The other day I was being shown a video on Instagram and I spotted something interesting.
The video was of a bus being painted by a Brazilian street artist, named Dan Roots, and his team. It was a big job and it looked quite good when they were finished.
What I found more interesting than the actual bus being painted was the new ‘subscribe’ button at the top of the video.
Dan Roots is taking payment for exclusive and extra content he posts on Instagram.
This is a powerful tool for creators, influencers, and… well, anybody really.
It means that anyone can earn money sharing exclusive and extra content alongside the content they share for free.
It makes sense to offer exclusive content for subscribers; otherwise there is no reason for people to subscribe.
That is what every other person does that runs a subscription part to their free profile, whether that is on Patreon, X (formerly Twitter), OnlyFans, Substack, or one of the other platforms that allow you to take payment.
Translating Portuguese to English (using the Google Translate app) I can see what his subscribers are getting.
- Subscriber seal (I’m not sure what that means exactly).
- Exclusive content.
- Social and broadcast channels.
- Behind the Scenes.
- Ask a question.
- Access and early releases.
- Coaching
- Classes
Dan Roots is not charging a lot each month.
From what I can see, he is only charging £2.49 which is not a lot for what you get as a subscriber. I’m not sure if that is a straight conversion from the Brazilian Real, or whether it is set at 2.49 for all territories i.e. £2.49, $2.49, R$2.49, and €2.49.
A street artist sharing pictures and videos of his art and him creating that art wouldn’t really be able to charge a lot. As much as it is enjoyable looking at his art and watching him create, it isn’t life changing or deliver a lot of personal entertainment like reading fiction can.
However, he is also offering classes, coaching and allowing people to ask questions and so I believe he could maybe charge up to £10 a month at least.
What I like about this is that here is a guy sharing content on Instagram, a free social media platform that can be accessed globally, who is now earning money by publishing exclusive and easy-to-create content for paying subscribers.
I don’t know how many people he has subscribed; I don’t think there is a way to see. What I can see is that he has 396,000 followers on Instagram. If just 0.5% (1,980 people) of that following paid £2.49 a month to see his exclusive content, he would be making around £4,930 each month.
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I doubt that he is making thousands per month due to the nature of the content, but who am I to say? There are people who pay a lot of money to see pictures of feet!
Yes, liking feet is more of a sexual thing – and as we know most things sexual can be big earners, but still… if foot worshippers and feet fetishists are willing to pay to see pictures of feet, then there may be a fair amount of people who appreciate specific street art and artists, who are willing to pay to access that form of content.
I know for a fact that one of our team, Andi, was a big fan of graffiti and street art when he was younger and had a large collection of books and magazines on the subject.
Before the internet allowed artists to share their work around the world, he sent for books and magazines from countries such as Australia, Germany, France, Denmark, and the USA.
He has since sold his collection. One French book dedicated to the French train graffiti scene must have been a limited edition as he sold it for £50, far more than what he paid for it nearly twenty years previous. Proof that people love their hobbies!
Andi says that over the years he must have spent several hundred pounds collecting books and magazines around that one subject.
So if he was willing to do that, then it is safe to assume that there will be people who are willing to pay a small monthly fee to access ‘real-time’ and interactive content in the subjects that interest them from the people they ‘like’.
If Andi had paid several hundred pounds to buy books and magazines around a specific subject, then paying £2.49 a month is nothing. It is less than £30 for the year.
I noticed that Dan Roots’ profile on Instagram was ‘verified’ and that I believe is why he has the option of running a subscription side to his Instagram. It is the same over on X (formerly Twitter).
Becoming verified on Instagram costs nothing, you simply need to send in government approved documentation proving that you are who you say you are, and if Meta (the company behind Facebook and Instagram) are happy, they will verify you and you are good to go.
For those who are not verified or wish not to be, you could simply charge a monthly fee and send your exclusive content in group chats. You don’t need to be verified to do that, but it is a bit of a faff compared to the new method.
Now that Instagram and X have a subscription option, they process the payment and you publish content just as you would when you publish the free content, only this time you check a box to say who can see it.
If you chose to use the other ‘non-verified’ method that I have talked about previously where you send content to group chats, you have to set up an external method of taking payment. It’s doable, but doing it all in-house is a lot easier.
The reason I am sharing this today is that I wanted to highlight yet another way to make money from the palm of your hand using only a smartphone.
With Instagram, all videos and photographs can be taken with a smartphone and then uploaded directly to the platform.
The pictures and videos can also be edited using a smartphone either within the Instagram app, or using a video editing app.
You can even do live broadcasts using your smartphone.
In the previous article where I talked about Jeff and his two three minute slots on local radio, this is more powerful because you yourself can broadcast live for however long you want, when you want, and you can reach people all across the world!
It can all be done using your smartphone… from the palm of your hand… from wherever you are in the world!
Now that is powerful!
This could be a real gold mine for a lot of people.
Kind regards.
John Harrison.
PS… Another goldmine is newsletters. They too earn money through paying subscribers and like the example above, you make money by selling access to the same one piece of content to multiple people.
Write a newsletter once, record one video, and sell access to them both to hundreds of people. Then do it all again next month.
Learn more here: