"Ruben, what do you do for a living?"

I hate this question. I don't know how to answer it.

Because no one understands my answers. It's somehow too vague for most people:

• SaaS founder?
• Content creator?
• Write stuff on the internet?

So I answer the only thing people understand:

"I am a Linkedin influencer."

Since this blog is both educational & a catharsis journal to write, I'll answer the ultimate question.

The one burning your lips.

The one haunting your dreams.

The one waking up at night, letting you wander.

(I'm kidding, chill)

☑ How much does a Linkedin influencer earn?

☑ How can you become a Linkedin influencer, fast?

☑ How many followers do you need to make your mom proud? (not much)

Let's dive in:

Followers are insignificant. Engagement is everything.

I'll debunk the first mega-myth about influencers:

"You need a lot of followers to have influence." Absolutely not.

Followers mean nothing compared to engagement.

You might fool the people who don't understand anything about social media...

But you won't be able to build, create, or generate anything without engagement.

You don't need 10,000 - 100,000 - 1 million followers to be influential.

What matters is:

• Your average engagement (comments, reposts, likes - in this order).
• Your connection with your community: do you guys know each other?
• The quality of the engagement: are people excited about your content every day?

I skimmed through my own comments on a post about Perplexity AI.

Here's an example of a good vs. a bad comment to receive:

Now that you know it's all about a mix of:

1. High engagement...
2. High quality of exchange...
3. High trust & intimacy with your community...

... here comes the question "How much do I need?"

You only need 1,000 True Fans.

The Kevin Kelly blog "1,000 True Fans" written in 2008 changed my life.

It changed the way I saw social media.

It changed my perspective of "winning".

It started my 10-year career in the techno music industry...

... followed by the one I have today.

It's quite simple:

1,000 True Fans isn’t about going viral or racking up a massive follower count.

It’s about building a tight-knit, highly engaged community that actually cares about what you’re saying.

On LinkedIn, it means aiming for those 1,000 people who don’t just scroll past your content—they stop, read, like, and drop a comment. They share your posts because they genuinely resonate with them, not just for the likes.

Not only you're part of their journey to their success, but you actively work towards it.

I know your journey is both to master AI & be a better content creator.

And I'm doing everything I can to soothe it the best way I can.

I am part of your journey – like many others.

Instead of constantly trying to attract new followers, focus on creating content that speaks directly to those 1,000 true fans.

They’re the ones who will DM you for advice, trust your recommendations, and turn into clients or collaborators.

I'll tell more about my co-founder Pete for EasyGen & how I met him later on this blog.

They’re the people who look forward to your posts in their feed—no matter what the algorithm does. That’s how you build a sustainable personal brand on LinkedIn that’s more than just numbers—it’s about impact.

Why 1,000? First, because it's achievable:

• You can count to 1,000.
• If you create content every day, for 3 years...
• ... that's 1 person to connect with, turning the scrollers into "fans".

And no, a fan isn’t someone who’s fangirling over you—we’re not a K-pop artist.

A fan is someone who sticks with your journey because it’s helping them on theirs.

Why 1,000? Because it is what separates a hobby from a full-time job:

• 1,000 fans are (most likely) willing to spend $100 per year for you.
• If not, then 100 fans are (most likely) willing to spend $1,000 per year for you.
• If not, then 10 fans are (most likely) willing to spend $10,000 per year for you.

You get the maths. That's $100,000 per year – more than 98% of the world's population.

Instead of focusing on 1 million one day - focus on one person, every day.

That's how to start a snowball.

The snowball effect.

This has to be the biggest misconception about "How to win on social media":

• People with 0 followers want to act like they have 1M+ followers to get there.
• But people with 1M+ followers act like they have 0, and that's how they got there.

What do I mean exactly?

☑ Post on one platform.

☑ Spend more time connecting with your first readers.

☑ Do it even if it does not scale. Do it even if there is no "ROI".

And if you hate doing it, maybe you don't want the end result in the first place.

That's what's fascinating about social media: people want a community but don't want to interact with it.

I wrote a piece in my blog "Stop Ruining Your LinkedIn" about it...

If you can't commit to a small snowball, without expecting results, you can't make it.

You will hate the journey. You will be entitled. You will eventually lose patience & grit.

It's like opening a restaurant & expecting it to be full right away.

Maybe it's better to open a restaurant, making sure it's presentable, and that the very few people that visit every week are having the best - most memorable - experience possible.

If you can do this, you already won. A few people or a lot won't change much.

Because you just opened a nice restaurant to hang out.

How much to charge for a Linkedin post?

We are in the future.

You have the 1,000 True Fans. You enjoy your content. Your community absolutely loves it.

So can we finally answer the $$$ questions?

How much to charge for a Linkedin post?

It depends on these factors:

• Audience: where is it? what's their job? what's their purchasing power?
• Engagement: what's your average reach (comments > reposts > impressions > likes).
• Past: have you done anything similar in the past, and what was the result?

Let's take an example...

• Audience: Sales who want to try AI tools.
• Engagement: Average 200 likes - 50 comments - 10 reposts - 30,000 impressions.
• Past: You made a post about an AI sales tool that reached 1.5x your average.

You know from your past campaign that your CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) was around $30.

How? You offered a first month for free to the people who messaged you.

You could track these messages' conversion to roughly $600 in sales. That's a $20/CPM.

And you suppose another $10/CPM that was untraceable, from brand awareness.

So for a single post, I should expect to pay you $900 - $1,000 per post.

I average 300,000 impressions per campaign & I know I have a $35-$67 CPM.

A full campaign costs between $10,000 - $20,000.

If you have never done a sponsored post on Linkedin, here's the story of my first one.

An AI company wanted to test the water with my first campaign.

They offered an affiliate deal, but I don't like earning money from people committing (or not).

Why? Because I don't get to control their experience. It's not my company.

I prefer being paid on brand awareness, on a CPM basis.

They offered; "What about a $10 CPM?", I said sure.

They then said; "But it stops after 48 hours. We count the amount of impressions", I said sure.

I made the post. It went viral.

More than a million views in 48 hours. $10,000 in 48 hours.

Did I scam the company that paid it? I didn't.

They wanted another one right away!

"Let's do another post tomorrow."

And I said no.

Because that's the difference between a creator and an influencer.

A creator vs. an influencer.

My simple definition:

Influencer: takes any money offered.

Creator: takes the money from something they already cherish, from time to time.

For example, my lifelong partners are Opus Clip, Gamma, Synthesia & Spotter.

☑ Opus Clip → the best AI to edit videos.

☑ Gamma → the best AI to create slide decks.

☑ Synthesia → the best AI to create an AI clone.

☑ Spotter → the best AI to grow someone's YouTube.

It's not just partners. I physically met them.

And it matters. A lot. Because as a creator, I want the best for me & you.

I need to make sure they deliver. I need to make sure the roadmap makes sense.

They must support my goals. They must support yours.

Sponsoring the right companies is the second thing that could happen to you as a creator.

The best is to find your product-audience fit.

Sell your own thing: the product-audience fit.

Everyone knows "Product-Market Fit" for startups.

I believe in Product-Audience fit for creators.

1. You are known for your expertise.
2. You need a specific solution for your expertise.
3. You sell it to your audience, and make sure it has the right quality.

Let's take a non-business savvy example, and probably one of the best of its kind:

Amanda is known on YouTube with nearly 1 million followers.

• Focus: Journaling, Bullet Journaling, and Artistic Planning.
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• Product: Custom-designed journals.
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• Fit: Amanda is known to design beautiful journals. And she... sells journals.

You follow her because you love journalling & her creativity.

You buy from her a journal... to journal... creatively.

The absolute best product-audience fit.

→ Amanda does not have to change her content.

→ Amanda is still dedicated to being the best creator possible.

→ Her community trusts her to find the best journal possible & sell it.

And that's why I built EasyGen.

The EasyGen origin story.

I started EasyGen as my personal AI assistant for Linkedin as early as November 2022.

I needed to write better content, consistently.

Anything I was learning, reading & experiencing in content creation → I would teach my little EasyGen AI.

It was very bad at first.

And it ended up pushing me from 8,000 followers (Dec 2022) to over 400,000 followers.

I guess it worked.

• I am obsessed with generative AI prompting & API.
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• I am obsessed about amplifying someone's voice, to (finally) be heard.

I've been obsessed with generative AI from day 1. It satisfies my "mad scientist testing frenzy" self.

I started blogging about theory crafting video games (testing combinations) on Guild Wars 1 when I was... 10 years old.

I've been obsessed with making the unheard → heard since I ran techno labels in 2017.

The recipe was simple: meeting a bedroom producer. He was focused on making music. I was focused on making it heard.

I just switched "music" → to "Linkedin content".

And when I read EasyGen's success stories on my wall of love, my little kid self is proud.

Then people tell me...

↳ "But it's not for everyone! I don't want to grow on Linkedin!"

↳ "But I hate anything related to AI!"

Sure. But just like Amanda, I'm in my own world.

I'm selling journals to people who love journaling.

My "journal" and "journaling" are AI + content creation on Linkedin.

You love it? Try it. You don't? That's fine. You're not my audience.

I'm looking for 1,000 of them.

Not a million.

PS: If you need a guide about how to use EasyGen, I wrote a blog last week.

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