Brand deals are the majority of their income, but not the majority of their content. This just means the platforms aren't paying very much, since the platforms

Brand deals are the majority of their income, but not the majority of their content. This just means the platforms aren't paying very much, since the platforms are advertising on _all_ their content and yet creators are managing to earn ~80% of their income through brand deals on a tiny fraction of their content. 58% of creators post 16 or less sponsored posts a year, and those with more followers post even less[0], while the majority of creators post significantly more content than that. Creators are very careful not to overwhelm their audience with ads; their audience (and their portability to new platforms/ channels) is their number one asset since they may need to jump to new platforms in the future as their channels can get demonetized/ banned for frivolous reasons. [0] https://influencermarketinghub.com/creator-earnings-benchmark-report/ https://influencermarketinghub.com/creator-earnings-benchmar...