How Do Influencers Really Make Money?

So you see all these influencers on the internet living a great lifestyle.

And you wonder🤔; how they really make money to afford that lifestyle?

You're not alone!

There's a lot of people out there who also asks this same question, since they can't really understand how influencers makes their bag💰.

But I've compiled a list of some of the most common ways in which influencers makes their money.

These includes:

1. Brand Deals & Sponsorships

This is by far the most common way in which most influencers makes their money.

This is whereby brands & companies approach an influencer, and they ask him/her to post about their products on his platform i.e. for a fee in return.

The reason being that, if you're an influencer, you attract eyebrows👀 – thus, brands will be willing to pay you to tap into that audience.

The fees varies based on various metrics like audience size, engagement levels, demographic location, age, etc.

But all I can say is that, brand deals & sponsorships pays really good money, that's why you see a lot of influencers trying to promote various brands on their platform.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Next is affiliate marketing.

This is whereby an influencer signs up for an affiliate program like Amazon Associates – and once accepted, he/she will get some custom referral links🔗 for various products & services.

The influencer then recommends these products to his/her audience – and when people buys through his/her link, he/she will receive a commission.

It's also a great way for earning money as an influencer, since you get to partner with established brands which people already know, like, and trust.

Now, let me clarify this real quick;

Some people confuse affiliate marketing with sponsorships.

But with affiliate marketing, you get paid per every sale that’s made through your link – whereas with sponsorships, you only get paid a one time fee for posting about the brand.

(Just wanted to make sure that l clarify this issue)🤗

3. Ads

Another great way in which influencers get their bag is through ads.

This is mainly a big deal esp for YouTube & Twitch influencers, since ads are always displayed in your content, and you'll get paid for that.

But in order to monetize your content with ads, you must have a certain number of subscribers/followers, as well as watch time – thus, if you're still brand new, you might not be able to put ads in your content.

I've also noticed that Facebook, Instagram & TikTok are also introducing ads for content creators, whereby they'll put ads in your content as well. (esp video content)

This goes on to prove that, these platforms are trying by all means to help influencers to monetize their works, though these platforms also benefits from this initiative as well.

4. Selling Digital Products

Some influencers also sell digital products as well e.g. eBooks, courses, pdf guides, etc.

It's also a great way to make money as an influencer – since the digital product is only created once, but it can be sold to multitudes of people without incurring any marginal cost of replication.

And it's more passive too i.e. once created, you don't need to touch the product that much👐 (though you might need to upgrade it here & there).

Thus, digital products are also a great way for making money as an influencer.

But before launching your digital products, you should first provide a ton of value for free – so that people can develop trust in you.

And once people know, like, and trust you, they'll be more than willing to buy your paid staff. (reciprocity)

Thus, you must keep that in mind if you're an influencer who's considering selling digital products in the future.

5. Selling Merch

Last but not least, most influencers sells merch to their audience.

This is whereby an influencer come up with clothing designs – and he/she uploads them to an established print on demand manufacturer like Printful, Teespring, Redbubble, etc.

He then markets the products to his/her audience i.e. through posting some pics of people wearing the merch.

And when people places some orders, the print on demand manufacturer then manufactures the actual item & ships it to the customers’ location.

The influencer will then get the difference between the selling price & the cost of production, which is pretty dope!😜

Wrapping Up

So these are some of the ways in which influencers makes their money.

There's plenty of ways in which these people makes money, but I just decided to highlight some of the major ones.

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