Image source @ Visual China
The | of the text burns deeply, and the author | Shuai Zou, Editor, | Tang Yahua
Ye Shu, who has been a beauty account for 3 years, felt: "Now everyone is a blogger. ”
This is indeed the case. Platforms such as Xiaohongshu, B Station, Douyin, and Kuaishou are not just as simple as socializing and sharing daily life, and young people who smell the huge dividends of the Internet celebrity effect have long been thinking about doing numbers as a serious thing.
To put it bluntly, is to operate your own social account. The difference is that the young people who do the number are prepared, content-based, profit-oriented, whether it is to send pictures or videos, each topic is carefully selected, the release time is also quite doorway, and at the same time, it will also analyze the data such as the number of fans and resent ratings of the account, speculating on how the account has performed recently, whether it is restricted, whether it wants to change the track, whether it costs money to invest and so on.
When it comes to the original intention of making numbers, the answers of many bloggers are "making money", "doing side business" and "accumulating experience". Some netizens shared that many Internet companies now explicitly require job seekers to have more than 10,000 fans in their hands in the recruitment notices for positions such as operations, and even have requirements for various data, in order to allow them to prove their operational capabilities. While exercising ability, doing the number will indeed bring benefits, to achieve a certain level, each promotion fee is charged a few hundred dollars, enough to spend pocket money; if it is good enough and lucky to "explode", a promotion fee of hundreds of thousands, the side business directly turned positive.
"I heard that being a blogger is very profitable." This is the beginning of many young people's choice to do the number, and it is also the reason to support them to do it. In fact, the major social platforms give ordinary people opportunities, and the track is becoming more and more crowded.
Can be made into tens of millions of fans of the big blogger, a promotion to earn hundreds of thousands of people, but three years of doing or in the tens of thousands of fans around the small bloggers more. The track is almost saturated, it is difficult to break through in content, when the commercial promotion is less, there are only a few hundred pieces a month, and when there are more than a few thousand yuan, it is a pity that the account that has been operating for many years has been abandoned, and it is even more difficult to fight upwards.
High or low, is there a better way out for them?
Choose the track: those who are interested do not make money, and those who can make money have a threshold
Ye Shu began to operate a beauty account on Douyin in 2019, and she concluded that "choosing a track, to put it bluntly, is to choose a hobby first, and produce enough and high-quality content on her hobby, it will enter this track." ”
Generally speaking, bloggers who start from scratch most often choose beauty, clothing, food, home and other life tracks, while knowledge, film and television entertainment, pets, etc. need a certain threshold, either there is enough knowledge reserves, or it is still a decent editing level, or it is necessary to have a pet.
According to Ye Shu's experience, "Everyone has more than one point of interest and hobby. If you like makeup, come up and open a makeup number, and do it with a boring head, this possibility is not very likely. I'll make a list of 3 hobbies and judge which track is not crowded and I have the ability to produce consistently. Therefore, choosing a track is not something that can be decided by a slap in the head, and most people will find their own "natural selection track" in the process of groping.
Amy went through a similar process. She told Shen Yan that in the second half of 2021, she officially began to do the Little Red Book account, and at that time, she had no clue about her positioning, style, and even the so-called track, so she chose to start from recording her life, sharing outfits, makeup, fitness, food, home and so on. After a period of experimentation, Amy found that the data on the cover of the handheld lipstick was the best, but the number of notes held with other products was average. Moreover, Amy's note data on the face is also very good, she judged that she should be suitable for the beauty track, subdivided into lipstick test color, "I tried to put the face color test and the handheld lipstick picture together, the effect is really good, I will continue to do this cover." 」 ”
Finding the right track is indeed lucky. Many young people who have just started to do numbers often worry, "What kind of account am I suitable for?" "How do I post pictures and videos to increase fans and likes?" With these questions, they will also seek help on social platforms, take screenshots of their own accounts, and ask netizens if they are interested in such content and where they need to improve. There are also people who learn from bloggers who teach people to make numbers, trying to master some "traffic passwords". Ye Shu said frankly that the current environment is to give everyone hope, "Anyone can do the number, everyone has the possibility of explosion, and anyone can earn this money." ”
Therefore, some people are simply like Amy once, sending everything in an account, "which one is the explosion", but at the same time, it is also caught in the dilemma of content not vertical. Several respondents value the importance of the vertical account, believing that a vertical account with a content focus can more accurately attract fans and brands, and is also beneficial for continuous traffic exposure.
Choose the track according to your interests, start to produce continuously, and optimize the content, which is the basic condition for making numbers. Next, most people value the commercialization opportunities in each track more.
For bloggers on mainstream platforms such as Xiaohongshu, B Station, Douyin, and Kuaishou, the main ways of commercialization are creation subsidies and activity rewards from the platform, replacement from brands, promotion, pure commission cooperation, and live streaming with goods. Ye Shu said that for the bloggers, the biggest revenue is the promotion cooperation of the brand, "the platform gives very little money, it is a guarantee, live streaming with goods and pure commissions are very test conversion, so the most cost-effective is to help the brand promote a product, just take a piece of money." Her Douyin promotion offer is 500 yuan / article, "each month the promotion fee can earn 2000-3000 yuan." ”
It is precisely because promotion is the main part of revenue, so whether a track can lead to unlimited promotion cooperation is directly related to the income of bloggers. Ari began to do editing accounts on station B at the beginning of this year, although it stabilized the rhythm of 1-2 videos per month, but she also admitted that it is too difficult to commercialize this track. "The realization of the film and television entertainment editing track mainly depends on the cooperation of the drama side, which must be received by the head of the film and television blogger." Therefore, small bloggers in the film and television area cannot be like bloggers in the living area, taking videos and implanting a product. ”
It's not enough to think about how much money you make, but also how much money you spend and how much risk you take. Taking the track of beauty, dressing and other life directions as an example, the early stage of making the number is inevitably invested in the purchase of cosmetics, clothes, jewelry, etc. Amy has spent thousands of dollars to buy the entrance red to enrich her own content. Moreover, while receiving promotion, life bloggers also have to face the risk that there may be quality problems in the product, which will affect the reputation.
In this way, the tracks that start completely from interest and have little investment may have a lot of resistance in monetization; and those tracks that are good to monetize and return to the cost of product consumption, such as beauty, life, pets, etc., are either crowded, or need thresholds, and there are fewer opportunities. Under the cost-effective orientation, more people will still choose the track of returning the cost and realizing the fast, so a vicious circle is formed: more and more people can make money, and money is becoming more and more difficult to earn.
Choose the platform: quickly earn less, earn more "can't reach"
Choosing the track to do the content is very important, the choice of platform to do the channel is also very important, the two steps are right, that is, "the right time met the right person".
Deep burning observed that for young people who are keen to do numbers, the Xiaohongshu call is relatively highest, followed by Douyin and B station, and then Kuaishou and Weibo, in addition, many people will choose more niche platforms such as Suiji, Micro Shop, Watermelon Video, etc.
Amy said that when she is not yet vertical to the lipstick track, she also pays attention to the coordination of account style and the personification of the presentation. "Dressing, fitness, makeup, food, are all related to 'beauty', and they are inseparable, so if you continue to do so, you can also fix my fan portrait." She concluded that in the Little Red Book beauty track, the three types of people with outstanding appearance, focus on dry goods, and ordinary but real are the most likely to be fired, "My color test will not be PS, and no one in life praises me for looking beautiful or the like, but the Little Red Book is very popular, and I feel that I have stepped on the third category." "Amy has accumulated more than 50,000 fans so far, of which more than 20,000 fans have risen in the past month, and at the end of March, she opened a trumpet, and in less than a month, she rose more than 8,000 fans.
Young people who choose to do the number in the Little Red Book prefer the content ecology of the Little Red Book, which can be used for graphics and videos, "I have friends who have made little Red Book, and I have not made less money, and I am also very moved." I can't cut videos, little red book can send pictures and texts, it's more friendly to me, I just need the original picture to go straight out," Amy said. And they generally feel that in the Little Red Book, commercialization is very well completed, and small bloggers with only dozens of fans can also receive promotion, but the remuneration is also small, only a few dollars to dozens of dollars.
Many bloggers believe that the platform style of B station and Little Red Book is similar. They also deduce from the perspective of user use that B station and Xiaohongshu both pay attention to search traffic, and unlike Douyin, each video on the user's home page has a cover and title display, which means that B station and Xiaohongshu choose cover and title more important, and Douyin does not need to think too much in this regard, as long as the first five seconds can be grasped.
Jiang Nuan, the UP owner of the learning area of Station B, told Shen Yan that the reason for choosing Station B is because "for ordinary people without MCN support and without any capital, Station B is more inclusive and has more opportunities than Douyin Kuaishou." Moreover, Station B is mainly based on medium-long horizontal videos, and it is more suitable for mixed cutting, film and television, appearance, study, life, and beauty. After more than a year of doing the number, Jiang Nuan has accumulated more than 5,000 fans, and she said that although there are not many fans, it is very sticky.
Suitable for long videos, in-depth content, relatively inclusive, in addition to these characteristics, people who choose to do numbers in station B also value the income support given by station B. Arui introduced that there are four main types of fan charging, advertising share, activity revenue and creative incentives. In February this year, she exploded a video that exploded from a few hundred to 200,000. "As long as the number is about a month, there are several manuscripts with tens of thousands of views that can open the creator incentive plan." However, the creative incentive is not only to look at the number of plays, but also to look at the likes, coins and collections, and the income is calculated after the synthesis of a number of data. For example, two videos are 10,000 views, and the amount of three consecutive videos is more, so the money earned is correspondingly more. ”
Ari told Deep Burning that rough calculations, 10,000 plays can earn about 20-30 yuan, and 500,000 plays can earn 800 yuan. "During the winter vacation, I exploded several videos, each with hundreds of thousands of views, and I could make a few hundred yuan every month." That is to say, the money given by the platform is always a small fight, and it is difficult for bloggers of the magnitude of Arui to receive promotion.
Ye Shu, who mainly makes vibrato, summed up his experience to deep burning, "Vibrato is faster, and it is good to push streams, and my current revenue is dependent on vibrato." However, she said that good push flow means that in Douyin, you can increase the number of views and fans by buying Dou+, "Some platforms have nowhere to buy even if they want to spend money to buy traffic." "Ye Shu, who earns 2,000-3,000 yuan in income by receiving promotion every month, also spends five or six hundred yuan on dou+." The situation I encountered was to cast 100 yuan Dou+ and give 5000 or 2500 plays. The former is a random push stream, the latter is a directional push stream, you can choose what kind of user to push. If the ratio of views to likes and comments is higher than 10:1, I will vote another one, and below 10:1 I will not vote, because this means that the content is not working. ”
Douyin is good at pushing streams, and it can also earn money for promotion, but at the same time, it is also a desperate bet for ordinary bloggers.
Therefore, many people have changed their thinking and begun to "make the wool of the number" on the unpopular platform. Arui recently in the thinking of going to the micro-shop to do the number, she introduced, the micro-shop of the pet circle is easier to do, you can find some pet pictures on the Internet, "It is said that the platform can give a day 10 yuan." What she has been doing is also a place where she can "wool", "sending two manuscripts of grade A or above in a month, almost a few tens of dollars." The watermelon video is similar, Keffy once participated in a daily video program, and finally received hundreds of rewards.
In general, making numbers on mainstream platforms such as Xiaohongshu, B station, and Douyin is a long-term process that can make money, but it takes time, and for bloggers below the waist, it is a matter of luck.
If you can't make a lot of money and don't want to give up, how embarrassing are the bloggers?
Making a number is the process of constantly running into the platform. There is a flash of inspiration, the moment of making explosive content, there is a moment of silence and no name, the data is not good and the law of the platform is not clear.
The words that young people who make numbers often mention, in addition to "blockbusters", there are also "anxiety". Ye Shu has been doing the number for more than three years and has experienced countless topic anxieties and data anxieties. "To make a number for yourself is entirely by self-awareness. Anything that happens at the moment can be a topic, and countless bloggers are staring at it to see who can do it. "Whenever there is a hot spot, Ye Shu is both nervous and excited," which means that the traffic is sent to the mouth, but it also means that the big and small bloggers will fight. ”
She remembers that this year's Spring Festival Gala, Zhang Xiaofei brought a fire of an eye shadow, Chinese New Year's Eve there were bloggers posting content that night, "I also have that eyeshadow, but I didn't bring it back in the New Year, and I feel like I missed a hot spot." Ye Shu couldn't swallow this breath, chose another way, and came out with an introduction to the content of similar products to that eye shadow.
Data anxiety is more common, Amy admitted that when the data is not good, the promotion is less, the quotation is not high, "I am also particularly worried, how can I make good content?" "Since many people have accounts on multiple platforms, the unsatisfactory data of any one platform will affect the mood. What they can do is to reason about the laws of the platform as much as possible, "do the data." ”
Kaifei began to be a pet blogger at the end of February this year, and in less than two months, the number of Fans of Little Red Book reached more than 30,000, and the number of Kuaishou fans was also about 40,000, and the number of fans of Douyin was small, but the number of plays was OK.
She summed up to Deep Burn that publishing the same content on different platforms has different strategies. "The same video, Little Red Book and Kuaishou, I will pay attention to the cover and title, because the videos on both platforms have 'entrances' and need to attract users to click in." Little Red Book is mostly female users, I will choose the cutest frame as the cover, do not have to make text, but Kuaishou will choose the most Drama frame, which will be accompanied by a provocative text. TikTok is a waterfall stream, the cover is not important, and I occasionally cut a video with conflict points in the first five seconds and put it on TikTok. ”
Ari is the same, she told Deep Burning, during her time on the day, every day to spend at least 2-3 hours on the production of the video, "after doing I still have to choose the cover, write the title, these are in the process of making the number of the continuous honing, and then combined with the style of other popular videos in the station to summarize." For example, I would choose a hazy bust as the cover of the video to add a sense of mystery. My screen name has also been changed so that the audience can see the screen name and know what I do. ”
The anxiety of commercialization also plagues bloggers.
Image source @ "Ma Dashuai 3"
Recently, the topic of B station UP main creation incentive income in a sharp contraction has caused heated discussion, and some UP main said that it has decreased by about 40%. Ari also has a similar experience, "Now 10,000 plays of manuscripts can only earn 10 yuan, which is one-third of the previous one." In addition, what bothers Ari even more is that her manuscripts have recently been judged to be of low quality, "70,000 low-quality manuscripts with 70,000 views, and the creative incentive is only 7 cents." But according to her communication with customer service and her own summary review, she has not yet figured it out, and in the case of no change in the way of creation, and there is no plagiarism and infringement warning, "What is the reason for low quality?" ”
The money given by the platform is "unreliable", and the money given by the brand is also limited. Amy said that the common quotation rule of Little Red Book is basically the number of fans divided by 10. "When I was below 10,000 fans, I quoted like this, and according to this rule, I have 80,000 fans who can quote 8,000 yuan." But the truth is that when the number of fans reaches a certain number, the number of readings and likes is not necessarily how good, and the quotation is too high to scare away the brand, and they have no confidence. She feels that there is a ceiling on the promotion of the offer, so if you do not make a head blogger, the data performance is not particularly good, and the money that can be earned by the promotion is difficult to have room to rise.
In the process of receiving promotion, Amy also encountered some "calculations". She said that because the blogger's offer is dynamically adjusted according to the number of fans and recent data, "so sometimes my data is not good, a brand comes to inquire, the other party said to report it after listening, and did not determine the cooperation." When my data is good, they say that they are going to cooperate, at this time I should ask for a higher price, but because I have said it before, I can only eat dumb losses. ”
In order to earn more money, many small bloggers will also choose to sign MCN agencies, but there are also many "minefields" here. An MCN practitioner said that the general contract of small bloggers is divided into 7:3, there are also 9:1, MCN takes the big head, some small bloggers are also required to sit in shifts, which is not suitable for part-time bloggers. "However, there are many cases of small MCN institutions defaulting on the sharing and basic salary, and when the contract is terminated, it may be deducted in various ways."
"High is not successful, low is not enough; no transfer, no departure." Ye Shu summed up his current situation and future plans in one sentence.
Keffy remained optimistic, "If the data is not good, it must be that the content is not done well, or it is not suitable for this platform, or it is not suitable for this point in time." There's no such thing as premium content being buried. In an era when everyone has the opportunity to make a number and have a chance to get a piece of the pie, she enjoys the process of exploring the rules of the platform and creating interesting content, "There is no saturated track, only creators who will not dig up points." She thought, do it first, and then say something later.
*At the request of the interviewees, Ye Shu, Amy, Ari, Jiang Nuan, and Kai Fei are pseudonyms.