Posted by A lot of these blog articles will almost always talk about how things are changing with time, especially the usage of social media. One of the main reasons for the increase in usage of social media though is the evolution of the definition of work.
First comes the Traditional economy, where the employee has little to no autonomy in deciding their daily tasks at work. It’s mostly decided by the employer. Most people start off their careers this way before they decide they maybe want to try something different and more personal.
This brings us to the Gig economy. In the gig economy, people provide their services on an ad hoc basis. This may seem more flexible for the individual but then you’re still heavily dependent on someone to employ your services.
Then comes the Creator economy. This is where the increase in social media usage really helped individuals break bonds and go out on their own without relying on any employer. The 2 are practically co-dependant on one another, social media usage, and content creators.
The reason the creator economy grew so swiftly is that it allows people to create and produce content that is entirely their own and earn for their efforts. This is because the internet has been a huge help in bringing like-minded people together. Even if there are just 10 people that like or follow something, the internet is so vast, that you can be sure that you’ll be able to find them using a few relevant keywords.
This same growth is what has enabled creators to monetize their content and build up a steady stream of income for themselves. There are quite a few ways you can make money online as a creator. I’ll quickly list out a few here.
1. Memberships
You can create a membership program where, on purchasing a membership, the individual will get exclusive access to your content. You can also host contests for your members and provide them with various coupons and discounts.
If your content includes hosting meets or events, you can offer exclusive admission, discounts, or offline access to your members. It really is all up to you. 😀
But since this is a membership, you must remember to keep some free content available for non-members. A follower is a follower.
2. Subscriptions
If you feel like you can put a price on your product or service from the get-go, offering memberships will not make much sense. What you need to opt for is a subscription. There are 2 types of subscriptions. You can either put out a flat-rate subscription where an individual will get access to all your content on subscribing. Or if you feel like your content can be tiered then you can have a tiered subscription. Individuals can subscribe based on the prices and additional benefits they are willing to pay for.
3. Product or Service Sales
If you have a big enough fan following, you can create merchandise based on your content and sell them to your fans. You can make t-shirts, caps, mugs, device covers and so much more.
If your content is educational, you can also create and sell services like online courses, videos, webinars, and other digital downloads. This also includes health tips, financial tips, and more in the form of a book, or even a recipe book.
4. Brand Sponsorship
Based on the industry that your content caters to, even if it’s on a small scale, bigger brands will contact you or you can approach them for sponsorship campaigns. Within this partnership, you will either be required to create content or simply promote the ready content. You might even be asked to directly promote specific products or services. And yes, you guessed it. I’m basically describing an influencer collaboration.
5. Revenue Share
Based on the platform you use to create and share your content, you can also earn from revenue sharing or even ad-revenue sharing. This can range between bloggers on WordPress or Medium and filmmakers on YouTube or TikTok. For example, on Medium, you share the money that Medium earns on subscriptions with other popular bloggers. Or if you want to sell your merchandise on Etsy, you need to share with Etsy one of 3 things. The listing price, a transaction fee, or a subscription fee. Whatever amount remains after this can be kept for yourself.
With ad sharing, you get to keep a portion of the revenue made from the ad you share on or with your content!
6. Donations
Supporters, followers, and fans can financially support their favorite creators through donations. You can create a donation button on your site or page. Or you can use Patreon or other Crowdfunding sites like Buy Me a Coffee for your projects.
These methods to use your creative content to try and earn a living are what are going to pave the way for the creator economy in a Web3 world.
This brings me to what the future may hold for the creator economy.
The creation of the Metaverse will enable creators to develop parts of it and make that their own platform and earn profits without having to revenue share with host platforms. The companies behind social platforms may currently own the content shared on them but in the future, it’s highly possible for creators to make, own and govern the platforms and all the content that gets published on them.
NFTs or non-fungible tokens are going to be the next big thing in the future of the creator economy. These are unique digital assets that can be bought or sold with cryptocurrency. They can be anything like music, paintings, videos, photographs, memorabilia, or even metaverse avatars or land.
Influencer marketing will be taken to a whole new level and become much more important. This will also lead to a rise in the demand for content creation tools. Brands that have been created by these influencers will get more popular as well.
This of course comes with some challenges. The most obvious one is creating original content. There is constant pressure on influencers and content creators to come up with original and unique content. The only time you’ll get some relief as a creator is by hopping on to a trend that’s already topping the charts. Just make sure it’s relevant to the kind of content you usually post.
Another challenge would be for current hosting platforms to maintain some uniformity when it comes to monetization methods. It really helps to have simple solutions that benefit both the platform and the creator.