LinkedIn wants to keep its top creators happy (and posting) — so it's cooking up new ways to help them make money.
The company is planning a slate of new monetization products for influencers heading into its fiscal year 2027, according to internal strategy documents viewed by Business Insider.
It plans to roll out a dealmaking marketplace to connect creators with brands for sponsored posts. It's also working on a new system that lets users make one-time purchases to buy "experiences" from creators, like a paid advice session.
Heading into its fiscal year 2027 — which starts in July 2026 and ends in June 2027 — LinkedIn aims to launch a subscription feature that lets creators charge for access to newsletters, podcasts, and paywalled communities. The company is also considering launching a creator fund to reward strong performers, according to the internal planning materials. LinkedIn previously set up a $25 million fund as part of a six-week accelerator program.
The need for more robust creator monetization comes as LinkedIn has morphed from a business networking app into a social hub brimming with TikTok-style videos and CEO broetry. It now relies on creator content to drive engagement and keep its roughly 1.3 billion users scrolling. Helping creators make money and finding ways for LinkedIn to take a cut are growing priorities.
LinkedIn currently offers some money-making tools to a subset of creators. The company shares advertising revenue with over 100 creators and publishers on video ads via its BrandLink program, for example. It's testing a program that lets brands pay creators to amplify their posts through a "Thought Leader ads" initiative. It also pays educational creators who post training materials on its LinkedIn Learning program.
LinkedIn's creator monetization efforts are small compared to competitors like YouTube, which said in September that it had paid out over $100 billion to creators and publishers in the previous four years. To make a living, many full-time influencers focus on Instagram for brand deals and TikTok and YouTube for their ad-revenue sharing programs.
"LinkedIn is investing heavily in creators and creator marketing, and I think it is very early stages," said Gigi Robinson, a creator with around 35,000 LinkedIn followers who serves in its partner program and has done paid partnerships with the company. "I think it's going to take some time for creators of all kinds to start seeing money come from the platform."
Events are another area of focus for LinkedIn going forward. The company already hosts some events, generating $18.9 million between the second half of fiscal year 2025 and the first half of fiscal 2026, Business Insider previously reported. The company initially plans to launch around 50 exclusive events with top creators and test ticketed events with those creators at the start of its fiscal 2027. Ultimately, the company wants to expand the business line to over 1,000 creators, according to the internal documents.
"The investment is there, and they believe heavily in the creator economy," Robinson said.
Read next
Alex Bitter is a senior retail reporter covering the gig economy, food, and retail. His work focuses major gig delivery and ride-hailing apps, including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Walmart's Spark. He is interested in everything from what it's like to work on the apps to the companies' business strategies.Some of his recent stories feature gig workers who have been deactivated on the apps, DoorDash hiring traditional employees to make deliveries, gig workers' use of bots, and gig work expanding into new professions, such as nursing.Alex has also written about Aldi's US expansion, Starbucks' turnaround efforts, and the fallout from Kraft-Heinz's budget cutting. Convenience store chain Sheetz ended its "smile policy" after his reporting.Before joining Insider in September 2020, he wrote about consumer and retail companies for S&P Global Market Intelligence. He's a graduate of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and grew up on the Big Island.Alex lives in the Washington, DC, area, where you can find him studying ancient coins or searching for Civil War artifacts with his metal detector in his free time.Got a tip? Reach out at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (808) 854-4501.
Follow Following
Every time publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Look out for an alert in your inbox the next time publishes a story!
Every time a new story is published, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Look out for an alert in your inbox the next time a new story is published!
By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
