📹 Mikee Rogers Earned $30K as a Full-Time Creator in 2024—Here’s Exactly How

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mikee Rogers (@MikeeRogers). Mikee turned full-time creator after losing his dream job in January 2024 when his company, an online fashion retailer, abruptly closed down

He shares a detailed, transparent breakdown of his first year trying to make it work on YouTube—with less than 15,000 subscribers and a mix of part-time gigs to help him meet his bills

Mikee’s journey offers a refreshingly honest look at what content income actually looks like when you’re not going viral every week.

💵 Mikee’s 2024 Content Creator Income Breakdown

Total income from content creation in 2024: $30,119

Here’s the full breakdown across his five income streams:

Without UGC, Mikee’s total would have been just $10,817

Even with UGC, it wasn’t enough to cover living expenses

🧠 What Worked (and What Didn’t)

1. Affiliate Links – $440

Mikee made a few hundred dollars by including affiliate links in his video descriptions—mostly from products like the Insta360 camera. It wasn’t much, but it was fully passive once he built it into his workflow

2. Patreon – $620

He offered three tiers ($1, $5, $10) and maxed out his $10 tier with 10 one-on-one coaching sessions each month. While the personal connections were meaningful, the workload didn’t make sense financially

It consumed 2 full work days each month to make $100, but the experience gave him confidence in his ability to build a supportive community

Today, he’s replaced the $10 tier and added a new $100 tier, priced more appropriately for his value and time

3. Brand Deals – $4,500

Despite not pitching much in 2024, Mikee still brought in over $4,500 from brand partnerships. He sees this as the most underutilized income stream in his creator business that will continue to grow

4. AdSense – $5,257

Mikee posted 51 videos in 2024. On average, each earned about $100, but that average was heavily skewed by three breakout uploads:

• Losing My Dream Job (126K views)

• Cloud Couch Dupe (94K views)

• House Tour (87K views)

Without those three, the average income per video drops closer to $30–$60

5. UGC – $19,302

His highest-earning stream came from user-generated content—creating product-focused short-form videos for brands to use in ads. He stumbled into this niche after a brand found one of his organic product reviews and offered to pay for it

Now, an agency helps keep Mikee busy with new UGC opportunities. The agency is well worth their cut sourcing these growing but hard to find opportunities

🎯 Final Thoughts on the Creator Grind

Mikee’s story isn’t about going viral. It’s about building a creator business from the ground up—with a few wins, a lot of work, and plenty of financial reality checks

Some of the biggest takeaways:

• AdSense doesn’t pay unless you’re driving major views

• Brand deals and UGC offer higher ROI for your time

• Don’t believe the hype—viral income is often not repeatable

• Track your time and output—because this is a business now

🔚 The Bottom Line

In his first full year post-layoff, Mikee gave content creation everything he had—and made $30K from his own brand. Not enough to go full-time yet. But enough to keep going—with clarity on what’s next