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Last Updated on December 10, 2022 by Chris Panteli
How to Make Money From Memes
Memes are ingrained in modern internet culture. You likely send or receive a meme every day. Don’t believe me? Here’s a meme stat that will blow your mind.
Instagram revealed that 1 million meme posts get shared every day. You read that right. 1 million a day.
And that’s only Instagram’s data. Memes can get shared online using other social platforms. If you use Facebook, Twitter, or even LinkedIn you’ll see countless memes. That means the true number of memes shared every day is likely in the tens of millions.
Memes are a fun way to communicate. Even when discussing serious topics, humorous memes can be used to convey feelings that get a message across.
Like almost everything else you can do online, you can make money from memes. The big question is how to make money from memes.
What Is a Meme?
A meme is an image that’s created to convey a message. Quality memes incorporate pop culture references. Images from TV, film, cartoons, video games, and music are often used as the base of the meme.
Famous people are also commonly used to make a funny meme. United States President Joe Biden, Billionaire Elon Musk, and rapper Snoop Dogg are some of the celebrities that feature in many humorous memes.
One key component of a good meme is the use of humor. The original image will often have text added or use an edited image to complete the joke.
Hilarious memes get shared using social media or email. Brands recognize the importance of memes in modern communication. Many brands employ a brand ambassador. That brand ambassador posts meme content on a regular basis to engage with fans of the brand. Posting humorous memes often helps attract new fans as well.
Know Your Memes
A popular meme gets shared on every social media platform. In the time it takes you to read this post at least one internet meme has probably been shared with you. If you’re not an avid follower of memes, it’s worth understanding the types of memes that exist.
Dank Memes
Dank memes are memes that have usually been overused. They may be ironic, offensive, or surreal. Dank memes can also refer to memes that are no longer considered funny. Sometimes they may be referred to as dead memes.
Meme Stocks
Meme stocks are so called because a stock has gained popularity with investors thanks to memes. An internet meme is created and shared on social media. Followers then start investing based on this perceived popularity. That gave rise to the name meme stocks.
Traditional Memes
Traditional memes (often called an internet meme) are the most commonly shared memes. A meme creator will take an image and add text to turn the image into a funny meme.
Those traditional memes are shared using social media and become part of modern internet culture.
Video Memes
If you run meme pages, you’re always looking for new ways to keep your audience entertained. Video memes allow a meme page to get more views as it’s something different. Instead of a still image, video memes are short clips that have been edited to turn them into a meme.
Viral Meme
A viral meme is a meme that gains massive popularity almost overnight. If you’re a meme maker that creates a viral meme you could be enjoying overnight success.
The key is to convert that into a sustainable business. Many viral memes disappear almost as quickly as they came. Making the most of that initial success is crucial.
How Much Money Can You Make From Memes
Making money online from memes can be lucrative. For example, the Disaster Girl meme sold for $500,000.
How much extra cash you make will depend on what you’re offering. Selling meme merchandise can be profitable. You may choose to create a meme account and sell ads. There are lots of ways to make money online from memes.
Here’s one example of an Instagram meme account that enjoyed massive success. Elliot Tebele started popular social media company Jerry Media in 2011. The company runs many notable Instagram meme accounts. That includes @beigecardigan started by Jessica Tebele, the wife of Jerry Media founder Elliot Tebele. A sponsored post on one of their Instagram pages will set you back $30,000.
With 3.9 million followers just on @beigecardigan the popularity of an Instagram meme page shouldn’t be understated.
As you can see, making money online from memes is totally possible. Now let’s see the different ways you can use memes to make extra cash.
How To Make Money From Memes
These tried and tested methods are all legit ways to make money from memes. You can start a meme page, sell meme merchandise, or earn crypto selling meme themed NFTs on the NFT marketplace.
As a meme maker you don’t have to limit yourself to one option. Try them all and make as much bank as possible.
Fiverr
Fiverr is a gig platform that allows freelancers to make money using their skills. You can make money selling memes on Fiverr.
A quick search on Fiverr using the search term ‘memes’ reveals hundreds of creators offering meme content. Offers to make a meme NFT, a viral meme, and a funny meme all appear in the top search results.
The good news if you want to be a Fiverr meme creator is that although there is some competition, there’s not a huge amount. Meme making is still a niche topic. If you can create quality memes, you can make extra cash on Fiverr.
As your Fiverr reputation grows, your sales should too.
Generate Blog Traffic
Blogs need one thing to make money. Traffic. There are lots of ways to drive traffic to a blog, including using memes.
You can create an Instagram meme account to share memes daily. The goal is that anyone viewing your Instagram meme page, then heads to your blog.
That blog traffic can be converted into cash. Blogs can make money using ads, merch sales, and affiliate marketing. Your bank account can enjoy extra cash just by directing traffic from your Instagram meme page to your blog.
Instagram is one of the best platforms for making money from memes. That’s because the whole point of Instagram is that the focus is on image-based content.
There are 2 epic ways to make money from memes using an Instagram account. Here’s both.
Start A Meme Instagram Account
You can start a meme Instagram account. Once you’ve got followers it’s time to make money.
Influencers can make money on Instagram from ads, affiliate marketing, or a sponsored post. Even a few thousand followers can be enough to start earning.
Companies of all sizes will pay you to connect with your followers. Make sure to post quality memes on a regular basis to your social media account. That way your follower number will continue to grow. Influencers with more followers can earn more.
One great example is @epicfunnypage. The Instagram meme account is dedicated to posting funny memes. Thanks to having over 16 million followers the influencers that run the account are estimated to earn over $90,000 per year. Not bad for posting funny memes and videos.
Sell Meme Merch
First, you need to pick a niche and start creating Instagram meme content. Most of your meme content should be memes related to your chosen niche. Although posting related posts is fine. Don’t confuse your target audience by posting memes that don’t fit with your social media account.
For example, a meme maker that focuses on money memes could make memes featuring billionaire Elon Musk, the United States dollar, or even United States President Joe Biden. All these topics and more could feature in a money meme.
Once you’ve grown a popular meme page, you can create products to sell that feature those memes.
Hoodies, mugs, and bags could all be sold using your designs. You could sell digital products featuring memes. Mobile wallpaper, printables, and screensavers are all popular.
To sell your designs you can open an Etsy store or use a Print-on-Demand company like Printify.
Your Instagram meme account will help drive traffic to your online store. This means more sales for you.
NFTs
NFTs are the latest part of the crypto boom. In case you don’t know NFT stands for non-fungible token.
An NFT is an image-based digital item. They can be bought and sold like crypto using an NFT marketplace.
One way to make money from memes is to mint and sell NFTs based on a meme. The Overly Attached Girlfriend meme was minted as an NFT in 2021 and sold for an incredible $411,000.
Most popular memes have already been given the NFT treatment. That doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of room for more on the NFT marketplace. You may need to get creative though.
Open An Etsy Store
An Etsy store gives you access to millions of customers worldwide. You can sell anything on Etsy including meme-themed products.
Let your creative mind take over. You could create artwork such as paintings or sculptures using memes as inspiration.
Other ideas include customizing products using memes. Bags, t-shirts, stickers, and jackets can all be customized with hilarious memes.
Browsing Etsy for meme inspired products reveals thousands of options. That includes one seller offering the ‘This Is Fine’ meme on a sticker.
Print-on-Demand
Print-on-Demand (POD) is an awesome way to make money online. You can sell cool meme inspired designs without needing to store any stock.
Get started by partnering with a POD company. Top POD companies to try are:
- Printify
- Redbubble
- Printful
All you need to do is create your designs and list them. They can be printed on clothing, wall art, stickers, stationery, and more.
Your printing partner handles the rest. Packing, shipping, and manufacturing are all taken care of by the POD company.
That leaves you free to sit back and collect your cash.
YouTube
YouTube content is wildly varied. One idea is to put together meme compilation videos that can be viewed on your YouTube channel.
Meme videos could have music playing in the background. You could do a voiceover talking through the memes. Or tell a story using hilarious memes as a visual aid.
To start making money from your YouTube channel you need 2 things:
- 1000 subscribers
- 4000 hours of watch time
When you hit those targets your YouTube channel can be monetized. Popular ways to make money on YouTube include ads, affiliate marketing, a sponsored post, and selling merch.
FAQs
Are memes copyrighted?
Copyright law is complex, and memes aren’t directly protected. Fair Use laws mean that you can usually reproduce most memes to use yourself.
Depending on how you want to make money from memes it may be best to avoid monetizing anything that is hugely commercial. For example, any characters owned by Disney.
Can I make a passive income from memes?
Passive income is when you earn a regular income without having to do more work.
Print-on-Demand is a great way to make a passive income from memes. Create your designs, list them for sale, and keep collecting that sweet passive income.
How do I make my own memes?
Now you know how to make money from memes, you need to learn how to become a meme maker. The good news is that you can use a meme generator to make your own popular meme in minutes.
Making a popular meme isn’t as hard as you think. Start by searching online for a meme generator. Then choose your meme template, edit, and share the meme using your social media account.
What makes a successful meme?
Meme making is easy. You can use a meme generator to quickly make any meme you can think of. The real talent is making a popular meme.
To do this your meme should be funny, unique, and relatable. You’ll notice most memes feature images that are instantly recognizable. President Joe Biden, billionaire Elon Musk, and former US President Barack Obama are examples of popular meme images due to their instant recognition.
Who Is Kyle Fernandes?
Kyle Fernandes is CEO and founder of Meme Chat. If you’re a meme creator, then Meme Chat can be a great way to share and profit from your memes. The platform was launched by Kyle Fernandes in 2019. Today, the platform is widely used to share quality memes and help their creators make money online.
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