The digital age has created many new ways for martial artists to monetize their skills without necessarily having to compete. It doesn’t matter if you’re a white belt, an instructor, or an amateur fighter; you can now leverage digital platforms to build income streams that can fund your training and more.
Monetizing your Martial Arts Skills in the Digital Age
Some of the popular ways martial artists are monetizing their skills today include:
1. Live-Stream/Vlog
Gamers and influencers aren’t the only ones building followings and income streams with live streaming these days. Platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram allow users to stream everything from sparring sessions to Q&As. You don’t have to be a black belt or world champion to monetize your martial arts skills with live streams; you just have to be interesting.
Some of the things you can do to separate your live streams from your competitors include:
- Niche down: Niche down if you’re new to streaming, so your videos don’t get lost in the abyss of thousands of videos covering the same topics. Focus on specific niches people would be interested in. For example, you can start with live streams reviewing martial arts dojos in your local area. Just make sure you talk to instructors about any rules regarding recording sessions.
- Engage: Once you’ve started building an audience, develop creative ways to interact with them, such as responding to comments on your stream.
- Monetize: Enable tips like Super Chats on YouTube to start earning revenue, and consider using sites like Patron to offer premium content. Remember that the key to growing your audience is providing value to your users, so keep thinking of ways you can help them.
- Upload consistently: Uploaded new content regularly is one of the most crucial aspects of building followings on social media. Create content in batches, so you have enough interesting videos to upload for weeks if something comes up.
2. Sell Online Courses
The online learning industry is estimated to be worth over $325 billion, and many people are willing to pay for martial arts expertise. Use sites like Udemy to launch courses if you’re experienced enough.
Some of the things you should keep in mind when creating online courses include:
- Keep lessons short: Break down your courses into five to ten minutes to make it easier for readers to learn at their own pace. You don’t want to bombard readers with too much information in any section.
- Film professionally: Most newer smartphones come with pretty good cameras, so you don’t need to invest in a camera early on. You need a tripod, good lighting, and decent editing skills to make professional-looking videos. You can invest in a high-tech camera when the earnings from your side hustle justify the expense.
3. Harness the Power of Social Media (One Meme at a Time)
Social media makes it easier than it’s ever been to showcase your skills, especially when you understand how the algorithms that many of these platforms use work. Successfully monetizing your martial arts skills requires a strong social media presence.
Some simple content ideas that can help generate followings on social media include:
- Mini tutorials: Create short 30-second training-related videos like how to wash boxing gloves.
- Behind-the-scenes content: Create content on topics like meal prep or vlog your favorite recovery activities.
- Collaborate: Tag local gyms or collaborate with fitness influencers. Working with influencers with larger followings than yours is an effective way to grow your audience. Find influencers who have followings with similar interests.
4. Diversify Like a Swiss Army Knife
Streaming and selling online courses aren’t the only ways to go about monetizing your martial arts skills. Other potential side hustles include:
- Blogging: Blogging is an excellent way to monetize your experience as a martial artist if you have the writing chops. You can blog about all your experiences at the gym and monetize with platforms like AdSense.
- E-books: You can monetize engaging experiences you’ve had as a martial artist by publishing e-books or paper copies. You can cover topics like “How I survived my first MMA fight.”
- Affiliate marketing: You can earn extra income by promoting your favorite training gear, equipment, and aids and earning commissions on sales.
5. Widen Your Reach by Competing
There’s never been a better time to compete in combat sports. Most combat sports athletes struggled to make ends meet a few decades ago because of their low earnings. Only the fighters at the top of the food chain were financially rewarded well. That’s one of the reasons why fighters as old as Mike Tyson still feel a need to compete.
The digital age has drastically changed things for modern fighters. Competing for major promotions like ONE Championship or the UFC exposes fighters to millions of fans who they can convert into followers on social media.
Conor McGregor is the best example of this reality, with over 47 million followers on social media. He’s literally more popular than the sport of mixed martial arts itself.
That’s 47 million people waiting to click on any content McGregor uploads and earn him advertising dollars or buy any products he’s promoting. Factor that with the $100 million he earned for fighting Floyd Mayweather, it’s not surprising that McGregor sightings inside a cage have been rare in the past few years.
Don’t be shocked if he eventually seeks a political office in Ireland someday. That’s how much fighters can gain by monetizing their martial arts skills on digital platforms. Many modern professional fighters no longer rely on fight promoters as their primary source of income, and that’s a good thing.
Competing gets many eyes on you and is one of the fastest ways martial artists can build significant followings. You just have to perform at a high level to captivate potential fans.
Your Skills Are Currency—Spend Wisely
The digital economy rewards creativity, whether live-streaming your favorite Muay Thai drills or turning your failed armbar into a viral meme. Over time, more opportunities will open up as you improve as a martial artist.
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