I’ll bite. I’m well over 10k and well under 100k on Instagram. I don’t cover the big topics - I’m not a fashion, beauty, finance, or parenting account. I was blogging on a niche topic since the 1990s as a hobby, so I was already doing this stuff before Instagram and had an audience of a few thousand to follow me over and then it grew. I have a similar number of followers on YouTube. I don’t have any interest in Tiktok.
Because I cover something less universal, no giant brand is going to pay to be in my posts. I get requests for really odd ball things that have nothing to do with my topic, including frying pans, medications, and window treatments, and I say no to those. There are plenty who would say yes and find some way to link it to make it make sense but that is not my thing. So I suppose that is money turned down. I have also had several requests from a milkshake diet brand to feature them for £500 - including instructions on how to pose for the before and after photos on the same day so it’s only one day of work. To that I say Oh Hell No. So please be aware of any sponsored before and after post because there is zero shame from the companies asking. They are preying on accounts that have a mostly female audience and using trickery and cash to get their spokesmodels.
I make money off three main things: people clicking my affiliate links to buy the products I show them how to use, people paying for ‘premium content’ (sorry to be less than exciting but this is more I will give you an easy to follow lesson to help you knit some socks than an OnlyFans kind of set up), and by working with companies to design things people can buy (sometimes ‘merch’ like t-shirts and stickers, but also like the yarn to knit those socks if you want yours to look just like mine).
I get some freebies but they are few and far between and I always disclose if I’m using something someone has sent me rather than something I bought. I don’t say it’s nice just because it was free but I know people who do! No free holidays for me but the equivalent of free yarn/knitting needles sometimes and every once in a while, something really surprising like a brand once sent Christmas presents to my whole family that we’re really well matched to each of us and wasn’t just some chocolate or something.
More and more I’ve also been taking photos for instagrammers and that is eye-opening. I won’t do it for free and some are shocked and assume I would do it for having my name tagged. Others fully expect to pay. I don’t know what makes the difference, because it’s not really aligned to years as an influencer or the size of their account. Just some are more cheeky than others I suppose. Free doesn’t pay my bills so I don’t do it. There’s also a real mix of those who know how to pose and are natural in front of the camera and those who need to be put into position for each shot. Annnnnd many people wear clothes with the tags still on and either take them back to the shop or sell them on Depop as BNWT after they’ve worn them for pictures, because heaven forbid they ever be photographed in the same outfit twice. Not all of them though - the whole spectrum is there.
Instagram is definitely not my job but it’s a big part of my job in that it’s the place where people keep up with what I’m doing so they will go from Instagram to the yarn for sale or the sock tutorial, and there are definitely people who just watch my free stuff on Insta or YouTube and don’t go pay for more.
We often joke in this house that if I’d been blogging about make-up or video games in the 90s instead of socks, then our mortgage would be paid off by now. But at least no one expects me to knit socks without getting any older and that’s basically what beauty accounts are expected to do.