The Internet and social media have been a platform for multi-digit earnings for several years now. The income of some influencers reaches millions, if not more. So many people want to get out of the office and be on-trend. Certainly, this is a perfectly proper reaction and impulse. It often happens that users have a shallow perception of "influencer's work" and the opportunity to make money on the Internet. So today we're going to look at this question in more detail.
Who is a influencers?
A influencer is a user who runs a blog and has a certain number of followers.
Blogs vary in the number of followers:
- nano (1-10 thousand)
- micro (10-100 thousand)
- macro (100-1 million)
- million-plus (from 1 million)
They are also differentiated by type:
- Personal. Here the user shares information that is aimed more at close people, friends, relatives, and family. It is difficult to monetize such an account since not all advertisers are interested in this type.
- Expert. The name speaks for itself. The profile conveys information relating to any area, such as finance, historical facts, or the law.
- Lifestyle. This type is similar to the first one, but in this case, the profile and its contents motivate, inspire, and bring out emotions. That should be interesting!
- Business. Products or services are often promoted on this kind of page. A business account aims to ensure that the user will purchase the promoted product, by visiting the page.
Platforms for blog promotion and making money
According to statistics, the most popular platforms are YouTube and Instagram. Recently TikTok is breaking all records in popularity and number of users.
First, let's talk about the first two.
YouTube
Video content is the most demand on social networks. There are now over 1 billion users on YouTube. You need to have several basic skills: writing a script, and setting up techniques for shooting and editing videos to become a influencer. These are just a few of the essentials. Definitely, you can pick up your phone, shoot a video, upload it to the channel you created, and wait for the payoff. However, we are talking about quality content that will generate interest from the audience and advertisers.
How you can make money on YouTube:
- Official partner program.
These are exactly the infamous ads that pop up during video views.
Payment is based on the number of views and conversions.
You must have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of views on your channel in the last year to become an official YouTube partner.
The content of the channel must correspond to the policy of the social network. No foul language, violence, actions that can cause injuries, or demonstrating tobacco products.
Google AdSense ads appear in the videos after the channel becomes a YouTube partner. The influencer gets paid for ad views if the subscriber viewed the ad or proceeded to the site.
In fact, the partner program generates little income for influencer, million-plus channels are exceptions.
2. Cooperation with advertisers.
This option is profitable and beneficial for influencer. The average price for placing ads is 50$ for small channels. The average channel gets 170-330$. The prices are much higher for the top channels: 3300-8500$
3. A new way to make money - a paid subscription.
Recently, a paid subscription was introduced to YouTube, where videos are viewed without advertising. In such cases, YouTube recalculates influencers' profits and adds some kind of bonus. This way is still only gaining popularity.
A influencer's earnings on Instagram do not depend on views, likes, or comments. The service does not pay for this.
The influencer gets its income from advertising publications. The advertisers' appeals depend on the topic, the broader it is, the easier it is to make advertising.
The average price ranges from 85$ to 340$ for profiles with a medium audience size. The influencers who have several million followers have a price of several thousand.
Blogs on Instagram are in in-demand by advertisers.
Facebook and TikTok
Influencers make money from promotional posts in the groups or on their pages on Facebook.
TikTok is a video service so the advertising publication will be a video too.
Brand ambassador
It is worth telling about this way of influencer’s earning.
Who is an ambassador? Wikipedia says it is a person hired by an organization or company to represent the brand positively. For example, Selena Gomez was a Puma ambassador.
Most often, companies contact famous Instagram or TikTok influencers who have an audience of millions for this service.
The cost ranges from 250$ to 1700$ per month.
Popular ways to make money
Now let's mention options for influencers that can be used regardless of the social network.
1. Partner programs
Some of them have already been discussed.
In most cases, influencers need to motivate the audience to click on a link or apply a personal promo code, in other words, make an action. After that, influencers are getting a certain percentage paid off. The more actions, the greater the payment.
It is a fact that almost everyone has applied to partner programs at the initial stage, to monetize the account.
2. Product sales
Here the influencer can urge the audience to buy the product. Both the one created by the influencer itself and the products of other creators.
3. Services
Guess you often see accounts of people who run professional accounts about law, graphic design, copywriting, and more. In this case, the influencer creates his brand on the social network. The focus is on maintaining an account to engage people in the activity. A blog is a tool to make more money.
4. Donations
Donations from subscribers to influencers. Any follower can donate a certain amount of money to their favorite influencers as a sign of respect and support.
5. Participation in projects
Influencers are often invited to various events, and projects in which you need to speak or express an expert opinion. Such activities are also paid for, and they receive their income.
Own website
This option, unfortunately, has outlived itself for 2022. Websites were popular before 2015, now the focus is shifted to social networks.
But it is possible to make:
- Contextual advertising. It is a text with links to another site. You got paid for each click.
- Banner and teaser advertising. It is an image that also leads to another site. The teasers have eye-catching captions to lead you to another website. Most often you got paid for clicks.
- Articles. In this case, the site is placed advertiser's commissioned material. The cost depends on the site traffic.
- External links. Sometimes some webmasters order the links posted to promote sites in search engines. Temporary - 50 cents. Permanently - from 1$.
How to keep the lights on
There are a lot of statements along the lines of: "The popularity will wane and they will be left without a penny in their pockets," "And then what?", "Who needs these influencers," and many others. Yes, there are enough examples of influencers who lost their fame and disappeared. But there are also enough examples when influencers have been at the top for years. So, what influences popularity?
- Reputation
It is necessary to maintain a reputation if the influencer has proven himself in a certain way. Doesn't matter if it's a positive or negative hype. It's always necessary to feed the audience with a news hook.
- Quality
influencers need to improve the quality of content each year, whether it's video or text and photos. Upgrading your equipment is an important point. No one wants to watch vlogs shot on an iPhone 7 or a 2015 camera in 2022.
- Team
Influencers should bring in a team of experts who will know their business from top to bottom and can adjust any imperfections. There are many tools for promotion and one person cannot keep track of everything, so it is worth delegating tasks between the team members.
DRIM
DRIM is a platform that provides performance-marketing agency services and jobs for influencers. It has a huge base on all social networks over the world.
Earned money is paid by the CPA system, in other words, payment for the result or the target action of subscribers. For example, a influencer posts a link provided to him and got paid for each follower's action.
This payment system is beneficial to the influencer who has an active audience because the income depends on its engagement and trust.
Many people are skeptical about this format, but marketing is developing every day enormously. Those who were not afraid to try new things are now earning more than they used to.
Conclusion
Blogging is a profitable niche, which develops every year and gets up steam. Today no one is pointing the finger at the person with the phone in his hands who is recording something on camera. Now every other person is interested in the possibility of development in this area. The fact is the only one who is passionate about the idea and who has enough resources for interesting content becomes a successful influencer. Therefore, a laborious path lies ahead for those who want to earn and get the first money.