I Earned Over $60,000 in 2024 For my Content Creation- Here Are my Takeaways
Hi! My name is Minnie, I have about 12,000 followers on Instagram and I earned $60,025 in 2024 for content creation.
I regularly share about what I earn, and yearly I like to do a recap of what my monthly / yearly income has been.
A bit about me: I'm a content creator in Sydney, Australia.
I’m acne prone and maybe not what you’d consider “aesthetic” for a variety of reasons. This is by no means me trying to be self deprecating (that’s for another time).
My hope is it’s encouraging for those who feel they aren’t stock standard or polished.
My Content Career
I started my content creation journey about four and a half years ago.
My style, what I create, and my community has evolved a lot in that time.
There were parts of my content creation career where:
I had a full-time job,
there were parts where I had a part-time job, and
there were more so parts where content creation was my only source of income.
Sometimes that was because of reasons outside my control, and other times by choice.
Why is this important? Being able to focus on content full time gave me the enormous privilege of time, which I know not everyone has. This factor alone greatly contributed to my ability to earn more.
Please do not compare your creator journey and earnings to someone who is able to spend their entire day and energy on it.
What Else I Do
Beyond content creation, I also happily work endless hours on White Rabbit Social, which is a huge passion project.
White Rabbit Social (AKA, where you’re reading this write up now!) is about connecting women through beauty.
WRS also is also a spot for creatives / women in the workforce to learn and chat about how they navigate money.
TW : DV
Personally I came from a financially illiterate background and also experienced financial abuse for quite a number of years in my life.
Part of my healing was reclaiming my relationship with money, understanding money better, and sharing what I had learned about money with others in similar situations.
Why I Share Publicly What I Earn
All the statistics, studies, and my own personal experiences support that sharing publicly what you earn not only greatly helps others, it also raises your own earnings. What a beautiful by-product.
The closer everyone charges to fair, the less women get taken advantage of.
Ultimately, not speaking about money hurts women, and even more so women that are from non-typical backgrounds (diverse cultures, vulnerable situations).
Do You Need to Share What You Earn?
Now, do you need to share what you earn publicly? I don't want my openness to put pressure on you.
I want to acknowledge that when you do step out in this way, it's not all positive.
That's why I do my best to give women and people in content creation the opportunity to share anonymously.
If you feel up to it, please feel welcome to share your rates anonymously here, and also gain access to a master spreadsheet where other generous creators have shared their rates.
To reassure you: if you feel private / secretive / ashamed and/ or you still feel really awkward around money, not only is that common- because of the way our world is, it’s normal.
How you feel isn’t wrong- just like how I feel about sharing earnings isn’t wrong.
As much as I'd love the world to change overnight, it simply won't.
If you have any questions, please feel welcome to anonymously comment them at the end of this article.
My Non-Negotiables
Here are some of my non-negotiables that helped me earn the most I’ve made from content creation this year.
This might sound a bit fuddy-duddy, but I think it's important I share because I do make decisions that a lot of people would struggle to make.
Not in a boasting way. I just, for whatever reason, have missed the brain connection that tells me to avoid danger or scarcity.
I will never share anything on my profile that is untrue to me, or doesn’t work for my skin or budget. It won’t ever happen, even if it means saying no to dream brands or tens of thousands of dollars.
I won’t work with brands that don't align with my values.
I absolutely do not ever accept product for work. This is a bigger conversation than what I can quickly mention now, but there is an article about it here: How to Not Work for Free & Grow Brand Relationships.
I do not lower my rates at all.*
*Okay, let me just do a little asterisk. For brands that I have ongoing, healthy, long-term relationships with that book me regularly, I do bulk discounts.
My Content Creation Style & Strategy
My content creation style is haphazard in, I'd like to think, an alluring way.
I like to just share what I enjoy. I like to share accessible and affordable picks.
To get into some of the more nitty gritty:
I film with the front camera on my iPhone15 Pro (people see this as taboo, frankly as long as the content is as my gorgeous friend Basmah says “Crispy”- it doesn’t matter).
More light = better content & camera quality.
I do my best to make sure I have clear audio (We’ll come back to this later).
I cross post my content on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts (when I remember).
I post on YouTube here and there, and will be picking this up more in 2025.
I beauty write as often as I can.
I always tag brands when I feature them, including the PR companies who generously sent me product.
When I work paid with a brand, I always do organic features of products alongside the paid promotion because…well…I love the product? What do we do with products we love? We organically share them.
I don’t show products that don’t work for me often at all- with the exception of a handful in my stories.
1) The product may work for others and
2) Content is so fast paced these days that more than a handful of times people have purchased because they’ve seen me feature something- but the caption and audio was actually a negative review.Not everyone is going to (nor should they) do a deep dive on my content- so I’ve noted that any show of a product or brand can potentially encourage a purchase. This is just what has felt right for me, and it’s also made my content way more positive.
When I am critical, I’m specific, measured and not cruel. This was something I learned way too slow. Go figure. It’s not cool or ok to trash a brand, there is always a person and team behind the brand, and there’s no need to hurt people.
This is again something I feel is right for me and I regret my earlier days of content creation where I was edgy and non constructive. Cringe.
What I Did This Year
This year, I bet on long-term, valuable relationships. For those brand relationships, I go above and beyond.
I have worked with a lot of brands, and this isn't in a boasting way, having had positive, neutral, and negative experiences.
For myself, I decided that I wanted to align myself with brands that I absolutely resonated with, that I absolutely loved their products, and work with teams I really enjoy working with.
Yes- some of these more picky aspects that we don't always have the privilege with. I did however decide even if it meant that I earned less than I did last year, (just over $20,000), that I was going to be picky.
Good Things From This Year
Some good things from this year were my absolute stubbornness and consistency, and I think that is half of the battle.
Honestly, this is a hard thing to talk about, because I don't want to say, “Giving up or stopping or having a break is bad”- because it’s not. You need to do what's right for you.
Personally, I knew what was right for me: Refusing to stop, pushing through, and doing my best to post every single day. That isn't for everyone.
Being dishonest doesn’t help anyone, so I don't want to tiptoe around the reality: With few exceptions, creators do need to post regularly and consistently, creating valuable content.
My Rates
This year, I raised my rates and kept them pretty consistent.
In AUD, my rates are:
x1 Reel or x1 TikTok $1000
x1 Reel + x1 TikTok (Same content cross posted) $1,700
x1 Week Usage $300
x4 Weeks / 30 Day Usage $900
Note: I change these rates based on package deals / bulk content.
A Small Detour & Learning Quickly
There is a happy medium when it comes to collaborating with small business and brands, and I think I fortunately realized really quickly the best thing for me wasn't to dive deeper into that, just frankly from a return on time standpoint.
So I kind of wiggled, restructured, and figured that either it was larger clients and small businesses that I was absolutely passionate about- but nothing in-between.
My conclusion was: I want to do high-impact work that makes a big difference for the people I engage with and feels good to do. Wow, what a privilege that I do get to do that.
Protect Your Peace
Protecting your peace is a weird one, but I do need to just speak about it openly and honestly because it’s important. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
You will never find a shortage of people being negative anywhere in life, and content creation is no exception.
Beyond being negative, people have their own doubts and struggles, and that's okay too. If you're someone that's opened up to me, I just want to reassure you that this is not a personal attack or even about you.
There definitely was a moment this year where I realized that I can't constantly ingest “bad vibes” for the lack of a better term. You will quite literally become like the people you're around.
I had to make a decision.
Am I going to fill my head with really inspirational, beautiful women that are so generous with their time with me and decide to feed back into me and encourage me and lift me up? Where I feel equal, and I’m not pulling the weight all the time?
or
Am I going to spend my time around people that have reoccurring, unsolvable problems they don’t want to fix, and will absolutely take your/ my time and energy anyway?
You and I both know the answer.
The Harsh Reality
It sounds really, really harsh. It feels harsh to write.
If you’re our little niche, you know there are endless opportunities to complain, bad mouth other creators, brands, etc etc - nothing I’m really willing to give my time and energy to, even in this write up.
Read: Dear Women in the Beauty Community: Stop Hating the “Pretty Girl”
So I drew that line, and it meant stepping back from a few things, including going to influencer events for the most part, and setting really strong boundaries.
In other aspects, it meant saying no to jobs that might have provided a lot of money, but weren't correct for me.
Guess what happened when I did this? Opportunities flooded in.
I felt happier and lighter.
I enjoyed content creation way more.
I had more energy for people who were making my life so wonderful, and I could love those people better.
What a wonderful thing.
2024 in Review
Here’s a quick recap of my monthly earnings:
JAN: $2,375
FEB: $3,160
MARCH: $1,630
APRIL: $3,850
MAY: $6,700
JUNE: $2,600
JULY: $0
AUG: $11,850
SEP: $11,050
OCT: $2,000
NOV: $0
DEC: $14,810
Total: $60,025
I believe most of my earnings this year came to charging fairly for boosted content, and a surprising amount of UGC opportunities.
Read: Boosting & Usage. This Is How Much You Should Charge
How I’m Planning Content in 2025
Here are some things I’m doing to make my content perform better, connect with more people, and make it easier for brands to work with me.
Improve scripting and just making sure that I'm getting across really high-value stuff.
Unfortunately, even though it doesn't appeal to me, I need to also really double down on some proper hooks that lure people in. I know it sounds like a bit conniving, especially if you just like to sit down and chat and be at a slower pace.
But I do need to be able to hook people in, then they can decide whether they want to keep watching. That's something that I need to kind of get over my weird ego about “Oh, I just want to be relatable, cool and chill” Haha- No, I need to be able to hook people in, in a way that is relatable, cool and chill.My audio. There are a few dedicated filming spots in my house, but one of them has some pretty bad echoing. I feel it really impacts the viewer's experience, so I need to fix that up.
It never hurts to have more light, so I will absolutely bring in some more light to my content in 2025!
Resources & Articles
As much as I love sharing everything I know, I obviously don’t know everything.
It's why it's really important to defer to experts. White Rabbit Social provides a lot of information from PR executives, marketing managers, and from brands that they very generously share with us their insights.
Here are some popular articles that have helped creators earn more:
How to Approach Brands to Get on a PR List: A Step-by-Step Guide
What Brands Consider When Engaging Content Creators & Influencers.
Negotiation 101. How To Get Paid Your Worth For Freelance Jobs
The Way You’re Emailing Is Making You Look Unprofessional. Here’s What you Need to Know
Don’t Forget to Give
If I leave you with anything: Give without expectations of return.
Look for ways to give genuinely without expectation of return in 2025. That can be to brands, to your audience, to your peers- you’ll be surprised how things come back to you.
