How Much Do Influencers Make With 500K Followers?

Influencers are the new mega celebrities in 2024 – and many of them are making almost as much as music artists and movie stars. Why? Because they have everyone’s attention on social media.

Now that people spend more than two hours a day on social media, that attention is more valuable than ever to advertisers.

The more followers you have, the more money you can command for partnerships and sponsored posts. So, how much do influencers with 500K followers make?

There are many factors at play, but we’re going to look at what some influencers are currently charging and explore different avenues for making money as an influencer.

Influencers with 500K followers are in the macro-influencer category, and they can command top dollar for sponsored posts and partnerships.

But how much do they make?

It’s all highly dependent on:

Recent data shows that influencers with 1 million followers make anywhere from $5K to $25K for a sponsored post. So, if you had 500K followers, you could estimate that you’d make anywhere from $2,500 to $12,500 from sponsored posts alone.

Remember that these figures are just for sponsored posts. Many influencers with followings this big are also selling their own products or engage in affiliate marketing.

Media reports estimate influencers with just 10,000-50,000 followers can make anywhere from $40,000 and $100,000 per year. With 500K followers, your earnings may be significant.

Because influencer earnings are so highly dependent on the individual, it’s really hard to estimate how much influencers make with half-a-million followers. But we can look at influencer marketing platforms to get an idea of how much people are making for a sponsored post on Instagram and TikTok.

How Much Do Instagram Influencers Make With 500K Followers?

Instagram influencers with 500K followers can earn thousands of dollars per post, especially if they have a high engagement rate. Let’s look at what some of them charge on networks like Collabstr.

1. Happilyevansafterr

The Evans family has just over 630K followers on Instagram. They post about family, adoption, infertility and other wholesome topics.

They charge:

They have more followers on TikTok (2+ million), so they charge $10K for a single, 30-second video.

2. Mitchellcclark

Mitchell C. Clark is an author, artist and podcaster with just over 575K followers on Instagram. His content is primarily positive and motivational.

How much does he charge for a sponsored post?

3. Pragathiguru

Pragathi Guruprasad is the co-founder of Soma Ayurvedic, but she’s also a singer, actor and model. Currently, she has over 550K followers on Instagram. Her content is mostly lifestyle-focused or vlog-style.

She’s collaborated with some big-name brands like Toyota, Curology and Scentbird. How much does she charge for a sponsored post?

4. Ian_mcalister

Ian McCalister is a comedian and digital creator based in the U.S. with about 590K followers. He shares a lot of content about his life on his Instagram account, but you’ll find some humor mixed in there, too.

Here’s how much he charges for a sponsored post:

How Much Do TikTok Influencers Make With 500K Followers?

Instagrammers charge quite a bit of money for sponsored posts. What about TikTokers? Let’s see how much influencers with around 500K followers charge.

1. Nathalieparis

Nathalie Paris is a musician and, beauty and fashion creator. She has just over 700K followers on TikTok, and her content gets a lot of views.

How much does she charge for a sponsored post?

2. Nathanandgrace

Nathan and Grace are a UK-based influencer couple that shares content about their life. It’s mostly vlog-style content, but their videos get hundreds of thousands of views.

For a single sponsored TikTok video, they charge:

3. Hotpinkandglitter

Callie Richards is based in Nashville, TN and has over 723K followers on TikTok. She shares beauty and fashion-related content geared towards plus-sized viewers.

Her audience is niche and highly engaged, so she can charge more for sponsored posts. How much does she charge?

4. Tamiaoveres

Tamia Overes is a tattoo and makeup artist with just over 780K followers on TikTok. Her content revolves around makeup and her bird named Prince.

For a sponsored post, she charges:

TikTokers can earn a lot of money for a sponsored post, but their price is usually a reflection of how many views they get and not necessarily their follower count.

How Much Do YouTube Influencers Make With 500K Subscribers?

YouTube can make you a ton of money, or it can also make you realize that some niches make a ton of money and others do not. Subscribers, or followers, don’t really equal money on YouTube because it’s all about the views.

Of course, the more subs that you have, the more people will see your content.

Niche plays a major role in the money you’ll earn, and some of the most profitable niches on YouTube are:

So, if all 500,000 subs viewed your video as a business channel, that’s $9,000 in ad revenue per video. This is obviously an unrealistic scenario because many people won’t view every video that you post.

Many creators do not share their income – it’s a personal thing – so it was challenging to find anyone disclosing their total channel earnings. What we did find was very impressive, but keep in mind that many creators are earning from multiple sources of income (more below).

As you can see, you might make more from a smaller channel than someone with a larger channel.

You can make a lot of money through just YouTube AdSense, but if these figures impress you, it’s easy to earn double or triple them with sponsorships, affiliate income and other sources.

Actually, let’s analyze the multiple ways people are making money.

How Do Influencers Make Money?

If you’re seeing all of these earning potentials from influencers, it’s hard not to try and see if you can do it, too. And if you want to make even more, you can by integrating as many income streams as you can.

One thing that a lot of creators and influencers have been saying is to never put all of your eggs in one basket.

Why?

If you lose one of the income streams, you’ll still be earning great money with the other sources of income. You can also double, triple or quadruple your earnings, which is what many people focus on when they create content.

So, how are people making their money leveraging the platforms that we’ve discussed?

1. Sponsored Posts

Selling posts is huge. You saw the figures for Instagram and TikTok, and it’s possible for you to sell posts even with a small following if you’re in the right niche. You want to:

A major issue that influencers have is that they’ll accept any money that comes their way, and while you might make money, it will jeopardize your following.

Why?

People will start to unfollow you because you’re promoting anything and everything without concern for quality or niche match.

With that in mind, you can sell sponsored posts for $100 – $1,800+ on Instagram. Some will earn even more. You can sell sponsored posts:

2. Affiliate Marketing

If you’ve ever seen someone share a post and tell you to use a coupon code when buying a product, they’re using affiliate marketing to make money. You can also sign up for platforms that will give you a link, and if someone makes a purchase, you get commission.

Amazon offers affiliate marketing opportunities, too.

It’s a huge business.

The concept is simple:

You’ll find a lot of creators do this with their gear.

A few affiliate networks you may be interested in signing up for are:

And there are many others that you can sign up for and start promoting their offers.

3. Selling Products

Where’s the real money? Selling products. You have two main options:

If you sell merch, such as shirts, you can have a third-party handle fulfillment and you’ll receive a percentage of the sale. It’s a great, easy way to begin making money.

Creators who don’t mind putting in the extra work can also create their own:

If you have 500k followers, you can sell to them and earn a lot of money at the same time. You do want to be diligent with your product creation to ensure it’s something that provides value and is worth people spending money on.

Otherwise, you may end up with unhappy customers and a tarnished reputation, both of which are costly mistakes.

4. Brand Partnerships

Partnerships are so profitable. You might partner with a brand that sells protein, which is ideal because you’re a fitness influencer. As a partnership, you’ll:

And if you help the brand get more sales, it will end up being one of your major income streams. Brands pay a lot of money for exposure and are more than willing to pay you to get the word out about their offers.

You’ll need to be very cautious when securing brand partnerships or sponsorships because your audience is where the real value exists. You don’t want to do anything that would upset your followers.

With this in mind, do the following:

If you wouldn’t buy or use the product yourself, do not promote it to your audience. You need to remain diligent, understand what your obligations are per the contract and try the products yourself.

Otherwise, you risk upsetting your followers, and it can destroy your business or personal brand in the process.

5. Instagram Subscriptions

Instagram Subscriptions allow you to offer exclusive content and benefits to engaged followers for a monthly fee. Followers can sign up right through the app, so the process is quick and easy.

To be eligible for Subscriptions, you must:

The great thing about Subscriptions is that you’re in control of the monthly fee, so you can charge as much or as little as you want.

Summary

Social media influencers with 500K followers have the potential to make a lot of money. Many are charging $2,000+ per sponsored post and are likely making more money through affiliate marketing, merch sales and other income streams. It takes hard work and consistency to reach 500K followers, but the payoff is worth it.