Influencers are disgusted with Amazon's paltry $25-per-video endorsement offer | It looks like full-time Amazon UCG creators are getting a 90-percent cut in pay

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 235 points –
Influencers are disgusted with Amazon's paltry $25-per-video endorsement offer
techspot.com

Influencers are disgusted with Amazon's paltry $25-per-video endorsement offer | It looks like full-time Amazon UCG creators are getting a 90-percent cut in pay::undefined

58

It’s possible for influencers to be garbage and Amazon to be garbage at the same time, it’s not mutually exclusive

Pretty simple.. if you are an “influencer” don’t do their shit work for them

Seriously, quit and get a job which contributes to society if the pay is too pitiful playing MLM for Amazon.

If you take your sentiment all the way, then marketing companies and internal marketing roles should be done away with.

At the end of the day, influencers are nothing more than outsourced freelance marketers.

I mean... Yes.

I understand that if you have cool stuff you want to sell it to people, but on balance marketers and marketing companies are overwhelmingly trash selling us trash, compromising our privacy and autonomy, and exploiting "influencers" and customers instead of benevolent and useful to society.

I think there’s value to marketing, but the societal benefits of advertising are significantly less. Some use cases are beneficial, such as informing the public of a new thing that brings social benefit, but that’s a small minority of it. Marketing though is also researching and finding what people want. Even in a centrally planned communist society that is beneficial. It means that as more people want wheat than potatoes you plan your agricultural decisions accordingly (and use advertisement to manipulate demand for what exists or is more ecologically feasible). Similarly it can help guide which features engineers should be adding to products.

Now what it shouldn’t be is this over bloated system in which everything is controlled by advertisements and your every action is spied on to determine how to sell better to you.

This is very true and I didn't mean to suggest otherwise (hazard of text based comms like this), but I do think that our current "marketing" reality is overwhelmingly the gross creepy one, not the useful one. And I think the system incentivises that kind of behaviour, so we'll always trend toward that.

Oh absolutely I just don’t want us to wind up like we got as a culture with lawyers.

The fact is being advertised to constantly is really bad for us mentally. I don’t want to be constantly reminded who made my soap or something. I don’t want designs that are intended to catch my eye in a store everywhere in my home. And that’s just labels and logos. Then I come on the internet and am coated in ads. I go for a walk and there are ads around the city. It’s hard to get away from people trying to get you to consume more more more. And it combines with shitty business practices. So now the prices are high, if something can be a subscription or nickel and dimed it is, and wages in my career have been basically the same since I started high school over a decade ago. But no I need to consume more with less for more money and by the way the world is dying from overconsumption but I can’t have public transit because that’d hurt care sales and I’m some sort of hippie weirdo for not eating meat and using FOSS software and you can go fuck yourself for demanding bike lanes that are curbed off and actually go far enough out from the city that middle class people can get them. And while we’re at it, no the bus doesn’t go to the affordable apartments regularly.

Well said, and thank you for taking the time to articulate something I was lazily taking for granted when I commented.

They absolutely should as well. Influencers are relatively worse though, because they are usually much less transparent in their advertising than marketing companies. Influencers pose as entertainers and often disguises their advertising as part of that entertainment. It doesn't help one bit that a lot of influencers have channels that are directly aimed at children, who are even less prone to know they are being advertised at.

1 more...
1 more...
1 more...

"One commenter pointed out that the amount of work needed to complete such a contract equates to a full-time job."

Oh, the humanity.

A full time job that paid $12500 without benefits for roughly 5.5 months of work if they release 3 videos a day, 7 days a week with sponsored content. No one should take that.

Edit: fixed missing 0.

3 videos a day for 5.5 months (about 167 days). That's 500 videos. 500 x $25 = $12500, not $1250.

I have no clue if it's feasible to make three videos a day for 5.5 months, but I guess if the length of the video doesn't matter then It must be doable.

It could be worth it if they can also make money through other companies for the same videos. Plus if they're popular enough that Amazon is paying them then they must already be making ad revenue or something.

I don't know. I'm not a pro, just spitballing.

People don't tend to work weekends. So, 5 days a week, not 7 days a week. These are sponsored videos, so they are not making money through other companies.

Do the weirdo simp for Amazon all you want, the maths don't add up in your favour. It's still crap.

I said I'm no pro and just spitballing, your last line about being a simp is pretty strange.

Regardless. That’s less than 25k/year for full time work. And no, 3 videos a day is really not feasible. Those things take serious to put together if you want anything with any quality whatsoever.

US federal minimum wage is still $7.25 and if that's worked for 40 hours a week for a year, that's 15,080. Those people working minimum wage tend to do much more important work than shilling some stupid product online.

Is the article mentioned the criteria for a video? I don't care enough about it to read the article. Can the video be like one of those YouTube shorts and and still be worth the 25 bucks?

I have no clue if it's feasible to make three videos a day for 5.5 months, but I guess if the length of the video doesn't matter then It must be doable.

It's definitely a feat to do that. Some youtube channels are able to do it but they're working with a team of people generally. With the amount that Amazon is offering, it's not going to be viable to hire people to help and doing it on your own is an enormous amount of work. Even for short form content.

“Influencing” should never have been a thing, and as it is, it should have died a grisly death a long time ago. I’m disgusted with them being enriched while trying everything they can to get me to part with my money. I did very well before they were a thing, and I’ll do just as well when they’re gone.

Can you imagine people getting paid to go around social media to "influencing" people to say, go watch my latest movie?

How is that even a real job?

How about influencers look for a real job instead?

That's exactly what they're bitching about. It is too much like a real job.

Because they already have a real job, and now they're being screwed by their employer, just like a real job

Technically it's their client that's putting the thumb screws to them.

If that's the case the logical solution is to put your commercial hat on and find another client. Amazon aren't the only ones paying.

If Amazon was your only client that'll be tough, but speaking from experience if you don't diversify your client base, you're living on borrowed time anyway.

This doesn't mean Amazon are not being abusive, but the solution isn't to moan on the internet.

That's pretty silly; moaning on the Internet is a good way to raise awareness and support. No one can do anything about these structural issues as individuals

I'm honestly sickened by the simping for Amazon in this thread. Pathetic.

Is it really dumping for Amazon? Or just dunking on influencers?

All labor deserves a livable wage. I don't care if it's something I personally find annoying. Fuck amazon for screwing people over, even if I find those people annoying, it doesn't matter.

The labor should reward at least the value it produces. If it produces 0 value then the "job" shouldn't exist.

yeah that's the weirdo liberarian free market capitolism approach that hasn't worked for 30 years, if you want to take that route. it doesn't work.

More like everyone taking Zucks side in his cage match with Elon. We hate them both, a lot, but you’ve got to choose someone to root for.

For me it’s a bit like slime mold. I can mostly avoid contact with Amazon if I choose to; influencers just spring up organically around me an no amount of bleach can get rid of them.

I’m not rooting for Zuck, I just know he’s kick Musks ass. And even if it’s just another billionaire, I always wanna see a billionaire get their ass kicked.

All labor deserves a livable wage. I don't care if it's something I personally find annoying. Fuck amazon for screwing people over, even if I find those people annoying, it doesn't matter.

Not all jobs need to exist. I think everyone here is saying they're fine with "influencer" not being an option anymore.

I'd love for that to extend to professional sports, but I understand that's probably a bit too radical, even for Lemmy.

As someone who doesn't really watch professional sports at all, I'm in no position to argue.

It's labor that a company finds value in, ergo it exists whether you find it annoying or not. Just like telemarketing or insurance. What the issue is, is the simping for the company being able to pay dogshit for the service or not.

Nobody here is simping for Amazon no matter how many times you say it. We just don't have any sympathy for influencers who contribute nothing to society.

you can say "i don't like these people, but people shouldn't be taken advantage of in the labor market" if you like, that wouldn't be simping for amazon. simping for amazon is saying "lol good i hope they all get paid nothing because i find them personally annoying"

That's not simping for Amazon. Simping would involve saying something pro Amazon, no one is doing that.

You're right, no one should be taken advantage of, and if a job isn't worth paying a livable wage for, it's not a job that should exist. It seems like everyone agrees "influencer" isn't a job that should exist.

Influencers don't work for Amazon, they're free to try peddling their nonsense somewhere else. But it turns out they don't actually provide a valuable service to anyone, so no one wants to buy it.

Writers don't work for netflix, they are free to try peddling their nonsense somewhere else. But it turns out they don't actually provide a valuable service to anyone, so no one wants to buy it.

Postal workers don't work for delivery companies, they are free to try peddling their nonsense somewhere else, but it turns out they don't actually provide a valuable service to anyone, so no one wants to buy it.

Do you see how you sound now? Just admit that you don't think some people should have a livable wage because you think their job is annoying. Oh no, not for those people, I don't like them.

Writers don't work for netflix, they are free to try peddling their nonsense somewhere else.

Yeah, they can sell their work to one of the networks, or Disney, or any of the other dozens of production companies that exist. But if no one wants to buy it, that writer may need to find another job. Or they can band together and strike like they're doing right now. Something tells me no one would notice or care if all the influencers went on strike together.

Postal workers don't work for delivery companies

They do though. Postal workers are directly employed by USPS. And UPS and FedEx drivers work for those companies. Also, people are willing to pay to have their packages delivered to them. There was an article within like the last month about how high the starting salary was for UPS delivery drivers. Because, apparently there is demand for the service they provide.

You're going to need better examples if you want to convince anyone that influencers are worth having around.

I'm not trying to convince you that anyone is "worth having around". I'm saying you are supporting amazon in their attempts to not pay their labourers a fair amount. You only want people to be paid when you like the people and what they do.

You don't care about fair labor when you don't like the people. It's that simple.

2 more...
2 more...
2 more...
2 more...
2 more...
2 more...
2 more...
2 more...

All labor deserves a livable wage

I thought we were talking about influencers here - the “give me free stuff and look at how much fun I’m having” crowd.

who are doing labor? or is it only labor if you like it

2 more...
2 more...
2 more...

I don't really understand what an "influencer" is. Seems like a made up term to justify unemployment,plus they should be called "IMHOs", cause that's exactly what they are: " in my humble opinioners". IMHO of course.

Edit: autocorrect.

Influencers are narcissists monetising their pathology.

2 more...

I wouldn't mind if influencers disappeared for good.

Remember when being called an “influencer” was a suspicious and generally bad thing?

Pepperidge Farms remembers.

What I get from the article is that only is the pay lower, there is no longer an "up to" part in the contract. Meaning you don't get paid anything until you've created the full 500 videos. Meaning you can't use it as a side hustle, it is a full time job.