Content creators? Full time job?

[JustWonderingggg]

I keep seeing accounts where people are basically just filming their normal family life school runs, food shops, the usual chaos and they’ve got thousands of followers. They refer to it as their full-time job…

From the outside it looks fairly straightforward, and a lot of it seems quite generic, yet they talk about it as “work.” They’re being sent hundreds of pounds’ worth of items from Amazon wish lists, getting gifted bits from brands, and even having people offer to do things for them for free.

So how much are they genuinely making from this?
I appreciate it might not be long-term sustainable, but in the short to medium term is it actually quite lucrative? Or does it just look easier (and more profitable) than it really is?

A few of the mums I follow seem to put lots of stuff in their captions like “single mum” “council house” “benefits” “tax payers” as rage bait as they call it, but the same people are having people falling over themselves offering to send them free items (which they video themselves opening)

It's a full time job for very little reward. A 60 second video can take hours to plan, stage, film, edit and post. With no guarantee of return. So is it a full time job? Yes. Is it well paid? Not usually.
You can't pay your rent with Amazon vouchers and brand gifts either.

I run a social media account for my business and takes easily 70-80% of my business time.

Don't think mamy make a living on that sort of content because what paying brand wants to work with someone who does rage bait?

Recently I saw someone making a really shitty dinner for their kids in a massively cluttered kitchen and it was absolutely ragebait. Can't see Mccains queuing up.

Ont he other hand, a lot of work and variability. One friend has a 300k+ following on something like dog walking (not actually that). She gets food and toys sent and she does a lot of work on providing value: happy content & educational. But she gets a lot of abuse as well e.g. why are you walking a pug, awful breed etc.

A friend of a friend promoted her hugely well earning only fans account with just a few free pics. It's a teaser to drive payment.

A friend of mine has started to do it and has built up a big enough following. But her posts and reels irritate me so I unfollowed her 😂 She wasn't impressed but I told her exactly why. I'm not a fan of seeing kids online, especially when used for views.

She literally shows her shouting at the kids to get dressed or clean up calling it "Mom Life" blah blah blah.... "Come with me to Tesco with a Toddler".

The reels are boring but she has built up over the last 6 months and is now getting upwards of 3m views each. She has quit her day job and makes money from clicks on her TikTok shop and gets paid to advertise things like tan or hair stuff. She is in the lowest category that he "PR Team" have due to low number of followers but if she does 3 Instagram stories a month for some of the brands she's paid 500quid.

In her stories she's often in her dressing gown or pj's and it grates me so much 😂

But I cant see it being sustainable long term?

I’ve often wondered this.

I think there are definitely some who are making a substantial income, but others are just doing it for the likes and freebies.

Well one apparently makes thousands from it and enough to buy a house?? She films herself packing disgusting packed lunches for her kid as ‘rage bait’ another mum I’ve seen films herself cleaning or shopping with captions like “come and clean my filthy council house with me” not sure how much planning or staging that takes she’s usually just cleaning her house which isn’t even that messy so it’s clearly click bait

There are people on SM who do a monthly breakdown of how much they make from views, brand deals etc.
Theres a couple who do food reviews and most videos seem to make a loss compared to the food spend. Worth watching a few.

On TikTok you need 10k followers and a level of views before you can start earning and it can go from pounds to pennies month to month.

Really everyone and his dog is trying to make money and it’s a lot of work and luck of the draw who does.

That's fine with me if you want to believe how much someone "apparently" makes based on... I don't know. Why don't you try it yourself and come back to report.
I can only tell you my experience as someone who runs SM for a small business.

Not sure why you are being snippy, they are saying how much they make! They brag that they are making thousands each month (enough to not need to work) a small business isnt what im talking about they are just filming their day to day lives, mundane stuff we all do but have 200k+ followers

I guess that for everyone that makes money, there are hundreds who don't.

Personally I hate them. I also hate the way they prey on small businesses. I had an order this morning but she doesn't want to pay for it - apparently the exposure she can get me is enough.

I haven't bothered responding.

Just filming their day to.day mundane lives.... take time. A 30 second reel could take 2 hours prepare (insane I know) but they obviously need to record a few takes, edit it etc.

I live watching YouTube restaurant reviews or travel reviews but I'm not a fan of Mary down the road showing me her new gifted ad razor 😂 But obviously someone likes it

There is no definition of “full time content creator”- they can call timelines what they like. Most of them will be sahms who are just filming their lives. No one is paying them.

sahm’s filming their lives are not getting sent Amazon stuff / being gifted high value or regular items.

if you have A LOT of followers and high engagement, you can broker deals or pay an agent to do so. Obviously the people getting serious monies are the Mrs hinchss, Lorna Luxes of the world. Millions of followers and other sources of income.

your school mum mate might make £8 a month from TikTok if she’s lucky.

I didn’t call them mundane I said “mundane stuff WE all do” like cleaning or shopping.

Wow

Who ate your cornflakes 😂

It’s a really crowded market too because hey, what a nice job it would be just to film your day to day and get paid and sent things from brands. For every one influencer raking it in, there will be hundreds who get paid pittance or nothing at all. It takes a fair while to buildup a following, let alone one you can monetise.

I also think the parent content creators who are monetising their children are not acting ethically and putting the digital spotlight on them in quite an uncomfortable way.

I don’t know any of them, and two that I’ve seen absolutely are being sent regular Amazon packages they film it and read out the gift notes thanking the people who haven’t sent it.

I know someone like this. Has contracts with some big name companies. However, it’s hard work. She was actually looking for paid work last year. And she has some side ventures including mentoring people who want to do what she does.

I don't want to go to Tesco with my OWN toddler. Why on earth would I want to watch you go with yours 😂

The one I know is renting. From family. They’d love to move back to London but too expensive.

I know these tiktoker and they are not your average SAHM filming content. As you say, the are one of a few people filming rage bait. They won’t get paid much and it’ll be short lived. But it’s not a usual content creator “job”

i have a friend with 250000 followers are the account doesn't pay her much but she uses it to land multiple businesses around fitness and coaching which do pay.

instagram/ facebook don’t pay you as such. Tiktok does if you’re in the creator fund- for context a video with millions of views might earn you £40.

See, THAT is pure ragebait. There is NO NEED to mention it's a council house in this context, apart from riling everyone up about about the fact she has a council house despite that fact she could buy her own 😂

On my Instragram algorithm, I seem to get ‘family going to Australia’ accounts. I followed one or two out of interest, but the content across all of them became very samey - kid walking along beach, Uk v Aus prices, another picture of a beach etc. One family must have been getting desperate because the post was … husband and wife playing UNO.

I also feel, in this day and age when there’s alot higher awareness of kids privacy, consent, safeguarding etc that these families are using their children.

I’m a full time tiktokker.
People who are in the creator programme get paid per view but TT is the worst one for that. Far better on YouTube. They drastically reduced the payments so a million views pays hardly anything now. Most of the content creators make money through brand deals since the change. There’s a huge amount of money to be made if you’re a popular creator.

I make money as an TT affiliate and it’s my full time job. I do film day to day and GRWM too just so it’s not all sales stuff. It’s not easy though and it’s very competitive. When it ends I’ll do something else but right now I love it. Im mid 50s btw. Not a young one!

Some of which I’m sure are real, but there’s also a good chance that they send themselves some of it to try and get people to copy!

A friend of mine is a content creator. Seems to get a fair bit of free stuff, but next to no actual money. She’s currently really pushing for paid deals to try and turn it in to a full time job.

Another friend has recently quit, said she was tired of seeing her whole life as “content”, was a very mentally unhealthy way to live.

I just want to figure out how I can make money off an account without having to show my face!

People have questioned why her kids share a room and she still lives in a council house if she is making as much money as she claims. I think she’s claiming to have bought 2 houses now, all very strange.

Not the same content, but my partner makes about 16k a year with around 25k followers, if a video does well it can net you quite a bit of money.
it’s all baffling to me but he works hard, it’s like a second job. He has content in YouTube.