Hello everyone! Today I was feeling motivated (and also a little proud of myself) after I put together everything for my taxes yesterday. If you’re new here, I am a microinfluencer with about 25K followers on Instagram! Last year I was able to make OVER $100,000 WITH MY SIDE HUSTLE and am honestly so shook. After expenses, taxes, etc. I officially made six figures as a 25-year old (between that and my full-time job). And today, I want to break down My 2021 Income Report As a Microinfluencer!
In this I’ll break down my month to month expenses, and then also share a detailed profit and loss summary so you can see the yearly breakdown I had as well! I do want to preface this post with: I have built this brand 100% myself, I keep a full-time job as well for affordable health insurance and to make enough money to support myself. Now….let’s get started!
January Income Report:
In January I reported earnings from December 2020 because I hadn’t been paid for those campaigns yet! In 2022, I am doing it a bit differently and counting the campaigns I finished, but was not yet paid for, in 2021. That way 2022 income will just be based on 2022 campaigns and affiliates.
Income: $15,200
Expenses: $384.19
February Income Report:
Income: $9,500
Expenses: $538.97
March Income Report:
In March my income ended up high from February campaigns that paid me a good rate! I also did a couple Black History Month campaigns that performed well. This month my engagement was really high too because I do a series where I celebrate powerful women throughout history (see here)!
Income: $8,500
Expenses: $766.06
Read about 8 Ways to Make Money With Blogging HERE!
April Income Report:
Income: $6,500
Expenses: $1,047.56
May Income Report:
In May you’ll see my income declines a bit. This is usually pretty normal I’ve found, so I usually try not to worry when a bunch of campaigns aren’t coming in! Then you can see that I ended up tripling my income in June. It always ends up working out!
Income: $1,900
Expenses: $819.63
June Income Report:
Income: $5,700
Expenses: $530.59
Read about How to Get Brands to Notice You on Instagram HERE!
July Income Report:
I honestly didn’t tell anyone except my mom and my boyfriend because I had another influencer make me feel lesser than. They said “oh did someone refer you?” like I didn’t have anything substantial to offer. I had to remind myself: you have an engagement rate of ~ 5%, you were THEE Influencer of the Year in 2018, have been featured on sites like Buzzfeed and Debt.com, and were the 1% chosen for a DISNEY professional internship.
Income: $1,600
Expenses: $365.11
August Income Report:
Income: $9,800
Expenses: $1,063.06
September Income Report:
In September, it LOOKS like I wasn’t working on any campaigns, but I was actually finishing up posts from August and then starting to prep for October campaigns (as well as my Halloween costume series). This just proves it’s OKAY to not make money one month if you’re prepping for another one! My engagement on my costume posts were insane so it was worth it.
Income: $0
Expenses: $578.51
Read about How to Reach out to Brands as an Influencer and Secure Partnerships HERE!
October Income Report:
I did one of my FAV campaigns of the year during October. I worked with Target Beauty and created the most amazing Medusa costume (check it out here)! Since my Target ads performed so well last year, I used that in 2022 to leverage a higher rate with them!
Income: $4,600
Expenses: $788.51
November Income Report:
Income: $5,700
Expenses: $728.20
December Income Report:
December is usually the month where I make most of my income. Brands save a large portion of their marketing budget for Q4/the holidays. It’s also when brands are scrambling to use the last of their budget before the year ends! That way they can keep the same one (or get more $$$ the next year).
Income: $18,950
Expenses: $640.72
Read about the Top 10 Campaign Platforms for Influencers HERE!
Overall Income & Expenses Summary:
Overall, I had about $6,000 in other expenses from things like Adobe Lightroom (photo editing), Siteground (they manage my site), Flodesk (newsletter), etc.! These are just operating costs that are kind of unavoidable. I also purchase props for a lot of my shoots since they are highly curated!
I hope you all enjoyed this post! Last year was pretty monumental for my brand and I hope that I am able to continue that momentum into 2022. If you have any questions on the breakdown, or want to know how I track everything, be sure to leave a comment!
Amanda that’s incredible, thanks for sharing your breakdown. I have not started to pitch to brands yet, but will be planning to. My question is this how you were able to get brand deals and also I know you are apart of various platforms, we’re your brand deals a mix of both?
Hi Cynthia – Most of my campaigns come directly from brands! I have gotten a few due to pitching or being referred by blogging friends too. I am a part of about 5-10 campaign platforms, but the one that I’ve found the best is RewardStyle! Here’s a post with some platforms I use: https://sequinsandsales.com/ten-places-influencers-find-campaigns/
Wait is this income solely from influencing to COMBINED with your full time job?
If I added in income for my full-time job it would be much more! This is solely from blogging (campaigns/affiliates).