How to Make Money on LinkedIn and Better Your Finances
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Social networks have been around for decades, attracting consumers and business owners worldwide. While LinkedIn and other social media platforms underwent many changes during that time, the foundational questions remain the same. Business leaders and professionals want to learn how to gain visibility and make money on LinkedIn.
Although you can make money on any social network, LinkedIn is a more promising platform due to how people use social networks. While consumers use Facebook and Instagram to socialize with friends, LinkedIn users interact with colleagues and are ready to do business on the platform. It’s a different atmosphere, and knowing how to capitalize on it can result in a steady stream of clients for your services. Following this guide will put you in a better position to profit from LinkedIn ’s growing popularity.
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Start by optimizing your LinkedIn profile
Your LinkedIn profile is the first thing people notice when they see you on LinkedIn. People who like your post will visit your profile before following you. Recruiters will review your profile and your work experience before deciding if you’re the right person for the job.
Including your name and a professional profile picture are great starting points. These basics will help your profile look good, but you need a few things to make your profile stand out to the right people.
With the ideal LinkedIn profile, you won’t have to do any marketing. Clients will find you even if you do nothing else for your LinkedIn. Granted, you can increase your chances of getting discovered by being active on the platform, but once I made a few changes, clients found me instead of the other way around. Here are some ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile.
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Fill your profile with keywords your prospects use
Many people use LinkedIn’s search filter to find people based on their occupations. Your prospects are using keywords right now to find people for specific roles. I have tested several headlines and bios, but nothing worked as well as leading off my LinkedIn header with “Personal Finance Freelance Writer.”
It’s a specific title people will search on LinkedIn if they need a personal finance writer. The moment I made that change, clients started finding me even if I didn’t post new content. I hopped on the phone with several clients to discuss potential synergies and discover if it made sense to work together. Most of the people who reach out after discovering my profile become clients. When prospects contact you about your services, they have a gap and believe you can fill it.
Explain how you help prospects in your about section
LinkedIn lets users add bios to their profile pages. While the platform lets you use up to 2,600 characters for this section, you don’t need that many. People don’t have enough time to read a bio that details your life story or where you were raised. Your bio allows you to sell your services and explain how you can help prospects.
A property manager can use their bio to highlight how they make real estate investors’ lives easier. They can talk about experiences with managing properties and why they are qualified for a prospect’s properties.
A business coach can explain their methodology and share client results. Social media managers can discuss their work and provide case studies in their bios to boost their appeal.
Consider updating your bio if you haven’t looked at it in a few months. You may have additional case studies, testimonials, and skills that can make you more desirable to prospects. Sprinkling keywords in your bio is the icing on the cake that will make your profile more searchable.
Create a custom header picture for your services
LinkedIn provides a bunch of generic pictures you can use as your header. Some of these pictures look great but do nothing for your business. A LinkedIn banner with a nice sunset or a big city provides no value to prospects visiting your profile.
Business owners and influencers would benefit from including product and service details on their headers. You don’t need the flashiest header. My header lists my email and writing topics in the center.
I have more resources I could share in the header picture, but I did not include all of them. Focus on your top offer that converts the best or produces the highest revenue. Freelance writing has emerged as my top income stream, and I focus on highlighting those services in my header design. Put your best offers in your header, make it simple, and provide a way for people to contact you. Someone can send you a LinkedIn message, but providing an email helps.
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- Sign up for FREE & complete your profile
- Earn points for taking surveys
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Apply for jobs on LinkedIn
Optimizing your LinkedIn profile makes everything else on this platform easier, including the job search. A freelancer with an optimized LinkedIn account can get inmail from prospects with zero activity, but you’ll get more out of LinkedIn as an active participant. Applying for jobs on LinkedIn is one way to put yourself out there, but not all of these jobs are traditional.
Jobseekers can find full-time jobs with all the benefits, but LinkedIn is also a great place for freelance and part-time opportunities. You can filter the search to find remote freelance opportunities that won’t require as much commitment. LinkedIn makes it easy to find jobs that align with your expertise, and some listings provide salary estimates and the recruiter’s LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn has some of the best filters among all social media platforms.
LinkedIn also has a feature called Easy Apply that lets you apply for jobs with a few clicks. Recruiters enabling Easy Apply use information from your LinkedIn profile and previous job applications to assess if you fit the role. It’s easy to apply for numerous jobs in a few minutes if you filter the job search to businesses that enable Easy Apply.
One thing that can scare beginners is the number of applications some of these jobs receive. Some LinkedIn jobs get hundreds of applications for a single spot, giving you a lower chance of getting accepted into an Ivy League college. However, many of these jobs have Easy Apply enabled, making it easier for people to submit applications. It’s less of a time commitment, so people who aren’t as qualified will apply to know they can quickly move on to the next application. You can quickly apply for jobs and modify your search, so LinkedIn only displays jobs with fewer than 10 applicants posted within the past 24 hours.
Find prospects and reach out to them
Your LinkedIn profile is the bedrock, and applying to jobs on LinkedIn can provide steady pay or additional freelance work. This is a great starting point, but you can make more money by pinpointing prospects and reaching out to them. Prospect outreach expands your pool of potential clients. When you reach out to more people and receive more inquiries, you can be more confident when setting higher rates. Spreading your work across more clients and knowing how to find more of them will also help you feel better about asking for raises. Serving various clients puts you in control, and LinkedIn is a great place to find them.
Create your avatar
As you get more business, you will know which types of people you can help the most. Niching down is a valuable skill that will make you an in-demand talent for prospects who recognize the need for your services. Creating an avatar for your prospect minimizes confusion for both groups and leads to more fluid client acquisitions.
I mention I am a personal finance freelance writer in my LinkedIn profile. I also include work experience that reflects my ability to write for reputable companies in the industry. There isn’t much ambiguity about who I help. A blog looking for a personal finance writer doesn’t have to ask about what I do when they come across my profile. Most of the messages I receive from prospects start with the need. Prospects inform me that they are looking for an additional writer. They invite me to provide writing samples and jump on the phone.
You’ll get on the phone with prospects quicker if you create an avatar and reach out to prospects who fit that avatar. Here are some questions to ask when creating your avatar:
- What are your prospect’s occupation and industry?
- What does your prospect need help with?
- What are your prospect’s goals?
- What groups, events, and other gatherings does your prospect attend?
- What are your prospect’s demographics (age, gender, etc.) and location?
LinkedIn lets you filter search results to find prospects with the right title. If you serve people in specific areas, you can also narrow your search to LinkedIn users near those areas.
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- Sign up for FREE & complete your profile
- Earn points for taking surveys
- Redeem your points for cash or gift cards
- $55k+ Paid to Survey Junkie members daily
- Complete 3+ surveys a day, earn up to $100/mo.
Start the conversation and stay in touch
LinkedIn users can sniff a generic sales pitch from a mile away. Adding personalization and offering a concise pitch will make your message stand out. It doesn’t guarantee that you will get a response, but social selling is a game of numbers and probability. Increasing your response rate from 5% to 10% doubles the amount of revenue you do a good job of converting prospects into clients.
After greeting the prospect by name, quickly explain who you are. I mention I am a freelance writer within the first sentence of outreach efforts. It is better to be upfront than to write multiple paragraphs before getting into what you do. Mentioning any common ground can strengthen your message, but it’s not required. If the prospect shares a post about their recent bike ride, you can mention that you also like biking as long as that is the case. Skimming their recent posts and work experience can help you find talking points.
I know what it’s like to send and receive pitches. I receive pitches from people who want to appear on my podcast. I am also an avid runner. If a potential guest mentions they like running, they took the time to look at my profile and determine that I enjoy running. It doesn’t guarantee that someone will be my show's guest, but it shows the extra effort. I have received some pitches that include no personalization that still got my attention because the value offer is incredible.
Whether you include an extra bit of personalization or not, you need to demonstrate your value. As a writer, that means mentioning the names of companies and publications that have accepted my content. You only get a sentence for this part. Adding too many details makes your message long and more difficult to read. It also limits your characters if your first message is a connection request. Lead with your best.
Finally, close out with an invitation to continue the conversation. You can ask the prospect if they want to jump on a quick call, see a sample, or go through a trial run. You can look at scripts for guidance, but you should develop your own style. It’s better to slow down with prospect outreach to develop more meaningful relationships. The value of your network is more important than the number of LinkedIn connections you have. A strong network can help you form partnerships and make money online.
Publish posts on LinkedIn
Creating new content on LinkedIn is the best way to make money on the platform. You can build a personal brand and promote digital products to scale your income. You can leverage affiliate marketing to promote other people’s products or create your own. The Amazon Associate program is a great starting point. It gives you millions of affiliate products to promote since anything on Amazon is fair game. Commissions are smaller with Amazon, but they give you the widest range of items to share with your audience.
While affiliate marketing can help, posting great content and directing people to your email newsletter is better. Many LinkedIn entrepreneurs use the social network to grow their email newsletters and then do the bulk of their selling through emails. Granted, you have to provide value in your newsletter as you would on LinkedIn, but email ROI is still powerful for people looking to sell digital products and consulting services. You can post on your own profile, but being active in LinkedIn groups can also do wonders for your business. The right LinkedIn group can be a great hub for your business that introduces you to many colleagues and prospects.
Service providers who create content over several months won’t have to do as much work to attract clients. While engagement will be low when you start, your posts can gain more traction and give you more impressions than you could get by stopping with an optimized LinkedIn profile.
Doing the other things first will help you create better content and turn more visitors into clients. An optimized profile gives people more reasons to follow and engage with your posts. Some may visit your profile and inquire about your services after seeing one of your posts. Your visibility will grow as more people like, comment, and share your posts.
Applying for jobs and reaching out to prospects helps you understand their needs and how you can help. Remembering your potential clients will help you create posts meant for them. Each post can demonstrate how you can solve one of their pain points and provide a great product or service.
Posting on LinkedIn isn’t only a great way to generate leads on scale and helps with trust. Each LinkedIn post helps to establish you as an expert in your industry. People will feel more confident recommending you to friends and trying your services. LinkedIn posts let you build more relationships in less time. If you get this strategy right and have an optimized LinkedIn profile, you won’t have to send pitches to prospects. They will be warm, engaged, and eager to send you a message detailing the help they need. You will get more prospects reaching out to you than you could possibly handle, the best-case scenario for a business owner or service provider using LinkedIn.
Earn Real Money Fast by Filling Out Surveys!
- Sign up for FREE & complete your profile
- Earn points for taking surveys
- Redeem your points for cash or gift cards
- $55k+ Paid to Survey Junkie members daily
- Complete 3+ surveys a day, earn up to $100/mo.
Turning LinkedIn into a stable revenue source
LinkedIn is a great resource for business owners and job seekers who want to make extra money. The platform has many monetization opportunities and is more versatile than most social media platforms. It’s easy to find jobs on LinkedIn and apply for them with a few clicks. If you go the content creation route, each post will give you a better understanding of how the algorithm works, and you can make great LinkedIn connections along the way. LinkedIn is an incredible platform for business owners, service providers, and job seekers who want social media with more business and less drama.
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Writer
Marc Guberti is a business freelance writer who specializes in personal finance, digital marketing, and entrepreneurship. His award-winning book "Content Marketing Secrets" teaches readers how to create, promote and optimize content for growth and revenue. Marc also hosts the "Breakthrough Success Podcast," where listeners learn how to master content marketing and get more clients.
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