Many people are leaving traditional jobs to pursue a career based on content creation. If the Passion Economy was about doing what you love, the Creator Economy allows you just to talk about it.
Distraction is around the corner
Nowadays reading a book is more difficult than ever. Especially if the book is paperless. We are distracted by platforms. Our attention span is consumed by short content. And if you are a brand, getting your customers' attention is getting harder and harder. Trying to get people to look at paid ads is difficult or perhaps impossible. In all this noise, the only way to overcome banner blindness is through content creators. This is why influencer marketing has become so popular in recent years. People tend to buy more from people they trust. Even if these people are online and don't know them personally.
The rise of Solopreneurs
There’s a new character that emerged online. I’m talking about Solopreneurs. They are basically entrepreneurs running a one person business. They leverage on media to promote their companies online. They also leverage on automation and when they can’t, they rely on contractors. Many of them had traditional jobs, until when they started publishing content online. They don't have to be full-time creators, they can also participate in the content game part-time. One thing is sure: they benefit by sharing their business online.
Content-Market Fit
If you think it is easy to make money through content creation, this is not entirely wrong. If you had to be famous before to make money from your online presence, it is now possible to get paid by building a niche micro community. The only thing you need is to find the fewest number of people who share similar ideas to yours.
It's called content-market fit. The formula is simple:
content you want to make + audience that wants to watch + industry that will fund it
From large social networks to micro communities
Networking has always been something physical. You had to get out of your comfort zone, meet new people, attend events, engage... that's a lot of effort. Fortunately, media platforms have changed the game a bit. Publishing content online makes you findable by people like you. You bring like-minded people together under your posts. Real people who share similar ideas and thoughts. So all you have to do is post on topics you love and share your way of thinking.
Superfans
The concept of superfans, or true fans, was introduced in 2008 with an essay written by Kevin Kelley, founder of Wired magazine. The idea was that 1,000 true fans are enough to sustain your passion. If you find 1,000 people buying everything you produce, you don't have to worry. Creators, as well as companies, can benefit from word of mouth and organic growth driven by their true fans. It’s really interesting to see how well this concept applies to the Creator Economy, even though it has been written before.
Audience monetisation
The Creator Economy has evolved and now we have many ways to sustain through content creation.
Platforms rewarding creators are the new normal.
Youtube was one of the first to reward its creators with ad money. For all the annoying ads you see, youtubers get a small percentage. Earnings are based on CPM (cost per mille) and can depend on the country and industry in which you operate. Now Tiktok and Twitter are doing the same. Many gig economy workers in Southeast Asia now rely more on Tiktok's money than on their real jobs.
Brand deals offer an alternative
Something complementary to money from platforms. It is the evolution of product placement in movies. As mentioned in the beginning, people tend to buy from who they follow and trust. This led to influencer marketing. There are many agencies specializing in this field that act as intermediaries between creators and brands. In this way, creators don’t have to deal with brand relationships and can focus on content. Companies such as Nord Security (Nord VPN) or Daniel Wellington made their fortune by investing hundreds of millions of dollars to sponsor influencers.
Subscriptions to reward your favorite creators
Patreon was one the first startups in the Creator Economy. By subscribing, you support the creator with recurring income and in return receive more than just free content. It can be a closed community or the creator answering your questions. It also means exclusive content for those who pay. Substack adapted this model to its business allowing a lot of people to write for a living. Onlyfans does the same for adult content. They also offer the possibility for fans to ask requests and creators are paid to fulfill their wishes.
Selling digital products, even when you sleep
Platforms such as Gumroad offer the opportunity to sell digital products online. Creators can make valuable products by working on them once and potentially selling them endlessly. These products can be templates or even training courses, which often come with a high price tag.
Fan interactions to bond with Creators
They happen often during live streamings, as a way for fans to interact more with your favorite creators. Other than subscriptions, Twitch allows users to donate to their favorite accounts in order to engage with them. TikTok is doing something similar. That's why interactions often account for a large chunk of streamers' earnings.
Social commerce and Live Shopping
This phenomenon will spread more and more as social media platforms turn into marketplaces. Influencers will post their outfit photos, with direct links to their clothing, so that fans can buy and dress like them. It will be normal to scroll through short form content and see products in the video that can be purchased without friction, in seconds. In Asia, the concept of live shopping is already a reality.
How to manage huge cash flows if banks don't trust you?
Creators need credit cards. The problem, however, is that since they don’t have a traditional job and a fixed income, banks don’t trust them. From this idea was born Karat, a startup that provides credit cards to creators. They position themselves as a fintech, rather than a traditional bank. The company's awareness grew quickly taking advantage from the creators exposure and providing them with a useful service.
Creators are the new media companies
When you get all that exposure and build a community on top of that, you can do anything (even a Private Equity firm if you are Kim Kardashian). Some of them are leveraging that media power, to build their own brands. I’m not talking about personal brands but real businesses. Companies that are growing fast, even faster than some startups, and that people trust more than actual brands. Younger generations tend to trust these brands because they recognize the authenticity of the creators. Today the ones that dominate the creator brand market are PRIME by KSI and Logan Paul and Feastables by Mr. Beast. These brands grow fast due to the speed of their founders, striking sponsor deals with soccer teams or ending up projected on the Burj Khalifa like Kylie Jenner.
Mr Beast is a Unicorn
Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, is one of the most hype youtubers of the moment. Last year he was seeking $150 million from investors to expand his business. That would give a valuation of $1.5 billion making him a unicorn startup. This shows that creators are building the next billion-dollar businesses and there is no one to stop them. More and more creators will leverage their brand and the community they have created to launch their businesses.
Less effort, more distribution
Many creators mastered the art of distributing their content through different platforms and formats. How? Unpacking content like matryoshkas.
Imagine producing a youtube 10 min video.
You can extract highlights to create short form content for Youtube, Instagram and TikTok.
You can then write an article about the central idea of the video and publish that on a blog or send it through a newsletter.
You can summarize those ideas into social media posts for Meta, Instagram or LinkedIn.
Eventually you can distill your thoughts into tweets or threads on X (Twitter).
AI as a powerful companion
Some creators have begun using AI tools to brainstorm new ideas, create video thumbnails, or better define their social media strategy. It can be used as a powerful tool to simplify their work. Some have already started using AI-powered voice translation to translate their videos into other languages. This helps them potentially reach more people and expand their market. Spotify introduced the same feature on their platform so that creators can translate their podcasts. I’m curious to see what’s next.I don't think creators will be replaced by AI, but it will depend more on the ability of the individual to adapt to this change.
Collateral effects
To thrive as creators in the age of social media, you need to be present. Constantly present. You must show up often and post your content. Consistency in posting is often rewarded with increased visibility. The algorithm pushes creators to post every day so as not to lose momentum. Creators who like to do high-quality work are therefore demotivated and are at a crossroads. On the one hand, increasing the quantity of their content while sacrificing quality, and on the other hand, going all in on quality and risking not being seen by their followers. Many feel the pressure and stop doing what they are passionate about. Others end up being victims of the algorithm, risking burnout.
For those who are curious
1000 true fans by Kevin Kelly