On YouTube or Instagram? Here's what it takes to make money as social media 'influencer'

How much can Instagram influencers really make? Instagram influencers can make up to $100 for every 10,000 followers per sponsored post.

"YouTube still dominates because it pays the most revenues to creators," says Joe Gagliese, the co-founder of Viral Nation, which represents influencers and works with brands on their marketing campaigns. " and Instagram is getting close, in terms of importance to influencers."

Facebook-owned Instagram doesn't pay creators for posting their work. Instead, they go to agencies like ViralNation, which sells their posts to brands.

Who has more star power? Facebook is trying to woo YouTube stars with new ways to make money.

Putting a pin in it: How former teachers are making $100,000 or more, and you can, too.

Facebook itself for years has talked about sharing ad revenues with creators via its Watch program, but the program to offer ads in exchange for revenues is being used by just tens of thousands of people, says Facebook, compared to "millions" on YouTube, according to the company.

Additionally, Facebook’s entry hurdles are stricter than YouTube: 10,000 followers and 30,000 one-minute views of three-minute videos, versus 1,000 followers and 4,000 minutes of watch time.

VidCon is 10 years old, YouTube is 14 years old and established stars like Graceffa, PewDiePie and Ryan, the 7-year-old kid who reviews toys, have built giant fan bases, attracting multimillions of views daily.

Is it too late to get in?

Not according to Gagliese. “Honestly, it’s never too late,” he says. “YouTube has more viewers this year than last year and new influencers are emerging from all over the world.” How much money can you make? It depends on how many people watch your videos, or follow you on Instagram.

Gagliese spells it out for us:

YOUTUBE:

Between 6 to 12 cents per view. So on the low end, a July video exploring Japanese vending machines by the young YouTuber named Safiya Nygaard brought in 6.8 million views, which could already be worth $408,000.

INSTAGRAM:

This depends upon the influencer and their level of engagement, but a “micro-influencer,” one with 10,000 to 50,000 active fans, “used to only pick up only a couple hundred bucks, now they’re getting a few thousand per post,” he says.

Influencers with up to 1 million followers will see $10,000 per post, while 1 million followers and up can charge $100,000 or more.

The most popular influencers are bringing in $250,000 to $500,000 per post, for posing with brands and featuring them on their Instagram Story pages, which allow direct links back to the brand, he adds.

But it's not easy.

"People underestimate how hard it is," says Gagliese. It's a regular full-time job writing, shooting, and editing videos and uploading them, adding all the correct tags and descriptions to make sure they get discovered, and that's just today's work. On the next day, they have to continue and do it all over again, hustling to build an audience; and once they do that, he adds, they have to keep it up.

"They have to stay on top of everything."

And since you're judged by how many followers or views you have, a cottage industry has emerged of shady companies offering to "buy" views and followers, which leads to digital "influencer fraud," something brands are very concerned about.

Tim Sovay, the chief operating officer of marketing agency CreatorIQ is on a mission to weed out fraud. "Brands want a better understanding of who they’re partnering with, and what the social metrics really are," he says.

(Source: USA Today)