14 Reasons Why The Kardashians Are Killing It

This week, the Jenner sisters launched to the world their very own clothing empire: Kendall + Kylie. The house party was in full swing at a six-floor townhouse in New York, with guests including momager Kris Jenner, models Hailey Baldwin and Gigi Hadid, as well as their own brother-in-law/fellow fashion designer, Kanye West.

Aged 20-years-old and 18-years-old, Kendall and Kylie are already catching up to their older sisters Kim (35), Khloe (31) and Kourtney (36). Their TV shows, fashion lines, perfumes, hair products, children's clothing brand, video games, apps and makeup lines all help create an estimated net worth of $300 million, which is continually on the rise.

So how much of what has made it into the Kardashian/Jenner bank account from having real business sense and how much from just the power of celebrity? The truth is, it's both. These are five women who are not to be underestimated when it comes to business.

14 They Use Social Media to Get Close to the Fans

When it comes to Instagram, nobody has a stronger game than these sisters. Kim still roars ahead in first place with 60 million followers, followed by Kylie with 50 million, Kendall in third place with 48 million, then Khloe with 41 million and finally Kourtney with 33 million. They (seemingly) let their guard down online and show their whole life to their fans.

Bonnie Fuller, president and editor-in-chief of HollywoodLife.com commented, "You'll never see Jennifer Aniston share like Kim or Khloe do. [But you also] see how much they work at it and how they never complain about their privacy or how hard it is to be a celebrity. They seem to be really enjoying their fame, their work."

The real social media crown has to be handed to Kendall. Last year, she posted a selfie wherein she was lying on the floor with her hair arranged in hearts. She thanked her fans for reaching 20 million fans and received 2.2 million likes for the image. To date this still remains as the most-liked photo on Instagram with a total of 3.2 million likes.

13 They All Have Their Own USP

Each of the sisters has their own unique message for the world. Kim is the fashion forward, contouring queen, Khloe is followed by girls who might be self conscious about their body shape and like to follow her as fitness inspiration, Kourtney appeals to mothers everywhere and the Jenner sisters are for teenagers who are seeking style inspiration.

The girls enjoy speaking to their fans directly so that they know what the fans want from them. Kylie explained at their launch party, "I really like to ask my followers on Twitter, what they like, what they would like to see me improve and do more of. They help me a lot,” Kendall joined in, "Same! You kinda see what everyone loves and you kind of feed off of that."

12 They Understand the Power of Collaboration

The Kardashian/Jenner clan know you can't do everything alone as they have collectively worked with almost every big name in the business. Their previous partnerships have been with Sears, Skechers, Las Vegas nightclub, Tao (who would pay them upwards of $50,000 just for a short appearance), and the oldest siblings collaborated with Lipsy for their own fashion label.

Partnerships can be extremely valuable for celebrities and landing those lucrative contracts will help pay the bills for years to come. The staggering earnings the family can bring in are anywhere from $10,000 for a single tweet to $300,000 for a day spent posting on Instagram.

11 They Know How to Sell

Kendall and Kylie's new brand, Kendall + Kylie, is now stocked in high-end stores; Bloomingdale's, Shopbop, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and even Saks Fifth Avenue. Despite the girls still being young, they have already partnered with OPI to help create a line of nail polishes, partnered with PacSun, and now Topshop for this new clothing line.

They were both inspired to create their own line after witnessing the success of their older sisters' Kardashian Kollection. Kendall told the Daily Mail, "I think seeing our sisters do their clothing line was very inspiring. We kind of saw their whole process and we wanted to try it out, and when the opportunity came, we just jumped on it."

10 They Exploit a Desirable Lifestyle

For the Kardashian/Jenners to stay appealing to the masses, they need to be promote a constantly desirable lifestyle. Their fans want to spend money to look just like them thinking, "I want to live the glamourous life too." They are always flaunting their holidays, lavish events and luxury cars via social media.

British cosmetic surgery practice, Transform, claimed they witnessed a 73% increase in inquiries from patients who want work done to look more "Kardashian." Including lip fillers, breast enlargements and even bum enhancements.

9 They Manage from Within

Kris "The Momager" Jenner is the matriarch of the family. She takes a healthy sized cut of her daughters' earnings, yet they know nobody will drive their brand further than their own powerhouse of a mother.

Following in her mother's footsteps, Kim has taken the approach of being more "hands on" when it comes to business. She even helped develop her own game, commenting, "The look of the game was really important to me. I must have pulled thousands of references of all the different ways that characters should have their hair, the outfits and the shoes. One time there was a strap wrong on one of the character's shoes - her feet weren't matching. I had to change the programming to fix that. It was important to me that everything is right."

8 They Know Any Product Can Be Branded

When it comes to branding, these ladies do not mess around. From clothing lines to diet supplements, they will lend their name to almost anything. David Caplan, an editorial consultant for the celebrity website, TMZ, revealed, "They are showing [that] they can brand anything, and lending their name or likeness to any product became a sure fire hit for marketers seeking to tap into the lucrative teen and 20s market.”

Unfortunately for the family they did learn a very valuable lesson in 2010 when they endorsed a pre-paid credit card aimed at teenagers. Soon after the website, KardashianKard.com, was launched, the product had to be taken off the market when Kim, Kourtney and Khloe suffered a huge media backlash due to the high fees when using the card, which included a $100 activation fee.

They soon walked away from the credit card deal but this didn't stop them from continuing to build their empire. Any business leader will tell you that the key to success is failing and then trying again.

7 They Surround Themselves with Successful People

If you want to become successful, then surround yourself with successful people. Kim Kardashian upgraded from her ex-husband, Washington Wizards basketball player, Kris Humphries, for A-Lister Kanye West, whose best friends include Jay-Z and Beyoncé. She now rubs shoulders with Vogue editor Anna Wintour as she takes to the front row during Fashion Week thanks to her designer husband's connections.

At their previous family Christmas party, the guest list included Drake, Toni Braxton and Jennifer Lopez.

6 They Aren't Afraid to Aim High

Game studio, Glu Mobile, collaborated with Kim Kardashian for a new game called Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Nobody was quite sure if the world would play a game where they could mimic Kim's glitzy life in this role-playing adventure yet now it is recognized as one of the highest earning mobile games around. To date, the game has received 28 million downloads and 11 billion minutes have been played online. For Kim this was a triumph that netted her $85 million of the $200 million revenue.

Kendall also achieved the unthinkable when she entered into the notoriously difficult world of catwalk modelling. She made her debut in 2012 for designer Marc Jacobs and has since landed contracts with Chanel, Calvin Klein, Mango, Estée Lauder, Fendi, and Givenchy.

5 They are Taught the Value of Independence

Although Kylie is only 18-years-old, she has already become a multi-millionaire with a net worth of $5 million. She landed her first modelling gig in 2011 after walking the catwalk for Sears, she then became the ambassador for the brand, Nip + Fab, and launched her own cosmetic line: The Kylie Lip Kit by Kylie Jenner: Kylie Cosmetics - we get it, it's all about Kylie.

Her success came from her mother cutting her off from a young age. To a rich teenager being "cut off" means their mega-loaded parents no longer pay for their credit cards so they have to go out and get *gasp* an actual job. Kylie revealed, "My mum cut me off three years ago. So I buy everything - food, clothes, gas, the lot."

4 They Use Their Leverage Like No Other Family

Kris Jenner encouraged Kim to use her sex tape with ex-boyfriend rapper Ray J as leverage to gain as much as possible and boy did it pay off. She settled with Vivid Entertainment for a $5 million payout but that was just the beginning.

She used her sex tape to expand on her social media following, she then used social media to gain media attention, the media turned her into a celebrity, her celebrity landed her a TV show, the TV show turned her family name into a brand, and that brand gained sponsorships worth millions.

Nobody can say anyone quite beats this family when it comes to monetizing fame. Kim made $53 million in 2015 alone, almost double from 2014's take-home of $28 million. Not bad for someone who started out as Paris Hilton's personal wardrobe organiser.

3 They Always Move Ahead with the Times

When the first episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians aired in 2007 there was no such thing as an app store until a year later. Fast forward nine years, you can download all their apps for free - then a monthly subscription fee of $2.99, which Kylie told E! was “not a big deal.”

With four star ratings for the apps it appears it really is what the fans want from the sisters. If you haven't already downloaded their apps then you would have missed out on Kourtney's video tutorial: "Kourt - 6 Steps To Eating A Kit Kat," which she commented, "It's how to eat a Kit Kat… and it's pretty life-changing" and Kendall sharing photos of cute animals including a baby otter. See, it's not all makeup and fashion in their world.

2 They Know How to Keep People Hooked

Kris Jenner revealed to Giuliana Rancic on an episode of Beyond Candid With Giuliana! that, as soon as Keeping Up With The Kardashians became boring, her daughters started to pop out the babies. She gloated, "Always making more babies, always another story."

Fans weren't sure if they were ever going to get an appearance from Kim's only daughter, North West, on the show as strict father, Kanye, may have been against it. Yet after a patient wait, aged 22-months-old, North made her debut appearance in 2015 appearing in a cameo in Kanye's "Only One" music video which was featured on the show.

Alongside Kourtney and Scott's adorable brood, Mason (6), Penelope (3) and Reign (14 months), the ratings were saved from a severe drop in numbers, as fans tuned in to see these cute families together.

1 They Know All Press is Good Press

In 2011, it was almost over for the Kardashian clan when a petition started online at BoycottKim.com attracted over 160,000 signatures. The founder of the petition wrote online, "Never before has an individual who made a sex tape, with no talents received so much attention."

The public backlash followed Kim's divorce to Kris Humphries after just 72 days of marriage with fans branding her a "fake" and the wedding a "publicity stunt." The family received hate mail and haters began to cry out for a boycott of any Kardashian product.

Then there was the constant media attention from the vicious tweets exchanged between Khloe and Kanye West's ex-fiancée, Amber Rose. Even the younger siblings were not safe. Kylie received a huge fan backlash last year when she appeared in a wheelchair wearing stilettos and a corset on the front cover of Interview magazine.

It does often feel as though no matter what day of the year it is, the Kardashian/Jenner clan are getting a bad rep. How do they deal with it? Just forget about the haters and continue to make big money from being the most talked about family in the world.