5x Your Creator Income in 2025

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Based on our creator income data, we found that creators whose primary platform was:

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• YouTube made an average of $1.00 per follower per year

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• TikTok made an average of $0.15 per follower per year

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• Instagram made an average of $0.29 per follower per year

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This isn’t to say you should ditch TikTok and Instagram, but something to think about when planning your monetization strategy for 2025.

We covered a ton of monetization topics in 2024. Here are some of the most valuable guides, insights, and resources we shared.

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🤝 Brand Deals

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Tips:

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• Based on our research and data, most creators charge between 2-4% of their following size as a base rate for a sponsored post.

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• Use FYPM to see if your rates are on par with the market.

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• Know how to convey your value when pitching. Can you share conversion data? Do you have a broadcast channel people interested in the topic? Have people clicked on this brand’s product in your LTK before?

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• Don’t diss lowball offers—negotiate them. (I turned a $500 offer into a $2,700 deal simply by sending 1 negotiation email back.)

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Resources:

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• How much to charge for a brand deal (link)

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• How to negotiate higher paying brand deals (link)

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• 15 places to get paid brand deals & UGC opportunities (link)

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🖥️ Digital Products

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Tips:

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• Use ManyChat to automate sending viewers the link to purchase your products. It’s increased sales by 9x for some creators.

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Resources:

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• Complete guide to making $10k+/mo from digital products (link)

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• In-depth guide to selling a digital course (link)

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🤳🏼 User Generated Content (UGC)

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FYI: UGC is creating videos for brands to use in organic or paid media. Think videos for their social media pages or paid ads, but not posted to your page.

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Tips:

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• Look at example videos from creators like Tran and Emma, then create a few samples of your own.

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• Most creators charge around $200-$300/video (for organic use only) based on the rate cards we researches.

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Resources:

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• Complete guide to making money with UGC (link)

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• Follow this X page for UGC opportunities (link)

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• The highest-paying UGC opportunities we’ve found (link)

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💰 Affiliate Income

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Tips:

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• Compile your favorites into a guide. Link out with affiliate links. Use ManyChat to automate sending people the link.

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• When you link an item on an Instagram story, save it to a highlight so people can easily find and use your affiliate links.

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Resources:

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• How to maximize your affiliate income (link)

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🗣️ Paid Communities

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Tips:

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• Paid communities are ideal if you have a specific offering that requires new information month-over-month (ie. workout plans, recipes, investing tips, etc.)

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• Hosting on Skool is your best bet. It offers the best features for a fair price.

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• Most creators charge between $14 and $147 per month, although higher-priced memberships provide more intensive offers (ie. a 1:1 coaching session, weekly mastermind calls, access to courses, etc.)

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Resources:

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• How creators make $200k/mo with paid communities (link)

As of writing this newsletter, the status of the TikTok ban is still in limbo. Here’s the most recent update:

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• On 12/27, President-elect Trump filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court.

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• This document is filed by a third party that is not part of the case to give additional arguments the Court may want to consider.

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• Trump argued the Court should issue a pause on the ban.

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• His goal is to resolve the case once he takes office. He argued that he is the right person to resolve the dispute through political means.

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Watch this video for a breakdown.

🗞️ Top creator economy stories from 2024.

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😬 Could the TikTok ban collapse the creator economy?

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🧒 The best social media trends from 2024.

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This Week in Creator Studio

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This week we don’t have a guest, but next Thursday at 4PM EST in Creator Studio (our free Discord community) we’re interviewing Rachel Kisela—a YouTube editor.

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In 2023, she was a lead video editor for MrBeast and now edits for creators like HopeScope (5.8M subscribers). Her edits have been featured in CNN, Forbes, Insider, and more.