Is It Profitable to Run a Self-Media Business in 2023?
Since advertisers have no budget and platforms strictly limit ads, it seems like it's not been easy to make money lately, based on what a blogger I've followed for four or five years has shared.
Here are the ones where you can actually earn ad money:
Relatively stable ones: WeChat Official Accounts, Xiaohongshu
The occasional one-off payer: Douyin (TikTok)
Those who will pay authors a small effort fee: Toutiao
And Bilibili? Don't even think about it—you won't get a dime.
Based on this blogger's combined following of over a million (they had less than 10k when I first followed), their estimated monthly income is around $5,000.
Then on top of that, they ran into the mess with unfinished buildings in Henan... pretty frustrating.
They've also tried pivoting to create content promoting books, but it hasn't taken off...