There’s a new class of creators moving from side hustlers to in-demand pros.
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Dubbed “clippers,” these creators are paid to post snippets of podcasts, livestreams, movies, or songs on TikTok and other social apps, creating the impression that they’re trendy.
Even if you haven’t heard of “clipping,” you’ve likely seen this emerging social-media strategy in the wild.
YouTubers, podcasters, and Kick streamers are early adopters of the tactic, which is performance-based and usually only pays out if a video gets significant views.
The clipping community is filled with side hustlers who are happy to earn $200 from a viral video. However, as the category has matured and attracted larger budgets, a new professional class of high-performing clippers has emerged. These clipping all-stars can still get performance-based pay, but they’re also being offered guaranteed retainers of $500 to $1,500 a month to ensure they get to work, according to one “elite clipper” application viewed by Business Insider.
“An elite clipper is someone who runs hundreds of pages, and across those hundreds of pages, multiple have millions of followers or a minimum 100,000 followers,” said Evan Stanfield, cofounder of the clip-marketing agency Clipping Culture. “If we’re paying a monthly retainer, we can ask them to post 20 or 30 times a month, instead of whenever they feel like it.”
These “top 1% of clippers” can earn five figures a month, Stanfield said.
Clipping is gaining popularity at a moment of flux in the world of social media marketing. As algorithmic feeds become more personalized, hiring influencers to post sponsored content doesn’t necessarily translate into views (unless you’re a superstar). Marketers who post clipping campaigns only pay when their content performs.
YouTuber MrBeast recently launched his own clipping platform, Vyro, which he uses to promote his channel, according to the company’s website.
“The clippers that we’re talking about are not like influencers,” said Johnny Cloherty, CEO of the marketing-agency Genni. “You’re getting people that are like you and me, or maybe some college kids that are just looking for some extra dough.”
Clippers can sign up for campaigns in Discord servers, side-hustle sites like Whop, or marketing platforms like Genni. While they’re often paid to clip footage, at other times the task is to add a brand’s logo to a viral video clip or to embed a song beneath a post.
They’re typically offered between $1 and $4 per 1,000 views, marketers told Business Insider, though some agencies offer higher rates when creators reach thresholds like 100,000 or 1 million views.
To promote the launch of Beast Land, MrBeast offered creators $2 for every 1,000 views on clips they posted about the pop-up theme park, for example. A Vyro promotion for a November boxing match between Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. offered the same rate. One of Clipping Culture’s recent briefs asked clippers to promote footage from Sabrina Carpenter and María Becerra’s Lollapalooza Argentina appearance for around $1 per 1,000 views.
“It is a little bit of a roll of the dice for the clippers, but it’s a super low lift for them,” Cloherty said. “These clippers have become an ecosystem and a community out there that kind of know what they’re doing, and know the pros and cons of it.”
