One of the questions I get asked a lot when I tell people what my job is: “how do you make money?” I’m going to be honest with you, I understand the curiosity. When I meet people with jobs I’ve never heard of before it’s the first thing I want to know too. But being on the receiving end of it, I do find it quite annoying explaining over and over again.
However, within my professional circles, amongst people doing similar things I like this question. The thing about being a social media influencer is that everyone makes money differently. There are so many revenue streams available to us and everyone’s business model is slightly different. I always find it really interesting talking to other creators about what their income pie chart looks like.
But you see, I’ve always guessed what my income pie chart looks like. I know the majority of my money comes from working with brands on sponsored videos but I’ve never actually figured out the exact percentage… until now!
So I asked my accountant to send me my income from the most recent tax year 2017-2018. And then I did some spreadsheet magic I could remember from secondary school ICT classes and made a pie chart! With colours! So here it is…
My Income Pie Chart
For some reason the pink and dark red segments don’t have labels but they are “Merch” (0.9%) and “Radio/TV” (0.8%) respectively. So first of all let’s explain each category.
Brand deals – a company give me money to make a video/tweet/instagram about their product or campaign e.g. Embarrassing Period Stories, Sex & Overflow!
Adsense – you know those adverts you see on YouTube videos? This is my cut of what the advertisers are paying Google to put them there.
Writing – I wrote a book. I also occasionally get paid to write for other things.
Patreon – a membership site where fans can directly support me financially in return for different rewards and perks.
Affiliates – affiliate marketing is where I use trackable links from different companies (e.g. Amazon, ASOS, Lovehoney), sometimes with discount codes and I get a small cut of any purchases made through my links.
Events/Speaking – sometimes I do talks, panels, workshops.
Merch – I have merchandise!
Radio/TV – sometimes I’m on radio or TV, and some of those times I get paid for it.
BBClub – I am 1/3 of podcast Banging Book Club. We have ads run on our episodes and this % is my third of the total.
What does it all mean?!
Two things shocked me when I saw this: 1) brand deals are 80%! I knew it would be the biggest slice of the pie but didn’t think it would be that big. 2) the second biggest slice is Adsense. Even with all the crap with demonetisation and low CPMs it seems to still be a regular income for me.
The other thing I want to clarify is the “Writing” slice. I got paid an advance to write my book and the way that works is I got 1/3 on signing the contract, another 1/3 when I sent them my first draft and the final 1/3 on publication day. The dates of this pie chart only include the final 1/3 of that. So the pie chart from 2016-2017, in theory “Writing” would take up a bigger slice of the pie.
So what doing this has taught me is that I seriously need to diversify my income. Here’s why. Almost 90% of my income (brand deals and Adsense) relies on my popularity and the whims of advertisers. Who knows if there’ll be another “adpocolypse” and my Adsense drops again. Or what if my channel starts doing badly and I get less views? I may have to lower my rates for brand deals. How much advertisers pay for ads on YouTube I have zero control over. Whether or not I manage to keep my channel afloat in this fickle, oversaturated internet space I also have very little control over (or at least it feels like it).
I don’t want 90% of my income to be coming from things I have such little control over. Basically, right now I have all my eggs in one basket and if that basket breaks, I’m screwed.
Ideally, in a few years time I’d like “brand deals” to be at 50%. And that doesn’t mean I’ll do less brand deals. What it means is I need to find a way to increase my other areas so I can be more self-sufficient and future proof my career.
What I’m doing
So it’s baby steps but right now I’m trying to use Affiliate links more, reach out to brands that I already use and find out if they have affiliate programmes. I’ve created a spreadsheet where I keep all my most used links that I can easily access when people ask me “where did you get that dress?”.
The other area I’m building up is my Patreon. I recently re-launched it with new tiers and rewards such as a community Discord server where everyone can chat which I’m loving! Some people make their entire living from Patreon so there is a lot of potential there.
I’m planning on writing another book so there’ll be income from that and I’m launching new merchandise. It’s coming out at Summer in the City (which is next weekend) and will also be online. I want to take my merch more seriously, respond to the things that people want and make things I think are great!
So that’s what I’m doing right now and maybe as I go I’ll come up with some strategies to increase the other areas so I’m less reliant on brand deals and Adsense.
I hope this insight was interesting to you. I know I would love to see the pie charts of other social media influencers and share knowledge and advice.
I often wonder how an influencer’s income is split, so this is incredibly interesting. I would never have guessed that branded content would take up such a large portion! As someone that would like to be self-employed one day, it’s great to see this kind of breakdown (especially as, for reasons I completely understand, not many people want to talk about it) – it really helps present me organise the life of future me.
Hi Hannah,
First I got an additional question: How does your blog fit into this? Does it simply help you find branddeals and help with affiliate links?
Secondly I want to thank you for explaining this. I recently turned 20 and find myself in uni needing a creative outlet so I’ve been playing with the idea of starting youtube and a blog perhaps. Yet with the bad aftertaste of some youtube drama I was doubting a lot. Should I? Should I not? It’s especially hard because no one is clear about how it all works. So thank you for clearing this part and how it works income wise up.
Have a nice day x
Very interesting love, always wondered! Xx
This was really interesting to read! I started blogging a few months ago and recently wondered if I could monetize my blog in any way. How do you approach brands? Do you just email and ask about affiliate links/ brand deals or is there a specific route to go about it?
Very Interesting. T by ank you for the transparency and for helping us to learn a little more about the world of YouTubers. Now that you have written this article, you can just direct others to it when they ask you how you make your money and stop having to answer the question in detail on the spot.
This was very informative, and really interesting to read about! Thank you for sharing. I’m not a social media influencer, but I realized recently that most of my income was coming from a not very stable job, and I understand the need to diversify, and I think it’s a great idea.
Wow! this is really interesting! I’m super into finance so this just tickles that spot really nicely, since not many influencers wish to speak on what they make (which is their right obviously).
Sadly I’m still too young to support those few influencers I wish to (you included), but one day I’ll chip in at least just a little bit. I really enjoy your content and especially your book. I found the body image and contraceptive pages really interesting, and I love your writing style. I’m looking forward to your book. I’m a bit sad the 25 dates before 25 won’t be a thing…you know, because of dan (Damn you dan. Jk, I’m happy for you guys”
can’t wait for your july update! I’m so excited to find out if you got to move into the flat or not.
Thanks Hannah. We understand much more now
Wonderful insight into world of YouTube for someone who would like to make it as a full time career! Nice writeup.
Dayum…this sounds like a lot of thinking. You shouldn’t worry about it though. The property prices in London are seriously worrying though but you must like it there so that’s a positive but dayum.
A very interesting article. I find it very refreshing for someone to be so honest about discussing money and how they make a living without it sounding like its a competion. Thanks for sharing!