Well, noone wants to be under the decision of gate-keepers. With Instagram you don’t have any and that’s great because you can show your creativity (almost) anyhow you want. You don’t need to wait for your chance in the spotlight which might never come as millions of actors and actresses could confirm. But that’s why your margins and margins of most of others are so low and often times probably negative. Because there are millions of people trying to „influence“ and you most probably don’t add as much value as you think. You are just one of many many many pretty similar people working in trends so even if you can get small advantage you can't keep it for long. There is huge competition with minimal entrance costs, so it’s basic economics there won’t be much of a cash for most of folks.

But you want to leave Instagram so you are looking the right way, which is good. To leave this business model and work on something else or at least differently.

My unsolicited advice: Educate your audience about what you do, why you do it, why they should follow you, how you add value into their lives and offer them, they can support you on Patreon or somewhere else as the true fans for a few bucks a month.

Uncomfortable truth: If you don’t find enough of those people willing to pay you far less than minimum wage, why do you expect you will be paid by corporations in the first place?