LinkedIn has 1.3 billion users. It’s the rich people social media. A fantastic opportunity.
But most people struggle to get anything to work there. They post and get nothing back. They message and get ignored. So let me walk you through how to actually make money on the platform.
But first, why it fails.
Why Most People Fail On LinkedIn
There are three big reasons.
They don’t understand their target market.
There are 1.3 billion users on LinkedIn. You can’t boil the ocean. Who are the best fit people you want to work with? If you don’t know the answer to that, everything else falls apart.
Their value isn’t clear.
LinkedIn is a social media platform. People scroll at speed. Attention spans are short. You have to make your value obvious. How will somebody’s life or business or career be different because they pay attention to you and work with you?
Most people think they deserve attention. You don’t. You have to earn it.
They have no process.
They go on LinkedIn, make it up as they go along, and hope for the best. No system. No repeatable way to convert.
That third one leads me to the five ways to actually make money on LinkedIn. Because it’s not just post or DM. There are five paths, and each one works differently.
1. Content That Converts
Not just any content. Content that speaks to your audience’s real, felt, observable pains. The things that are happening in their day-to-day. Talking about those. Stirring the pot. Agitating those pain points.
One of the best posts I do is what I call a wow post. It documents the journey of a client from problem, to what they tried and failed to do, to how I helped them, to their transformation. Those posts do well because your prospects can see themselves in your client’s story.
Conversion content isn’t about posting promos. It’s about telling stories and agitating the pain points your clients feel.
Too often we talk about root causes. That makes sense in one way, but people treat what they see. A root cause isn’t always observable. If you want more inbound leads, focus on the seen, felt, and observable pains.
How often should you post? Two to three times a week is more than enough. Have a mix. Don’t be heavy convert-convert-convert all the time because that drives people away. But have at least one conversion post every single week.
2. Relationship-Led Selling
This is about building relationships before you ask anything of your prospects.
Plan a series of social interactions before you make any request. Engage with their content if they’re sharing. Give them useful information. Simple things make a huge difference.
I worked with a sales team who were cold calling and cold emailing. They had a ton of leads that didn’t bite. So we said, let’s go to LinkedIn. Let’s warm those leads up first and then try again.
They got responses three times better than their normal campaigns. Because familiarity breeds fondness.
Build some relationship over two to three weeks before you ask something. You’ll get more trust, more replies, better results.
We’re in a world where people get so much sales outreach that one person said to me, “I get more sales messages than genuine people talking to me.” If you want more responses, do something different. Build the relationship first.
3. Hyper-Targeted Prospecting
This is one of the top performing ways to outreach on LinkedIn. And it’s simple: video messaging.
Video gets more replies. More watches. You hold attention for longer because it’s a more engaging format.
If I sent you a message with 180 words, you’d zone out. Most outreach messages that get replies are under 50 or 60 words. But with video, you can hold attention for up to two minutes. If you’re selling something complex, it’s a great way to explain it without your prospect zoning out.
Video also gets more replies because of the personal touch. You’ve made an effort. You took time to record something for one person. That doesn’t go unnoticed. It makes people feel they matter.
I’ve been doing these videos for two to three years. My response rate is 22%. One of my team books one call a day by sending seven messages.
Most people won’t do it because they’re lazy. That’s exactly why it works.
4. LinkedIn Newsletters
This is a powerful tool to get your message in front of more people consistently. It will outperform many of your regular posts.
One of the myths on social media is that short form is the way to go. Short videos, short posts. Actually, long form content converts at a higher rate than short form.
A LinkedIn newsletter lets you publish your ideas, promote your programmes subtly, and build trust at scale.
You can create a newsletter on a free account. All your connections get invited by LinkedIn. About a third will subscribe. And now you can stay in touch with them.
The cool feature is that your newsletter gets notified and emailed to subscribers. You have more control over who sees your message than with regular posts.
Great for building authority. Great for getting leads.
5. LinkedIn Events
I’ve been doing these for five years. They’ve brought me thousands of leads.
LinkedIn events let you go live to an audience on the platform. Pretty much anybody can get 100 to 150 people showing up to hear their insights.
Where else on earth can you get 150 people to pay attention to you, and have them be exactly the right target audience?
I did one yesterday. 890 people live. I do them weekly. I build massive trust. I get inbound leads because I’ve helped people. And I get to promote what I do.
They’re simple to set up. Really powerful if you’ve got something complex to sell. And it’s an immersive experience for the audience because they see you doing your thing in real time.
Pick A Path
These are the five ways to make money on LinkedIn:
- Content that converts
- Relationship-led selling
- Hyper-targeted prospecting
- LinkedIn newsletters
- LinkedIn events
All of them can be done in 30 minutes or less per day. You go on LinkedIn, do something productive, and know it’s building your pipeline.
You don’t need to do all five. Pick one. Get good at it. Make it a habit.
That’s how you make money on LinkedIn.