Influencer marketing ain't what it used to be.

Last year, I found myself included on various influencer lists fairly often. So I got to thinking... How'd that happen? What have I done in recent years while trying to build a reputation as a content marketing expert?

Answers rushed from my brain to my fingertips and into my post, "30 Action Items to Get Serious About Influencer Marketing." The post is one of my most popular because it contains many useful tips for increasing your influence via influencers.

But here's the deal. The action items I offered were for increasing your influence as an individual—as a personal brand. I know the suggestions I made work because I did them. But they require hard work. Lots of it.

The influencer marketing that's getting talked up everywhere now is a different type of influencer marketing. It's for promoting brands. And it's not all that hard.

Influencer Marketing Has Been Made Easy

Influencer marketing has grown up fast.

Google searches for "influencer marketing"

I checked Google Trends to gauge interest in the category and found "influencer marketing" began a steady climb in 2013. About a year before, searches for the word "influencer" began to rise. "Influencer marketplace" hasn't charted yet. It will.

The birthrate of influencer marketplaces seems to be giving Starbucks stores a run for their money.

It's actually hard to count them because most companies in the business are painfully bad at writing clear websites. I went through a long list. Some offered agency services. Some, software. Most exceeded my patience for deciphering marketing BS.

But the business model I'm talking about is simple, and it can be explained simply: Brands go to the marketplace to find and hire bloggers to write reviews about their products or mention them in their posts; bloggers go there to land gigs.

As you might expect, social media posts often factor into the assignments. On occasion, the brands don't even request a blog post; they'll settle for a mention on Facebook or other social media networks.

Looking at a Few Marketplace Leaders

I identified a few companies that appeared to be among the most established influencer marketplaces, starting with Tomoson. The company has been in business since 2010 and—based on website traffic—has seized the lead for now.

Tomoson has a no-nonsense approach and gets right to business on its homepage. As I write, atop the page is the breast pump product listing pictured below. It includes the call to action: APPLY—Write sponsored posts for this. Clearly, if you're a mommy blogger with an audience that includes breast feeders who respect your opinion, this one's calling your name.

If selected, you'll receive a free product to try to keep as well as a payment stated in the listing. Breast pumps aren't my thing, so I begin scrolling... tea... soap... exercise ball... laptop backpack... rat trap, relaxation music, headphones (and it keeps going). Tomoson lists tens of thousands of products in 42 categories.

I found Tomoson to be a self-serve environment—more so than the other marketplaces. As a content creator, you need not be invited; you just sign up. Even for brands, there's no muss to getting started, nor are there fussy on-boarding routines; you pay a small fee and start listing.

I was able to chat with Tomoson co-founder Jeff Foster, who told me, "We really are the only open marketplace for both brands and influencers. No one else lets influencers choose the brands to work with. And vice-versa."

Managing the Processes of Influencer Marketing

Much like other collaborative content creation practices, influencer marketing works best when Web-based tools are available to manage the processes.