With incomes soaring for bloggers, the top style bloggers are now earning more than $US1 million a year. Affiliate sales, brand collaborations, their own collections and appearance fees are raking in the revenue for bloggers, with brands and retailers linking up with them in order to drive sales. In fact, top-tier bloggers can now ask for close to $US50,000 for a high-profile brand event such as the opening of a global flagship, according to WWD.
After boasting in 2010 that he was making $US100,000 annually as a blogger, Bryanboy’s Bryan Grey-Yambao has now raised the stakes. Now, $100,000 is not enough. For a young, upstart blogger, $100,000 may seem like a lot of money. [But] as a business, a legit business, $100,000 won’t really bring you that far. You have a lot of expenses.”
Digital management agency RewardStyle president Amber Venz says its top earners can make more than $US80,000 a month solely on affiliate commissions. RewardStyle’s data found that Pink Peonies blogger Rachel Parcell could receive at least $US960,000 from affiliate programs alone this year. Parcell has a high conversion rate - users clicking a link and then making a purchase - in April she drove 100,000 clicks to nordstrom.com.
Blogger’s sites are not the only platform generating traffic, their Instagram profiles tend to draw just as much traffic. Realising this, RewardStyle launched LiketoKnow:It in January to enable bloggers to produce affiliate earnings on Instagram. While this social medium does not allow for linking out, when users sign up to LiketoKnow:It - they receive emails with direct links to purchase product featured in a blogger’s photo that they liked”. Since March, LiketoKnow:It has driven $US1 million sales.
