Scroll through any social media for five minutes and you'll notice something. A lot of what people have isn't a building or a machine. It's people. 40,000 followers on X who love boating. A newsletter read by 35,000 teachers. A cycling group of 600 who actually know each other's names. A community of 20,000 swimming pool owners, which I didn't know was a thing until last week and now think about more than I should.
And almost every one of these listings says some version of the same sentence: built this slowly, never really did anything commercial with it.
Part of the hesitation, I think, is a fear that "doing something" with an audience means selling them out. It doesn't have to. Here are seven ways it can work, starting with the most familiar.
1. Sponsorship. The classic. A brand pays to be mentioned in your newsletter, podcast or feed. A podcast listened to by 15,000 business owners every week is exactly the kind of place an accounting tool or an insurance broker wants to be heard. Simple, and it works best when you'd genuinely mention the product anyway.
2. Sending a partner's offer, keeping your list. This is the one I wish more people knew about. You never hand over names or emails. Your partner gives you an offer, you send it to your people in your own words, and anyone interested contacts them. The list stays yours, your subscribers' trust stays intact, and you still get paid. If you've made promises to subscribers about how you'll use their details, those promises come first, and this model usually lets you keep them.
3. Referrals. You point your audience towards someone good and earn something when they buy. Twenty thousand pool owners will, at some point, all need a pool service, a heat pump or a new cover. Recommending one you trust is useful to them and to you.
4. Content together. Someone with expertise creates something for your audience, you give it a home. A boating account on X and a local marina could run a series on the best anchorages in South Florida. They get reach, you get material your followers actually want, nobody has to invent a campaign.
5. Events and experiences. Some audiences want to meet. A cycling group of 600 is basically a Saturday morning waiting for a sponsor: a bike shop hosting the start, a café at the halfway point, a brand bringing kit to try. It's the most human option on this list, and probably the one people remember longest.
6. Feedback and research. Companies building something often need to hear from exactly the people you've gathered. A private community of physicians, or architects, or startup founders, is incredibly valuable to someone testing an idea. Done properly, with members choosing to take part and being paid for their time, it can feel less like advertising and more like being asked for your opinion.
7. Making something together. My favourite, and the one that can grow the most. You bring the audience and what you know about them. A partner brings the ability to make things. A newsletter for 14,000 people who live aboard boats knows exactly which gadget everyone complains about. A maker could build it. The audience helps shape it, then buys it, and suddenly a newsletter has a product line.
If there's one thread through all seven, it's this. The audience trusts you, and that trust is the thing with value. One cycling organiser on the feed put it perfectly: open to ideas that would genuinely help them. That seems like the right test for any proposal. Would your people thank you for it?
So if you've got a following you've never known what to do with, maybe the question isn't how to make money from them. Maybe it's who they'd be glad to meet.