Become A Creator: 4 Tips To Help You Join The Booming Creator Economy

In a recent writers’ group meeting, we discussed the creator economy. If you’re wondering what that might be, here’s SignalFire’s take:

… (the creator economy is) defined as the class of businesses built by over 50 million independent content creators, curators, and community builders…

(SignalFire’s article is worth reading in its entirety.)

Wow, 50 million creators around the world. SignalFire goes on to say that it’s the fastest-growing type of small business.

What are you creating?

Create: the creator economy is valued at over 100 billion dollars

According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s PDF:

We estimate the total Creator Economy market size to be around $104.2 Billion

Also from the PDF:

Of the surveyed Creators that considered themselves full time Creators, ie. content creation is their main source of income – 78% make more than $23,500 annually

Of course, since we’re a writers’ group, our members are heavily into self-publishing, blogging, and social media. It seems we’re part of a movement too.

We spent the entire meeting chatting about creating and promoting our creations. I jotted down tips which were useful to me; you may find them useful too.

Here they are.

1. Creators are in business

That was my biggest takeaway: we’re in business, and business is booming.

As a writers’ group, we’re mostly into self-publishing. However, a couple of members are exploring other options. One member is developing a cookbook. She and her partner are focused on setting up a YouTube cooking channel to build a community before she shops her cookbook to agents and publishers.

She said: “It’s challenging, there’s a lot to learn about creating videos. We’ve only got a tiny kitchen. We’re testing to get the lighting right.”

2. Build a community around your creations

According to the SignalFire article, of the 50 million active content creators, some two million are making content full-time. YouTube and Instagram are the most popular channels for creators to promote and build community.

However, be aware of other channels to market and promote your creations. It’s always risky handing your business to a third party, whether that’s YouTube, Amazon, or any other network.

Many of our group are selling their self-published books via social media, and are selling their books from their own websites.

3. Consider collaborating with other creators, even in small ways

One author is collaborating with a graphic designer. They’re developing a children’s book, and are looking for a publisher. He said: “I know getting a publisher is a big challenge. If we have to, we’ll invest the money so we can publish hard copies via print on demand.”

Several other members collaborate with designers for book covers. Two are collaborating to build apps.

4. Explore your creativity: build something new, even if it’s scary

“Push through the fear,” an author suggested. “We’re all scared. My partner is on board, although he worries. Sometimes I think I’m investing too much time, and should be getting a second job, but he reassures me.”

“Trust yourself,” one said. “I was scared witness when I hit Publish on my first ebook. Then again, when I started promoting a photography course for a friend.”

If you’re considering becoming a creator, it’s exciting to realize that many others are creating too.

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