Out of the 50 million people who identify as a “content creator,” according to a study from Influencer Marketing Hub, only approximately 4% — or 2 million — term themselves “professionals.” This means that their content creator businesses are their full-time jobs. For everyone else, being a content creator is something squeezed in around one’s day job, dreaming of being able to dedicate all his/her time to it.
Success as a Content Creator
It is an uphill struggle sometimes, and there is a huge gap between the struggling majority and the few content creator multi-millionaires featured in the media. In 2017, just 2% of creators on Patreon made the federal minimum wage of $1,160 per month, while Substack’s top 10 creators earned over $7 million total, over the course of the year. Even among professional creators, only 43% — under half — make a livable wage of $50,000 per year, according to Influencer Marketing Hub’s data.
Despite that doom and gloom, there is good news. As with any viable business, you grow your content creation brand if you plan carefully and strategically. To that end, here are five tips for shifting your content creation business up a gear in 2022.
Content Creator Tips
1. Monetize Your Most Engaged Audience
Your biggest fans might not afford to pay you a living wage out of kindness, but they are delighted to make small donations, and those small amounts add up. Back in 2008, tech writer Kevin Kelly floated this idea when he said that any artist makes a living as long as he/she has 1,000 true fans that spend $100 annually for their work.
Take sports journalist Craig Morgan, for example. He lost his job at The Athletic in 2020, and started a newsletter through Substack, charging $5 per month. Now he reaches over 1,000 subscribers, and earns a salary similar to his old one.
The easier you make it for your engaged followers to support you, the faster you reach a livable wage. Try the Lightricks Link in Bio tool, which lets you add a tip jar to your social bio link landing page so you monetize your true fans. Use the built-in templates and easy editing tools, and make the page look awesome and consistent with your branding. Then invite people who love your content to make a donation.
2. Get Smart About Brand Collaboration
The fastest route to profitability is seeking out contracts with brands. Over three-quarters of creators depend on brand deals, the Influencer Marketing Hub report indicates, that is three times as many as every other revenue source combined.
Finding brand deals is not always easy. Top brands choose who they work with, so they select creators who have been in business the longest and/or have the biggest and most engaged following. In addition, they still frequently fail to appreciate the input of content creators, and this adds friction to the work itself and leaves many partners chasing payments month after month.
But brand collabs work for you if you do them right. Instead of chasing huge names that do not care about your contribution, look for mid-size brands that match your vibe and value your creativity. Smaller brands are delighted to tap into an engaged audience, and while the checks are smaller, they make a big difference to your income every month.
3. Nurture Your Audience
As the saying almost goes, it is not the size of your audience but what you do with it that counts. According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s report, there is a strong correlation between creator economy earnings and having a smaller, more engaged audience.
Creators with truly mammoth follower counts command the highest incomes. However, creators in the $100,000 – $500,000 per year bracket have a bigger average follower count (over 700,000) than the $500,000 – $1 million per year group (slightly under 400,000). The difference in average follower counts between the $50,000 – 100,000 a year earners and the $500,000 – $1 million a year earners is just 1,800 followers.
Why is there an earning curve? It is all about engagement. The more you cultivate your tribe as a tight community, engage with your customers one on one, and nurture personal connections, the more you earn. Also, that is regardless of how you monetize — through paid subscribers, donors to your tip jar, or brand sponsors, who care more about the clicks you deliver than the size of your crowd.
4. Go Exclusive
Look for more ways to offer exclusive experiences that forge a tighter relationship with your closest fans. This means rare merchandise, members-only events both online and in real life, and personalized interactions. Again, the connection represented by the product or event matters more than the product/event itself.
One way to streamline this is to sign up for Patreon Premium. This includes a program that effortlessly identifies the best products for your audiences, optimizes offers for the right tiers and frequency, and handles fulfillment, returns, and support on your behalf.
5. Slide into NFTs
NFTs are still new, but they are highly popular. Their demand is growing constantly, making this a great time to mint NFTs. It is still early enough in the game to be one leading the wave, and your followers are excited to be part of the new trend.
Use a platform like OpenSea to mint and sell tokens, or find a freelancer through Fiverr or Upwork that takes care of it for you.
Do not fret about what to offer specifically, as NFTs are literally all things. Paris Hilton sold a slightly wobbly NFT drawing of her cat. Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet, while Shawn Mendes sold an NFT of his signature vest. Your NFT can be a meme, digital art, an avatar, or anything else.
Let Your Content Creator Business Take Off
Making the leap from amateur to full-time professional content creator seems daunting, but with the right planning, it is within your grasp. Offer exclusive content, interactions, and products. Also, engage your followers, and choose the right brand partners. Finally, launch NFTs to make it easy for fans to support you, to broaden your revenue streams, and to step closer to your dream job.
