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Kendall Jenner is officially back on Instagram, after a one week detox. We can’t blame her – that’s how long our detoxes usually last – but we do have a slight inkling why she might have miraculously rediscovered her love of sharing.
That sweet, sweet Instagram endorsement money.
The Kardashians made an incredible $122.5 million combined last year, with as sizeable portion of that coming from social media ads.
Kylie, the second highest earning member of the family (her $18 million income seems paltry next to big sister Kim’s $51 million fortune, however), can make up to $300,000 a post endorsing everything from oil pulling kits, fake eyelashes, cleanser and detox tea.
Oh and waist trainers.
Kylie made almost $300,000 for this post, promoting a waist trainer three months ago.
The trainer was one of the models released by 23-year-old New Zealand entrepreneur Iyia Liu. The savvy social media fanatic had noticed the craze around these modern day corsets mounting exponentially, and decided to invest $6000 of her savings into getting a few made in China. After releasing the first batch online she couldn’t keep up with orders, and her company ended up making some $3.5 million in the first year.
Then came the Kylie Jenner endorsement, cemented with a six figure sum in July. With 1.5 million likes and almost 300,000 comments, Liu watched the orders roll in. “The return was not as fast as I thought it would be,” Liu has admitted, but nevertheless her investment has paid off.
Celebrities don’t only make their money through social media endorsements, although this is increasingly becoming a major part of their income stream. A-listers can also make hundreds of thousands of dollars from appearing at parties – Paris Hilton, 50 Cent and Lenny Kravitz made $4 million in 2009 for fronting up at Ed Hardy founder Christian Audigier’s 51st birthday party – singing at barmitzvahs (Nicki Minaj, we’re looking at you) and the weddings of Russian oligarchs (Sting) and international endorsement deals that celebrities think will never surface in their home country.
Strange celebrity endorsements are nothing new, but recently several major A-listers have put their name to everything from Oattober, a campaign to raise awareness for, um, porridge oats (Katie Holmes), Eggs (Kevin Bacon), Viva paper towels (Alyssa Milano), Fritos (Garth Brooks), AntiClean toilets (Howie Mandel), Ball Park hot dogs (Haylie Duff) and Cat’s Pride (Katherine Heigl) and Chronic Dry Eye syndrome (Jennifer Aniston).
Phew. It’s hard work being a celebrity.
