Users can make thousands a year by sharing links to their favorite items online – and they only need about 1,000 followers to qualify
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helbi Howell, a 32-year-old stay-at-home mom, lives in a small town outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. She is not, in any traditional sense, an influencer. Like millions of other women around the world, she posts her daily outfits to TikTok, where she has a frankly paltry 1,624 followers, and Instagram, where she has 1,251. Yet despite being in every sense an ordinary woman on the internet, Howell estimates that she has made more than $500 just from posting to social media.
She does this by posting a video of her outfit or her makeup and reminding viewers – many of whom are people she knows personally – that they can buy the same item via a link in her bio.
Howell uses apps called ShopMy and LTK to earn a cut of the sales for every pair of jeans, lip gloss or button-up shirt she inspires people to buy. These apps promise they can make anyone an influencer. You don’t have to be a former Bachelorette contestant or nepo baby to take part in flogging products to your fans. About 1,000 or so followers will qualify you.
