If you’re wondering if you can become a successful full-time content creator, the short answer is YES!
The Content Creator industry is booming! Influencer marketing is SERIOUSLY big business, worth over $100 billion & it’s not slowing down. There is no denying that infinite opportunities exist in the fast emerging influencer space, which is great news for Creators!
We have been working as full time Content Creators for 6+ years, getting paid to travel the world & work with brands on a global scale!
This blog answers your most frequently asked questions on how to become a successful content creator & explores the endless possibilities of working remotely & getting paid to travel!
What are your top 3 tips for generating an income as a Creator on social media?
- Diversify your brand & don’t put all your eggs into one basket. I recommend building your presence on Instagram, TikTok & Pinterest, developing an email list & building your own website / blog. The more touch points, the better!
- Keep going & keep growing! It takes years to build an audience & even longer to become the creator you want to be. Stay true to your brand & only work with brands that align with you to ensure long term success.
- Never stop learning! In all the years I’ve been doing this, I still feel like there’s so much left to explore & I can’t wait to do it.
Overall – find what you love, become really good at it & remain consistent. I think that’s the power play!
How do you keep your IG feed so aesthetic?
PRESETS!! We use our own presets / photo filters to edit all of our imagery. This is absolutely KEY when it comes to content creation & developing a unique & recognisable brand. Even though video is now the preferred posting format across all social platforms, photo editing should still have a huge place in your brand strategy. We curate our instagram feed using covers &/or posts that have been edited with our presets, as well as edit all our blog, Pinterest & paid brand work using presets.
We just released the presets that we use for our unique aesthetic on @saltyluxe! You can shop our Presets here.
How did you grow your IG account from zero to 450K followers?
The first thing to know is it.takes.time but it is totally achievable! It’s not too late (as some would have you believe) & there is plenty of room for you to become a full time content creator if you are willing to put in the work, have a unique voice, provide value to your community & remain consistent.
For us it’s been 6 years of posting & showing up every day, lots of fails, missed opportunities, invaluable learnings, being adaptive, trying different things & working hard behind the scenes to find our unique voice & place in the industry.
I hope you know that with time & commitment, you can do what I do!
What camera equipment should I use to create content?
The best camera is the one you have with you & these days even an iPhone shoots epic content good enough to share with the world!
In terms of gear, we use a Sony a7riii mirrorless camera for all brand work. It’s compact & shoots exceptionally high quality photo & video! I use my iPhone to shoot 99% of my reels & all of my IG Story content.
You can read our in-depth equipment guide via our ‘What’s in my Camera Bag’ Blog post here & you can see my favourite camera lenses here.
What are your ‘must have’ apps for content creating?
I use Lightroom every day to edit photos, be it an IG Reel / TikTok cover photo, imagery for our blog, client work or creating life memories. To make it easy & keep everything beautiful & consistent I use my one click presets (within Lightroom), which you can check out here.
Soon we’ll have video presets so you can edit video to match your images, but we also really like the Tezza (for beautiful film effects) and Tone apps. The Unfold app is helpful for IG Story templates & InShot is my absolute go-to for editing IG Reel + TikTok videos!
You can check out my Top 10 Tips to up your Instagram game here.
How can I create viral content?
We have been absolutely blown away by the power of IG Reels of late. We’ve gained tens of thousands of followers through the use of Reels!
Our Top Tips:
- Post IG Reels (& do it regularly)
- Create content people want to watch & share! Make it funny, informative & value adding!
- Create for your ideal audience by posting niche content that attracts the right people (no use having thousands of new followers who aren’t interested in your normal content, they’ll just unfollow you in the end)
- If you’re not already – use TikTok to post daily & research trends
- Use trending sounds on TikTok & Instagram
- Be ahead of the trends or make your own trend!
- Post consistently (we post once daily)
Below you’ll find screenshots of some of our most recent viral Reels where we have engaged an audience of millions of like minded community members:
How do you make money online?
We have created a 6 figure business through working with clients such as tourism boards, hotels, fashion labels & some of the biggest brands in the world. Typically this involves creating photo or video content for brands to use on their marketing channels and/or sharing our experiences with these brands on our Salty Luxe platforms. We only work with brands that we align with & believe in (often brands that we already use or love before we connect on any paid basis). This is really important to us to remain true to ourselves, our audience and is a big factor in making our work so enjoyable!
We also have an online store where we sell our own products – photo/video presets, sustainable swimwear and fine art prints. We’re also working on some upcoming e-guides and have recently started hosting retreats in some of our favourite destinations (this year we hosted 7 sold out retreats!). As you can see, we keep busy and work hard!
What are the best device settings for Content Creators?
To create high quality, crisp content, I recommend setting your DSLR / mirrorless camera & mobile device to shoot in RAW. That way during post processing you have a lot of data to work with! If you’ve ever edited a jpeg & been disappointed in the overall outcome, this is likely the reason.
For videos (particularly so you can share epic, beautiful IG Reels), I set my iPhone to ‘HD 60fps’ or ‘4k 120 fps’ for slow-mo.
Make sure to switch to ‘high quality’ uploads in Instagram too, to ensure your reels & photo uploads are the best they can be.
What’s your job title?
I used to find this question very hard to answer, as when I started, being a ‘Professional Content Creator’ wasn’t really a solid career path. However these days I am SO proud to be in this industry & work among some of the hardest working & most incredible people I’ve ever encountered!
How can I work with hotels on paid jobs?
We’re going to be releasing e-guides outlining everything you need to know in depth (as it can be quite a daunting & large process), so watch this space. However, the most important things I would say are: develop a media kit, get serious on what you can offer professionally & understand what your potential clients needs are & don’t give up! We got a hundred No’s before we got a YES!
How often should I post on Instagram? And what’s the best time to post?
We consistently post 5 x per week (Mon-Fri) on Instagram & TikTok & have seen good results with this.
Social platforms, including Instagram & TikTok, provide valuable analytics on your best time to post & general audience insights. Definitely use this info as a guide, but do some experimenting as I’ve found this isn’t always right. It’s all about trial & error, persistence and adaptability!
What is on your dream travel list?
Because I truly love travel, for me it’s always exciting going somewhere new. This year our focus is on countries we’ve never visited, so I’m looking forward to our upcoming Seychelles, Oman, Morocco & African adventures! We’d also love to spend some time in the remote Pacific Islands & visit Egypt asap.
What has been your favourite country so far and why?
I absolutely love Maldives! It is so naturally stunning, blessed with abundant marine life, beautiful people & an island vibe that really resonates with me. It also has some of the most unique & bucketlist stays in the world, which I really enjoy capturing & sharing with you!
Do you have any plans for your business in the future?
We have SO many ideas and plans for Salty Luxe. This is just the beginning for us! We have just started hosting our SOLD OUT Salty Luxe Retreats, which we plan on continuing. We have also just dropped our NEW PRESETS, which you can find here. We also plan on releasing more of our prints. We have also got some really exciting new projects happening that we have been dreaming of! So stay tuned. You can keep up to date by subscribing to our email list here.
Do you have a team to help you with your social media account?
It’s always just been ME! Recently we’ve brought one of my beautiful friends on to help us keep up with everything ~ it’s just unbelievable, the volume of emails & messages we get! We love connecting with our community, it’s one of the most important things to us, so we always make time for this.
Where do I find information about your Retreats? What do they involved? Do you plan on doing more?
After many successful SOLD OUT retreats, we are working on more for 2023 and beyond! So stay tuned. Make sure you are subscribed to our email list to get early access as all our Retreats have SOLD out within the first 24 hours.
Our retreats focus on exploring bucketlist locations, connecting with like minded people from around the world & learning from us!
You can read more about our recent Retreat experiences here.
How do you manage your work life balance?
Sometimes very badly if I’m being honest. I am an absolute hustler (& I’m not alluding to this in a positive way). It’s important to know when to stop, rejuvenate your mind & put focus into other things. Some of my best ideas have come after time away from work. Take time away from work, even if it feels counterproductive – trust me, its valuable for your soul & also your quality of work.
What do you use to store all your content on?
Lacie rugged hard drives are our go-to! We’ve never had a problem & rely heavily on them to keep our precious data safe. You should check out all our gear here.
We also use Google Drive to store & share content between our staff & clients. This way we have access to it at all times on both our laptops and phones.
How to manage the balance between getting content and living in the moment?
I’m not going to sugar coat it. It’s hard, because this job is demanding, at times can feel all encompassing & requires all of you.
I recommend taking at least 1 day off a week, to really check out & refresh your mind. I also have scheduled offline time daily, to rest my eyes & be in the real world! When we’re on location, we try to schedule our shoots at the good lighting times only, so we can rest & authentically take in the experience that we are sharing.
Do you remember the first paid campaign you took part in?
Yes! And you know what, they didn’t pay me. I shot & shared the campaign & then they went MIA. It was awful and not a great start, but a valuable learning experience nevertheless. From then I made myself a simple contract and started treating my little brand like a business.
But it’s a solid learning for up & coming creators – know your worth friends! Own your greatness & know you are deserving + should be compensated for your work. I’m super passionate about this!
At the end of the day – if you are willing to work hard, be resilient, persistent and not be afraid to embrace your creativity and do what makes you happy – you will be successful!! It’s an incredible industry to be a part of and there’s plenty of room for more creatives!
If you enjoyed this blog, you can check out our other blogs here.
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