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)

You're claiming that they're earning enough "to not need to work" but what they're doing is work. The tiny percentage of these content creators who earn enough from it to actually support themselves and their families are putting in hours and hours of work to get to that position and to keep themselves there.

But it's also the case that there's way more content creators who are simply lying about earning enough money from it to support themselves, than those who actually do.

I think there used to be big money for youtube families, the ones who got in at the right time.
I believe tiktok has a creator fund so if your videos get a certain amount of views you do get some money, and if you get a big enough following you can get brand deals
Some people are absolutely rage baiting though to get engagement like the creator with a few kids and the house been an absolute state (people actually reported her to social services) or people doing videos of how my bf told me to get dressed up and he would take me for a fancy dinner than the bf throws food at her or something, I can't believe people would film this and put it online without them getting some funds for it. (Falls into ragebait)
Some are honest and talk about how the creator fund helps them so they appreciate it if you can engage with them
There's also seems to be 'leaving the UK for a better life with my family' ones and suprise suprise it's a bit harder to get jobs / schools than originally thought and than they are moving to another place than the kids are missing their friends in the UK and they return home because it's what the kids wanted 🙄 (more like they realised life isn't easy anywhere)

I live in Saudi and the Saudi influencer is everywhere here. No one is producing interesting innovative content. All western mums bragging about their lives here. All of their content is identical and very very boring. There are about five alone who live in my apartment complex.

It seems an utterly boring way to live. Why spend your life chasing brand deals and farming your kids private lives out for clicks and cash? People would do well to read Moral Ambition and get a real job that is actually worth doing.

I know someone who does this and she gets a lot of free stuff but not much actual money.

I know a young woman who basically posts herself pouting and twirling in sheer tops, miming to songs in the hope a footballer will notice her and ask her out. That’s her and goal and it’s really quite pathetic.

Thats why im asking about it, is it considered a job/ employment, most of them caption about being on benefits.

The comments give them money, I don’t know if some of them stage their own drama but quite often they will have a toxic ex, a troll, or a family member thats reported them to SS, which they use to create drama and “content” one was even accused of trolling herself to get more comments because it equals more cash.

And one young mum that I came across quite often thanks the “tax payers” or captions her posts as “free flat funded by tax payers” it’s obviously to rage bait but she gets sent a lot of gifts.

Well, they say they are being sent packages.

Same way MLMers say they only have X spaces left on their team.

Anyone can say anything. Just like you can send your own gift note.

If people think they are popular enough to be sent stuff then they are being influenced, even if it isn't an immediate behaviour change.

They have tons of comments from people asking to send them stuff or asking for their wish list but I guess that could also be them too on fake accounts 🤦‍♀️😌

The dubai millionaires wife is hilarious but she makes more money and gets mor hits than anyone because 90% of her followers are there to tell the rest of the world on every post that shes a fraud.

The ones that order a takeaway and post themselves putting food onto a plate and then diving in for a taste are marvellous in the fact that why on earth does anyone watch them? I include myself in this. I can order a chinese myself anytime and plate it up but its the rigmarole involved that is entertainment for when you are in the loo or on hold to a company or something. Cant imagine most make too much money and their kids will hate them in the future but thats their issues I guess.

So she posts crap online about her housing to drive engagement. Isn't the most obvious conclusion then that what she's claiming about those gifts is also crap that she's just posting to, well, drive engagement too?

Or to put it another way, why do you believe anything she says?

Again she has tons of comments from people offering to send her things or asking if she’s received the gifts, are you suggesting she’s faking those comments?

Quite possibly. There are entire industries built up around selling fake followers to content creators so they can boost their audience numbers. With the rise in AI this is only going to get cheaper, easier and worse.

https://socialblade.com/

Is worth a play - check your favourite creators.

Some of the people I follow are definitely making a lot and are pretty smart with brand deals etc. You can make a good living out of it if yours is something people like, and follow.

It's cringe. And the amount of people using their children for "content" is shocking.. the amount of saves on the videos is worrying and they still continue.

My teen DS makes £1000 a month and barely does anything. I’m kinda jealous

None of this is new. The first ones I recall getting brand deals were Elle and Blair Fowler back in about 2008 when they used to push certain makeup and fashion brands. Some of the ones who were teenagers doing makeup in their bedrooms are now mums of 1/2/3 kids.
Most of them have a management team. One of the easiest things to get into is cleaning videos because Flash/Method and the like will ask for say 10 cleaning influencers who are all signed with the same agency. This is why you see the same thing pushed multiple times (at one point everyone signed with Gleam Futures was pushing a Sky Glass telly or a Tony box). It's just an ad disguised as"regular old me and my life".

As for the rage bait - they get views. Sometimes companies just look at views and not the content.

Edit - here we go. This is one which has influencers listed on their roster alongside comedy acts/sportspeople and so on.

https://www.outreachtalentgroup.com/our-talent-uk/

My friend quit a successful career in Law to become an influencer and 7 years on she still has to supplement her income from content creation with a very part-time job in retail. However she’s MUCH happier.

I wish I had the balls to do something similar.

I think a lot of ‘real’ jobs pay appallingly these days due to wage stagnation, particularly in the UK. There are also fewer real jobs around, and that’s before we see the true impact of AI.

@JustWonderingggg isn't it a sad reflection of the world we live in that these 'content creators' can attract hundreds of thousands of followers and income just by posting multiple times a day about trivia?
One I'm thinking of started off quite legitimately sharing her slimming journey and recipes. It went viral presumably because of so many people following the same slimming plan.
It then became a dozen or more posts a day about her frankly boring life and shopping obsession. She sees herself as a media star 🙄
I do wonder whether this trend impacts on young worklessness and the expectation of money for basically nothing.

i think people think im referring to the ones that pretend to have perfect lives (or maybe they do) im not referring to those people, the ones I follow have messy homes (they call it messy themselves) and just film themselves cleaning it or going shopping for products to clean it, one has just moved in to her “council house funded by the tax payers” and its messy (as it would be when you just moved) so not sure they are planning and retaking for hours making sure everything is perfect, theres also one that just literally videos her kids dinners and has hundreds of thousands of followers. im not sure how much effort it takes to video your food.

No, I do know what you mean, but they are doing this because it's "relatable" content (and the taxpayer stuff/tags are rage bait to get their view count up). So it'll be clean with me as a messy single mum of 3 with ADHD for example. There's one called Amanduuh (I think) who used to do voiceovers answering the negative comments on her cleaning videos. It's like a new wave of people posting the antithesis of the perfect Instagram life.