With just an iPhone, a little creativity, and a knack for creating scroll-stopping content, anyone can become an influencer and make money online! Thanks to social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, more people are learning how influencer marketing can turn their passion for sharing products, routines, or tips into steady income covering bills and then some.
But what exactly does an influencer do? Think of influencers as the go-to personalities online. They share glimpses into their day-to-day lives, favorite products, and best-kept secrets to build a trusting audience. From must-have beauty products to meal-prep hacks, they inspire their followers to try new things and products. But their influence doesn’t come from pushing products it’s about connecting, sharing, and making their followers feel like they’re part of something REAL!
Now, let’s keep it real it takes hard work to become a successful influencer. (Read our blog about how to become an influencer if you’re just getting started!) But once you find your niche and build a loyal following, you can create multiple revenue streams just from creating content on social media or your blog. Did you know that influencer marketing is a $21 billion industry?! There’s definitely a slice of this pie with your name on it!
To help you live out your dream of becoming a full-time influencer, we’re sharing the most successful ways to make money as an influencer. With dedication and motivation, you can create long-term success in your influencer career.
How to Make Money as an Influencer
How to Make Money as an Amazon Influencer
Do you know anyone who doesn’t shop on Amazon? Probably not! Amazon is an INCREDIBLE resource for influencers who want to make money by promoting products with affiliate links.
Step One: Join Amazon affiliate programs.
The first step to making money as an influencer on Amazon is to sign up for the Amazon Influencer Program. The program lets you create unique affiliate links for just about every product sold on Amazon meaning you’ll earn a commission when someone makes a purchase through your link! To be eligible for this program, influencers must use YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook to create content and have solid engagement rates.
If you run a blog, then you can also join the Amazon Associates program and create affiliate links to promote on your website. To be eligible, you’ll need to own your website and have a blog post published within the last two months. It’s a great way to monetize your content and add more value for your readers!
Step Two: Create an Amazon storefront.
Once approved for the Amazon Influencer program, you get to set up an Amazon storefront featuring all of your favorite products. You can organize it however you like by season, occasion, or even by how you use each item. And here’s the best part every time someone shops from your storefront, you’re earning a commission! It’s a super easy way to share the things you love in one place and make money while doing it.
Step Three: Promote your favorite products.
You’ve joined Amazon’s affiliate programs check! You created your storefront check! Now, it’s time to start promoting products your target audience will love. Create unboxing videos, user-generated content (UGC), and reviews to showcase your favorite products on your social media accounts, Pinterest, and blog. Give your followers a peek into what makes these products worth buying!
How to Make Money as an Influencer on Instagram
Instagram has SO MANY ways to make money as an influencer from promoting affiliate items to collaborating with brands for sponsored posts to paid subscriptions. The opportunities are endless!
Method One: Promote products or services.
Instagram doesn’t let you post affiliate links directly to your photos or reels, but you can share them in your stories. One of the best ways to earn a commission from affiliate programs on Instagram is by creating an LTK or ShopMy and adding the link to your IG bio.
Method Two: Collaborate for sponsored posts.
You don’t need millions of followers to partner with brands to create sponsored posts! Micro-influencers (1k to 10k followers) can make up to $500 for a single Instagram post. It’s easy, too! Reach out to your favorite brands and see if they’re up for collaborating with you.
Remember, if you’re posting sponsored content, you have to mark it as Branded Content or Sponsored Content to let your followers know that you’ve partnered with the brand to promote the product. It’s not just Insta guidelines, it’s actually the law.
Method Three: Offer paid subscriptions.
Instagram added a new feature that allows creators to offer paid subscriptions, giving followers access to exclusive content. This is a game-changer for fitness influencers sharing workout routines, travel influencers posting itineraries, food influencers sharing recipes, and more!
Method Four: Post reels and monetizable content.
Another way social media influencers make money on Instagram is by creating monetizable content, like reels or live videos. Followers and non-followers can send badges or virtual gifts (between $0.99 and $4.99) to show their support. When you produce content that people genuinely enjoy, these small tokens of appreciation can add up think of it as a thank you for sharing your creativity!
How to Make Money as an Influencer on TikTok
TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media channels and shows no signs of stopping. This is great news for influencers who want to make money with the app!
Method One: Post monetizable content.
TikTok is super valuable to influencers because it has the Creator Fund, which pays creators based on how many views their content gets. When you create high-quality content that gets at least 100k authentic views in a month and you have 10k followers, you’re eligible for the Fund. For every 1,000 views, you could earn $0.02 to $0.04 this may sound like peanuts, but it really adds up if your video goes viral and gets 10M views!
Method Two: Go live to receive gifts.
Just like Instagram, your audience can give virtual gifts to creators who do live content on the app. These virtual tokens can range from $0.01 to more than $500!
Method Three: Collaborate for sponsored posts.
Influencer marketing on TikTok is POWERFUL! Brands everywhere are eager to partner with TikTok influencers to promote their products or services. Collaborate with these brands to create branded content if their products match your target market and audience. Not only will you get paid for your influence and work, but you could also earn affiliate commissions from sales.
Method Four: Create TikTok shop content.
Even if you don’t sell products, influencers can make money on TikTok shop through the affiliate program. All you have to do is create content that showcases a product from TikTok Shop, and you’ll earn commissions from sales that come from your video. Easy as that!
How to Make Money as an Influencer Through Blogging
When you run a blog, there are tons of ways to make money as an influencer that don’t always require you to make content or promote anything.
Method One: Promote affiliate links and products.
Your blog is a great place to incorporate affiliate links to your favorite products from Amazon or other brands. They are perfect for listicle articles recommending specific products think a gift guide or your top ten travel products or even how-to guides and personal stories! Remember, your recommendations should go hand-in-hand with your SEO strategy to ensure your post drives traffic and ranks on the first page of Google.
Check out our blog about the best affiliate platforms for bloggers to get started with monetizing your blog!
Method Two: Create digital products to sell.
A great way for bloggers to make money is by selling digital products. By using your own content and some social media marketing tactics, you can create a stream of passive income! Food bloggers can sell meal planning templates or recipe books, fitness bloggers can sell workout PDFs, and fashion bloggers can sell ebooks the opportunities are infinite! (And, if you have the means, you could even sell a physical product!)
Method Three: Rent out ad space on your website.
When your blog has regular traffic, you can join Google Adsense and “rent out” space on your site to advertisers. Every time a visitor views or clicks on an ad banner or pop-up, you earn money! Choose the right ad placement company for your blog and start turning your traffic into income.
Method Four: Do brand collaborations.
Brand collabs are popular on social media channels, but they’re great for blog posts too! You can work with plenty of brands to showcase products, review services, and promote their business overall. Just make sure that whatever you post is authentic and something that you genuinely want to endorse to your followers. If it works out, you can get paid a lot for long-form blog content! Here’s more on how brand collaborations work!
Method Five: Start a monthly membership.
Subscriptions are awesome for monetizing your brand, because the income is consistent! Brainstorm a way you can offer monthly content to your followers that will be super valuable to them. If you’re a health and wellness influencer, maybe you offer monthly guided meditations, healthy meal plans, and printable mental health resources. (Mental health influencers might be interested to read our post, “5 Mental Health Affiliate Programs to Boost Blogging Income.”) Or, maybe if you’re a mom influencer, you could offer printable kids’ activities, an exclusive support group chat, and family-friendly recipes! There are so many options just find something sustainable and worthwhile.
Method Six: Offer an exclusive service.
Not matter your niche, you probably have a service you could offer your followers! You can do things like coaching, consulting, hosting workshops, and more. These services can be a great way to engage your audience, establish authority in your niche, and make a living as an influencer!
Start living your dream life as an influencer and get paid to do it!
The most successful influencers have a team of people behind them who contribute to their success. When you’re just starting out, you only need one team behind you InfluencerSEO!
SEO strategy is super important when launching your influencer brand on your site and social media. You want to make sure your platforms are fully optimized, running smoothly, and hosting content that drives significant organic traffic. And, we can help!
Check out our SEO services to set yourself up for influencer success. Of course, also check out the InfluencerSEO blog for even more ways to monetize!
Jordan Becerra, founder and Lead SEO Strategist at InfluencerSEO, has spent almost 15 years in the creator internet space, the last nine building InfluencerSEO into the go-to SEO partner for content creators, with 500+ creators served from pre-launch to massive publication. She learned creator monetization and community building strategy from the inside working for Lauryn Bosstick of The Skinny Confidential prior to founding InfluencerSEO, so she understands both halves of the game: how search actually works AND how creators actually build a strong community online and make money. Her job now is to stay ahead of where search engine optimization is going, especially as AI rewrites the rules, and to make sure the creators she works with get there first.
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