What it looks like to be an influencer continues to evolve along with social media. Prior to the platforms’ inception and takeover, Coltrane Curtis, the founder of Team Epiphany, was already ahead of the curve on how lucrative influence could be.

Have you ever watched a creator on Instagram whose Live is just as quality as cable television, if not even better? The tech giant’s “Creators” program now allows you to help chip in to pay what you believe their content deserves. Content creators and influencers can add livestreams as a stream of income thanks to the latest Instagram badges feature. Hypebeast reports that U.S.-based Instagram users over the age of 18 with over 10,000 followers will be able to get paid for their Live content. In October, the new feature started out in its testing stage. Now, the rollout has reached 50,000 users and will continue to expand. Followers can take their support of creators’ Instagram livestreams to a new level by purchasing badges in increments of $0.99, $1.99 and $4.99, according to the outlet. In gratitude for their support, badge owners will receive a thank you message in return, as well as their comments and questions will receive increased visibility for the duration of the Live....

In a recent article, we told you that a study was released showing that Black influencers were amongst the highest-paid influencers in 2020. The study, however, focused on said influencers inside a specific eco-system in particular. Outside of that eco-system, however, Bloomberg News paints a very different reality. “The phenomenon of White artists appropriating the work of Black creators—and getting paid more to do it—is as old as the entertainment industry itself,” said the outlet. “Now that there’s real money to be made on these platforms—brand endorsements on social media account for $10 billion a year globally, according to SignalFire, a venture capital firm that tracks industry data—a new class of gatekeepers has emerged.” These gatekeepers, according to Bloomberg, are paying Black influencers hundreds of dollars in comparison to thousands of dollars that white influencers receive. Even more egregiously, Black influencers are making less — dollar for dollar — than their white...

As we continue to celebrate Women’s History Month, we want to highlight these Black Women who have taken the unconventional route to success and built their own platforms for their respective endeavors. Black women are the future and these ten women are proof that there’s no standard blueprint to follow in order to prosper. Find out more about these phenomenal trailblazers below. Karen Civil Photo Credit: Leon Bennett/Getty Images for BET Elizabeth, New Jersey native Karen Civil has come a long way in the entertainment business. The self-made marketing guru has become one of the most sought after influencers in hip hop culture. She started in this business as an intern for Hot 97, which helped her launch her own website KarenCivil.com in 2008, covering upcoming artists like J. Cole and Nicki Minaj. Civil later turned her love for online blogging into a fruitful career in entertainment. The media maven has built up a platform that she continues to expand today, branching out into...