Social Media Growth: September Earnings Breakdown (2 Million Views = $145)
Summary
Month two of my honest creator-income recap! In September I pulled in a little over two million views across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, and all of that turned into roughly $145. Everything was down from August (hello, fashion show prep and an algorithm that decided I was a sewing channel only), but it's a real look at what small-creator money actually looks like.
- Views are not income: about 2 million views worked out to roughly 7 cents per thousand views.
- Meta still pays me zero, even with 108k+ followers, so affiliate links are doing the heavy lifting.
- Tutorials earn, memes don't: people click and buy when I show a tool I actually use.
- I got monetized on YouTube at the start of October, so next month's recap gets a brand-new line item.
- Check which apps and products you already love for affiliate programs. Even my vacuum cleaner has one!
Links & resources
- Singer (Shopify Collabs): https://collabs.shop/wqlefh
- Whatnot: https://whatnot.pxf.io/zzP5er
- eBay: https://ebay.us/1O14HU
- Depop: https://www.depop.com/timetowastevintage/
Shop related items
Transcript
Hi. Hello. You've got time to waste and I'm here to waste it. Hi. Hello. I'm Sammy and I'm going to tell you about how much money I made as a social media influencer creator for the month of September. Last month, I made almost $200. And I was feeling myself. Uh I randomly went viral and then all of a sudden monetization became a possibility. So, I decided for accountability and just to maybe help other people too, I would share monthly updates about like what that means and does it ever actually become real money. So, last month 200 bucks felt really good, felt powerful, unstoppable, and then there was this month and uh maybe a little bit of a humbling experience. Let's dive into it.
Okay. views first because views are what everybody thinks pays. This month on Instagram, I had 654,000 views and about 3,100 new followers. On Facebook, I had 1.3 million views and 5,000 new followers. YouTube was 90,000 views and 360 new subscribers. Tik Tok got 64,000 views. Um, so that adds up to like I don't know a little over two million views in a month, which sounds like a lot. Uh, but does it even matter? Who freaking knows? Now, everything across the board is down from August. Instagram is down about a quarter. Facebook was down 70%, which ouch. Uh, YouTube was down 40%. And I think the reason is because August I went hard and the bog jacket video kind of went like crazy all over the place. And then um the algorithm decided I was a sewing channel and a sewing channel only. And since I was prepping for my fashion show all month, I wasn't posting as many tutorials. And so the meta gods were like, "Nah, nah, no views for you. That's fine." Uh it's fine. It happens. Um, what else? Oh, I think I was being punished. That's in my notes. It was like, "Oh, you don't give us what we want, then we're going to take away your views." But that's just how it felt. Those are feelings, and feelings aren't always facts.
The top post of the month across Facebook and Instagram was the Just Trace That CUSS video where I took my kids dupe of a Free People shirt and then duped it by tracing it. somehow 273,000 views on that one. Um, and then second place was seven sewing terms that confused the hell out of me. It was a carousel post. It had 87,000 views. And then third place was sewing is wild, which was literally just a clip of my mannequin with a pillow attached to her butt and fake boobs attached to her chest. So, it didn't even have to be a tutorial. It just had to be about sewing for it to get any views whatsoever. Fine. Noted. Got it.
Um, meta. We had two million views. And do you know how much money I made for that? Get ready. Are you ready? Zero CUSS dollars. Again. Again. Because even with over 108,000 followers, Meta won't monetize me. I think they know how I feel about Zuck. And I think that they are like using it against me. Valid. So I quit posting anything long form over there because they were getting all of these views. So Meta is making money but Sammy is not making money. So now I only post short clips over on Facebook and then in the comments say go to YouTube if you want the full thing. But I digress. Okay. So, I have a rolling total in my creator dashboard on Facebook and I am uh I'm up to a $162. It has all been rolling over since February. Uh basically a rotisserie chicken at this point, but whatever. Uh if you are like me and you're a small creator waiting on Facebook to pay you, let me go ahead and tell you it doesn't seem to be the way. at least not for me. The affiliate links, which I'll get to later, have been the only thing that have turned into like profit from Facebook, but I'll get to that in a bit.
Um, YouTube, $0 income for the month of September, but at the start of October, your girl got monetized. So October I should have like real numbers here for YouTube monetization which is very exciting. Like and subscribe to make sure that you get to see all of those updates too, friends. I'm excited to see like what monetization with like my what I feel normal number of views looks like on this app. I've been working so hard to get to those like 4,000 watch hours in time and I did it. and we're monetized. So, October's YouTube numbers should be way cooler.
Um, let's talk affiliate links on Amazon, where I am an Amazon affiliate for Daddy Bezos. There were 152 clicks on my links, 13 things ordered. I sent Daddy about $250 in sales and he gave me $845. So that's $5.95 in commissions plus a $2.50 bounty, which is like when someone subscribes to an Amazon service after clicking your link, like Audible or Prime or any of those. So thanks whoever did that. In August, I did like 40 bucks on Amazon. This month, like eight. So that sucks, but it's not surprising. I wasn't posting as many things for people to buy. The restoration powder is like by far and away the thing that everyone clicks my Amazon link to buy. And I also noticed that they were out of that size, like the size of my link. So, they couldn't have bought it if they wanted to. Maybe that had something to do with it.
Um, okay. on eBay as an eBay ambassador. My link has been clicked 80 times. We made one sale for $36 and I got $7 of that which is up from August where I made $264. We take the wins, you know, we take them where we find them. The conversion rate there is about 1% which is normal for eBay and also why nobody's getting rich off eBay links. with Singer. You guys have bought $586 worth of Singer sewing machine supplies or machines uh through my link in September. I got 23. No, I'm sorry. I got 2733 from that. It's down a little from the $33 the month before, but again, I wasn't posting sewing tutorials as much. I wasn't posting that link as much. So, it makes sense. I appreciate you though. I appreciate every single one of you who has been buying things through that Singer link. I love you. Thank you.
Over on the Impact app where my WhatNot affiliate setup is, Cap Cut, Vendu, Grabby, and all of those. Um, we did okay this month. My whatnot link is my biggest one. I did $10063. It is down from last month which was 120, but still doing some like heavy lifting. What sucks though is in November they're ending that program. They're ending that program. So that's going to suck for me. But it is what it is. We'll roll with it. Maybe I can reach out and see if they'll not cancel the program because I will be sad. Anyway, uh let's see. Grabby I made $2.7. They're the guys that do those cool watercolors that I love so much in the workbook. Uh Cap Cut didn't make a dime. Vendue nothing consistent, but I'm not mad about it. Like I'm not really actively promoting those. They're just there. They're links people can click and they're tools that I use. So fine. Uh repurpose, still nothing on there. But that makes sense too because most of the time when I'm hyping it up, I'm hyping up the thing that you can do for free, which is crosslist, I mean cross-ost from everywhere else to YouTube. And so no one is subscribing to their paid service because the thing they need to do they can do for free. Fair. Valid.
Okay, let's add them up. We got 8.45 45 from Amazon, 7 from eBay, 2733 from Singer, $10063 from whatnot, $207 from Grabby. That is $14548 for September. Last month, August was 196 96 and I'm down 26%. According to math, which is fine. It happens. Uh, it's going to eb and flow. There might be a month where I do double. There might be a month where I do nothing. Who knows? I'm new at this. I'm finding it out with you right now. Um, so, you know, real talk, that's what it is. Month over month, we had July nothing. August 200, September 145. The line went down, but it will go up again probably.
Okay, now remember the 2 million views. Here's the part that you're not being told, right? 2 million views turned into $145. That is 7 cents per thousand views. Amazon paid me three and a half%of what people bought. Singer paid about 5%. what not paid whatever what not paid. Um so it's more about people clicking on the thing that I use and then buying it which means like tutorials not memes even though the memes get the views. The internet is a scam but it's a scam that I'm starting to understand. Okay. So what am I going to change based on this? Well not much. In October, I've got a lot more sewing tutorials going up, so we'll see if that helps. Uh, I've made a point to include more links in more places, and I even updated my website to include uh more of the affiliate links and more like curated collections of the things I buy, just to see if it moves the needle at all in the right direction. Uh, and of course, ideally, I will be posting October's recap much earlier in November than I'm posting the September recap. But I digress. I always digress.
Um, okay. So, what else do I need to tell you? As of October, YouTube is actually paying me. As of right now, I have like $37 and change already, and we are less than three weeks in. $24.50 of that came from a super, which is like when you guys give me money. And what kind of sucks is that person gave me $50, but Apple's fees and then YouTube's commission ate literally half of it. So wild. Um, don't love that. That's reason number 80 billion why I want the channels to pay me and not you guys because they're going to find a way to get their cut and that's trash. I don't need your money. Watch my videos. That's enough. That's enough.
Okay. So, next month's recap will have a whole new line item. You know, YouTube monetization, which is super exciting. And maybe I'll beat August's numbers. We will see. Um, okay. The notes say it's time for a closing. If you want to start getting paid for the stuff you're already making, the stuff you already own, and the stuff you're already doing, you got to start adding affiliate links. If you wait forever for monetization, you might be missing opportunities to gain money from purchases your friends were already going to make. So, check and see what are you subscribed to. What apps do affiliate programs that you're already using? If you like I love my vacuum cleaner. I went and checked. They have an affiliate program. So, I signed up and now my vacuum cleaner has a link on my website. And if anyone ever buys this ridiculous thing from me, I might I might get a little credit. So, it's just it's little things like that that can help you grow. Uh I'm here to help you learn. I'm here to also learn. I want to share everything as I go so that we can all get rich off the millionaires and the specifically the billionaires. Okay, let's um All right. Anyway, like, subscribe, all that cringy stuff. I love you. I'm glad you're here. I'll be back. If you want to support my channel, do so. Bye. liking, subscribing, and watching the videos and letting the ads play, I guess. I love you. Have a great day. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
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