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You're listening to the Travis Makes Money podcast presented by gohighlevel.com for a free 30 day trial of the best all in one digital marketing software tool on the planet, just go to gohighlevel.com travis what's going on, everybody? Welcome back to Travis Makes Money podcast where it's our mission to help you make more money. On this episode of the show, my producer is in studio hanging out with his muscles. Look at that. There's a bicep there instead. It is nice.
C
See that?
B
Well done.
C
Thanks. And I'm about to drink my second 42 gram. Is this bad for you to do two of these a day? Probably for every day.
B
The thing is, the thing is, I have read on this a decent amount. I think it's just you have to have so much volume of these things in order for the like preservative style ingredients to do any real detriment to you. So I, I, I, my overall take is that probably the value that you're getting from the additional protein is much more important than worrying about, you know, the cellulose gum that helps keep it preserved, you know, preserved on the shelf type of thing.
C
Hey, I'd rather have extra cellulose than keep all my extra cellulite. You know what I'm saying?
B
There you go.
C
There you go. Anyway, no, this is my second corporate of the day. I had a vanilla this morning. I'm having a chocolate right now and by the time I finish this, the protein gas is going to be crazy. That real cloudy. I will say that.
B
I know.
C
Okay.
B
For you in particular.
C
Yes. All right, well, we just did recently, a few minutes ago, in the course of today, I did a tier list with you. I'd like to do a tier list with you again. And obviously S is like supreme. Then you've got your typical school. A, B, C, D and F. E gets left out every time.
B
It does. Never understood that.
C
Imagine if you got an E on a test. You'd feel like such a loser.
B
But why?
C
But why? I don't know.
B
Why doesn't I don't understand why existed. Is there a reason for that? It's not even like, you know, like the same reason that some hotels Skip floor for 13 or whatever. You know what I mean?
C
Oh. The letter E is skipped in the common A through F grading system primarily to avoid confusion, as it was historically misinterpreted as excellent rather than as a failing grade. By the 1930s, universities replaced E with F to clearly signify failure. Imagine you come home with. Imagine if you.
B
We need to be more apparent that this is not good because imagine like
C
your parents are stupid and you come home with a report card and like, oh, excellent.
B
Straight ease.
C
Excellent. Good job.
B
Straight ease.
C
Anyway, well, there. Now the more you know, you've already learned something on this show, so I'm gonna have you do a tier list for creator monetization methods.
B
Ooh.
C
All okay. Okay. You ready?
B
Yeah. Merch D. Sorry.
C
Chris Van Fleet begs to differ. Travis.
B
Not that it's bad, it's just that it's not going to make.
C
Why do you hate Chris Van Fleet's merch specifically?
B
Here's the caveat. Here's the caveat that I'm going to give at the very beginning of this so I don't have to say I love his merch. If you have a massive audience, the rules are different. Yeah, but 90 plus percent of creators don't have a massive audience. So they. They look at. They. The problem is they look at the successful ones and they go like, oh, then whatever. The Nelk Boys have a merch line that did like $10 million in two days. Like, I should do a merch line. It's like, yeah, but you have 32,000 subscribers, so you're gonna sell 12 T shirts and make a grand total of $102 in profit on that. Like, there's just. It's not. It's not a good one if you. Unless you have this massive audience.
C
Steve from the Nelk Boys was complaining.
B
Steve will do it.
C
Yeah, he was complaining that he didn't get really any money for merch at all.
B
Really?
C
Yeah. Even though he helped build them up
B
and he's a massive creator.
C
Yep. Anyway, so, yeah, Google it. I put that D user generated content for brands. I mean, that one's so dependent on.
B
I was gonna say it doesn't feel even like a creator thing, because UGC can work even if you're not a creator. Like, you don't have to have any audience to do UGC for brands. You can just go to UGC marketplaces and do that they'll send you a shipment of product and then you go like, they'll pay you whatever, 40 bucks a post or something like that.
C
One time. Sorry to cut you off, but I have something to say. One time I was doing. I used to do a bunch for Social Native, which is an app that does that, where you just connect your Instagram profiles. And one time, Social Native was the one. That one liked that. And I used to do stuff where they'd like, take a picture with solo cups and do all like. So I would do a bunch of those. And one time I got a campaign and they paid me $100 to take a picture in front of five different Vegas, like hotels or landmarks. And I was living in California at the time, so I got 500 bucks to drive down to Vegas and just take a picture in front of the Flamingo. Nice. Or in front of that. So that was pretty cool.
B
There's some cool opportunities that come from that stuff. There was one that was somewhat interesting to me recently where they. Because I basically, at first, when they first started coming in, I was like, sure, I'll do it. I'll do it, I'll do it. Then I was like, this is way too much. And I feel bad now because now I have like six products that I have not done content for that they just sent to my door. And it's like, I don't even know if I would use this. And so I stopped saying yes to basically all UGC requests. This one came across recently where it was like, they create an additional Instagram account for you just for highlighting their product, essentially.
C
Interesting.
B
And they want you to post like two times a day. But it was a thousand bucks a month to do it. And I was like, that is first of all interesting. For, like, that's enough money to go like, oh, I wonder how we could potentially work that into all of our content that we do, if that's possible.
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The Testaments, a new Hulu original series from the executive producers of the Handmaid's Tale.
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B
Terms apply, but also from a brand. I thought that was really interesting where it's like, do you own the Instagram account? Do I own the Instagram account? Like, what happens? Because like, if you're starting one from scratch, there's always the potential if you do this with a hundred people that one of those accounts could end up just taking off and going crazy and getting crazy amount of views with that type of volume of clip output. So I thought that was really interesting. But yeah, for the most, like I don't view this as a creator monetization thing. Like, so I would put. So I would put it. I would put it D tier as well.
C
Okay. Sorry buddy. Digital products like courses or templates.
B
I'm gonna go B tier on this one. It used to be higher, I would say just because AI is making knowledge more ubiquitous and it's a little bit more of a difficult sell. But digital products are great because they can scale infinitely and without any additional cost to create them or deliver them. So I like that one a lot. But I'm put a B tier memberships and communities a tier because it's a good idea to have a community for your audience regardless of if you monetize it or not. It's just, it's a good idea to build a sense of community within your audience regard. Like, so you can put it on a Facebook group or whatever for free. But that's why I like this one a lot because it also helps build more community in the audience that you're also trying to scale. So yeah, I like that one. I'll put that A tier.
C
What about one on one coaching? I feel like this has probably dropped down just because there's so many people doing it badly, if I had to guess.
B
Yeah, that's true. At the beginning of your career online, I would, I would put it A tier because kind of what we talked about in a previous episode is that high ticket's better than low ticket and one on one coaching is just going to demand a higher ticket price than something else. So it would be better like if you want to get into courses or a low ticket community type thing. Coaching's a great way to do that for a few reasons. First of all, you can charge a lot more for one on one coaching than you can for, obviously, a community or do it yourself course. But also. So the extra money can help fund the ability to go acquire customers for the course or the community that you're building. But also it requires you to work through the framework in a practical way with an actual client and make sure that they get results. So you just have. You have way more control over whether or not the client actually sees the result that you're promising when you're working with them one on one. And then you can work through. Like, we didn't build any courses. Like, the most successful course that we have, Pockets Profit Academy. We didn't build that until I had already worked with like 30 people one on one. But by the time I'd worked with 30 people one on one, it was like we had a clear structure that we walked people through in order to get a podcast off the ground for their business and. And move it into profitability rather quickly. So the only way that we were able to build that is by working with people one on one, working through all the kinks, the program, and then building something that was actually able to be put on autopilot and sold to a lot more people. So I like. I like coaching, especially at the beginning.
C
What was your biggest kink anyway? Look at this. See, that's a hundred bucks right there. Take a picture by the Paris sign.
B
Oh, nice.
C
I wish they'd do that. Now that I live here. Send me those offers now.
B
Also a cool excuse to travel somewhere.
C
Oh, yeah. Basically, we. We earned $500 and spent 600.
B
Nice.
C
Basically was the. So we got $100 Vegas weekend. I think I actually filmed with you while I was here for that.
B
Oh, really?
C
Which was what a stupid decision that was. I should have just been like, I'm not here. I'm just. Anyway. All right, anywho, I always do that. I always go somewhere and I'm like, I know like six people here. And then I start reaching out. I'm like, why don't I tell people I'm here? I can't enjoy Nashville. Yeah, exactly. I did do that. We went to Nashville for that interview and I was like, I could do like 10 of these today. Yeah. And then I was like, I'm going to do one and leave. All right, okay, how about this? Sponsorships and brand deals. S S tier, baby. It's absolutely S tier until you have to record.
B
Well, it's just that it's sort of the same thing as the merch thing. It's like if you have the Traffic. It's the coolest thing ever.
C
Yeah.
B
Because it's the easiest form of making money that I've ever done.
C
Yeah.
B
In terms of the actual deliverable. You know, I'm saying like versus something like coaching where it's like, okay, if I want to make as much money coaching as I currently make on sponsorships, it's like I got to have 10 to 12 one on one coaching clients that I work with on a weekly basis every single month. Or I have to launch a scalable group coaching offer and bring on team and salespeople and copywriters and all this other stuff. Versus like sponsorship revenue is just like if you have the impressions and you can sell them, it's. It's mailbox money. You know, you record the ad, you drop the ad and then that's it. Especially now with dynamic ads where you literally just record it and then you can dynamically insert it across your whole catalog, which is pretty cool. Yeah.
C
One time I had a company like can you do dynamic ads? I was like, everything I do is so dynamic. YouTube ad revenue. Honestly, once you start doing YouTube videos, the money just comes rolling in.
B
Yeah. YouTube ad revenue, I would put tier lower than sponsorship revenue.
C
Yeah.
B
Because it's just not as good. It's not as much money.
C
They take like 40 and YouTube takes like 40.
B
48% doesn't say close to fit him.
C
Which is why this show will soon only be available on OnlyFans. It's only take 10%. Very kind, thank you. OnlyFans podcast ads.
B
Wait.
C
Is the same thing as a little bit different. But I would say like podcast ads. Programmatic, just programming on.
B
Yeah, fantastic.
C
I would say it's not a tier, but I would say for fantastic. E for excellent. D for damn good. C for correct.
B
S for shit.
C
B for best. Yeah. A for ass always. And S for Sigma. We just do a tier list but only we know what the rank is.
B
That would confuse the hell out of so many people.
C
Like dude after
B
man, just throw in
C
a Z tier just to really?
B
Yeah, I would say a tier like the only. Again, the bummer thing is that if you just don't have a lot, then it's going to be a teeny tiny.
C
Can't relate. If you don't have a lot of downloads, get your download numbers up. Okay.
B
Yeah. But the thing is there's. It's just really easy to like. It's the easiest way of making money on a podcast is. Is programmatic podcast advertising for those who are listening that don't know what we're talking about the differences here. Like, a sponsorship or a brand deal is an actual brand that reaches out to you. You do a live host red ad talking about that brand.
C
Yeah.
B
A programmatic ad is going to sound like a commercial that's done from that company. And they have, you know, a voiceover artist and stuff like that. They. They. They put it in your content. You just approve certain categories, which is important because I will say I want to. It was either the 2020 election or the 2024 election, where, like, somebody texted me one time, was like, hey, man, I don't know if you know this, but I was just listening to your show. And at the end afterwards, there was an election ad for one of the candidates, and I was like, ooh, not at all what I wanted. So I had to go make sure that I have, like, that I remove block. All, like, religious, political.
C
You were like, it was Trump.
B
Right?
C
Okay, we're good.
B
Stupid. Hey, you. For you. So much for continuing to put that out to the zeitgeist. Like, I'm a MAGA guy.
C
No, Spotify was in hot water for a second because they were doing. They were running ICE recruitment ads on Spotify, and I had somebody email me, and they were nice because I've had in the past, like, sometimes I'll have one. And someone's like, why would you run this? I'm like, that's not how ads work. Have you watched YouTube? And. But someone was like, you know, there's like, an ICE recruitment ad at the beginning of your video. And I literally, I think it was the same month that I did a video, like, Critiquing Ice. And I was like, that's weird mixed messaging. But you know what? Join ice. Weaponize your incompetence and slow them down.
B
Oh, you're not talking about frozen water.
C
Yeah, it was a frozen water company. That would be a bad time to be named Ice. Oh, we just did the water. Hey, we just did the frozen water. They're from New York.
B
We're the good eyes.
C
Whatever. The only way to stop. Okay. Anyway, that threw me off so much. I want to riff on this. More affiliate links. This really depends on your niche, too. Honestly, if someone has a fitness podcast, affiliate links make so much sense, or what Sean's channel does where it's camera gear. But I would say if you do a podcast like ours, where a lot of times just check out this book. The 10 cents from a book is not. Yeah, sure, it can add up, but it's just.
B
And. And I have had a Lot of people approach me about doing affiliates for doing affiliate stuff for their thing. And I just, like, it's a whole new level of research that I now have to, like, I have to do a bunch of homework to be like, is it. Is this gonna be good? Like, am I gonna send people? Cause I had an experience before where I did this affiliate launch thing. I made like 10 grand off of it, which was cool. I was happy about it. But I had like 4. 3 or 4 of the people who signed up through my link email me about it, like, four months later and basically say, like, this was a waste of money. And like, just to give you a heads up. And they were. They were kind about it, but, you know, not everybody's kind about that. And so you just want to be careful about who you're sending your traffic to. So it can get kind of dicey. But I also know there's a lot of people who've literally made a fantastic career off of affiliate marketing in general. So it can be a good way, like, if you're looking at it almost like more side hustle. Y where it's like, I want to learn what. Oh, on the ranking tier.
C
Oh, no, it's not. That's sort of the last one. Sorry.
B
I'd put it C tier for it.
C
Not as it's not a primary monetization method.
B
Yeah, exactly. Like, like I said, if it. If it's a side hustle to the degree that you're learning how to get traffic to stuff, if that makes sense, like, that is more useful as a skill, because then you can take that. Like a perfect example is Joel Marion, who sold his company BioTrust for close to nine figures, I want to say. And he started off in affiliate marketing. He basically cut his teeth in affiliate marketing. Meaning, like, he learned he's one of the best email marketers in the entire online supplement space. And that skill he gained without the risk of having his own company.
C
Yeah.
B
So he didn't. He didn't have his own inventory that he had to go sell or he was going to lose money. He just, like, he learned how to. He learned how to get traffic, he learned how to warm that traffic up, and he learned how to sell stuff to them. And then once he had that skill set and he was making eight figures a year as an affiliate marketer, then he started his own supplement line and then applied all those skills to his business. And then that skyrocketed him and he made multiple nine figures on that business and then sold it for a really good chunk of change. So there's a different version of that, but that's not like creator monetization, you know, that's like business monetization. So for creators, I think you can get kind of dicey pretty quickly.
C
Yeah, yeah, I like it. I will say on the book side, it was nice when I went into meetings pitching. Mine is like one of my talking points was like, I've sold other people's books, right? Including the people I was on the call with. I've sold a bunch of books for you guys. Like one of my guests, I just pulled up my things. Like one of my guests I sold 104 books for and I was just like, if I could sell 104 books for this random person, right, which could sell maybe some for mine. And Also I know 99% of people, like, I probably sold close to a thousand because like, I know most people are just searching it when they hear it. I've never clicked someone's affiliate link unless I'm on YouTube in its gear.
B
Right.
C
Because I want to make sure it's the right one. If it's a book, I always just go type it up, add it to my list. So sorry to all the creators I've stiffed. Okay, last one here. Live events and workshops.
B
I'm gonna go s tier on this because anything Live I think is, I'm very bullish on Anything Live right now because I think as much AI is coming into the space, robotics and all that kind of stuff and all of this exciting to talk about and how disruptive it is, at the end of the day we're all still human and we still crave in person, human to human connection. So anything Live I think is going a big uptick in the next decade or so. I, and Gary Vee has a great take on this and I echo it, which is that the, the next generation, like probably Gen Alpha is going to be even more coded to crave the in person connection. Even though they're growing up with all of this, that, that they'll almost have like a rebellion against the increase of technology because by the time they're adults it'll be even crazier than it is now. So I, I, I think that there's a, a, a huge benefit to doing anything in person.
C
Yeah, I definitely feel like I've gone more, more analog in the last year than like even for stuff I used like for tracking. Like, I tend to go toward like a journal. Like it's, it's the only time I ever find myself using tech is if it's like, it needs to run an equation for me. Like. Like, tracking calories is so much easier when you can just add it and it has all the info. I'm not checking the label and writing it down and adding it. But, like. Or if I need to find, like, where's this resource? But I know we've talked a lot about, like, should we cut streaming services and just do physical media or just, like, you know, purchasing specifically what we want? Or when it comes to, like, logging experiences, like, do I want to write that in a diary or journal? Or do I want to, you know, run it through yet another app? Like, I definitely feel myself shifting away even. Even in the way I'm spending my time lately. Like, I've read so much in the past couple months versus putting on a show because I was watching so many shows before, but even I just find myself doing more. That's the tactile. I'm turning a page, I'm highlighting something. Because I feel like now every activity I start is what's the app that corresponds with this activity that, oh, I'm going to the gym. Here's my workout app, and then my calorie app, and then my. This app, and then here's an app to communicate with other people who are also working out. It's like. Or I could just be in a text group and where I say this
B
people at the actual.
C
And, you know, and if. Yeah, it's just. I definitely feel like that shift's happening, and I definitely feel like this generation, like, us of, like, raising kids. I definitely feel like I'm pushing to be like, just, you know, you don't need this thing. Just draw something out or write it, write it down or, you know, whatever.
B
So, yeah, and I. And I hope for that shift.
C
Yeah.
B
And there's actually now a lot of data. Jonathan Heights, doing a lot of great research on this about kids using iPads or screens in their education and how much less information they retain. Even though it's the same information physically.
C
Writing is so good for attention. Yeah.
B
Yeah. So I think there's going to be a big shift back into that space, so I'm gonna put that at S tier.
C
Heck, yeah. Well, you know what I would put on S tier? You, my friend, Close us out.
B
Well, that's it for this episode of the show. Remember, money only solves your money problems, but it's easier to solve the rest of your problems. We have money in the bank, so let's start there here on the Travis Makes Money podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Catch you next time. Peace.
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Episode: CO-HOST | Make Money with Creator Monetization Strategies That Actually Work
Date: May 24, 2026
Host: Travis Chappell (B)
Co-Host/Producer: (C)
In this episode, Travis is joined by his producer/co-host for an in-studio discussion focused on honest, up-to-date creator monetization strategies. Using a tier-list format, they dig into which income streams actually work for most creators today—including merch, courses, UGC, memberships, sponsorships, events, and more. With plenty of humor and personal anecdotes, the episode’s aim is to help creators understand not just what’s possible, but what’s effective and scalable depending on audience size, niche, and effort.
(03:15 - 22:32)
The hosts rank various creator income streams, discussing pros, cons, and anecdotes for each. The categories covered:
The conversation is lively, fast-paced, and full of banter. Travis and his co-host balance tactical advice with relatable stories and pepper in self-deprecating and timely humor, making creator business talk genuinely engaging and down-to-earth. The vibe: accessible, practical, and committed to helping regular creators—not just the mega-famous—make real money.
Perfect For:
Anyone looking to monetize their online presence realistically, weighing the value of different income streams, or interested in the business side of content creation today.