Welcome back to this week’s Influencer Dashboard newsletter!
This is Amanda Perelli, writing to you from home, and here’s an update on what’s new in the business of influencers and creators.
This week, I caught up with several YouTube creators who said they’d experienced a double-digit decline in ad revenue rates on the platform, as advertisers pull campaigns or lower budgets.
Michael Groth, a YouTube creator with 1 million subscribers, said that the average rate YouTube paid him began dropping sharply in March.
Groth films Pokémon-related videos and scripted content for his YouTube channel, MandJTV. He posts videos around twice a week and films them from the studio in his house.
Normally, Groth's YouTube channel earns between $9 and $12 for every 1,000 views, he said. But by the end of March, his CPM had dropped to $6, and so far this month, he has been earning around $5, according to a screenshot viewed by Business Insider.
"I thankfully am a large enough channel that this doesn't financially break me, and I'm not worried about not being able to pay rent and stuff like that," he said. "But it's obviously not fun to see and I worry about smaller creators."
And he isn't the only one who has seen a decline. Other creators, in categories from finance to scripted content, told me they'd also seen a decrease in recent weeks.
For some creators, a decline in rates has come with a surge in views. But even so, the creators I spoke to said they were generally earning less money. (Read the full post here.)
Music artist Tiagz explains how he mastered TikTok's algorithm to score a major record deal, with help from Charli D'Amelio and a 1950s jazz classic
The Canadian rapper Tiagz (Tiago Garcia-Arenas) has built a career as a music producer by strategically uploading songs to the short-form video app TikTok.
My colleague Dan Whateley spoke to Tiagz to learn more about his playbook for going viral on TikTok.
Tiagz achieved TikTok fame by making songs that directly referenced the app's popular memes and trends, effectively gaming its search and content recommendation algorithms.
"I tried to understand the platform," Tiagz told Business Insider. "I kept doing these memes because I saw that it worked."
Two years after he started producing music, the 22-year-old artist is now signed by the record label Epic Records and has millions of monthly listeners on streaming apps like Spotify.
Read the full post on how TikTok helped this music artist get a record deal here.
A laid-off pharmacy employee says he's making more money now as a video-game coach on a platform where top coaches can earn $4,000 to $5,000 per month
ProGuides is an online esports-coaching platform that lets players hire a personal coach to help them improve in one of nine video games.
My colleague Kevin Webb wrote about Tyler Cunningham, a former pharmacy employee who said he's earning more as a ProGuides coach than he did at his old job, and has more free time to take care of his grandmother.
Top ProGuides coaches can earn between $4,000 and $5,000 per month working with dozens of clients and can build their own schedules, the company said.
Cunningham began coaching full time in March when the pharmacy he worked at laid him off because of coronavirus-related cost cuts. Cunningham began spending eight to 10 hours coaching on ProGuides almost every day.
The story behind gaming giant FaZe Clan's new mansion in LA, which costs $80,000 per month and was once rented by Justin Bieber
FaZe Clan, one of the world's most popular gaming organizations, is renting a multi-million-dollar mansion in Burbank, California for its biggest creators.
Kevin wrote about the 36,000-square-foot property, which has 10 bedrooms spread across four buildings.
Members living at the house include: Richard "Banks" Bengtson (5.36 million YouTube followers), Nordan "Rain" Shat (5.33 million), Alexander "Adapt" Prynkiewicz (5.7 million), Fraizer Kay (3 million), and Jarvis Kay (2.65 million).
Listings indicate the property is being rented for $80,000 per month, and its last tax assessment valued it at $6.1 million. Previous renters include pop star Justin Bieber.
The Los Angeles lifestyles of the most popular FaZe members gradually became a core part of the brand, leading the team to establish its own house for 2020. The group moved into its new house in February, just before social-distancing measures took effect in many parts of the US.
Read the full story inside The FaZe House, here.
What else happened this week on BI Prime:
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A media company explains how it's gotten attention on TikTok with music, employee personalities, and lo-fi production: Dan spoke to the CEO and marketing lead of the food publisher The Infatuation to learn more about the publisher's TikTok strategy and how its social-media business has shifted in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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The 18 most powerful esports organizations that are running the pro gaming industry and getting millions from eager investors: Kevin broke down the 18 essential esports teams and organizations that are dominating the industry.
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TikTok is breaking download records and taking over pop culture. But experts say it faces challenges in turning user growth into profit: Dan spoke to industry experts to learn more about whether TikTok's recent success is a fad or a sign the app will become the next money-making behemoth like Instagram or YouTube.
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How much money YouTube pays for 1,000, 100,000, and 1 million views, according to top creators: I spoke with top YouTube creators about how much each of them earn on average and their ad placement strategies.
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How TikTok can kickstart your music career, according to an artist who used the app to get a major label deal: Dan broke down the four main strategies that Tiagz used to gain exposure on TikTok.
Creator Spotlight: Addison Rae's influencer tips
In case you missed it, I spoke to TikTok star Addison Rae Easterling last week. Easterling has over 35 million TikTok followers, 13 million Instagram followers, and millions of views on her YouTube channel.
Here are her 3 tips for growing a successful influencer career:
1. Post content consistently
Although Easterling had a bit of luck to her seemingly overnight success (her dance to Mariah Carey's "Obsessed" caught Carey's attention and helped boost her budding fame, for instance) she continued to post videos to TikTok consistently, many times each week to help build up her momentum.
"I truly believe consistency is the key to growth on any social media platform," she said.
2. Develop a connection with your fans
Easterling interacts with her fans on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram daily by replying to comments and sharing fan edits on her Instagram Stories.
"The more active you are and the more interactive you are, are both really important," she said. "That's how you really grow a connection with your fanbase."
3. Be yourself
While Easterling was in her first semester at Louisiana State University, she was starting to get recognized on campus for her TikTok videos, which she said was "the craziest thing." She later decided to leave LSU in late November.
"It didn't really bother me that I was doing TikTok and people knew it in my classes," she said. "Know exactly where you want to be and now's the time to really put in the effort."
Here's what else we're reading:
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Don't Mention the Virus! And Other Marketing Tips: Sapna Maheshwari from The New York Times wrote about how brands and creators are navigating selling products during a pandemic.
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Plunge in digital ad prices opens spending opportunity for start-ups in gaming, e-commerce and online education: Megan Graham and Ari Levy from CNBC wrote about how companies in internet gaming, e-commerce, and online learning are seeing their usage increase and are able to buy up ads at a discount.
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Lo-fi beats to quarantine to are booming on YouTube: Julia Alexander from The Verge wrote about how YouTube's lo-fi hip-hop community has seen a recent surge in streams.
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Inside the $1.5 Billion Market for Streamer-Branded Merchandise: Olga Kharif from Bloomberg wrote about the coronavirus' impact on the streamer merch business.
Thanks for reading! Send me your tips, comments, or questions: [email protected].
