User engagement tends to be high on these platforms and their owners successfully monetize this thing. When it comes to WhatsApp, this messaging app still blocks direct advertising whatsoever, so as not to allow content creators to make some money out of their creations.
Facebook is trying to make WhatsApp an easy-to-use solution for businesses, the marketing news outlets understand. The messaging app is said to be in the development of more promo tools for publishers on WhatsApp. But as of now, there are no ads on this platform, with direct messaging threads proved to be unpopular, and WhatsApp Status ads have also been canned. Still, there’s a couple of methods to put this unique platform to good use, given its huge audience your marketing efforts are hardwired to succeed.
Promote Business on WhatsApp
In case you develop some products or services, sell them on WhatsApp as well. Thus, you can make even more dough compared to marketing other companies' products.
You can create a business card and share it with your contacts or people from groups mentioning some discount for them. Market yourself directly. Tell the world about your special products/services or skills. The file-sharing feature of the messenger allows you to send people promo materials, photos, or videos.
If you have plenty of users on WhatsApp, use your status as ad placement, as this guy does:
You can share a blog post URL, either way. Links in status are not clickable, so you’re doing it to get more visibility but anyway it might be better than just trite "Hey there! I am using WhatsApp" status.
Below is an image of a user from India who started her own business through WhatsApp. For starters, she began sharing her product details with people she knew such as officemates, family members, friends, and so forth.
Slowly she gained quite a presence online and now she is getting orders from different audiences like marriages receptions, etc.
Roughly she makes per month in the neighbourhood of 1.2 lakh (it’s about $1.6 grand).
Tell the people about yourself via a webinar using WhatsApp's group video call feature. Users will be able to ask you some questions in real-time. Such close contact with your audience can increase your potential profit and expand your outreach.
In case you have some skills in web design or fashion, you can market those skills as well. Just find the relevant groups, and, who knows, maybe some company will offer you a juicy contract after finding out about you on a WhatsApp group.
Another method of making money on WhatsApp messaging platform is through launching an online store. For this, you’ll need to find suppliers and copy their products to your digital storefront. After doing so, share the URL of the product with your contacts.
When the people you know go to your online store and order something, your suppliers will deliver their parcel to them and you as a publisher will get your commission as a middle man.
That’s the way drop-shipping works.
It may surprise you, however, some people get paid for promoting a business on this messaging platform. You just need to join groups with lots of users. And have a long list of your own contacts as well.
Then, promote yourself on various social media platforms with the headlines like "I will help you get 1 000 new customers on WhatsApp. Contact me".
Your prospects will hit you up. And to successfully promote their business online you need to have a plan on how to advertise their goods or service on the app.
For that matter, you might need to create a support channel, by doing so you can reach your customers on WhatsApp, an app that they use to contact their friends.
As an alternative, you can promote local restaurants, barbershops, or retail businesses. Contact some of the local businesses via direct outreach and offer them a sort of cooperation. You can even become their ambassador on WhatsApp.
Don’t spam. Keep this thing to a minimum. Don’t send just links without any message attached. Add lots of contacts. Import all your contacts from your mobile phone.
Link Shorteners
This is a relatively easy method of earning on WhatsApp, as well as the most popular. Paid URL shorteners such as Shorte.st or ShrinkMe.io pay their registered users some money for every click shorten links get, from $0.01 to $5 depending on the location those clicks are originated from. So, the more click you get from Tier-1 countries, the better.
You need to find a well-paying shortener. Just Google it and read some reviews to find out what it is. After that, register on your website of choice. The next step is finding viral content that users will share. You can either go newsjacking and get clicks using some popular news stories or promote funny images or interesting facts that have the potential for your stuff to go viral. It goes without saying that you first have to do some research to find hot topics or appropriate content. It could be linked to your own website or blog articles. You just need to find the material your contacts or users from groups will like. The reviews of the latest Apple products are always shareable:
- Copy the URL of your article and cut it with a shortener site.
- After that, share the link with other people on WhatsApp.
- Upon the click on the link users will see advertising and only then will they be able to access the content they are interested in.
And that’s the way it goes. It can become your side source of income, especially when you have lots of contacts on the messaging app who might like your posts.
WhatsApp Status is another place for sharing shortened links. WhatsApp marketers who use this approach usually have quite a presence on the platform, they have a decent fan base and join as many groups on the app as you can.
For example, every morning you could post the links to popular stories for your audience.
Alternatively, you might want to create groups that would post funny content or popular news stories. The 'Broadcast' list is an option to share your link with multiple contacts at a time.
The most important thing is to get as many impressions as possible for your shortened link. Not just post a single link but add a caption telling the users what it is about. It could be a clickbait-looking description, namely 'A funny gif that will definitely make you laugh out loud'.
Share your URL with as many contacts as you can.
The registration on shortener websites is not complicated. Just go to some of these websites, fill in the form, and copy links you will be sharing with the people on WhatsApp later. Register on several link shortening sites to maximize the profit.
PTC Sites
This is another method that doesn’t take a lot of gains to earn money on the messaging app. It’s a popular idea for the time being. This approach will not make you rich, but it offers an easy-to-use approach. PPD stands for Pay Per Download, meaning you get your share when users download the files you’ve posted. First, you need to register on one of such websites. Among the uploadable files are movies, images, audio records, and so forth. Specific services such as CleanFiles pay per every download. Oftentimes, when people click on these URLs, they need to participate in a survey, and only after that, they can get their file in question. PTC sites offer tons of surveys of third-party companies that use it for improving the UX of their products prior to the launch.
Usually, the payment for surveys is less than a dollar, and it takes about 4-5 minutes to complete the survey.
You can either post files for your Contacts or use specific groups on WhatsApp. If your file is worthy, people will be downloading it for whatever it takes.
As in the case of link shorteners, your revenue as a publisher who uses Pay Per Download method largely hinges on the location those clicks come from. Usually, clicks of the users from Tier-1 countries are more profitable.
Join many groups and come in contact with many people who are interested in trendy topics. That’s the best way to make use of this method of earning money. There are gaming or movie fan groups and you can tap into those ones. Uploading relevant material to PTC sites and sharing links in such groups will definitely bring over some money.
- Register on a well-known PTC site.
- Fill in all the details needed and wait when new surveys become available.
- Then, you’ll have an opportunity to promote them.
You can take part in a survey yourself and get the first payment. After that, copy the tracking link and share it with the people on WhatsApp and groups.
If anyone registers for a survey via your affiliate link, you’ll get your share for promotion.
Driving Traffic to Your Website or Blog
Many influencers make money on WhatsApp by redirecting traffic from the messaging app to their websites or blogs. But to do it you need to have a website or blog in place. And don’t forget that a blog without traffic is nothing. The first thing to do is to increase your presence on social media to get traffic, i.e. users visiting your profiles.
If your website is about dating, then create a group on relationships and encourage WhatsApp users to join your dating group. Then, drive the engagement. When you post on your website, add a visible caption to your posts and a link to your group with information about relationships.
This is the way to attract visitors from WhatsApp groups. What’s more, your contacts might also click and share your posts with others they know. You can become viral on WhatsApp, hence traffic and monetization.
This is another quick and easy way for you to get more traffic to your website. Create a WhatsApp group for your website. Share interesting content there, comment on what your readers are saying. You can add up to several hundred users to a group. In case your group is big enough, then you’ll have an easy time driving traffic to your website.
Add a link to your website. For example, instead of just mentioning that you run a bakery or offer some courses, show people what you have to offer them. They will be talking about you promoting your group by word-of-mouth.
Use a custom signature for your replies to people who message you, including a link to your website or pages on Facebook, or Twitter.
Also, this is an effective method to bring traffic to your YouTube channel, in case you have a channel. When posting new articles or videos, use catchy headlines.
After users visit your website or channel, you will be earning money via ads (AdSense network) or affiliate links, direct product placement, or paid promotion.
Affiliate Marketing
Basically, this method boils down to advertising links, and it’s not as complicated as it sounds. Affiliates promote either products or services and get their share, a commission each salesperson makes. Affiliate programs offer their affiliates unique URLs that you need to promote.
You advertise on behalf of other companies. This is a sort of word-of-mouth marketing that might include testimonials through direct messaging. You get users to click sponsored ads and drive them to special offers.
Affiliate marketing is regarded as the best way of earning money online. Some observers suggest that it is the best way.
Affiliate marketing also works when it comes to WhatsApp. Publishers advertise certain products of certain companies. And when people buy something, the publisher gets his or her commission.
Affiliate links are a means of making money wherever, not only on WhatsApp. And it’s not rocket science either. When you join a group that is dedicated to some particular topic, like cars or fashion, you might talk to other people in that group about a trendy car or some particular dress. You can mention that celebrities wear some kinds of dresses. After registering on an affiliate network, try to find a company that sells dresses. Copy the affiliate link and offer it to other people from a group. You as a publisher get some money when some user makes a purchase. If a group, for instance, contains a thousand users, and fifty of them buy the product you promote, it could be a decent profit for you.
But mind that your conversations with others who intend to buy products are meaningful. If one of the users you know on WhatsApp is an avid traveler, try to talk to him or her. If your group has 300 to 400 users and about 15 purchases, that’s good money for a day. Your conversations should be useful, so, check the message you’re gonna send before sending it, as well as links to the products you’re promoting.
You might hit someone up by sending a message like this:
'Hello Pat, I know that love traveling, I just found out that Turkish airlines are offering 10% discounts for people who buy tickets during the next 2 months. If you find this interesting, you can go here: (your link). I just thought this info might be useful for you.’
Expand the search to business connections, friends of friends, and some casual people you’ve run into. Come in contact with your close friends and colleagues.
Zero in on who might get the most out of your offers. Use customized messages for such people.
For example, people interested in sport might want to buy nutritional supplements. Look through your prospects based on their interests. This kind of information you can find on their social media accounts.
This is the way for you to advertise any product or service people might be interested in. Always check whether companies selling goods delivery to the exact location of the people from your contact list.
So, this is another effective method of earning on WhatsApp. But there’s one indispensable requirement for this method to succeed: people have to have an interest in what you’re offering them.
You can also create private groups. Closed groups of users might become a good source of a warm audience for the goods or services you’re promoting.
Affiliate programs such as Amazon Affiliate might fetch you some good money. You won’t have a hard time signing up for this program.
Amazon is said to be the best company for affiliate marketing, given its high commissions and the variety of products. There are different commissions for different types of products. Most online marketers earn solely by affiliate marketing.
The best idea is to find the best deals and advertise them via your digital channel. People are searching for discounts online, if you could offer one to them, it could be a win-win situation.
You can opt for some other affiliate programs such as Flipkart or Shareasale.
After registering on the affiliate program website, you’ll need to offer the links to your contacts and people from groups. So, it’s relatively easy.
There were lots of cases when online marketers didn’t limit themselves to Amazon. They had stepped onto uncharted territory and made a fortune.
Conclusion
WhatsApp has the potential to live up to and bring you some money while still killing time on the messaging app. It doesn’t promise you quick results, it takes time to start getting some revenue, but will get you your share eventually. So, this is when people you know on WhatsApp might be useful to you.
Why not make some dough directly from WhatsApp, some of the methods mentioned above don’t take lots of effort, but at the same time they allow you to earn some money, though not much unless you are lucky.
However, such means as affiliate links and direct sales might be profitable enough.
Use cross-channel marketing. Other social apps and services like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram might bring you more visibility in the realm of social media. Nevertheless, WhatsApp is a good add-on tool for marketing. For instance, you can promote your stuff on other websites or social media apps and use your WhatsApp profile to get more information across.
Offer people you know on social media some exclusive offers that they can get only via contacting you on WhatsApp, use it as your primary way of business communications.
