like them
with great results and demonstrating your ability to customize your service to meet their
personal, unique needs.

How to overcome this: Great customer testimonials! (Learn more about the value of
customer testimonials in Module 4)

Challenge #4: Targeting audiences.

Service-based businesses frequently rely on local clients but when you are selling services
online you are opening up your services to customers across the world, while this is
generally a good thing, it can also be a challenge.

How to overcome this: Targeting audiences can be particularly difficult when you have
your own ecommerce shop – to get started take advantage of the traffic online
marketplaces receive and showcase your best work

The quickest way to monetize your skills is to offer a service. There are several platforms
available that help you find clients fast. These platforms will generally charge a % of the
income you generate, but they save you from having to invest in marketing.

Think the only thing you have to seel are your products? Your knowledge, experience and
skills are also a valuable commodity.

What Creative Services can you Sell Online?

In the new education economy, knowledge is becoming a prized and valuable tool to get
attention and attract new customers. Some
e-Courses, Online Workshops and Information Materials - Take a deeper dive in the
consulting arena and use the information you’ve learned to create info products that will
create passive income on your site. if you are a graphic designer you could offer a bundle of
your favorite fonts for download, templates of client pitches, or whatever else someone in
your would find helpful

Classes - Yet another way to profit off your learning curve and experience is to teach a class
via a webinar format can be a great way to build a following and create new revenue.

Membership - Maybe you run a music learning center you can use a membership site to
deliver training and tutorials to your growing community of music students.

Where to sell your creative services online:

There is a whole plethora of platforms both online to help yourself your creative services
online. Take advantage of sites like Depending on the type of service you offer, professional
services marketplaces like:

“Whether you’re a graphic designer from the U.S., web designer

from Serbia or writer from Brazil, you’ll find freelance
opportunities on Upwork.” Upwork has many benefits to offer
those wishing to sell their services online such as:

 Free Membership

 Great for partial/full time work

 Work more, pay less – Upwork recently introduced a new payment scheme, in which
you pay less commission the more you work with a client. This way, you earn more if
you continue to work with your regular clients.

 Large network – Upwork has one of, it not the largest network of users in freelancer
websites.

 Upwork Proficiency Tests – score well and these can help you get noticed.
Proficiency tests on offered on different skills (i.e. English proficiency, Photoshop
Proficiency and the like). The proficiency tests you take will appear on your profile
and will let employers know how you fare in certain areas and specialties which they
are looking for in a freelancer.

RESOURCE: Getting started with Upwork: Check out this Freelancers Guide
 Freelancer is an online marketplace specifically designed
for freelancers looking for work, and for outsourcers and
crowdsourcers looking to have work completed. In business
since 2004, the company claims to be the world’s largest
outsourcing marketplace, with 4.5 million projects posted,
and nearly 8 million verified users. Freelancer.com focuses on a wide variety of fields,
including web and software development, design, writing and much more.

If your project will be billed on an hourly basis, Freelancer.com now offers a “Freelancer
Time Track,” which ensures that every hour logged is actually worked via time tracking
software program that captures frequent screenshots. Freelancer also gives customers the
opportunity to run a contest for their work – this is often very popular for logo designs where
payment if offered by way of a guaranteed prize fund. See sample contest!

Creativepool is a one of a kind community, it services

over 165,000 individuals and contributes an average of
500 live jobs each month. A free platform, Creativepool’s
mission is to showcase and define the connections
behind the world’s creative output. It is not only a recruitment platform but a news outlet
also.

Zealous is a new and highly innovative online

UK based platform where creative talent and
opportunities meet, where any creative
discipline is welcome, and where barriers
separating the client and the right talent for

their events and projects are removed.

UK BASED..

The Zealous model runs physical ticketed events such as the 10-day creative festival,
supporting and showcasing the most exciting UK-based creative talents alongside industry
talks, exhibitions, workshops, filmmaking, gaming, demonstrations, get-togethers and gigs.

How to sell your Services

 #1: Be specific about exactly what you're offering.
You can never assume that providing information
about what you've done for other clients will
enable visitors to your site to make that leap and
picture what you'll be able to do for their
businesses. You need to be very, very specific
about what you're offering.

To help you do that, look at other similar service providers and ask yourself these questions:
 Do you offer the same services? More? Less?
 What makes you different from your competitors?
 Do you specialize in anything?
 What kind of guarantee do you offer?
 How will your services be delivered?

Too often, business owners fail to provide their online prospects with enough information.
Sales copy with a detailed breakdown of the services you provide, with the benefits you offer
clearly explained, will be one of the most critical aspects of your site

#2: Demonstrate your flexibility.

As I mentioned earlier, people will not only want to see proof
that you've delivered great results for other clients, they'll
want to know that you're prepared to customize your service
to meet their own unique needs.

Make sure you clearly explain how you're willing to customize your services.

To do this – think about the following questions:

 Do your clients typically fall into a few different categories?
 Can you talk about each group and explain how you adapt and change to meet their
individual needs?

For example, on his website, the owner of an arts school offered basic summary
descriptions of his classes. Instead of general descriptions, he'd be better off breaking his
sales copy down from his existing summary descriptions into more detailed copy that
explains the key differences between his child, teen, and adult classes.

By focusing on these client groups separately, he could more closely target their unique
needs (and therefore attract more customers) by emphasizing the benefits that apply directly
to each.

Other ways to make money from your knowledge:

Turn Your Blog Into a Money-Making Business
Blogging has quickly become one of the most
popular ways of communicating and spreading
information and news. There are literally millions of
blogs online (don’t worry, you can make yours stand
out and get noticed!). It’s a great way to express
yourself and also a fantastic way to share
information with others. You become a better person
and a better writer. The best reason? You can make
money doing it!

Some tips to get started and make money!

 Start out small and choose your blogging platform wisely. Wordpress comes highly
recommended, it is one of the worlds largest blogging platforms in the world, with
countless plugins and add-ons and almost infinite ways to design and layout your
blog.

 What to blog about? Here are some ideas to help you get started:
- Provide helpful how-to’s: As a small- to medium-sized business owner, there
is no doubt that you have a lot of expertise you can share. For example, if you
run a D.J. service, you can share helpful posts on how to choose a D.J. for
your next special event.
- Solve a problem: Let your audience know that you care by identifying a
common problem or concern that they share and showing them how it can be
solved.
- Share industry-related news: Cement your status as a credible authority in
your industry by commenting on current creative industry news, events and
trends in your blog posts.
- Entertain!! Show your human side by blogging entertaining facts or
heartening stories that your audience can identify with. Don’t be afraid to link
to other business or personal blogs (as long as they aren’t your direct
competitors).

 Share Your Posts - Your blog is setup, and you’re pretty happy with the way
everything is going. The problem is that nobody is actually reading it. One of the
easiest ways to get your blog out there is for you to start promoting your blog by
sharing your posts on all of your social media channels. If your friends start liking
your links, their friends will start to see that too. Little by little, you will start to build
your audience.

 Sell Your Space - Once you have developed your blog to the point where you are
attracting a regular audience, the next step is for you to start selling advertising
space on your page. One of the simplest methods of doing this is through Google’s
AdSense. Sign-up is easy and once done you will automatically begin to earn money
every time a reader clicks on one of the ads on your blog.
  Branch Out - Depending on what your blog specializes in, you may be able to
generate a whole new revenue stream through merchandise. Photographers can sell
their prints directly to their readers. Writers and poets could offer custom made
pieces of unique work.

Start VLOGGING

What is Vlogging? Like any other form of

Blogging, video blogging (vlog) is done with
the help of videos. You either self host your
video or use free services like YouTube,
Vimeo to host your videos. Like a normal blog,
your video will be visible to public and they
can rate, comment and share your videos.
Only big difference is we will be using videos
to share the information instead of text.

Why vlog?
 videos are more watched, enjoyed and shared than the text content
 videos are more likely to go viral than a text content
 Video blogs are more interactive and descriptive. Video blogging enhances your
persuasion ability and chances of increasing conversion rate increases. You can
convince the viewers and increase your sales
 Video blogs are best for tutorial blogs. Tutorials blogs usually require a lot of text in
them. If you want to teach someone you can use video blogs rather publishing a
huge compilation of text

Monetizing your videos with YouTube

YouTube videos can be big business, and the content creators who have a huge following
can easily reap six-figure sums. In some cases, the video-sharing site is creating a new
breed of millionaire with many YouTube stars bringing out books, merchandise lines, doing
appearances and starring in ads.

When Howard Davies-Carr uploaded a video clip of his two children to YouTube in 2007,
little did he think it would become one of the most watched videos in the world. The clip,
known as “Charlie bit my finger” has since garnered more than 810 million views and
become a nice earner for the Davies-Carr family in the process.You may have seen or heard
of “Charlie bit my finger”, but you probably won’t be familiar with Felix Kjellberg.
Creative Business: PEWDIEPIE
What he does: Vlogs his gaming experiences
His Story: Felix Kjellberg, the 25-year-old Swedish gamer is the world’s biggest
YouTube star. Better known by his online alias of PewDiePie, he has almost 35
million subscribers, and his videos have been viewed more than 7.9 billion times. He
also has 5.7 million Facebook likes, 5.3 million Twitter followers, 3.6 million
Instagram followers and counting. He is said to have a net worth of $12 million (€10
million) and last year Forbes magazine reported that the Swedish video blogger is
pulling in $4 million a year from his YouTube channel. Up until 2016, Pewdiepie was
part of the Maker Studio Youtube Network who provided assistance in areas such as
"product, programming, funding, cross-promotion, partner management, digital rights
management, monetization/sales, and/or audience development" in exchange for a
percentage of the ad revenue. He has since created his own network.
What sets him apart? PewDiePie's Web personality is remarkably human: He
jokes, swears, shrieks, and giggles, all the while referring to his massive fanbase as
his "bros" or "bro army." He ends almost every video with an affectionate fist-bump
(dubbed the "brofist"), encapsulating the entrepreneurial experience by effectively
saying: I'm one of you, viewers.
YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie
Sources: www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/how-to-make-money-from-
youtube-videos-1.2117222, www.inc.com/zoe-henry/the-entrepreneurial-spirit-of-
pewdiepie.html
 EXERCISE – Complete the YouTube Creator Academy Course most
relevant to your Creative Business

YouTube Creator Academy COURSE: Making money with YouTube

Details: LESSON 1 Earn money with YouTube
LESSON 2 Ads on YouTube
LESSON 3 Set earnings goals
LESSON 4 Learn how to budget
LESSON 5 Crowdfunding
LESSON 6 Launch your own merchandise

YouTube Creator Academy COURSE: Making sweet music (channels)

Details: LESSON 1 Brand and promote your music channel
LESSON 2 Get your music channel discovered
LESSON 3 Keep them listening
LESSON 4 Don't forget your music fans

YouTube Creator Academy COURSE: Unlocking your gaming channel

Details: LESSON 1 Let your gaming personality shine
LESSON 2 Cultivate a gaming community
LESSON 3 Set a release schedule
LESSON 4 Why start a gaming live stream?
LESSON 5 Keep gaming fans watching