How Influencers Make Money (And How You Can Too)
How do social media influencers make money?
If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me that, I’d be a millionaire.
In this post, I’ll break it down once and for all. I’ll explain all the monetization strategies influencers use to earn money—and show you how you can do the same.
Plus, I’ll share real-life examples of each method to put everything into context.
What is an influencer?
An influencer is someone with the ability to influence the behaviors, opinions, and purchasing decisions of their audience—hence the name.
We’re talking about people like:
- Instagram creators
- Twitch streamers
- YouTubers
- TikTokers
- Celebrities
Pretty much anyone who has built an engaged, loyal audience on social media—one that trusts their recommendations—could be considered an influencer.
How much do influencers earn?
The amount influencers earn depends on many factors, including their niche, platform, monetization strategy, and the size of their following.
The biggest and most successful influencers earn millions, but even smaller creators with a limited following can earn thousands of dollars a month.
For context, here’s a breakdown of the average rates influencers charge for a single post by audience size and platform, per a report from Impact.
| YouTube | |||
| Nano influencers(<15k followers) | $500 – $2,000 | $1,000 – $2,500 | $500 – $1,500 |
| Micro influencers(15k – 75k followers) | $2000 – $8,000 | $2,500 – $9,000 | $1,500 – $6,000 |
| Mid-tier influencers(75k – 250k followers) | $8,000 – $20,000 | $9,000 – $25,000 | $6,000 – $15,000 |
| Macro influencers(250k – 1m followers) | $20,000 – $45,000 | $25,000 – $49,000 | $15,000 – $40,000 |
| Mega influencers & Celebrities(1m+ followers) | $45,000 + | $49,000 + | $40,000 + |
11 ways social media influencers make money
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s jump into the list. Here are the top 11 ways influencers make money…
1. Sponsored posts
The classic way to make money as an influencer is through sponsored posts.
This is when brands pay influencers to share a post that promotes their products or services to their audience.
Because sponsored posts are essentially a type of advertisement, you need to disclose them. This is usually done by using a paid promotion label or adding a hashtag like #ad or #brandpartner.
Here’s an example from Instagram influencer @Steffy, who posted this home improvement video promoting products from HomeGoods.
How to get started
For the best opportunities, you’ll need to position yourself in a way that maximizes your appeal to brands in your niche.
For example, if you establish yourself as a skincare guru on Instagram—by building an audience of skincare enthusiasts who come to your page for your expert tips & advice—then beauty companies will be chomping at the bit to pay you to promote their eye creams and face masks.
You’ll also need to create a media kit that gives brands that might want to work with you all the information they need, such as details about your audience demographics, average engagement rate, examples of previous social media posts, and your prices.
It’s up to you how much you charge. Some influencers specify a flat rate per post, whereas others bundle their services together into a package.
For example, you could sell a monthly package of 1 YouTube video, 3 Shorts, and 3 Tweets. Smaller creators may even be willing to post sponsored content in exchange for free merchandise.
Once you have your media kit, start reaching out to brands that you think might be a good fit by email or DM them with your pitch.
You might also want to sign up for influencer marketing platforms. That way, brands will be able to find and reach out to you, so you don’t have to go to them.
2. UGC creation
UGC (user-generated content) creation is one of the biggest new trends in social media advertising and has opened up a new way for smaller influencers to make money.
It’s similar to selling sponsored posts, except that with UGC creation, you don’t post the content to your own socials. You just get paid to make the content, and the brand shares it to their socials.
As such, the size of your following isn’t as important as it is with sponsored posts. You just need to prove you can create relatable, authentic content that brands can use in their digital marketing campaigns.
Here’s an example from Archero 2. They regularly run ads on YouTube Shorts featuring creators playing their mobile games. Their ads have an organic feel and appear authentic despite being sponsored.
This makes them more effective than traditional ads, as viewers are more likely to trust real people sharing their authentic experiences over polished corporate videos.
How to get started
If you have a large following on TikTok, one of the easiest ways to start selling UGC content is to sign up for the TikTok Creative Challenge.
It’s one of TikTok’s lesser-known creator monetization programs and offers eligible creators the opportunity to earn money by creating UGC-style TikTok ads for brands on the platform.
You can bid on projects by submitting your content and earn guaranteed bonuses. Plus, if the brand chooses to run your content as an ad, you’ll earn an extra commission based on its performance.
You can also try reaching out to brands directly through email or DM to pitch your services as a UGC creator or sign up for UGC creator networks like Trend.io, Aspire, etc., to let brands come to you.
3. Brand ambassador
A brand ambassador is an influencer who is paid by a company to represent their brand across multiple social media channels over a set period.
Unlike with a sponsored post—where you only promote the brand’s products once—becoming a brand ambassador is more of a long-term collaboration.
You act as the public face of the brand you partner with for the duration of your contract, promoting its products and services, representing them in a positive light, and helping to boost brand awareness and sales.
In exchange, you’ll usually be paid a large lump-sum payment upfront. You might also be able to earn additional perks on top of that, like commissions and bonuses.
For example, content creator Ludwig acted as an ambassador for footwear company Crocs for years, promoting the brand on his live streams and wearing their products out in public.
He even wore Crocs to the glamorous Twitch Awards show to help draw attention to the brand.
How to get started
To become a brand ambassador, focus on building an engaged audience in a high-value niche where you have a good chance of finding brand partnerships.
Organically feature brands that you love in your content to get noticed—this will make it easier to land an ambassador role—or pitch yourself directly to them.
A lot of brands recruit ambassadors through influencer marketing industry platforms, so sign up and keep an eye out for opportunities.
If a brand reaches out to ask you to join their ambassador program, make sure to negotiate clear terms before signing a contract. Discuss expectations, payment structure, exclusivity terms, deliverables, etc.
4. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money as an influencer without having to rely on brand partners.
The idea is to promote relevant affiliate products that your audience might be interested in and earn a commission on each sale you refer.
That commission might be a flat rate (e.g., $10 per qualifying purchase) or a percentage-based rate (e.g., 20% of the sale price).
Here’s an example from YouTuber @Mrwhosetheboss, who used a video about his ‘dream office setup’ to promote his affiliate offer, which he linked in the description.
How to get started
First, sign up for an affiliate program with products that your audience might be interested in and that you would feel comfortable recommending.
For example, if you’re a fitness influencer, you could become an affiliate for a company that sells high-quality, affordable protein powders.
Next, start promoting their products/services to your audience. Whenever you post promotional content, make sure to use your unique referral link in your call-to-action.
When someone buys the product after clicking your referral link within the cookie window, you’ll earn a commission.
Note: Keep in mind that there are regulations and laws surrounding affiliate marketing, and you may be legally required to disclose affiliate links to make it clear you’re getting paid to promote the product.
5. Print-on-demand merchandise
Instead of selling someone else’s products, why not sell your own?
Many social media influencers make good money selling their own line of merchandise to followers who want to support them.
I’m talking about things like t-shirts, mugs, stickers, phone cases, tote bags, and so on.
You can get your merch custom printed with your logo, channel art, quotes from your content, or anything your die-hard fans might want to see on a t-shirt.
YouTube influencers Rhett & Link (Good Mythical Morning) are the masters of merch sales.
They sell all kinds of merch products through their Mythical store, including apparel, accessories, drinkware, toys & games, and more.
How to get started
You can make and sell custom printed merch easily using a print-on-demand service.
I’d recommend Sellfy as it has everything you need in one place. Just sign up to create your own online store in minutes.
Then, choose blank products from their print on demand catalog, upload your designs to them, and add them to your store in a few clicks.
When customers buy merch items through your store, Sellfy will print and ship the order to the customer on demand, then bill you afterward.
This means you don’t need to worry about fulfillment, and you only pay for what you sell—there’s no need to buy any stock upfront. All of this makes it a super hands-off and low-risk business model.
Note: If you already have a website or store and want to sell merch through it, you can use a plugin print-on-demand fulfillment service like Printify or Printful instead.
6. Original products & services
The downside to selling print-on-demand merchandise is that the profit margins tend to be pretty low, so you only make a few dollars on each sale.
That’s why a lot of influencers create and sell their own original products and services instead—think skincare lines, energy drinks, restaurant chains, and clothing labels.
If you go down this route, you can earn a lot more money, but it’s also a lot more work.
Unlike print-on-demand, where a third party handles production and fulfillment, this approach often requires sourcing manufacturers, managing inventory, and developing original products from scratch.
How to get started
There are two ways to go about this: the easy way and the hard way.
The easy way is to license your brand name to existing companies. The company you partner with will handle production and operations while you do the marketing.
PRIME Energy (by Logan Paul & KSI) uses this kind of model.
Logal & KSI partnered with Congo Brands to launch their incredibly popular line of energy drinks and promoted it heavily through their content, while Congo took care of the manufacturing side. The two influencers have earned over $200 million from the venture to date.
The hard way is to launch your own company that handles everything: production, operations, etc.
Social media influencer Emma Chamberlain went down this route when she launched Chamberlain Coffee. She didn’t just slap her name on an existing coffee brand, she did it all herself.
7. Digital products
If selling physical products sounds like too much work, you can always sell digital products instead.
A lot of influencers earn thousands of dollars selling digital products like ebooks, music albums, printables, templates, games, etc.
The great thing about this is that you only have to create a digital product once, but you can sell it as many times as you want. The profit margins are also sky high (>80%) as there’s very few running costs.
Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie offers a good example of this. He developed and released his own series of games, including the popular Tuber Simulator game.
It racked up over 12 million downloads and is estimated to have earned over $1.2 million in in-app purchases.
How to get started
The best way to sell digital products is through Sellfy. It’s an affordable ecommerce platform that lets you sell all types of products, including digital products, physical products, and print-on-demand merch.
There are no transaction fees, so you keep 100% of your sales, and it’s super easy to use—you can set up your store in minutes. Just sign up, upload your files, set your prices, and start selling.
8. Online courses
Another way influencers can make money is by selling online courses.
The idea is to teach your audience something they’d want to learn from you. This needs to be something you’re passionate about or experienced in and something relevant to your niche.
For example, beauty influencers could create courses teaching topics like skincare or makeup artistry. Fitness influencers could teach nutrition or endurance training. You could even just teach your followers all about managing social media accounts effectively.
The top influencer courses earn seven-figure revenues.
How to get started
You’ll need an online course platform to build, host, and sell your course content.
I’d recommend Thinkific. It has everything you need in one place: website hosting, a curriculum builder, an interactive course player, a communities feature, marketing and sales tools, and more.
It’s up to you how much you want to charge for your course. A lot of influencers sell access for a single, flat rate.
Alternatively, you could use a subscription pricing model and sell recurring memberships that provide ongoing access to course content as well as other perks. More on this next.
9. Subscriptions
One of the best ways to make money as an influencer is to sell subscriptions to your fans.
The idea is to give your subscribers access to members-only perks in exchange for a monthly fee.
For example, subscribers might gain access to exclusive content. They might get a special badge next to their name in your community chat or access to a VIP community space.
The great thing about selling subscriptions is that it provides you with a recurring revenue stream. It’s also more predictable—once you know how many long-term paying subscribers you have, it becomes easier to work out how much you’ll earn each month.
How to get started
Many social media platforms offer built-in subscription features that creators can use to monetize their accounts.
For example, Instagram Subscriptions, Twitch Subscriptions, YouTube Channel Memberships, TikTok Subscriptions, etc.
Alternatively, you can use a third-party membership platform like Patreon or build your own subscription site from scratch.
That’s what Good Mythical Morning did. They host their members-only community—Mythical Society—on their own website.
10. Donations
Donations are another simple but effective way to monetize your audience as an influencer. Think of them like tips.
Unlike subscriptions, fans who donate to you don’t necessarily expect to receive anything in return—they just want to support you as a creator.
How to get started
You can set up a donation page using a tool like Buy Me A Coffee. Then, add a CTA inviting fans to donate alongside a link in your social media bios and post captions, like @HypersKidsAfrica.
Some platforms also have built-in donation features. For example, viewers can donate in real-time during livestreams on YouTube Live, Twitch, and TikTok.
11. Ad revenue
Contrary to popular belief, ad revenue isn’t the main source of income for most influencers, but it’s still a worthwhile income channel to have open and can help to boost your earnings.
Once you enable ads on your content, you’ll be paid based on how many people watch/view them and how much advertisers pay per impression/click.
This varies between creators and platforms. As a rough ballpark, expect to earn between $0.01 and $0.04 per view from ad revenue as an influencer. That translates to around $10 to $40 for every thousand views your content receives.
How to get started
Most social media sites offer ad monetization programs for creators, but there may be eligibility criteria you have to meet before you join.
For example, on YouTube, you can only earn money from ads if you join the YouTube Partner Program and enable channel monetization, which requires at least 1,000 subscribers and a set number of watch hours.
Final thoughts
As you can see, there are lots of ways to make money as an influencer.
However, you’ll need to build a large, engaged audience before you worry about monetization.
With that in mind, focus first on growing your following by sharing high-quality content and engaging with your community.
Once you’ve achieved that, experiment with some of the different monetization methods we’ve looked at in this post until you find something that’s a good fit. Good luck!
