How social media stars make money

Social Media Stars, also known as Internet Celebrities, are people who’ve found fame and success via the Internet and social media. This modern phenomena has become a large part of pop culture.

If you read my articles you know by now that I am a fairly wealthy man, but not because of my popularity on the internet. Sure, I write novels and create sound engineered music for healing and memory retention but I am not a Kanye West!

So what exactly do these people who gain rapid popularity online do, and how many of them actually make a living from being online?

Let’s start with the two topics I know best, books and music.

Because of the ease of self publishing, the trend away from reading actual printed literature towards digital media (videos and movies) accessed on phones, the publishing industry has nearly gone extinct. 25 years ago the top 1000 authors easily made a living as authors. Today with the few actual publishing houses left in business the amount of authors they now have under contract is minimal compared to 25 years ago and the ones they do have under contract are barely making a living at it! With the onset of AI writing articles and novels things may get far worse! Nearly all sites that publish articles and stories only promote their favorite writers so your chances of making any income is very small.

So, are self publishing authors making livings at writing? Let’s just put it this way. Less than 1% of all authors that self publish ever sell more than 1000 books! So even if you have the next modern classic novel the chances people will discover or read it are very slim. Pretty depressing for sure, but wait, what about starting a blog? The statistics for blogs are about the same! Add in the blatant manipulation of ratings (many people find they get negative ratings almost as soon as they publish!) for both new books and new blogs. Why and how does this happen? It is competition. No author or publisher is ever going to admit they post negative ratings for their competition but it obviously happens quite often.

So the next question is should, or do, those odds of success discourage you or anyone from self publishing or starting a blog? The answer is a loud, “No!” The idea of being able to express your creativity should far outweigh your desire for profit. People self publish books on every topic under the sun and wether they become wealthy or not the pride they get from fulfilling their creative mind is usually enough.

How about music? Sure a few people, like Justine Bieber for example, are discovered on YouTube or TV show competitions. In general though, even ones that had successful careers are doing worse than authors! Yes, it is far easier than ever before to record and publish music. Spotify and other music platforms make it fairly easy to get your music out to the public and even create your own music label but what you get paid for per download is literally next to zero! Companies like TikTok pay artists small fractions of 1 cent when people use their music. Unless you have a massive amount of money to promote and advertise your music it will be almost completely ignored. Once again though, don’t let the fact that you may never become a musical star prevent your creativity.

So as we can see even though it is far easier than anytime in history to publish your creative works it is also far less likely it will be known by the public and very unlikely it will generate any decent income. To make it worse we now have a myriad of companies, mainly out of China, that will promise you that they will publish and promote your creative works but in reality they just hijack your copyrighted material and pay you nothing! Be very careful with your copyrighted material.

As bleak as the environment looks for creators people continue to create with the hope of gaining fame and fortune! The human desire to create is unstoppable and that is wonderful! Even if only some family and friends enjoy and admire your creativity that is just fine for most creators.

What successful social media stars do.

Some social media stars are successful and some are super successful. Let’s look at what they do and how they do it.

Some make videos, write jokes on X post pictures on facebook just to name a few possibilities. In fact, the variety of subjects and broadcast media grows more diverse every day. Aside from creating content, stars reach out to their audience via social media, helping to create a direct, personal connection. One thing they all have in common is that once they begin to see some success they put time, effort and money into self promotion and advertising.

Once they have a large enough following here a few ways they generate revenue.

YouTube ads

When it comes to making money through social media, there are a few common methods. For instance, YouTube stars may show ads before or during their videos. This can provide some revenue, but not as much as you might think. Overall, very few YouTube creators make a living on ad revenue alone. You need 100,000 plus subscribers to even begin making money. Far worse is YouTube can and will cancel your account at anytime for any reason they choose. Your videos are returned!

Sponsored Promotions

Because stars have such an influential connection to their fans, companies often pay them to use, discuss, or promote products in their content. These sponsorships and product placements can range from free merchandise and small payouts to enormous paychecks. However, stars must be transparent and upfront about any kind of sponsored promotion, or they could break advertising laws.

Patreon

Another way to earn money is through a fundraising service called Patreon where users give a star money at regular intervals to support future projects. In exchange, users get exclusive content, such as behind-the-scenes material or early access to new releases, as well as a more exclusive connection to their favorite creators. Most sites like Patreon have become basically adult sites. There are plenty of other similar sites.

Obstacles to Success

Finding success on social media is very difficult. It takes persistence and constant evaluation. Countless people try to become rich and famous through their videos or Instagram photos, but very few can make it their livelihood. Competition for an audience is fierce, and creators must maintain a steady stream of quality content over a long period of time or they may lose their audience. Even time itself is an obstacle because what’s popular and profitable today can be forgotten tomorrow.

It may seem like anyone can start posting on social media for money and fame, but there’s a deliberate method to the madness of being a social media star. If you have the time and a good way method of “branding” yourself you may just be the next big star.

Conclusion

America’s famous pundit, Will Rodgers, once said “If you want to become rich, leave your wallet in your pocket.” The reality is that the people that earn the most money online are the people selling a product. The ones making the most profit margin are the ones both making the product and selling it! Obviously it is a fun media story to hear about some social media influencer getting famous or doing something unique to earn money, but it is far more rare than it appears. I am lucky because I made my fortune by actual work in Real Estate and Real Estate development. Writing and music were always passionate hobbies for me and like a lot of people, I admire any artist that gains fame and fortune. It takes a lot of practice and effort to achieve success and notoriety.

My Books and Music