Being an influencer may seem like a walk in the park – one documented in a perfectly-lit selfie, of course – but that doesn't mean it's easy to make big money from doing it.
According to a new survey, UK influencers are most likely to charge between £100 and £250 for a post – a decent sum, but one unlikely to provide a life-changing income.
Some 30 percent of influencers who responded to the UK Bloggers Survey 2019 – compiled by Canterbury Christ Church University with communications software firm Vuelio – said their fees fall into this price bracket.
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According to the survey, the second most common bracket is £100 per post, which 27 percent of influencers said they charge on average. Some eight percent of influencers said their average charge is nothing at all.
At the other end of the scale, six percent of influencers said they charged £501-£1000 per post, and 11 percent said they charged £251-£500. An elite 2 percent of influencers said they can charge more than £1,000 per post.
Overall, the highest-earning influencers tend to be fashion and beauty bloggers, or food and drink bloggers. Encouragingly, 88 percent of influencers said they believe it's important to be honest about sponsored posts.
Calum McSwiggan, a writer, digital content creator, radio presenter & LGBT+ advocate with just over 70,000 Twitter followers, told Refinery29 last year that "there are some wildly disproportionate ideas about how much influencers actually earn".
McSwiggan began his career as a YouTube content creator, but said that this work now constitutes a "tiny fraction" of his earnings.
"The majority of my earnings come from other work like collaborations with brands, working as a presenter, and freelance writing. Like all creative jobs, you have to create content for the love of creating content," he says.
"No matter how hard you work and no matter how many hours you put into it, there’s absolutely no guarantee that it’ll pay off or become something you can monetise. Building an audience isn’t something you can control - some people get lucky, that’s all."