Unwanted Expenses for Bloggers: Instagram May Charge Fees for Links in Captions

Blog and influencer earnings and expenses

It is true that bloggers and influencers earn by the thousands for almost every post they have. When an influencer posts content, it will surely earn depending on viewer interactions. If the posted content is sponsored by brands, then the influencer or blogger will earn even more. This is why bloggers and influencers earn much more than “conventional” jobs.

However, with their high earnings come high expenses as well. This is especially true for newbie or beginner bloggers. For instance, travel bloggers would need to fund their own expenses at the beginning of their blogging careers. Once they get famous, brands could finally provide sponsorships for influencers and bloggers. For those doing lifestyle blogs, they would need to buy makeup, skincare, and other products to start up their blogs. Starting up blogs and YouTube channels would require investments at the beginning before the benefits could be reaped from brand sponsorships and talent fees.

Instagram to charge a commission on paid links

It is already a downside that Instagram does not allow users to put links in captions of posts. The only option for users is to create a “Link in Bio” option or create a shortened (bit.ly) version of the original link. However, the actual links to sites are not allowed on post captions. However, Protocol has discovered that the social media giant Facebook is applying for a patent allowing users to “add paid links to media captions in a social networking system”. The website even included a link to the actual patent application.

It seems that Instagram will allow users to add links to their posts but a pop-up will appear asking if the “user wants to activate the link” for a fee. It is currently unclear how the user will pay the fee, the taxes involved, and the actual amount. Of course, brands hiring social media influencers to market their brands would prefer that the actual link be posted. This may be a clear preference over the shortened version of the original link. It would seem that influencers and bloggers could get some additional, unwanted expenses. But it may be a small fee compared to the social media marketing fee they would get from a brand. If brands are generous enough, they could cover this fee on top of the social media marketing fee of the influencer or blogger.

However, days after the announcement that Instagram may charge a commission on influencers’ paid links, the company has released a statement clarifying that it is not going to happen soon. Also, they have clarified that they have “no plans” of adding such functions in their platform. Can they deny the actual patent application? Maybe not. Only one thing is for sure, it won’t happen right now but the charges may come in the future. Hopefully, not sooner than what everyone is expecting.

Social media platforms charging commissions

This is not the first time social media platforms charge fees from businesses and pages. However, it looks like it is the first time that Instagram and Facebook will charge fees directly from influencers and bloggers. Particularly, Facebook charges fees for ads. Particularly for the Facebook shop, the social media giant will charge transaction fees at 5% for every transaction. There is also a charge back fee of 20USD for every transaction withdrawals.

Users can also be charged transaction fees as well. For instance, users could get VIP statuses where there will be no ads on any of their interactions with Facebook. This is the same for Instagram where there are sponsored ads in between timeline posts from users.