The creator economy refers to the independent creators who are creating content, building community, and influencing the public like bloggers, video creators, writers, influencers, and community managers.
Whether you want to learn or entertain yourself there is something available for you and every day thousands of creators are starting their content journey.
The streaming revolution is changing the way of consuming devices, in the past, we are stuck with the choices of a few media houses or brands but now 50 million+ creators are creating content for every type of audience.
A girl living in the middle east can make her worldwide audience. No matter what you know you can come online and start creating whatever you want.
Covid19 gives a boost to the creator economy, people using social media for learning everything like cooking, financing, technology, hairdressing, and all.
Table of Contents
How creator economy is taking the charge
Now every brand is want to collaborate with the creators because they influence the audience. Audience who will be the potential buyers of the brands.
| There are now over 50 million content creators. (Credit: SIGNALFIRE.COM) |
Whether it’s a product or service brands have to go and collaborate with the creators of their niche. This is not an old era where a brand deals with superstar sportsmen or actors.
Now buyers are trusting internet influencers more than the big stars because of the content and the relationship that creators are making with their audience.
Rise of middle-class creators?
Middle-class creators are those people who create content for people who have low pockets.
In the beginning, Only rich and upper-middle-class people had access to the internet, high data charges and costly devices have the major reason for this.
Due to this, we saw that most of the content available on the internet is related to rich or upper-middle-class communities.
I still remember when the internet comes, there is no content available in the regional languages, all internet is surrounded by English.
But after the Jio revolution in countries like India, internet charges come down and 4G-enabled devices are available at very affordable rates.
When all of this happened we saw the boom in the video revolution in India. YouTube became the favorite destination for every internet user.
After the Jio revolution, more creators from small towns and villages of India are started coming online for making video content.
Video content is easy to consume but hard to create. Yes creating high-quality video content is not as easy as it looks but TikTok changed this thing.
The rise of middle-class creators makes the internet more friendly for the people of low pockets. Reviews of small things, affordable mobile phones, content in regional languages are becoming the new trend.
Videos in regional languages are now coming on the YouTube trending page. More consumers are now being familiar with the use of eCommerce just because of video marketing done by the brands.
TikTok and short Video war
When YouTube and Facebook were fighting for the video content, a new Chinese player, Musical.ly enters into the battle with a whole new concept of 30-second video or short video.
| TikTok and short Video war (Credit: Ivan Samkov on pixel) |
Musical.ly now rebranded as TikTok is changed the concept of making and consuming video content. As I mentioned earlier that it was not as easy to create video content but TikTok makes it easy.
Making 30 second or 60-second videos is easier than creating long videos and TikTok is more mobile-friendly than any other app.
With TikTok, anyone can be a creator you don’t have to purchase a fancy camera setup and don’t have to do difficult editing for video this thing encourages more people to come online and start making videos.
Now a taxi driver or mechanic can create entertainment or any type of videos and they will start making handsome money or can be TikTok stars.
Riyaz a teenager living in Bhutan start making videos on TikTok and now he is doing music videos with leading stars.
This is the power of creating content online.
After seeing the rise of short videos, Instagram and YouTube started their own ventures like YouTube shorts and Instagram reels.
This is just a beginning
If you are someone who is thinking that we are seeing the peak of the creator economy so you may be wrong because this is just beginning.
| This is just a beginning (Credit:cbinsights.com) |
Now 6 out of 10 students in the United States want to be a social media influencer, Not only in the US, in the middle east, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, China all over the world the z generation creators are coming for booming the creator economy on another level.
Creator Economy is giving dream jobs
In the early days, people had to do traditional work like going to shop or office, and they can’t follow their passion.
Your favorite thing like singing, dancing, or writing may be your hobby but you can’t make the money out of it for making money you have to stick with your traditional jobs.
Only a few people like actors, singers, dancers star chefs who can pursue their hobby in the mainstream can create money out of it.
| Creator Economy is giving dream jobs (Credit: Andrea Piacquadio on pixel) |
But in the ear of the creator economy, you can turn your passion into your business. Just start making content, content which solves the problem and provides value to the audience and you will see that you are making money by following your passion.
In the early 2000, no one can believe that a Youtuber like PewDiePie can make money. The type of content PewDiePie and other creators are making maybe not be liked by the mainstream audience but there is an audience available on the internet who may love what you are doing, who may follow you and influenced by you.
No matter you are living in the United States, the middle east, or the remotest area of Africa. The only thing that matters is how your content is making a true relationship with your audience.
Why Creator Economy is trending
Till now most people use social media for consuming content but they realize that they can also be creators and can make money out of it.
| Why Creator Economy is trending (Credit: stripe.com) |
They can leave their boring jobs and can start doing what they love so all these factors are encouraging them to come online and start creating the content.
This has huge opportunities
Over 4 billion people are using social media and only a few creators are making content right now.
Short videos, apps like TikTok, Instagram reels, and YouTube shorts are enabling in-app edit features.
Creating content is being easy than earlier. You can reach millions of people with just 1 viral video.
Everyone has their own type of audience. comedy, finance, politics, drama, music, dance, or whatever you want to create there is someone who will come and watch you.
So the opportunities are really high in the creator economy.
The money is here
Social media influencers are earning well by following their passion. Brands want to connect with them, the subscription model is also there, influencers can start selling their products or service to the audience.
As the audience loves creators every brand wants to collaborate with them and niche-specific creators have very high demand because they easily promote the product or service to the relevant audience.
The subscription-based model is creating new rights and the audience is ready to subscribe to watch their favorite creators.
How to be a part of the creator economy
So now you are being excited by seeing the huge opportunities of the creator economy and want to be part of it.
It is easy but not that easy. Yes, you can be a part of the creator economy by starting making content or by helping creators to reach their audience.
But every business has the same rules. You have to be a passionate, dedicated, consistent, learner for getting success in the ear of this creator economy.
Ways to earn money as a creator
Money is a thing that is essential and gives the motivation to do more. By being a creator you can start making money by following different things.
Ad Monetization
This is the most popular way if you are creating content on YouTube or writing a blog. Google Adsense, media.net is a very popular platform for monetizing your content via ads.
You can earn a handsome amount of money when your audience comes to your page and view the ads. This will not affect your content too much and it’s very easy to get qualified for getting ads for the platform.
Affiliate Marketing
One of the oldest and trusted methods to make money online. Any product which you love you can start making content around that product or service and refer your audience to buying it. You will get a very good amount of commission for referring the buyers.
You can start from amazon and even do a direct contract with the brand for affiliate marketing.
Brand collaboration
When your content starts trending, brands related to your niche and even out of your niche will come and want to collaborate with you for promoting their product or service.
But remember don’t take every brand onboard because the audience is the king. If any product or service is not fitting on your umbrella of content don’t go with them.
The audience doesn’t love those creators who blindly promote the brands. So choose the deal wisely always thinks about your audience and always care for the audience.
Subscription
This is my favorite way of earning money online. You can start making money from your subscribers. Subscriptions who will pay for consuming your content.
YouTube has the feature of giving support to creators by paying them money even Instagram is launching the same. Apps like Substack proving a platform for writers where they can create content for their audience.
A subscription helps you to build a community that really cares about you. Who knows you.
The subscription model gives freedom to creators to create content for the benefit of their audience not for the brand.
Modern age journalists and reporters are using this model because of the biased media by the corporate.
The subscription model has a very bright future because the audience wants fair content to consume not what is influenced by the big corporate houses.
Creator focused startups
Creators need new-age technologies to grow online. Platforms like YouTube, Instagram have their own limitations, policies and so many restrictions.
So for solving these problems startups like a ghost, medium, Substack, Animoto, Anchor are helping creators to create content and start building relationships with their audience.
You just need 500 true fans for making the deal
Kelvin Kelly mentioned in his article 1,000 True Fans that you just need 1000 true fans but I am reducing this number to 500. You just need 500 true fans for creating money online.
You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients, or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only thousands of true fans.
Fans who love to subscribe to your content, who promotes you and makes you a star, and give you a sense of satisfaction.
kpop entertainment was not very popular but their quality and fan’s promotion makes the viral and now everyone knows them. Startups who are running their social media accounts with user-generated content are making more money than regular ones.
So you just need a few true fans and you will see the magic of your community.
Podcasting is touching new heights.
Podcasting is audio-focused content, where anyone can make content by recording voice and anyone can consume it easily as it requires less attention and consumer can do their work as exercise, driving, or traveling while listing to the podcasts or audiobooks.
| Podcasting is touching new heights. (Credit: thepodcasthost.com) |
Awareness about the podcasts are increasing rapidly after the pandemic and more and more audience is coming to listen to podcasts.
Live audio conversations are reviving radio again
In the radio era, people just listen to the thoughts of the speakers but in live audio conversation you can directly talk with the speaker or can ask questions.
These rooms are being very popular among creators who want a live audience experience like singers and journalists.
Just a beginning
This is just the beginning of the creator economy, a lot of innovation will come and makes its own impact in the creator economy.
Big corporate houses always want to keep creators under their umbrella of influence so the normal audience just follows the trends set by the corporate but the era of web3 will encourage people to become an independent brands and more decentralization will take the place of centralized internet.
We will see more products and services focused on the creators which will solve and make it easy to create content online and monetize it most easily.
When we see a creator economy it’s contents every user who has some talent and want to showcase it with the lowest resources which he has.
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Yes, It is.