A few months ago many buyers of X Premium accounts (formerly Twitter Blue) shared their "receipts" of generating tens of thousands of dollars as a result of sharing advertising revenue on X (formerly Twitter). So the children of Adam flocked to thank Elon Musk for being willing to share his wealth with X users.
But let's say X is a gold mine that turns into riches easily? I have subscribed to X Premium for eight months to answer this question for users in Malaysia and the answer I can give is that you are better off working in a convenience store or fast food restaurant than being a social media influencer on X.
How Much Money Can You Make?
Between February 1 to September 30, 2023 I generated an income of only $82 (~RM385) equivalent to RM48.13 per month. I paid RM369 for a year's subscription and that means I just broke even with RM14 at the end of September 2023.
If the income I receive is consistent until the end of February 2024, I generate a net income of around RM250 per year. This is absolutely not worth the income for an account that receives an average of 10 million impressions per month with around 92 thousand followers.
You might say this is because my account doesn't have a high number of followers. But you have to remember about a month after this advertising profit sharing scheme was announced, Elon Musk said that only interactions from X Premium customers with ads would be counted to prevent manipulation using bots. Until last August there were only under 900 thousand X Premium customers compared to around 530 million monthly active users. Only interactions from 0.17% of X customers can generate revenue.
In Malaysia there are not many X Premium customers so the probability of you making a decent income is lower than the probability of you living after receiving a pig organ instead of a healthy body organ. I contacted a few influential friends at X who also subscribe to X Premium. These people are the group that I categorize as "rage farmers" who send tweets that are sure to get thousands of RTs and QRTs.
The income they receive is comparable to what I received in the same period. Again emphasize that generating an income in X that is comparable to the minimum monthly wage in Malaysia is impossible.
Let's use the @evleaks account as a sample. He is a very famous information leaker with 452 thousand followers. His X Premium income last month is approximately the same as my income in August 2023 which is $16.24. Even the famous @evleaks can't generate a lot of income even though his videos often go viral with tens of millions of impressions.
What About Influencers Who Claim To Make Thousands of Dollars?
There are indeed some influencers on X who make thousands of Dollars by sharing their screenshots. Among them is the most prominent Malaysian export in X, namely Ian Miles Chong who lives in Ipoh. But this lavish income sharing is only shared once. After Elon Changed the guidelines of advertising impressions, the majority of those who generate a good income started to complain about the money being put in late in a much smaller amount.
Elon Musk uses these people as advertisements to attract more X Premium customers. The same tactic as the MLM business that shows early members can now afford luxury cars as bait. We all know that all this is just smoke blown to obscure the eyes of those who want wealth.
X is not a gold mine as promised by Elon Musk. It received the same fate as Musk saying Level 5 self-driving systems will appear in 2019, the Cybertruck will be accepted in 2021 and humans will arrive on Mars in 2024. He likes to make promises but rarely keeps them. My boss is more polite in this regard. So if you harbor the desire to generate high income through X Premium, I suggest you just bury it because it's another superstitious story from Elon Musk.