How to make money as a content creator and influencer without harming planet earth
Photo by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash
Influencer marketing is growing and who doesn’t want to make a living of being creative and be the boss of your own time and space? According to an article in Forbes, influencer marketing grew from 1. 7 billion USD in 2016 to 16.4 billion USD in 2021. Influencer marketing is normally associated with platforms such as TikTok and Instagram and many people make their living of being influencers. Making paid content collaborations (posts and stories on their Instagram) can start with 25-50 USD for 30-80 thousand followers to 1000 USD at least for influencers with over 100 thousand followers, according to an article in Sellfy. Number of followers are of course not the only metrics of influencers marketing value, engagement is also the key. How many loyal and interactive followers do the influencer has?
For anyone who have spent hours on learning about the climate crisis and the sixth mass extinction might have come to the conclusion that resource extraction needs to stop. More of our oceans and lands needs to be protected, crops and other natural resources needs to be extracted more sustainably with decreased production volumes. If everyone lived like Swedes we would need 4 planets and if everyone lived live the citizens of United States we would need X planets. Globally our average ecological footprint is so high we would need 1.6 planets, according to WWF. And this show how unequal the distribution and negative impact is. Countries in the west, needs to do more to decrease their ecological footprint. Circularity might be an appealing concept, but only 8.6 % of the world today is circular and to circulate also requires resources. In general we need to slow down and consume less.
But hos does that go hand in hand with paid collaborations and being an influencer? In some cases it doesn’t. To be an influencer comes with a huge responsibility where you can educate, direct and encourage your followers to act differently. They will do as you do (well some might unfollow if your content change) and you could choose to end certain collaborations that encourage consumption of new products. Especially those produced under poor social and environmental conditions that doesn’t last over time.
How to make money if you’re not collaborating with fast fashion brands? Here comes our tips:
Sustainable options in your own nich
Can you find better produced items that live up to strong criteria’s of sustainability? Like one of Sweden’s largest YouTuberTherese Lindgren did! She has developed criteria’s with experts that brands needs to live up to! She still posts about beauty and fashion but no longer with fast fashion brands.
Categories close to yours
Can you for example as a fashion influencer collaborate with natural organic certified beauty products? As fashion lovers, your followers might still feel inspired by beauty. As an outdoor person, can you collaborate with a train travel company instead of an outdoor brand. ‘
Circular options
Rental platforms, sharing communities and so on. There are a lot of companies now offering solutions to the circular community, it can be apartment rental platforms or car-pooling. Contact them and they might never have consider your channels.
Sustainable living options
Gardening, how to mend, create your own kombucha and the list goes on of things we can do ourselves at home that might reduce consumption. Why not contacting a food company and tell them you want to create beauty products of what they are selling (sugar, coconut-fat etc.)? Or work with a gardening company and create a series of how to do gardening if you only have a balcony?
Market others work
There are very skilled and creative people out there that might not necessarily be good at creating content around their products and services. But maybe you love their work? Can it be a book? A report from a large organisation? Give them some tips on how you would like to spread their message and they might love the concept.
Services beyond products
Of course services companies with their footprint too and one can ask which ones are actually essential? But many of them do improve our wellbeing, it can be cleaning services, spa and beauty saloons and food home delivery. Just make sure the company have set their sustainability policies and action plan so they do know their negative impact and are making sure to develop their positive impact instead.
Of course if you are used to do collaborations paying several months wages it can require more work to have several smaller collaborations. But at the same time you’re on the right side of history, not contributing to overconsumption and lack of conscious thinking. Your value as a brand is increasing too because more and more companies do not want to be associated with greenwashing.
Interested to learn more? You can always contact us and we will help you!