Single mother clears £13,000 debt by posting plus-size clothing reviews, now earns up to £5,000 a month

A Leicester mother who accumulated about £13,000 of credit-card debt said she cleared the balance and now earns up to £5,000 a month by posting plus-size clothing reviews and haul videos on social media.

Roxanne Freeman, 36, told reporters she began sharing try-on videos and outfit reviews in early 2024 while working as a Slimming World consultant. She said a single post in February — a short review of a dress bought through TikTok's shopping feature — generated roughly £200 in commission within a week. By her second month she said earnings reached about £600, and the income rose steadily thereafter until she was making as much as £5,000 a month from two to three hours of work a day, according to her account.

Freeman said the new income allowed her to pay off the credit-card debt she had accumulated by living beyond her means and putting a deposit on a caravan. She has nearly 50,000 followers on TikTok and has left her slimming consultant role to rely on content creation full time. Her posts now range from clothing hauls and product reviews to personal vignettes and short dance clips that tap into platform trends.

She acknowledged volatility in the work, saying monthly earnings vary with engagement and the number of followers, and that she sometimes experiences "imposter syndrome." Freeman also described a long personal journey to self-acceptance after years of low self-esteem and bullying, which she says shaped the style and tone of her content.

Freeman's experience underscores how affiliate commissions and platform shopping features have become a revenue stream for creators. In her case, she received a percentage of sales generated through a tracked link; Freeman reported receiving about 10 percent of each sale that originated from her posts.

Industry practitioners say such outcomes can be replicated but are far from guaranteed. Ali Grant, founder of influencer marketing agency The Digital Department, told viewers on Susan Yara's YouTube channel that earnings for creators differ markedly by audience engagement and management. Grant said an influencer with one million followers and strong engagement could earn about $500,000 a year, and that creators commonly price posts according to reach and analytics. Grant described a rough rule of thumb of charging $1,000 per post for every 10,000 followers, while noting that brands also pay extra to extend reach across formats such as Reels and Stories.

Those figures, Grant said, illustrate the broad range of commercial outcomes for creators: some top-tier influencers earn into the millions annually, while many smaller creators rely on combinations of affiliate commissions, sponsored content, and platform monetization features to generate income.

Experts and managers caution that creator income depends on more than follower counts. Engagement rates, audience demographics, retention, and the creator's ability to convert views into purchases are central to monetization. Freeman's first commission spike came from an immediate conversion after a purchase link was shared alongside a personal try-on review, demonstrating how direct shopping tools can produce quick returns for some creators.

Freeman said the income change has had tangible effects on her family life, allowing her to take her two sons, aged six and 10, on holiday abroad and to stop taking on extra jobs. She also said she still faces negatives common to public online work, including negative comments and the uncertainty that comes with gig-based incomes.

The rise of influencer-driven commerce has coincided with growing interest in content creation as a career, particularly among younger generations. Recent surveys indicate a significant proportion of young people aspire to be creators, a trend that reflects both the visibility of high-earning influencers and broader shifts in how companies allocate marketing budgets toward creator partnerships and direct-to-consumer social shopping.

Freeman's story illustrates a smaller-scale, commission-driven path in that ecosystem: starting from modest follower numbers, leveraging a specific niche — in her case, plus-size fashion — and using platform shopping features to earn affiliate revenue that ultimately cleared personal debt and became a primary income source. Industry specialists stress that while such success stories are possible, they require sustained engagement, an audience that trusts the creator's recommendations, and an acceptance of income variability tied to changing platform algorithms and consumer behavior.