An influencer is a person whose audience trusts their recommendations enough that brands pay for access to it.
The defining asset is not audience size but the transferability of trust. A recommendation converts when the audience believes the person would have made it unpaid, which is why an account that promotes constantly loses the very quality brands were buying.
Rates are usually quoted per post and negotiated against audience size, but the numbers that actually predict performance are engagement rate on reach, and audience-to-product fit. A 20,000-follower account whose audience is entirely one niche outperforms a general 200,000-follower account for a niche product, routinely.
Disclosure of paid partnerships is a legal requirement in most jurisdictions, not a courtesy.
In practice
A running coach with 18,000 engaged followers can sell out a shoe collaboration that a 400,000-follower lifestyle account would barely move.
Common mistake
Pricing by follower count alone. It is the metric easiest to inflate and least correlated with sales.
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