The Internet is a powerful tool if you know how to use it to make money as an influencer. If you’re a social media user, you might have already come across the term ‘influencer.’ Influencers are people who influence other people’s trends, behaviors, and ideas.
Every influencer wants to get paid for their posts. They want the extensive checks, sponsored trips to Santorini, and drive the shiny Lambos. Despite the appearance that influencers are wealthy, anyone who is a blogger or influencer or starting knows it’s not as easy as it seems.
Influencer marketing is one of the most powerful web marketing tactics for driving more traffic, leads, and sales to your site. It’s not easy to get started as an influencer, but it is a very profitable business model once you have built up a following.
Just before we go into more detail, let me quickly define who an influencer is and how to become one. If you’re already an influencer, you can skip the next sections.
Who is an influencer?
An influencer is a person who has an essential impact on the purchasing decisions of others, especially in the context of social media. They are often bloggers, celebrities, Instagram models, or just your ‘friends’ on Facebook.
Influencers use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to spread the word about their passion. It can range from food, travel, sports, or fashion to how-to tips, tricks, and reviews on products and services.
As a result, each person is somewhat of a mini-celebrity on specific topics or areas of interest.
How do you become an influencer?
Almost anyone who likes to write and connect with other people on a blog, Instagram, Twitter, or other social media site can be an influencer.
Influencers usually start by taking an interest in a product or service, which can become a primary source of income. It is crucial to note that most people cannot get paid for offering their opinion on products and services.
To get paid to share your opinions, you must have a loyal audience that trusts your opinion.
Yet, deciding to become an influencer and promote a product isn’t enough. You need a plan on how to do it effectively. And you need to do it well. As a result, you need to know some secrets of influencer marketing.
The question now is, how can you make money as an influencer? Well, here are ten easy tips on how to make money as an influencer.
1. Establish your target audience and how you’ll reach them
Establishing your target audience is probably one of the most important steps you can take.
It doesn’t become any easier from here on out. Make sure you know your audience inside and out. Think about what attracts your audience, what they like, who their favorite person is at the moment, etc., including age range & gender.
The most successful influencer bloggers usually do not have vast numbers of followers on social media. Instead, they focus on those who will drive quality traffic to their website. Do some research, so you know how to get in touch with your target audience.
How much money you want to make as an influencer is also directly correlated to how large your audience will grow. If you are an aspiring blogger, you won’t make any money if you don’t know what you’re doing. Therefore, spend some time thinking about it.
Read also: How To Find Your Audience’s Biggest Pain Points
2. Investigate the most profitable niches and partners
Any Influencer should investigate and leverage the most substantial niches in their industry. Although, several big companies are inclined to work only with influencers with tens or hundreds of thousands of followers because they are easier to sell to brands.
However, it doesn’t mean that you won’t find your niche as an influencer and earn a decent income. You just have to work harder and be persistent.
Find niches that contain lots of demand and competition. Finally, don’t be afraid to begin building relationships with partners while you get going building content for your site.
Read also: Profitable Blog Niches That Will Make You a Ton of Money
3. Take part in initiatives in which you can get paid for using products
Wearing products both in your private life and public events is one of the best ways to start an influencer marketing campaign. This is because it establishes a real and personal connection with viewers.
Such strategies are a great way to reach your target audience with minimal effort on your behalf. Focus on sharing an authentic experience of using the product. The show, don’t tell. Focus on the benefits to the audience.
Form affiliate partnerships with relevant brands that also sell to your audience to leverage your posts into revenue-generating opportunities. Educating your audience about new products while promoting them is the best way to generate additional revenue.
Read also: Best Affiliate Networks and Platforms for Bloggers
4. Start a blog and monetize it
When you think of making money blogging, the first thing to come to mind is affiliate marketing. It’s what we all immediately think of when talking about making money as a blogger. But with over a billion websites online, it’s difficult for people to discover your blog through Google alone.
Many people look for ways to make money online and give up after a while. Some get discouraged by the difficulty involved in earning thousands of dollars in one day and quit. Then, others see blogging as a viable way to make money online quickly.
Open your door to the world of blogging and make money as an influencer. First, start a blog and monetize it. Blogging about something you know a great deal about and are passionate about will help you succeed.
If you can get to where your blog generates an income each month, you can make money as an influencer. There are various ways to monetize a blog, so do a little research to figure out what works best for your particular niche.
Read also: How To Start Blogging – Step-By-Step Beginner Guide
To be successful on social media, you need to set up an online presence. These networks are where the majority of people spend a considerable amount of time nowadays. This is an essential requirement before you can even think about monetizing your blog or social media platforms.
Setting up social media profiles is an integral part of monetizing a website. This is because you need to have a platform to share the product links. Some platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, are made for sharing links.
Other such as Google+, Linkedin, or YouTube are ideal and require more work to get your followers. Social media is a significant part of the digital marketing industry that companies are willing to pay big money for skilled social media managers and influencers.
Learn more: How to make money with your social media followers.
6. Build a reputation, be consistent and persistent
One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is to build trust and a positive reputation with your fans. Once you have a base of happy, loyal fans, you can use that relationship to provide value to them in the long term.
Building a reputation takes time and persistence. The first step is to prove you are a worthy candidate. It is not to say things won’t happen fast with viral posts or instant attention from your network.
A reputation is your most valuable possession. Guard it carefully, for it takes a long time to build up and be destroyed instantly. Consistent posting will help that content spread further and even see some reshares by others, giving you attention.
Hashtags are used in social media so that others can find the post. Using them will help create more visibility on your posts and help increase your brand’s popularity.
Using hashtags can help you advertise a sale, collaborate with another influencer (don’t forget to tag them), or simply add a fun caption. Try not to use too many hashtags, as this may ruin the aesthetic of your post.
Using the right hashtags will increase your potential reach to a new audience because users can search for their interested tags. By defining certain hashtags, you may target specific niche markets that would be interested in your products or services.
Read also: Introduction to Social Media Marketing
8. Promote yourself through sponsored gigs
Imagine being paid to wear your favorite brands! Sounds like a dream, right?
A sponsored gig is a type of endorsement deal commonly found amongst social media influencers. The concept is simple: companies pay influencers to talk about their products or services.
It is no secret that influencers make money through sponsored gigs. Several companies are on the lookout for content creators who can regularly put out engaging content about their product or service.
Once you have established yourself as an influencer, you can start receiving sponsored gigs. You promote the product/service of a brand through social media. If your followers click through to make a purchase, you receive a commission.
9. Create a compelling story and engage your audience
Being an influencer is an effective way to share your story with a new audience and earn money at the same time. Whether you’re traveling the world and sharing your adventures or love makeup and want to share your favorite products, there’s an online avenue for you.
Inspire and engage your audience with a narrative that is clear, specific, and compelling. You are creating a story whose purpose is to attract and persuade your target audience to take action.
A story should trigger emotion, move your audience and invite them to participate. You can start with the facts, but stories usually involve something more – a real-world problem, a hero, and a resolved challenge.
What’s a hot trending topic in your niche? You know people love stories, and an influencer who can tell a good story and engage their audience is the one that will make money.
10. Do something unexpected (creative and meaningful, though)
Be a source of awesomeness. You’re bound to drop in a couple of “Wow” phrases. Also try to be unique and different from your competition, because in this market you are.
Do something unexpected or do something creative. Do not just repeat the same tips or articles everyone else out there is giving out. That’s the easiest way to go unnoticed by new readers, hard to get recommended by sites and social influencers considered for mentions.
The key is to show something new and attach a deeper meaning to what you’re doing. Surprise your readers with unexpected tips, little things but with great value for their everyday lives. Don’t be afraid to do something new.
Read also: How To Create An Endless Supply Of Content That Your Audience Will Love
FAQs
You’re having trouble getting followers on Pinterest. What should you do?
Pinterest can be frustrating. It’s not as easy to build a following as it is on other social media apps. However, it is achievable with some careful targeting of your ideal audience and a lot of engagement from followers you do get.
Here are some tips on how to get followers on Pinterest; think about your profile name – is it clear what you do? Are you sharing relevant content for the audience that you want to reach?
You should always use Pinterest as a social platform, pinning and repinning to increase your followers, even if you have ten followers now. Don’t worry about optimizing at this point; just focus on creating good content for the platform.
Read also: Best Social Media Automation Tools To Increase Engagement
Does being an influencer require serious commitment?
Yes, it does. In most cases, it’s a full-time job because bloggers, vloggers, and YouTubers are online almost 24/7 updating their content. The answer to this question is a mystery to some influencers. Being a full-time income-generating influencer depends on your long-term goals and what you aim to achieve.
But when it comes to the newer form of influencers, such as fashionistas and beauty bloggers, they usually divide their time between running their own company and working a day job.
Do you need to be beautiful/handsome to become an influencer?
No, you do not have to be beautiful or handsome to become an influencer for mainstream media. Everyone can become an influencer as long as they are an expert in their field. Influencers must be knowledgeable, have a solid online presence, and know how to build a brand for themselves.
Do you have to be a professional content creator or blogger to be an influencer?
No! Anyone with a passion for cooking, art, fashion, or any other topic you can think of can be an influencer.
All you need is a following on social media and a creative mind to start sharing your voice with the world. The key is to provide quality content that’s valuable and relevant to your audience.
How do you get people to notice me?
Since the digitization of our society and the rise of social media, it has become increasingly challenging to stand out as an influencer, especially within your demographic.
It has also made it easier for anyone to waste their time if they’re not serious about building a career or business in this space. To get noticed, you have to give the people what they want. You need to create compelling content for them.
In addition, if you want people to take you seriously, you need to have a clear understanding of who your audience is and what value you provide.
How do you know if you’re an excellent influencer to collaborate with brands?
There are no complex rules on whether you’re a good influencer to collaborate with brands. It will depend on if your content would be relevant and beneficial for the brand to reach its target audience.
Common traits of successful influencers in collaborating with brands include a predominant focus on quality content with well-crafted messaging and storytelling skills. A best practice is to deliver high-quality content consistently, and each piece of content should fit a person’s brand strategy.
Also, listen to your audience and know their pain points. Don’t be creepy, though. If you use a brands’ product and encourage others to use it, you have an excellent foundation for collaborating.
Read also: How To Make Money With Your Social Media Followers
Final thoughts
Influencers are becoming even more important, and we cannot ignore them. The influencer market is expected to be worth $13.8 billion by 2021, growing by 20-30% per year. No matter how big your Instagram or blog following is or how many subscribers you have on YouTube, these platforms give you the power to influence.
Lots of people want to be influencers nowadays. A day in the life of a social media star can look appealing if you’re doing it right. It’s possible to achieve this dream job through various paths, but the easiest way would be to use the tips from this article.
By now, you should be familiar with how influencers make money. I have a post that outlines the 15 best passive income ideas. Check it out if you want to find out how else you can make money from home.
Whatever interests you, you are sure to find it on the blog. You can also learn several ways to make money by checking out the section on this blog dedicated to making money.
Thank you for reading. Share with your friends and make money together!
