The influencer gold rush is officially on! What was once dismissed as a pipe dream is now a legitimate career path with serious cash potential. From landing content creator jobs to making their own merch, here’s how top-earning influencers transform social media clout into cold, hard cash.
1. Sponsored posts
An influencer’s primary role is to create interesting, educational, and/or engaging content for their followers. This could be in the realm of modeling, lifestyle, cooking, fashion, fitness, or anything else that they’re passionate about. Companies can then tap into these markets by paying influencers to post sponsored content endorsing the brand’s products or services. Influencers are typically paid per post and by content type (such as a photo, video, blog post, and so on), with pay varying for factors like follower count, content quality, and engagement.
For instance, Neutrogena hired influencer Jessica Judith to post content promoting its sunscreen in advance of Coachella. Judith posts high-energy dance videos and collaborates with big-name singers, making her a great choice for the skincare brand for reaching festival attendees.
2. Affiliate marketing
Influencers can make a commission-based income through affiliate marketing, or sharing unique affiliate links for brands, then earning commissions for purchases made through those links. These commissions are typically structured as a percentage. For example, a fitness influencer might earn 10% commission for each purchase made through their affiliate link to a protein supplement. Platforms like Amazon Associates, ShareASale, EverFlow, LTK, and CJ Affiliate connect influencers to brands for potential partnerships. Many influencers use tools like Linktree and Bitly to share multiple affiliate links easily on social media, or directly by linking it right in their bio.
To see what this looks like in action, check out running influencer Emily Shane’s bio, which includes her affiliate link for the running coaching app Runna.
3. Brand ambassadorships
If you’re aiming for the big bucks (and who isn’t?), influencers can bring in large sums for being a brand ambassador, which means they have an ongoing partnership that usually entails signing a long-term deal to consistently promote a brand’s products and services. This means providing the brand consistent visibility by tying it in seamlessly to much of their content.
For example, outdoor adventurer YouTuber Xander Budnick is a brand ambassador for therapy app BetterHelp. In multiple videos, he shares the ways that therapy helped him recover from substance abuse and mental health issues, and allowed him to discover his love of nature. Budnick even doubles down on the money-making by also including an affiliate link to the app in this video’s description.
4. Selling digital products
A popular source of income for influencers is creating digital products related to their niche content and making it available for purchase. To succeed with this income stream, influencers must create quality digital products that offer value to their followers. While it may cost blood, sweat, and tears, it should come with a full profit margin—there’s no brand to take a cut—and can be an ongoing source of passive income.
This might take the form of ebooks, music, or online classes, like voice coach Andrew Byrne’s the Singing Athlete course seen here, or any other digital product you can conceptualize.
5. Merchandising
In addition to digital goods, influencers can also make an income selling physical merchandise, such as fan gear, artisanal crafts, artworks and prints, original clothing, and any other products that line up with their profile and niche.
A great example of this is fashion influencer Daniel Simmons, who used his platform to kick-start the launch of his own clothing line, also named Daniel Simmons—talk about wearing your success!
How to Become an Influencer in 6 Steps6. Native monetization features
Influencers can also make that dough by joining each platform’s content monetization program.
- YouTube: The YouTube Partner Program runs ads from Google and its partners on influencer videos, allowing them to earn a share of the revenue that’s generated.
- TikTok: The TikTok Creator Fund rewards its members based on video performance. Earnings are calculated using a mix of factors like view count, engagement, and authenticity.
- Facebook: Want to be at the start of something new? Facebook just launched its beta Content Monetization, which merges its previous ad and performance bonus initiatives.
- Twitch: The platform’s Affiliate and Partner programs offer multiple ways for creators to turn content into cash, such as subscriptions and emotes.
Twitch streamers like Kai Cenat make a large chunk from consistent subscribers who buy in monthly. In an interview with Complex, Cenat said he makes roughly $400K/month from Twitch subscribers alone—not too shabby for playing video games! And subscriptions aren’t the only means of earning for livestreams…
7. Livestream gifts and tips
Livestreamers—particularly within the Twitch, Instagram Live, and YouTube Live realms—can earn gifts and tips from loyal fans who tune in and send gifts (e.g., star coins, badges) based on interactions, shoutouts, and other forms of real-time engagement.
8. Exclusive content
Finally, influencers can earn steady, recurring income by offering exclusive content to their following. Platforms like Patreon and Buy Me a Coffee allow creators to charge fans for exclusive content behind a paywall. This is often structured as a tiered subscription model, with each level offering different perks, like bonus content, behind-the-scenes access, early releases, and live Q&As.
Follower count: The most obvious metric is an influencer’s follower count, which is used to group them into tiers.
- Nano: 1K–10K followers
- Micro: 10K–100K followers
- Macro: 100K-1M followers
- Mega: 1M+ followers
Generally speaking, a larger follower count means higher pay, since brands want to reach more potential customers.
Engagement rate: Since followers can be bought or become dormant, brands also look at an influencer’s rate of engagement in the form of likes, comments, and shares. A microinfluencer with 10% engagement might earn more than a macroinfluencer with 1%. It’s not just who follows you—it’s who’s actually paying attention!
Platform: While some influencers spread their content across platforms, their niche and style of content may perform best on one particular platform. This can change how much they get paid. Instagram tends to pay more for aesthetic visuals, YouTube for long-form videos, TikTok for short-form clips, and so on. The platform an influencer thrives on will determine the nature of their income.
Niche: Influencers within certain fields may earn more from sponsorships and affiliate programs because of their specific audience demographic. Sub-niches within finance, tech, health, food, and gaming genres often earn higher rates than general lifestyle influencers, due to targeting a specific audience. And a finance influencer with 20K followers might earn more than a fashion influencer with 50K followers, since the latter market tends to be more saturated—and advertisers are usually willing to pay more for access to a specialized audience.
Professionalism: Making a living as an influencer is innately entrepreneurial. Influencers who exude professionalism by creating polished media kits and user-generated content portfolios often get better partnerships. Once they land these deals, delivering quality content punctually will not only lead to more work, but higher rates.
Location and demographics: Like any business, geography and consumer demographics will strongly influence how much an influencer can make; brands are often willing to pay more for access to audiences with greater purchasing power.
