The chances are, you are not using your LinkedIn profile to its full capacity.
LinkedIn can be a fantastic place to grow your reach and increase your chances of landing new clients, making sales or getting better-paying jobs. As the largest network of professional entities in the world, if you’re not using the platform to make money, this is your sign to get started.
In today’s post, I’m going to go over eight ways you can make money through LinkedIn. You may already know that LinkedIn does not provide any direct monetization, but you can make thousands of dollars indirectly on the site by using it strategically and meaningfully.
Let’s get started.
What is LinkedIn?
A little backgrounder on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Corp. is an employment and business-oriented website and mobile app. It is mainly used for networking, scoping out opportunities, establishing a professional online presence and career development. On the platform, you can find professionals and businesses alike.
LinkedIn was launched in 2003 in California and has been headquartered there since. Microsoft bought out the company in 2016 for more than 26 billion US dollars (cash!) and thus is integrated with Microsoft’s enterprise software.
On an individual level, there is a lot you can gain from a meaningful presence on LinkedIn. Whether it’s finding new job opportunities, expanding your network, or selling products, the value you gain can be just as high or even greater than the value you put in by engaging on the platform.
If you have any intention to advance in your career, LinkedIn can benefit you. I know there is sometimes a stereotype that high-level executives dominate the platform, but that is actually not at all the case. Regardless of your industry, you can benefit from a presence on LinkedIn in one way or the other.
Having a profile on LinkedIn is free, and you can reap most of the site’s benefits without paying a single penny.
They do, however, have a Premium option where you can have additional features, such as seeing who’s viewed your profile, access to LinkedIn Learning courses (more on this later!), special messaging privileges and more visibility as a job seeker.
Can I Make Money Through LinkedIn?
LinkedIn does not have a direct monetization system like other social media sites, such as YouTube, Medium, and Twitch. So can you make money through LinkedIn?
Absolutely!
There are many ways to make money on LinkedIn, though indirectly. That is, you will not get paid for a post you put up that receives 100,000 views, but you can gain relationships that turn into steady income streams, increase traffic to your sites and much, much more.
I know this can feel a bit intangible and uncertain (not to mention like a whole lot of work!). However, the reality is that you can really use LinkedIn to your advantage to make lots of money – more than you perhaps could on any other social media platform out there.
How? Let’s find out.
8 Ways to Make Money Through LinkedIn
1. Sell Products or Offer Services
LinkedIn is a fantastic place to offer your services or sell your products. Whether you are a freelancer, consultant, contractor or any other product or service provider, you can promote your offerings while displaying your portfolio, successes and overall brand on the platform.
If you have a company page (which you should if you have a business!), you can take advantage of the products section on your profile. If you’re a sole proprietorship, you can easily promote your offerings and successes on your “featured” section.
Don’t forget: each connection and each profile visit can be an excellent opportunity to make a sale on LinkedIn.
Once you grow your customer base, you can also ask people to add social proof to your products and services by encouraging them to write recommendations and endorsements. These will be displayed on your profile.
2. Generate Leads
Lead generation is one of the best ways to harness LinkedIn’s power. You can easily find potential clients, advertisers, sponsors, buyers, and business partners on the site. No luck with a pitch or ad? Try one of the other 800 million members on the platform.
Each of the millions of profiles on the site is an opportunity to make a professional connection and to grow your network and reach. Better yet, you can connect with potential clients and customers with the direct messaging feature.
If they are interested in your pitch, they can easily click on your profile to better understand why you are awesome.
Note: with a LinkedIn Premium account, you can also take advantage of LinkedIn’s “Generate Leads” feature.
3. Get Hired
Beyond getting hired for your services or selling your products, you can also search for job postings on LinkedIn so you can love what you’re doing from nine to five. You don’t have to be a business owner to make LinkedIn work for you.
This feature is especially handy if you take the time to build your profile to reflect your value as an employee, along with clear depictions of your goals, experiences, and personality.
You can also set up job alerts on the site so that you’re notified when opportunities in your field pop up as well as take advantage of the free resources around building your resume and preparing for your interviews.
4. Develop your career and skills
More skills and certifications can often result in higher pay. This is where LinkedIn Learning can help.
On this massive open online course provider, you get access to thousands and thousands of videos on a vast array of topics to develop your skills, advance in your career, and make more money.
This feature is available with a Premium account but based on the number of resources you have access to, it is honestly very worth it, in my opinion.
LinkedIn Learning courses are categorized into three sections: Business, Creative, and Technology. You can learn how to use Photoshop or Microsoft Excel like a pro right after getting tips on better communication, handling difficult situations in the workplace, or dusting off your leadership skills.
This is a great way to up your skills and increase your value as a business owner or an employee, and, in turn, make more money.
LinkedIn Learning is a vast knowledge resource that doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Also, many people don’t know that it is actually a subsidiary company of LinkedIn/Microsoft, so it has a massive team behind it.
5. Optimize your LinkedIn SEO
You might already be familiar with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO basically dictates how high your website/link/profile ranks on a search engine. As I’m sure you can already guess, the higher it ranks, the more traffic you will get.
The same thing applies to your profile on LinkedIn’s search engine. When a potential client type in “content writer” (or whatever you are!) into LinkedIn’s search bar, does your profile come up? How high does it rank?
The higher your profile, the more chances you will have growing your network and landing gigs and clients on LinkedIn, making more money.
A few ways to optimize your LinkedIn SEO is through growing your connections, regularly engaging on the platform.
Filling out all or most of the sections on your profile, sprucing up your visuals (with a high-quality profile photo and banner), using popular keywords that align with your work (very important!) and gathering endorsements and recommendations.
All of these actions can help you make more money in a variety of ways.
6. Grow Your Network
Your network is your net worth! Have you heard this saying before? It applies vastly to LinkedIn.
Regularly engaging with potential clients, being an authentic voice in the industry you operate in and connecting with those in your field can be immensely influential in helping you grow your network. This is especially important if you are a freelancer or business owner.
You don’t have to luck out on having regular viral posts to do this. The key is to meaningfully engage on the network by – and I cannot stress this enough – offering value. Comment, engage and message others on the site, and you will see its benefits in no time.
7. Start a Newsletter
Another great way to grow your reach, promote your products, and make money through LinkedIn is by starting a newsletter. Again, doing this through LinkedIn is fantastic, especially if you don’t have an extensive mailing list curated already.
Linked members can subscribe to your newsletter to receive updates when you publish new pieces, but what’s better is that anyone on the platform can discover, read, and share your newsletter.
Think of the reach you can have to grow your brand or establish your credibility as an employee!
8. Create ads
Creating ads on LinkedIn is specifically relevant if you’re a business owner. LinkedIn’s vast professional network allows you to reach your ideal customers by using targeted promotion.
Did you know that four out of five LinkedIn members drive business decisions and that they have twice the buying power of average web audiences? By creating ads on this site, you can leverage this powerful network and find success.
According to LinkedIn, marketers also rate the platform as the number one place for B2B lead generation. Interested? You can create an ad by using LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager.
Tips for Being a LinkedIn Pro, Fast
If getting started on the platform feels overwhelming, I’ve got a few tips for you to get started. The goal is just to set up a profile and start connecting with people you know and, more importantly, people in your industry of interest.
I know that randomly reaching out to people might feel weird at first, but approach the task with a genuine interest and curiosity and see where it takes you. This can be a process that you tweak as you go, and every person is vastly different. If you don’t find success on the platform right away, don’t give up!
Five tips to become a LinkedIn Pro:
- Upload a high-quality profile picture and banner
- Create a personal URL that you can share easily with others
- Stay active (try slotting in LinkedIn time each week)
- Request recommendations and endorsements from colleagues and clients
- Treat your page not as a CV but as a business pitch or portfolio (can a potential employer/client understand what you’re about in 10-15 seconds?)
How Can I Make Money Online in Canada? 2022
You likely made it on this article because you’re interested in making money online in Canada. I covered this topic extensively on Wealth Awesome before and touched on my personal experiences, dos and don’ts and digital side hustle ideas. So here are some articles that might be useful for you:
- 14 Side-Hustles In Canada
- 17 Best Careers For Remote Work In Canada
- 11 Detailed Ways To Make Extra Money In Canada
Conclusion
Although indirectly, there are many ways to leverage the professional network that exists on LinkedIn and grow your income! There may not be an earnings dashboard that you can keep track of, but some of the connections you may make may be worth thousands of dollars of products and services sold.
I highly recommend increasing your engagement on the website to reap its full benefits. Are you interested in making money on another social media platform? Check out this post on how to make money on YouTube.
