Yesterday, I read a story about an influencer who was offered $50K to tweet nice things about one of the current US presidential candidates. I don’t know which is more amazing. That one can earn a living as an “influencer” or that a 140-character endorsement can get you $50K?
The guy in question has about 400,000 followers. So, I did some calcu-digi-lating to figure out the follower-to-compensation ratio. Based on my number of Twitter followers (I still call it Twitter), that works out to $625 dollars.
I’ve contacted all the campaigns from the major parties and the minor parties, and even the obscure ones that you know don’t have a chance. The result? Nothing. Nobody will pay me $625 to tweet nice things about them. I even offered a President’s Day discount, since that holiday is right around the corner. They still didn’t bite. I guess I’m not much of an influencer. Maybe I’m an unfluencer?
Then I thought, if I can’t get people to pay me to post on social media, maybe there are other ways to earn extra cash. For example, a few years back I offered novel-used letters from my keyboard. People sell game-used jerseys, cleats, etc. from athletes on eBay. I offered my readers a novel used “q” from my keyboard. Think about it! You could own the very “q” used on page 134 of the novel Trolley Dodgers! Apparently, the author keyboard letter collectors’ market is pretty small. As in, nonexistent. I still have that “q.”
So, maybe I can sell mentions in my next book. For $5, you can be a minor character. For $50, you can have speaking lines. For $500, you can be the main villain. And for $50K, you can have all of that AND I’ll post on every social media platform that exists you should be the next president.
Carry on, Citizens!
