The creator economy is comprised of people who attract an audience to build a business. Thanks to the rise of digital media and tools, such as creator coins, there are several ways to get this done. Give people valuable reasons to know, like, and trust you, over and over, and you’ll cultivate the ideal customer base. 
Then, monetize away by giving the people what they want. From authentic recommendations to online courses, virtual communities, and other digital products that solve their pain points and challenges, you’re in business.

The Promise Of The Creator Economy

Building a community of like-minded people by sharing highly relevant information is the primary path of the content entrepreneur.What worked at the dawn of the Web 2.0 blogging revolution in the mid-2000s holds to this day: when you provide free, valuable content on a topic in which you have expertise and authority, and share it liberally to empower others, you’ll attract an engaged audience.Over time, through affinity content, that audience will become your core community of not just fans but paying customers.

The Content Entrepreneur

You want to be sure people can find your fantastic content in the first place. So, in addition to making sure you’re following SEO best practices (which tends to be a long-ball strategy), you’ll also want to promote your content on search engines and social platforms organically and through paid advertising and promotion.It makes sense to build relationships with publishers in your niche by guest posting and otherwise helping them build their audiences (which you can then “borrow”).

Leaving Crumbs For Your Fans

While creating fresh, unique work (i.e., articles, ebooks, music, art, etc.) is one way to provide value to your audience, hand-selecting content that will interest and engage them can be equally as effective. And it’s also an excellent way to create recurring revenue over time.

The Stuff You Put Out

The Holy Grail for content entrepreneurs is audience monetization. Indeed, it’s why we’re talking about a creator economy — the financial opportunities are abundant.Audience monetization happens after you’ve built a rapport with your followers and offer them enough value that they want to buy from you and/or support your creative endeavours.

Monetizing Audience

<ul><li>Creating and selling physical or digital products </li><li>Productizing a service </li><li>Offering memberships or subscriptions (i.e., Copyblogger Academy)</li><li>Running native advertising on your site or newsletter</li><li>Becoming an affiliate</li><li>Hosting events (IRL or virtual)</li><li>Putting premium content behind a paywall</li><li>Providing consulting and/or speaking services</li><li>Giving your audience ways to tip or donate </li></ul>

Ways Of Audience Monetization

When it comes to the creator economy, there are riches in the niches. It’s no wonder, then, that an enormous amount of platforms have cropped up to help the creator class create content, cultivate community, and cash in on their audience.  Not only could these Silicon Valley-driven solutions use some copywriting help, but the thing they’re making easy is for them to line their pockets with the proceeds of your hard work.

You Are The King

Once you’ve built it and people have come, how do you keep them returning for more? Create a vibrant community, and you’ve got one of the more successful and sustainable business models in the creators’ market.That means taking your social media show on the road over to media that you own.So, while it’s fine to start out on community-oriented platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest, savvy media creators use content marketing strategies to drive traffic to their own platforms.

Create A Community

<ul><li>Writers: Medium, Substack, Wattpad</li><li>Podcasters: Acast, Buzzsprout, Podbean</li><li>Gamers: Epic Games, Discord, Roblox</li><li>Livestreamers: Twitch, Loots, Streamyard</li><li>Musicians: StageIt, Kobalt Music, BeatStars</li><li>Online course creators: Teachable, Kajabi, Thinkific</li><li>Fitness instructors: Salut, Mindbody, Strydal </li></ul>

Popular Tools To Use

<ul><li>There are all sorts of participants in the creator economy that are there to help the creator class on their road to success, including:</li><li>Merch and eCommerce tools like 99designs, Big Cartel, and Shopify</li><li>Marketing and management tools, such as ConvertKit, Memberful, and Clout Jam</li><li>Patronage and tipping tools, such as Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee, and Ko-fi</li><li>Financial processing tools, including Stripe and Plaid</li><li>Bespoke financial/crypto tools, like Karat and Rally.io (ICYMI, here’s more on how creator coins empower content entrepreneurs and their customers.)</li></ul>

Building A Digital Business

The creator economy gets its juice from the personalities that attract and build audiences. This fuels a trend of creators wanting more ownership over their communities and, ultimately, their earnings.So, for example, more and more influencers are creating their own ecosystems with personal websites, apps, and even currencies. In other words, successful creators aren’t just making content — they’re founders of their own personal brand.

The Power In The Creators Hands

The creator economy is vast, and its implications go well beyond its $104(+) billion size today. According to a recent report from Influencer Marketing Hub, the growth trajectory of the creator economy is similar to the gig economy (mostly on Upwork and Fiverr), which means a future valuation in the trillions of dollars.This is good news for everyone in the space — not just brand-name influencers.

The Size Of The Creator Economy

Even though the creator economy has been around for the last couple of decades — since the dawn of Web 2.0 and the rise of user-generated content and social media — its economic impact has only become apparent in the last few years.In 2021 alone, according to CBInsights, there’s been a record-setting $1.3 billion funding for creator economy startups.

The Investors

Only a few rarified name-brand influencers are at the top of the feeding chain. The rest makes up a vast middle of the creator class who work hard to even cover their costs. This can make creating digital content feel like “gig work.”While that’s less glamorous than the perceived life of the megawatt influencer, that doesn’t mean you can’t make a decent living as a creator.  Nearly 50% of creators who have been building their audiences for four or more years earn more than $20k across all of their monetized channels.

The Hungry Middle-Class Creators

There are numerous opportunities in the creator economy as long as you’re willing to work hard and diversify your revenue sources. Early on in the creator economy, ad revenue sharing was a primary way for creators to earn money. But then platforms like YouTube changed their policies and demonetized some ad-sharing opportunities for creators.Today ad revenue is still a part of the mix — and a desirable one as it’s passive income — but savvy creators are careful not to rely on it alone.

The Opportunities

Nowadays, sponsored content is one of the primary opportunities in the influencer economy. Don’t be afraid of that terminology — content creators with influence at all levels are being tapped for participation in everything from sponsored posts to product placement and shout-outs.That’s because “nano” (i.e., less than 5k followers on Instagram) and “micro” content creators (i.e., 100k followers or less) provide higher levels of engagement and conversions than those at the mega-influencer level.

A Thousand Followers

All you need to do is create, cultivate, and nurture your direct connection to your fanbase. This is where selling things like merch, digital products, premium content, books/eBooks, fan engagement, coaching/consulting, and speaking services comes in.

Grow Your Fanbase

Influencer Marketing Hub <a href="https://influencermarketinghub.com/creator-earnings-benchmark-report/">found there isn’t a definite correlation between follower count and income</a>. In fact, the difference in the number of followers for influencers who earn between $50-100k and those who make $500k-1M is only around 1.8K people — despite an earnings difference of $500k(+).The more people learn to advocate for themselves — and decide to create and grow channels that foster a direct connection to their fans on media they own — the better.

The Disparities

Where we’re going from here has only been accelerated in our post-pandemic world. People have more eagerly adapted to digital life, which, in turn, has given content creators a boost and the communities they serve more to enjoy.  We now have:<ul><li>More options to diversify revenue streams</li><li>Increased channels for creators and fans to connect</li><li>Greater direct support from audience members</li><li>Less reliance on social media giants </li><li>A more symbiotic relationship between creators and their audiences — with no intermediaries</li></ul>

The Future

Web 3.0 makes all of this possible — and it’s where things get really interesting. A decentralized digital world is where the power shifts to the creator and their communities.Soon, we’ll see a creator economy that’s not one big blob but rather a collection of micro-economies fueled by cryptocurrency where all participants (creators, audience members) gain and retain ownership.

Web Version Three

A must read stash on the Creator Economy.

“Do what you love, and the money will follow” isn’t just an appealing adage — it’s the core promise of the creator economy.

Stashed ideas

The Creator Economy: Audience, Community, and Commerce

Today, consumers crave authenticity from brands, and user-generated content (UGC) is the best way to give them just that. This change in consumer behaviour is caused by the fact that people don’t trust advertisements like they used to do.
But not only that, people don’t trust content created by brands as much either. 76% of consumers say they’re more likely to trust content shared by “normal” people than by brands.

User-Generated Content

User-generated content is any piece of content (video, image, text, etc.) created by individuals and posted to social media. As the name implies, this is content created by users of a specific social media platform and not brands.UGC is nothing new. People have been posting about products and services since the beginning of platforms. That’s because it is a natural thing for people to do. Consumers naturally want to show, recommend, and talk about the products and things they like.

Defining User Generated Content

83% of consumers say word of mouth has an influence on their purchasing decisions. User-generated content is essentially online word of mouth. As a brand, consumers’ opinions matter and have more influence on purchasing decisions than what you might think.

The Need Of UGC

<ul><li>UGC(User Generated Content) is authentic and trustworthy, as it is not sponsored.</li><li>UGC drives brand awareness.</li><li>UGC gets more conversions.</li><li>It builds a loyal brand community.</li><li>It is cost-effective.</li></ul>

Benefits Of UGC

It would be great to have usable UGC organically and consistently, however, this will likely not happen on its own. If you are looking for a specific piece of content perfect for another marketing campaign, you might have a hard time. To encourage users to create UGC, you can: <ul><li>Create a contest where people have to submit pictures with the products</li><li>Create a social media challenge or hashtag</li><li>Ask for product reviews with images</li><li>Tell your followers to show you how they use your products</li></ul>

Getting UGC

The First step is to invite your customers and followers to represent your brand through the creation of UGC in exchange for exclusive rewards.This way, your biggest brand fans can become your brand ambassadors and create amazing content consistently that you can repurpose for other campaigns. You can then use the UGC in your website, social media accounts, paid adverts and promotional email.

Effective Ways To Increase UGC

Today, consumers crave authenticity from brands, and user-generated content (UGC) is the best way to give them just that. This change in consumer behavior

A Simple Guide to User-Generated Content

A landing page is a section of a website accessed by clicking a hyperlink on another web page, and much different from the website’s home page. The main difference is all in the focus of that page.
Your landing page should always be the first thing your customers see when they click on your URL. In short, landing pages are designed for conversion.

The Landing Page

This basically tells you the traffic of visitors converting into leads and accomplishing its true goal! Keep in mind, not every customer clicking on your landing page will take the CTA and move accordingly. Many will bounce while some may read your content and still choose to leave and or come back.

Landing Page Conversion

The average rate of landing page conversions is 9.7% and you can do this quick math as well! Take the number of people who converted, then divide that by the number of people who visited your page, and lastly multiply it by 100! This is important to note as you apply these tools to converting more of your customers through your landing pages.

Calculating The Conversion Rate

There are plenty of designs you may have and can use to attract your customers, however, blank or white space (also known as empty space or negative space) is the most underrated trick you’d have as a small business owner. This allows your page to look less cluttered along with: <ul><li>Increasing readability</li><li>Improving focus on the important elements</li><li>Providing a greater comprehension of your offer</li><li>Enhancing your customer's experience</li></ul>

Distraction-Free, Clean Layout

Provide realist and positive-driven emotional photos and see how quick of a conversion rate you’ll receive. Why? Because your audience can tell just as much as you can when a picture is fake. You want images that’ll draw your customers into what you’re offering. For all our product-based business owners, you’d want to make sure your product is the image. Whether that’s someone wearing it, eating it, wherever your product may fall in that category.

The Right Images

Call To Actions are amazing when used correctly and not overwhelming the customer. For your landing page to start creating the conversions you’re looking for, your CTA needs to be clear and concise. You want your CTA to be just that-a call of action, literally creating an urgency for that customer. Whether it’s having the customer fill out a form, grab an eBook, or any other action… Your designs, copy, colours, and everything must align for that CTA.

A Clear Call To Action

These are more direct and can be noticed a mile away on your site. A primary way to implement this is to add arrows pointing to the most important page elements, like your CTA for instance. Keep in mind, the arrows pointing to your CTA indicate that there’s more content beyond that page, it directs your customer right to it – at least it should. In addition to the arrows, you can always opt-in for a circle around your CTA and arrows leading up to it.

Visual Cues: Explicit

Many of us have heard the phrase, ‘wearing white makes everything look big’. Right? Well, turns out it’s the same with your landing page. With the white or empty space, it’ll draw the attention to the highlighted elements on the page, therefore the customers are forced to focus on them-this is how implicit visual cues pay off! With contrast of colours, between a dark background and white tone, help the customers to focus on what’ll look elevated to them.

Visual Cues: Implicit

Consider opting for a 1 minute video that’s straight to the point, impactful and presenting that urgency for your customers. These videos should speak of your target audience’s pain points and how your business through its service or product will solve them and provide that convenience.

Use Video

Having unique codes and extra incentives for your customers and their favourite products is a bonus many small and large businesses haven’t tapped into yet. No matter your business, you want to ensure in all areas you are servicing your customers and what they enjoy from your business.

Promo Codes and Special Offers

Building trust with your customers in order for a higher conversion rate can be accomplished through your logos, security badges and of course customer testimonials. Consider having an automated email sent out to each new and loyal customer once they make a purchase! Add a special personal touch so they will always feel a part of your VIP!

Tips and Tricks For Better Conversion

All about landing pages, CTAs and optimizing the conversion rate.

So… What is a landing page? A landing page is a section of a website accessed by clicking a hyperlink on another web page, and much different from the

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

#onlinemarketing

IDEAS ABOUT #onlinemarketing

The Creator Economy: Audience, Community, and Commerce

A Simple Guide to User-Generated Content

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!

Landing Pages 101: Improve Your Conversions With These 5 Tips

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

#onlinemarketing

IDEAS ABOUT #onlinemarketing

The Creator Economy: Audience, Community, and Commerce

A Simple Guide to User-Generated Content

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!

Landing Pages 101: Improve Your Conversions With These 5 Tips

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career