To wonder how much influencers are actually making?

[BlackChair]

I mean, there are videos of people just filming their usual family shit…but they have 1,000s of followers and it looks like it’s a full time job.

How much are they making? How hard is it?

I get that it might not be long-term sustainable but for the short/medium-term is it actually quite lucrative? Are we all missing a trick?!

This is semi-lighthearted by the way. It looks easy, lots seems to be pretty vague or generic but perhaps there really is something in it?

On tiktok the creator fund doesn't pay enough to live on for most people although I think YouTube pays a bit better. However once you have another followers to be doing brand deals and ads the money can be insane. There's quite a few influencers on tiktok who do videos on what they earn each month.

I wouldn’t say it’s easy, I’d say it’s non stop with no let up (or even the odd day off). I always think of eg Ssundee (gamer)- the kids live for him. There are times he looks wrecked, others wired, others like he’s lost too much weight. The kids always say ‘that was when he was having marriage problems etc)- imagine going through that and then having to act like you were all chirpy and excited!!! Plus You have to be consistent (look at how much content they have and how often they put it out) but also you have to catch a break. As an author I’m in awe!!

Yeah I often wonder how much goes into each post. I don’t use TT but am an avid insta doom scroller. Particular on home/diy/interiors as this is relevant for me right now.

Some accounts I follow are with people doing the most mundane thing (making an arrangement of flower pots look nice) but they have nearly 1m followers.

The US ones seem to have Amazon affiliate link sprinkled in every now and again. I wonder how much that makes?

Oh and there’s a guy who sells weight loss meal plans for about £10 each. I bought one and whilst it’s nice enough, it’s not tailored or anything, and was just a download link. He must be making a decent passive income with that….

I think they probably make a decent living. Plus the freebies. One I follow on insta is on a free luxury holiday right now. One my 3yr old nephew loves Vlad and someone (i forget) seems to be making an absolute packet (millions).

They make loads. They charge £££ to promote stuff - plus more if people use their code. Hello Fresh, estrid razors, skin and me and some magnetic toothbrush (??) all seem to be on the promo list at the minute.

On top of that they get "gifted" or"pr stay" or "pr trip" loads. Generally this is indicated in teeny tiny script somewhere. I saw one in Finland recently with her whole family, same person was in the Maldives recently.

Then every "you've been messaging me about x" will include a - sometimes less than clear - aff link to said product that gives them money when you click / buy from that retailer.

That's in addition to all of the stuff they don't declare. So it's a healthy mix of cold hard cash and free stuff that gives the impression of wealth / lifestyle.

I do think it's a graft to get popular and stay popular. Plus having to put yourself out there and open yourself to lots of criticism.

I have an acquaintance that makes very good money on mainly TikTok but also insta. However the hate she gets is next level and it's vile. You'd need to be mentally strong as people post and comment on EVERYTHING about your life, dig up your past and lie about you - mostly negative. I feel sorry for her now.

Building up an initial following to get to the “easy” part of just posting cleaning ads or a deodorant ad is the hard part! Then you’ve got to maintain the following. If it was easy we would all be doing it!

I know someone who has a YouTube channel, she makes about £2k a month (but she lives with parents so she's quite happy with that)

The good ones earn a lot through endorsements, pantheon etc, but for those you see, thousands won’t be.

Also, it’s hard work. I started following a couple of families, and came off because I hated seeing the kids ‘sold’ for public gain (plus it got boring) - kids going to school, walking along a beach and all the ‘aren’t we wonderful to be living this life’ type comments.

Dh follows Vagabond, a sailing family who have a huge international following. They’re very wealthy, but it’s a full time job. They’ve also been honest about how it affects them, negatively and positively.

I follow a few travel vloggers and they can make pretty good money from youtube if they have enough people subscribing and watching. They get money from ads, patreon, sponsorship deals can be lucrative, they can get free stays, cruises etc sometimes and can sell merch, travel guides etc. They earn enough to cover all their expenses but there are high expectations of video quality and content - and time, thought and effort is put into planning, filming and editing.

A very few make millions, around 5 % just about break even, the vast majority are losing money or wasting their time.

Does she live up North?

My son makes £500 a month on YouTube without even trying. He just does it for fun and puts next to no effort into it so I imagine he would make far more if he tried

How are the TT ones making money? Sponsored posts / aff links still like insta?

I could never open my life up like that but there are also faceless accounts that seem to do well too.

I’m fascinated by the whole thing (showing my age!) in terms of how it’s become a thing. Not only marketing other people’s or other companies stuff, but directly selling your own too. The whole world is a potential customer!! Totally border less opportunities!

What does he do for that?

Also a lot have moved to a subscriber model so for a relative small monthly fee eg £2.99 you get added content. If even 500 people sign up that's a nice wee chunk every month with a bit of effort. Plus relying on then fact people fail to cancel subscriptions!!

I think it’s pretty ignorant to say it’s “easy”.

I follow somebody who is buying a house on the back of it. Surely it’s not that reliable an income. I wouldn’t want to base a mortgage on it .

My niece is an influencer. Primarily on TikTok where she has a huge following.

She reckons she easily nets £250k a year. I have no idea how this works as she doesn’t post loads of content. For her, it’s easy. She calls it ‘working’ but admits it’s anything but. She never seems to get any negative comments or bitchiness, so it’s been nothing but positive for her.

There’s a 3 part documentary on NowTv called ‘an update on our family’ that, although not exclusively about ‘influencers’, it does give a lot of first hand insight

Well I said it “looks” easy. I didn’t say it was easy. And then I wonder how much time it actually takes to do the nice flower pot arranging (thinking of content, fining the content, editing the content).

I guess my point was more that I understand that niche topics will get following because it’s a niche, but that there’s a lot of very generic content out there (like someone else said just normal family day to day stuff that doesn’t look so well thought through or planned or edited) that STILL appeals to the masses…

See I find it awesome that this can happen.

What does she influence about?

This js your competition

and some statistics

www.ion.co/influencers-potential-lost-earnings-covid

Nothing in particular! Broadly, health and wellbeing. It helps that she’s extremely pretty, and posh.

The idea that you could be earning hundreds through social media, whether active or passive, is really enticing.

What would wreck me is having a cool idea for a post and then having to analyse it from absolutely every angle of perception. You’d have to have an image of the end result/aesthetic and reverse engineer everything to look perfect in the eyes of your market and to keep up your reputation or fall foul of trolls.

Watching the Gabby Petito documentary has opened my eyes to the immense level of cringe that goes on behind the camera in trying to get that “perfect whimsical content” that is supposed to be showing you living authentically but is actually anything but.