Make Money With Memes

It doesn’t take much at all – pictures of cats with clever sayings written in Microsoft Paint or a simple cell phone video showing the unabashed ecstasy of witnessing a double rainbow – and suddenly a person finds themselves an Internet celebrity. A meme is an Internet phenomenon that spreads virally, almost overnight in some cases. While a majority of Internet memes are created accidentally, or perhaps drunkenly, there are some steps that a person can take to make money with these Internet memes.

How To Create an Internet Meme

It takes some creativity but most Internet memes are nothing more than a funny picture with some sort of saying. A good way to start is to browse Google images and find an interesting picture that you can create a back story to. You can turn almost anything into a meme from a picture of an angry wolf to a school picture from the 1980′s.

Have Great Content

Humor is the best way to make money with Internet memes. Another important factor to take into account is having material that people can relate to. For instance, “Things My Kids Say” is going to be way more popular than “Everyday Antics Of Biochemical Reactor Studies.” A popular meme is Bad Luck Brian who just can’t seem to catch a break in life. Most people in this social networking day and age are painfully familiar with “types crushes name in search bar on Facebook….accidentally posts as status for everybody to see.”
When creating content to make money with an Internet meme remember to be funny and be original. Another good idea is to steer clear of controversial or hateful comments. A key to making money with Internet memes is to show potential advertisers a low turnover rate to your website and you don’t want to drive away visitors through hurtful, racist, or just downright rude comments. LOLCats was a genius meme because it’s type of content opened up avenues for TV, advertising, calendars, comics and more whereas a meme such as “Racist Randy” might be limited to the back pages of free magazines you see on the Las Vegas strip.

Distribution

In the prehistoric days of the Internet, you would’ve needed your own website to try and draw visitors to view your newly created memes. Nowadays, through the power of Facebook and Twitter you can distribute your memes for free and build a huger online following. Once you’ve fine tuned your meme and created a surplus of content, create a niche group or page dedicated to the meme. After this, tell all your Facebook friends and if the memes are funny and original, your friends will tell their friends and before you know it you’ll have a legion at your hands. Every time you post a new meme, it will go directly to your followers’ news feed and they’ll leave constructive criticism or rave at your genius-ness.
The website knowyourmeme.com is also base headquarters for Internet memes where you should attempt to get your meme recognized as well as fine tune your comic timing by creating and submitting new slogans for existing memes. You’ll know where you rank when you go up against the heavyweights at knowyourmeme.com.

Finally Making The Money With Internet Memes

Once you’ve built your Twitter followers or Facebook group members into the tens of thousands, offers will come your way wanting to buy the rights to your Internet meme. Well, actually what these companies want to do is buy the followers that you’ve earned as followers are the new currency of the digital age. These companies that purchase Twitter accounts or Facebook Groups do so in order to drive people to their new web sites, Twitter accounts, Facebook Groups etcetera in the hopes of selling them subscriptions or goods.
While the lure of a lump sum is tempting, there are some things to consider before typing YES YES YES in the return email to these advertisers. For instance, for some meme creators their pet projects turn into a passion. There was a story about the creator of NBA memes on Facebook who had his content deceptively taken from him and threatened legal action to get it back, which he eventually did. You might also alienate your followers as when you sell your meme the content will be more advertising and site driving. They might consider you a ‘sell out’ and this will in turn make them hesitant to follow you as you try to make money on your next Internet meme.
Another thing to take into account is the long term potential of your meme. While “Everyday Antics Of Biochemical Reactor Studies” might not ever get pitched for a CBS pilot, somebody at the network might see your writing style and bring you on board to write for a new raunchy comedy for the new version of Charlie Sheen. You can then move to Hollywood, develop a drug problem, enter rehab and start over your life as a born again Christian – something that couldn’t have been possible if you would’ve sold your meme to the first bidder.
Ahh Meme-ories. Image credit