what does it actually mean to be an "influencer"?

the inside scoop on work as a content creator/influencer: how to do it and what it actually looks like

For the past two years, I’d been working more or less full-time as a freelance writer and photographer. I took a combination of marketing work, editorial work, ghost writing, and content creating or “influencing” work.

Recently I took a job working full time at Paddling Magazine, tapping out of the freelance game for a few reasons. Here they are:

1. I work better as part of a team, and freelancing for me was solo work.

2. Freelancing and content creating is inconsistent— there were months when I had more work than I knew what to do with, and others where I struggled. I wanted something more reliable.

3. I don’t like being my own boss.

4. With freelancing and content creating, I often felt I was putting in far more work than I was getting out of it. Sometimes I was okay with that because I loved the creative freedom; other times it was really frustrating.

Freelance content creating probably isn’t right for me long-term, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t right for everyone. Here are some things I learned along the way, some advice for aspiring content creators/freelancers, and hopefully some insight into what content creating actually looked like for me¹

what freelance content creating/”influencing” actually looks like:

1. Every content creator or “influencer” probably has a “real” job title behind that. Very, very few people are making money from just posting photos and providing no value. For example, while I did make ads for companies, I worked primarily as a freelance writer and pitched stories arcs for the ads then shot the photos in-house. Beyond this, I made money through using affiliate linking on my blog (here’s how that works; it now consistently generates passive income for me every month) or writing paid articles for other websites/publications. Other people are freelance marketers, or photographers, or educators, but everyone who is making money through content creation is bringing something to the table beyond simply “influencing”. ²

2. Sponsored posts make up only around 30% of income³. It’s really, really exciting to have a brand that wants to pay you to create content for them! Sponsored content deals are pretty unreliable, with an influx before Christmas and an influx in the spring and early summer. They can pay really well, but for most creators, you’ll want to diversify what you do and not rely solely on sponsored content.

3. It’s a lot more work than it looks like from the outside! It is truly not just snapping photos and writing an off the cuff caption. To function as a full-time freelancer, I was constantly writing for my blog, shooting photos, editing photos, editing articles, storyboarding, engaging on social media, pitching stories, ect. In the beginning, it’s all that work but with no pay to show for it.

4. Everyone wants something from you. And it starts to feel, after a little while, that everyone wants to use you. It’s being asked constant favors from small businesses and people you know tangentially— 10 small favor asks a week start to add up, even if it’s “just” for a easy photo/Instagram story shout out. Truth is, if you did that for everyone, your entire feed would be favors. At first it’s fun to get a freebie, but there is no such thing as a free lunch. You have to learn to be selective with your time, and explain that you have limited time and resources, and hope that people understand it’s not just an Instagram post— it’s driving and hiking and shooting photos and editing photos and writing copy and posting and engaging, all of which, start to finish for a piece of new created content, often takes a full eight hours. For one new post, using the post for my knitting shop update as a gauge⁴. But truly, creating a single Instagram post from scratch is often a full day of work.

5. How can it be that a single Instagram post takes a whole days work?

   

   Only one of these posts was shot this month. Everything else is exclusively using photo and video shot last winter, or the winter before, or before that. Basically, I’ve built my own photo and image library that I pull from a lot of the time.

6. People will not treat you like a person. And it’s important to remember that your social media persona is not a person; it’s an account. The other day, I read a comment on an influencers post where she talked through all the puffy jackets she owned. The comment accused her of overconsumption, and announced “ew, unfollowing”. The influencer politely explained that she lives in a cold off-grid cabin, and uses all of her jackets regularly and doesn’t own much. The commenter replied that it didn’t matter, it wasn’t about the influencer, she didn’t want to follow accounts that inspired her to consume more. Which of course, if that were true, that it was not about putting down an influencer, not about the commenter making herself feel morally superior to an influencer, she would’ve unfollowed quietly. But people love to use the people they categorize as influencers as the sounding boards for their moral superiority. If there is a chance, a shred of a chance, to interpret something you said or did or wrote as anything but the absolute epitome of pristine morals, someone will. ⁵ And it sucks.

Okay, so is content creating or influencing worth it?

Not for me, not as a full-time job. But for some people who value the freedom enough to give up the stability, it totally could be. I enjoy the creative outlet of social media, and I really enjoy writing this newsletter and creating midwest outdoor adventure resources on my blog.

so you want to work as a content creator/influencer:

Okay, so you’ve read all this, you hear all my reservations, you still want to be a content creator. Here are some tips to get you started:

• Whether you are primarily hoping to work as an influencer on Instagram, TikTok, or some other platform, you need to find a way to have access your audience or readers outside that platform. I recommend an email list/newsletter (hello) and a website.

• Figure out what your marketable skill is. What can you actually monetize? Think brand photography, digital marketing campaigns, articles/copywriting. Make your portfolio around those things.

• Take the time to make a an online portfolio. It is 100% worth it to have some kind of portfolio separate from your social media presence that outlines the scope of what you do.

• If there’s any advice I could give to someone interested in freelance content creation but not necessarily front facing influencing, start a blog and use social media to augment it rather than the other way around. I’ve had so much more luck with consistent income through blogging than anywhere else. Read 29 Tips to Start a Blog

  hi there! there are more nuanced creator tips (and footnotes from above) below this line for paying subscribers! Thanks for being here either way :)