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As far as anecdata goes, I know someone who makes around $800K a year even without some crazy-impressive a follower count on Youtube (around 600K). This is not

by dokein 8y ago

As far as anecdata goes, I know someone who makes around $800K a year even without some crazy-impressive a follower count on Youtube (around 600K). This is not factoring in free trips, etc. As with any commercial exchange, there's a lot of variables other than size of audience, including the composition of the audience, how good the channel is at moving a specific product, whether there are side-opportunities related to the main influencer role, how good of a B2B salesperson one is, etc. This particular person works as hard as anyone in a startup, around 100 hours a week, and treats it as such. She also happens to be pretty good looking which helps with the videos. It used to piss me off a little bit, given how hard I have had to work to get to this stage, but one can think of it as very similar to modeling with probably a similar income distribution too (and I seem to intrinsically understand that top tier models make a lot and am ok with it). My question is -- of all the people making a lot in their 20s and early 30s, how many are going to be making the same amount in their 40s and 50s? I suppose by then their peer generation will also be the same age so it's hard for me to project. I also expect it to be much more of a mature market at that time.

freehunter 8y ago
You're right that there are lots of variables. I'd imagine the ad revenue of Pewdiepie is far eclipsed by the sales of his merchandise. You're also right that looking good goes a long way on Instagram. People want to see good looking models. In the world of blogging, that's far less important. All the people in our bloggers group are decidedly average looking individuals, and their appearance doesn't change how much money they're able to make. Like you said, the main differentiation there is the ruthless business spirit. You have to play dirty to make it in the big leagues. I hope that we're not still following influencers when we're in our 40s and 50s. Kids will, of course, but they're not going to be influenced by 40 and 50 year old people on Snapchat. Save your income while you're young, it's not gonna last.
- TheBeardKing 8y ago
  Young people seek new ideas and trends more for self discovery, to impress friends and potential partners, create new identities, etc. Once we're settled and established we don't seek new things as much and most things appear more mundane. I'll always look for aggregate opinions on reddit, tripadvisor, amazon, etc., but I doubt I'll ever find a single other person so much like myself to trust them for everything.
conanbatt 8y ago
At 800k/year it doesn't matter, does it.
vinhboy 8y ago
> It used to piss me off a little bit, given how hard I have had to work to get to this stage What do you that makes $800K/year?
csallen 8y ago
> It used to piss me off a little bit, given how hard I have had to work to get to this stage There are only so many hours in the week, only so many years in a career, and thus there's a limit to how much more one person can work than another. And yet there are people making 2x, 10x, 100x, 1000x, …, 1 billion times what others are. Compensation is largely unrelated to the amount of sweat, time, and effort we put in. Rather, it's a result of the depth of the value we provide and the number of people we provide that value to. Outcome > input. I believe that understanding this makes us less jealous of people who seem "undeserving," and also helps us make better decisions in our own careers. Another way to reduce envy is to realize that, ultimately, it's luck all the way down. There are plenty of talented, hard-working people who will never see even moderate success, simply because they were born in the wrong country, in the wrong decade, to the wrong parents, etc. It seems that cursing the people above us is a natural tendency for humans, but we'd do well to spend more energy thinking of those behind us, as well as appreciating our own circumstances.
- shawn 8y ago
  Rather, it's a result of the depth of the value we provide and the number of people we provide that value to. Outcome > input Not really. It’s mostly family connections.
  - krkek29nx 8y ago
    Yeah citation needed Unless all the scholarly work on “how is value determined” attempting to define this is wrong. Did we just solve it on a web forum by accident? Short answer is there isn’t an answer that’s reliable except “networking and feelings” making it seem arbitrary Economics and Wall Street are not free markets for ideas. They’re on rails financial walled gardens. One must recite the theories and have the right keys (money) to gain entry Nothing about the system is objective
  - btilly 8y ago
    According to https://www.cnbc.com/2014/10/03/two-thirds-of-billionaires-made-it-themselves.html https://www.cnbc.com/2014/10/03/two-thirds-of-billionaires-m..., about 2/3 of billionaires have self-made fortunes. So clearly family connections help. But that doesn't appear to be most of the picture.
petepete 8y ago
> She also happens to be pretty good looking which helps with the videos Depending on the demographic, that's half the battle right there.
- jakobegger 8y ago
  I wonder why nobody ever says, "she happens to have a good sense of humor, that's half the battle right there"
  - chemochemo 8y ago
    I would wager you've never heard that because most people understand intuitively that good looks get you further than a good sense of humor, all else being equal.
    - michaelt 8y ago
      Unless you're in the comedy business, I guess. And even there, being good looking don't exactly hurt.
- charlesdm 8y ago
  So what? Some people are smarter than others, some are better looking, some have a bit of both. Some grow up in wealthy families and others in poor families. You get dealt a hand, and you play with it. You can be good looking and do horrible in life. You can be not good looking and become immensely wealthy. It doesn't matter.
  - doubledad222 8y ago
    > It doesn't matter. It doesn't pre-determine your outcome. It does matter, in that it helps to start out wealthy or smarter or better looking than your competition.
    - collyw 8y ago
      I think what he means is you shouldn't dwell on it. Make the best of what you do have and don't play the victim. Have you even met anyone successful who whined about how disadvantaged they were? Or do they tell you what they did to overcome the odds onstead?
yashap 8y ago
I think you’re right to expect that many “influencer” careers will be reasonably short. It’s probably similar to any celebrity, really. Some stay in the spotlight for ages, but they’re rare, I’d guess most have somewhere from ~1-10 years of true fame. It’s not just celebrities becoming less sexy as they age - fans are fickle and get bored quickly. With that being said, influencers have proven themselves to be entrepreneurial and great marketers. If someone has built their personal brand to $800K/year in revenue, I’d love for them to help build my businesses brand. I’ll bet a lot of these people could move on to a successful and lucrative career in marketing afterwards.
coldtea 8y ago
>My question is -- of all the people making a lot in their 20s and early 30s, how many are going to be making the same amount in their 40s and 50s? If they haven't figured an additional way to make money and leverage their connections and fame by their 40s and 50s maybe they don't deserve to make "the same amount" by then... All the major "influencers" I follow, whether in tech, clothing, coffee, games, filming, music, eating, whatever diversify like crazy...
SJWDisagree111 8y ago
There are plenty of blogs and sites out there that expose these women for what they are really doing. High-end prostitution. Sorry but that girl is most likely just a prostitute. Sure they have some relationships with companies for branding and whatnot but the numbers never add up. I've seen the proof and looked at the absolute made up lies that their Instagram or whatever account claims are doing besides prostitution.
- dang 8y ago
  We've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines repeatedly. Also, single-purpose accounts aren't allowed here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - collyw 8y ago
    Aren't us readers old enough to decide for ourselves if we want to read a heavily down voted comment? Banning seems very authoritarian and pro censorship. (Maye I would change my mind if I had actually been able to read it, but I couldn't).
    - mclehman 8y ago
      The showdead option lets you decide for yourself if you'd like to read those sorts of comments.
s2g 8y ago
> It used to piss me off a little bit, given how hard I have had to work to get to this stage ha, as if the vast majority will ever make close to 800k a year.
VectorLock 8y ago
Can I ask what industry she is in if she gets such a high return for subscription rate?
justboxing 8y ago
> My question is -- of all the people making a lot in their 20s and early 30s, how many are going to be making the same amount in their 40s and 50s? My answer to that is a question. Why would these people need to make the same amount in their 40s and 50s? If the person you know is making $800K (guessing gross), and after tax and expenses, conservatively banking $300 - $400K a year, then when they enter the 30s in 10 - 12 years, they should have about 3 to 4 million CASH, which, if invested wisely during the accumulation period should have grown to another million or so. This amount is enough to retire with a healthy lifestyle almost anywhere in the world (except maybe Tokyo, San Francisco, New York and a handful of other nutty-expensive cities.). So they don't even need to make anything in their 40s and 50s except work to stay busy "doing what they love".
abledon 8y ago
They will need to have saved up some money to deal with their fading youth personality crisis when they hit 40s/50s.

by dokein 8y ago

freehunter 8y ago

You're right that there are lots of variables. I'd imagine the ad revenue of Pewdiepie is far eclipsed by the sales of his merchandise. You're also right that looking good goes a long way on Instagram. People want to see good looking models. In the world of blogging, that's far less important. All the people in our bloggers group are decidedly average looking individuals, and their appearance doesn't change how much money they're able to make. Like you said, the main differentiation there is the ruthless business spirit. You have to play dirty to make it in the big leagues. I hope that we're not still following influencers when we're in our 40s and 50s. Kids will, of course, but they're not going to be influenced by 40 and 50 year old people on Snapchat. Save your income while you're young, it's not gonna last.

TheBeardKing 8y ago
Young people seek new ideas and trends more for self discovery, to impress friends and potential partners, create new identities, etc. Once we're settled and established we don't seek new things as much and most things appear more mundane. I'll always look for aggregate opinions on reddit, tripadvisor, amazon, etc., but I doubt I'll ever find a single other person so much like myself to trust them for everything.

conanbatt 8y ago

At 800k/year it doesn't matter, does it.

vinhboy 8y ago

> It used to piss me off a little bit, given how hard I have had to work to get to this stage What do you that makes $800K/year?

csallen 8y ago

> It used to piss me off a little bit, given how hard I have had to work to get to this stage There are only so many hours in the week, only so many years in a career, and thus there's a limit to how much more one person can work than another. And yet there are people making 2x, 10x, 100x, 1000x, …, 1 billion times what others are. Compensation is largely unrelated to the amount of sweat, time, and effort we put in. Rather, it's a result of the depth of the value we provide and the number of people we provide that value to. Outcome > input. I believe that understanding this makes us less jealous of people who seem "undeserving," and also helps us make better decisions in our own careers. Another way to reduce envy is to realize that, ultimately, it's luck all the way down. There are plenty of talented, hard-working people who will never see even moderate success, simply because they were born in the wrong country, in the wrong decade, to the wrong parents, etc. It seems that cursing the people above us is a natural tendency for humans, but we'd do well to spend more energy thinking of those behind us, as well as appreciating our own circumstances.

shawn 8y ago
Rather, it's a result of the depth of the value we provide and the number of people we provide that value to. Outcome > input Not really. It’s mostly family connections.
- krkek29nx 8y ago
  Yeah citation needed Unless all the scholarly work on “how is value determined” attempting to define this is wrong. Did we just solve it on a web forum by accident? Short answer is there isn’t an answer that’s reliable except “networking and feelings” making it seem arbitrary Economics and Wall Street are not free markets for ideas. They’re on rails financial walled gardens. One must recite the theories and have the right keys (money) to gain entry Nothing about the system is objective
- btilly 8y ago
  According to https://www.cnbc.com/2014/10/03/two-thirds-of-billionaires-made-it-themselves.html https://www.cnbc.com/2014/10/03/two-thirds-of-billionaires-m..., about 2/3 of billionaires have self-made fortunes. So clearly family connections help. But that doesn't appear to be most of the picture.

petepete 8y ago

> She also happens to be pretty good looking which helps with the videos Depending on the demographic, that's half the battle right there.

jakobegger 8y ago
I wonder why nobody ever says, "she happens to have a good sense of humor, that's half the battle right there"
- chemochemo 8y ago
  I would wager you've never heard that because most people understand intuitively that good looks get you further than a good sense of humor, all else being equal.
  - michaelt 8y ago
    Unless you're in the comedy business, I guess. And even there, being good looking don't exactly hurt.
charlesdm 8y ago
So what? Some people are smarter than others, some are better looking, some have a bit of both. Some grow up in wealthy families and others in poor families. You get dealt a hand, and you play with it. You can be good looking and do horrible in life. You can be not good looking and become immensely wealthy. It doesn't matter.
- doubledad222 8y ago
  > It doesn't matter. It doesn't pre-determine your outcome. It does matter, in that it helps to start out wealthy or smarter or better looking than your competition.
  - collyw 8y ago
    I think what he means is you shouldn't dwell on it. Make the best of what you do have and don't play the victim. Have you even met anyone successful who whined about how disadvantaged they were? Or do they tell you what they did to overcome the odds onstead?

yashap 8y ago

I think you’re right to expect that many “influencer” careers will be reasonably short. It’s probably similar to any celebrity, really. Some stay in the spotlight for ages, but they’re rare, I’d guess most have somewhere from ~1-10 years of true fame. It’s not just celebrities becoming less sexy as they age - fans are fickle and get bored quickly. With that being said, influencers have proven themselves to be entrepreneurial and great marketers. If someone has built their personal brand to $800K/year in revenue, I’d love for them to help build my businesses brand. I’ll bet a lot of these people could move on to a successful and lucrative career in marketing afterwards.

coldtea 8y ago

>My question is -- of all the people making a lot in their 20s and early 30s, how many are going to be making the same amount in their 40s and 50s? If they haven't figured an additional way to make money and leverage their connections and fame by their 40s and 50s maybe they don't deserve to make "the same amount" by then... All the major "influencers" I follow, whether in tech, clothing, coffee, games, filming, music, eating, whatever diversify like crazy...

SJWDisagree111 8y ago

There are plenty of blogs and sites out there that expose these women for what they are really doing. High-end prostitution. Sorry but that girl is most likely just a prostitute. Sure they have some relationships with companies for branding and whatnot but the numbers never add up. I've seen the proof and looked at the absolute made up lies that their Instagram or whatever account claims are doing besides prostitution.

dang 8y ago
We've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines repeatedly. Also, single-purpose accounts aren't allowed here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- collyw 8y ago
  Aren't us readers old enough to decide for ourselves if we want to read a heavily down voted comment? Banning seems very authoritarian and pro censorship. (Maye I would change my mind if I had actually been able to read it, but I couldn't).
  - mclehman 8y ago
    The showdead option lets you decide for yourself if you'd like to read those sorts of comments.

s2g 8y ago

> It used to piss me off a little bit, given how hard I have had to work to get to this stage ha, as if the vast majority will ever make close to 800k a year.

VectorLock 8y ago

Can I ask what industry she is in if she gets such a high return for subscription rate?

justboxing 8y ago

> My question is -- of all the people making a lot in their 20s and early 30s, how many are going to be making the same amount in their 40s and 50s? My answer to that is a question. Why would these people need to make the same amount in their 40s and 50s? If the person you know is making $800K (guessing gross), and after tax and expenses, conservatively banking $300 - $400K a year, then when they enter the 30s in 10 - 12 years, they should have about 3 to 4 million CASH, which, if invested wisely during the accumulation period should have grown to another million or so. This amount is enough to retire with a healthy lifestyle almost anywhere in the world (except maybe Tokyo, San Francisco, New York and a handful of other nutty-expensive cities.). So they don't even need to make anything in their 40s and 50s except work to stay busy "doing what they love".

abledon 8y ago

They will need to have saved up some money to deal with their fading youth personality crisis when they hit 40s/50s.