Five Ideas How Influencers Can Monetize Their Brand: With Brian Meiggs

I think Millennials get a bad rep, and I want to empower them to take part in better financial literacy. I do my best to provide new money tips daily on my blog to help people take control of their financial lives. I also started a new site that helps millennials with their student loans. If you have student loans I would recommend you check out Beat Student Loans . I share everything I’ve learned about the best ways to pay off student loans, refinancing for a better rate, consolidating student loans, and ways to make more money to pay off your loans.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Brian Meiggs. He’s the founder of My Millennial Guide [link to www.mymillennialguide.com], a personal finance blog that’s been featured in AOL Finance, MSN Money, and Discover. He’s also the blogger behind BeatStudentLoans.com, BeerMoney.co and APreviewBook.com. Brian blogs all whilst working full-time in a Credit Risk Manager role at a FinTech company.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! What is your “backstory”?

In May 2013, I graduated from university with my degree in Finance, as well as $30,000 worth of debt. Thanks to smart side hustles and strict budgeting, on top of my steady paycheck from my new full time job, I paid off that debt in just 12 months.

Afterwards, I created My Millennial Guide [link to www.mymillennialguide.com] to help guide others to become financially free in record time! I have a strong passion for finance and I love sharing my personal finance tips and tricks on my websites.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you in the course of your career?

Starting a blog is easy, but growing it and making money can be difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing. When I first started my blog it was originally called Millennial Money Guide. I spent 2 and a half years building up this blog and finally got it to a point where I felt like I was getting somewhere.

That was, until I was contacted by someone who had claimed a mark in my blog’s name. I had to change my website name and all the branding around it.

I could have easily packed up, given up, and called it quits. I didn’t though and instead chose to rebrand from Millennial Money Guide to My Millennial Guide and push even harder afterwards.

All the content that was on Millennial Money Guide was sent to my new site, My Millennial Guide [link to www.mymillennialguide.com]. After launching the new site, I started to write more content, establish more collaborations, and began building out my monetization methods to a new level. It’s now been 8 months since that happened and My Millennial Guide is getting more views that the old domain ever received and making 4x more in monthly revenue. I also started three new websites, BeerMoney Beat Student Loans, and AP Review Book

Just an example of what could happen if you choose NOT to quit.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

My main blog, My Millennial Guide, has definitely grown and the traffic is increasing monthly. With the influx of viewers, I am making sure my content is helpful and informative. I think Millennials get a bad rep, and I want to empower them to take part in better financial literacy. I do my best to provide new money tips daily on my blog to help people take control of their financial lives. I also started a new site that helps millennials with their student loans. If you have student loans I would recommend you check out Beat Student Loans [link to www.beatstudentloans.com]. Everything I’ve learned about the best ways to pay off student loans, refinancing for a better rate, consolidating student loans, and ways to make more money to pay off your loans can be found on this site.

If someone would want to emulate your career, what would you suggest are the most important things to do?

Take action today. No matter what it is that you think you want to do, start today. Even if you fail, you still learn from any and all mistakes you make. You’ll learn how to do better next time. I started a shopify store called Grind Fit Gear where I would dropship fitness products from overseas. It did terribly, and barely got any sales. I also realized I wasn’t very passionate about it. However, I don’t regret doing it because it lead me to where I am now. The biggest mistake you can make is thinking too much into it that you stop yourself before even getting started. All you need to do is start. You’ll figure out the rest along the way.

Is there a particular person that made a profound difference in your life to whom you are grateful?

My girlfriend Joanna Rohlf, has been my biggest support system the past three years. She is actually pretty huge on Instagram (@ohhhjojo) and she’s been helping me ramp up my IG game. So much to learn in this space, but I’m getting there.

Can you share a story?

I’m also really into fitness! I recently started a new job and I work close to a Golds Gym. So being the super productive person I am, I go work out 5 days a week during my lunch break. I actually gained 7 pounds in 1 month and some pretty solid gains. I’m really into lifting now and it’s becoming part of my lifestyle. I used to work out a lot during college but kind of have been busy with the blogging as of recently and it wasn’t a major priority. But now, I absolutely look forward to my daily lift every morning. I’m even considering starting a new fitness related blog now or competing in a bodybuilding show next year.

So what are the most exciting projects you are working on now?

I’m really excited about BeerMoney.co [link to www.beermoney.co]. I’ve honestly tried over 100 creative ways to make money online and learned what works and what doesn’t. I wanted to share all of this useful knowledge on BeerMoney for people who are looking for ways to make money online.

If you want to learn how to make money without a job, I’d at least check out my new project, BeerMoney [link to www.beermoney.co] and trust me, you’ll learn a thing or two.

What are your “Top Five Ideas About How Influencers Can Monetize Their Brand” . (Please share a story or example for each.)

Affiliate Marketing: One of the best ways to monetize your brand is through affiliate marketing. If you have people who trust you then you can make passive income by recommending products and services you back. For example, on My Millennial Guide, I recommend money saving apps, websites or services that I use or have done research on. Whenever somebody downloads an app or purchases a product that I recommend through one of my links, then I make passive income. Of course, you’ll only want to promote trustworthy products as to not lose your readers trust.

Sponsored Posts: If you have a blog that has built authority within your niche then you can consider allowing some sponsored posts. It’s crazy how much companies are willing to pay you to market to your readers. It’s definitely something to look into.

Trademark: If you got something good going on for you right now, do this now. Seriously look into trademarking it. It can be your websites domain name, company name, or logo. It’s wise to look into, or even checking to see if somebody has already trademarked what you are working on. If you don’t this can come to bite you later on, as I’ve learned.

Guest posts: It’s smart to connect with other bloggers in your niche. You’ll also want to engage in guest posts on their blogs so that you can be seen by their readers. This can lead to more traffic to your blog which is more money for you.

Create a product, service, or class: Once you have people who trust you or steady traffic you’ll want to create a product or service. For me, I started a student loan payoff guide and I am working on a side hustle guide. I also plan on building more guides and classes out on my sites as the traffic continues to grow.

Email marketing: Had to include a 6th, because this one is so important. You’ll want to focus on collecting emails no matter what niche you are. Then you can create a series of onboarding emails to sell to your fan. You can even set emails to send 100 days after they originally subscribed. Get creative, and figure out what value you can provide to your subscriber and how to give them that through emails. I include some affiliate marketing and created a how to start a blog email course as well. It’s a great way to connect with your readers and make some sales!

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this. :-)

I’d love to be able to talk to any of the sharks from Shark Tank. I’d want to see how I stack up as an entrepreneur in their mind and gain some insight from any of them. I’ve got quite a few questions and would love to learn more from someone of their caliber.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

You can follow me on Twitter @TheMillennialMG