Unveiling the Creator Economy: Maximizing Earnings and Unleashing Creativity

Imagine transforming your creative spark into a sustainable livelihood where your passions fuel your income. That's the landscape we're exploring today as we unpack ConvertKit's 2024 State of the Creator Economy report, revealing the shifts and trends redefining content creation. You'll get a dose of inspiration and practical advice that could change how you approach your craft and, potentially, your earning potential. 

The financial landscape of the creator economy is rich and varied, with millennial creators leading the charge in earnings. But it's not just about the money but the joy of creating and sharing your work with the world. We dive into the heart of long-form content, particularly on platforms like YouTube, and discuss why it's gaining momentum. Plus, we tackle the exciting role of AI in repurposing content, ensuring every nugget of wisdom you share gets the audience it deserves—without sacrificing authenticity or relevance.

We round off this creative exploration by confronting the monetization maze. Hear from creators who have navigated the choppy waters of turning their passion projects into profitable ventures. From leveraging professional services to embracing digital products, the opportunities are endless. And suppose you're worried about balancing the creative with the commercial. In that case, this episode bursts with strategies and personal anecdotes to guide you toward financial success while keeping that creative flame alive. Join us as we celebrate the wins and address the challenges of thriving in the creator economy.

Take the "What’s Your Hidden Content Talent?" quiz and find out if you're an Idea Innovator, Engagement Expert, Tech Whiz, or Brand Builder today! Go to krystalproffitt.com/quiz now.

Click the "Send Krystal a Text Message" link above to send us your questions, comments, and feedback on the show! (Pssst...we'll do giveaways in upcoming episodes so make sure you leave your name & podcast title.)

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

One thing that I really love about being a creator is that it continuously evolves. This is not a journey that is like, oh, you get to the finish line and then that's the end of it. No, no, no, no. Since I've been doing this since 2018, so much has changed. So many things have changed. It's so much easier to get started as a creator, and the thing that I really love is having like a baseline for what other creators are experiencing, and one of the things that helps me do that is convert kits state of the creator economy. I did this video last year where I break down their entire report and you guessed it, I'm going to do it again. So I want to reflect back on the last 12 months, like what's happened, and we're also going to look ahead at the upcoming 12 months to see what are creators most excited about. And if you've been wondering, like, where can I get a peek behind the scenes to what other creators are experiencing? Well, that is exactly what we're going to talk about here today about. And if you've been wondering, like, where can I get a peek behind the scenes to what other creators are experiencing? Well, that is exactly what we're going to talk about here today. So let's get right to it.

Speaker 1: 1:12

Welcome to the Profit Podcast, where we teach you how to start, launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, crystal Profit, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today, because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time-saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we All right? Welcome back to the channel. If we have not met before. I am Crystal Prophet, I am a podcast coaching content strategist and I'm obsessed with ConvertKit. I know I say this all the time. They are actually sponsoring today's video and we are going to walk through the breakdown of their creator economy report because it is so fascinating.

Speaker 1: 2:00

I already said I did a report last year that I want you to go check out because so much has changed, like so much has changed, and you would think, oh, you know, there's not that much of a difference in just 12 months. Uh, yes, there is, in a great way, right. It's not like I'm coming here to be the Debbie Downer and saying, oh, you know, things are terrible. No, no, no, they just keep getting better for creators. So the first thing I want you to do is go to crystalprofitcom forward slash creator 24. And once you get there, you're going to be able to download this report and go check out everything for you.

Speaker 1: 2:37

But what I'm going to do is I'm going to walk you through the key things that you, as a podcaster, youtuber, content creator like however you are creating content and engaging with your audience. I'm going to go through the highlights of the most important aspects that I have seen for this community to really take in, and we're going to share some fun case studies that are inside the report. But I want you to go grab it for yourself. So go to crystalprofitcom forward slash creator24, all one word and make sure you go download it. But let's go to the computer and I'm actually gonna walk through the report with you, okay, so, like I said, go to crystalprofitcom forward slash creator24. And on this page, you can go all the way down and there's multiple places for you to put in your email address and then convert kit will send you the entire.

Speaker 1: 3:30

Uh, I mean, it's a huge document. It is a huge document that is so freaking helpful and it's beautifully designed, might I add. But I want you to grab this and throw it in your Google drive, like have it saved somewhere. That way you can actually use this. Okay, here's like behind the scenes tip. Okay, because people are always looking for great references.

Speaker 1: 3:51

I have referenced this in webinars, I have referenced this in podcast episodes. I have referenced this in YouTube videos. So if you're looking for great references, like strategic pieces where you can pull data from, like some quotes and some statistics, this is gonna be your backup. So go put in your email address, go get this downloaded and let's go to the actual report. So once you get it downloaded, like I said, it's so beautifully done, like can we just give a big shout out to ConvertKit's designers, because every time I find something that they do, it is just always so beautiful. It is so beautiful but, as you can see, it's 62 pages. I told you this thing is a monster. It is a big juicy document that's going to give you insights into other creators, and the thing that I love about this is they asked over a thousand creators to respond to this survey. So it's not like they just pulled like five friends that are creating YouTube content, just like them, or other podcasters that they met at a meetup. Like they actually pulled so many of us to see what's it like for you as a creator.

Speaker 1: 5:03

So we're going to skip through some of these first stages Cause, like I said, I want you to go download this and look at all of it in detail, comb through it multiple times, get your highlighter, print the thing out if you want, and be like Ooh, this is the thing that I want to share with my audience, but we're going to do just a high level overview of creators of 2024, the creative output, how much money we're making. We need to talk about money, right and then the future of the creator economy, along with the road to becoming a full-time creator. Creators are consistently optimistic. I have to say I totally agree with this and then some of the other key pieces that are mentioned at the back, but I want to skip down to some of the charts, because the creator economy is consistently women-led. Is this shocking to you? I want you to tell me in the comments if, at any point today in this video, you see something, because this was pretty exciting but also shocking to me.

Speaker 1: 6:03

I would not have guessed that 60% of people that are creating are women and they are making around $10,000. Some of them are making more, which I think is fantastic. Like, if you're in that camp of making more than $10,000 in your creator business, like, let me know in the comments if you're like Crystal, I'm going to have this year it's going to be my first six figure year, or this is going to be the first year that I break $5,000. Like, let us know in the comments, because I want to really get comfortable talking about money in the creator space, cause so many people get very uncomfortable talking about money, but it's one of those things that we just need to get more comfortable so we can share this information amongst ourselves, but also to greater audiences, so that we can really see what's going on. So it says, while this demographic split has been about the same every year, there's a positive trend in earning equality across the board in the creator economy. Since our first report in 2022, women were less likely than men to make over $1,000 a year. This year, though, there's an equal proportion of men and women earning six figures or more, which, again, is super fascinating, very exciting, especially for everyone that's just getting into creating content and you're like, I just don't know if this is for me. I hope that this really gives you that inspiration, motivation that you can do big things with your message as a creator.

Speaker 1: 7:35

All right, now let's hop down, because I want you to go read some of the testimonials that are in here, but I want you to look at these generational differences, which I find fascinating. So I myself am a millennial, right? I was born in 1986. I love Eliza. She's a comedian and she talks about she's an elder millennial. I think I fall into that camp and I just think it's so fun to see, like, well, who's actually out there creating. So it says Gen X is most likely to be a full-time creator, millennials are most likely to earn over 100K and Gen Z is most likely to run a side hustle. So it's pretty cool how you can categorize the different generations and the different just age ranges of people that are out there doing this, Because I've met people that are 16 year olds doing this. I've also met people that are in their 60s and 70s that are creators. So wherever you are in your stage of life, just know that it is possible for you to be a creator. So super fun.

Speaker 1: 8:41

Now let's hop down to some of the other statistics, because then it actually breaks it down by who is, like, the most likely to be in the game, but also who is making the money. Like, where's the money at? And, like I just said from the other stats, it's 23% of millennials are making over a hundred thousand000, which is awesome. But let's come on, let's get some of these other people that are in this under 10K. Let's get you some more money this year. Let's monetize your podcast. Let's monetize your YouTube content, find some sponsorships, but I really wanna encourage you to keep going wherever you are in your creator journey, because it is possible to make more money as a creator.

Speaker 1: 9:28

Now let's jump down to here. So it says bonus stats about creators. Now, this is always super fun. It says the 10 most common creator types in 2023. And that's something I really didn't talk about from the beginning. So we are reflecting on the past, like 12 months of whenever people answered this, so it may not be like today, like somebody answered this like 24 hours ago, and this is what 2024 creators are like.

Speaker 1: 9:55

It's a look back on what's changed, what are the trends that we're seeing today, and I have to say I think it's really exciting to see entrepreneurs as the 10 most common creator types, because it's who I serve, like I serve entrepreneurs, I serve business owners, and y'all are the ones coming to me and saying Crystal, I need help with my content marketing. I want to feel more confident in my podcast. I want to have better YouTube videos and show up with more just like Ooh, pizzazz in my YouTube content. Well, so many of you are really trending up higher in creating content as an entrepreneur and as a business owner. So if you're just now finding me and you're like Crystal, I'm the only one out there no, you're not. Look at this. All these people are already here, they're in the mix and they are creating content, and there's tons of room for you, too. All right, so let's go to the next one.

Speaker 1: 10:48

So, creators top priorities for 2023 and 2024 grow my income Like it's there. People are like I need me making money, whether they're trying to leave their full-time job or they're trying to just bring home more money for their business or for their family. That has been top of mind for so many creators. That's why I'm grateful to have partnered with ConvertKit to bring this information to you, because if you are trying to boost your income and you're like, gosh, do I just create another digital product? Do I create a membership? Do I need to create a low ticket offer? Do I need to find sponsors for my podcast? Like these are all great ideas, but let's like band together and get some of these monetization strategies out. That way, you can be strategic with how you're gonna make money with your creator content.

Speaker 1: 11:37

The second one is grow my audience. This is the camp that I currently find myself. Well, of course, grow my income is one of my goals. I actually know that. Growing my audience, especially my email list yes, I use convert kit Then that is just going to raise everything together, because whenever I grow my audience full of people that are interested in what I have to offer they want to know about my products and services then I can actually make that pitch to invite them to work with me in my coaching or my courses or purchase something that is going to be very beneficial and helpful to them.

Speaker 1: 12:16

So, totally agree, growing my audience, build a more engaged relationship with my audience. I feel like we already do that pretty well here at Profit Media, but it's one of those goals that I love to see that that is what people are trying to do. It's one of their top priorities and they're trying to figure out how do I make this work and just engaging with my audience, automate part of my business. I think that this is one of those that's really fun and like yeah, how can we make money on autopilot? Or how can we get people in the door and like really warm them up and make them feel welcome, and then expanding into a new platform, create new or additional products, collaborate with other creators and hire more team members. So very interesting top priorities. I totally agree with the first three. I think that those should be your number one priorities in 2024 and beyond, but I love that it's actually reflected in what people have to say.

Speaker 1: 13:11

So let's skip down to where was it? Where was the one I really wanted to show you? So, 2025 predictions so it says the continued rise of long form YouTube videos. Now I bet you're looking at this and you're like wait, crystal, I thought that we were all on the short form wagon. I thought that we were all obsessed with the five to 15 second sound bites of sharing these short social posts on YouTube shorts or Instagram or TikTok or wherever you're sharing your short videos. I love to see that people are still making long form content. I do? I mean? I look at the length of this video and I'm like, oh yeah, this is probably going to be a 20 to 30 minute conversation because we need to deep dive on all the nooks and crannies of this report, because it is that important and I would not be able to hit all of the important pieces and just a five to 15 second clip on Instagram. So I think that it's really important that you continue to make that long form content and I just love that. That's still how people are creating and producing and it is the prediction. The 2025 prediction is the continued rise of long form videos.

Speaker 1: 14:23

Now, long form doesn't mean you have to talk for 30 minutes into a camera all by yourself and it's like super weird and awkward. Long form can mean something that's over five minutes could be long form in some cases. Sometimes it's that 12 to 15 minute range, sometimes it's up to 20, 30, 45 minutes to five hours, like there are people out there creating that type of content. But when I think of long form, I think of something that is going to make someone sit down and pay attention or maybe, you know, look at what they're consuming instead of just popping in their earbuds and going on a walk like a podcast, but maybe it's something that they want to sit down and actually watch and consume and take it in that way. So so many fun things going on with the long form content.

Speaker 1: 15:12

Now, email is where to get the highest audience engagement. Could not agree more, could not agree more. And I think about when I talk to people about marketing and you know they want to, you know say, well, I should do this because so-and-so said, and I should try this shiny new object because it's the latest trend. I say, well, what do you do as a consumer? As a consumer, who are you most engaged with? What are the brands doing that you're most engaged with? Are they spamming you in your Instagram DMs? Are they sending you all these Facebook Instagram ads? Are they, you know, reaching out to you in some other platform? Or are you opening their emails because you're genuinely interested in what they have to say? For me, the brands that I know and love, I do. I get excited when I see an email from someone that I'm just like, oh my gosh, what are they going to say? Is it going to be an exclusive story, something that's spicy and they don't share on their podcast or they don't talk about it on their YouTube channel. It is just in their emails, and it's the reason why I opened them up.

Speaker 1: 16:20

Laura Bell Gray is a fantastic example of this. I love her emails. I love to get her emails. You just don't. It's a grab bag. You do not know what you're gonna get when you open up an email from Laura Belgray and she is actually someone that I have recommended on the Creator Network. So if you subscribe to my email list, you're gonna see like there's people that I recommend. She is one of those. So Laura Belgray from Talking Shrimp go check her out. She is fantastic. She is hilarious. I have met her in person and she's just the real deal when it comes to having engaging emails. And so if you're trying to figure out how do I do this, highly recommend go check her out because she is incredible. But look at this 27% say email is their top engagement. So I know that I get so much more back, even with a smaller list, when I send out an email newsletter, as opposed to me just posting on Instagram or Facebook or even on YouTube, like y'all are awesome. You're fantastic about getting in the comments. Let me know what you think. But whenever I ask people to reply to an email, I get so much more engagement and so much more interaction with my audience that way and I still think it's going to continue to be something that we see in the future. So, absolutely, email list for the win all the way around. List for the win all the way around.

Speaker 1: 17:48

Okay, so let's jump down here and it says convert kit creators sent 902 emails every second in 2023. That's pretty wild, right? 902 emails every second. Can you imagine, like, if you sat down and imagine how many like people like could, could have been like on a typewriter sending like a telegram back in the day? 902, they're sending like all these things and they're just like you know, typing and it's all loud and noisy and crazy Like, oh my gosh. And it says, for a frame reference in 2021, convert kit creator sent 530 emails every second. That's a 70% increase in sending volume in just three years. We love ourselves some ConvertKit emails and if you have not signed up for ConvertKit, make sure you check the link where you're watching this video, because I have a free trial just for you. Go to crystalprofitcom forward slash ConvertKit to check it out. But I mean, it's just, it's incredible. I love seeing these stats All right. So here's another prediction about newsletters. So it says newsletters become a staple tool in the content creator stack.

Speaker 1: 18:55

Now, maybe you've heard this term before newsletters and it's been kind of a fun conversation to be a part of. But newsletters and I say that in quotes have made a comeback and I feel like people for a long time were like no, no, no, this is my email list. It is not a newsletter. Don't you even dare say newsletter about the weekly emails that I send to my list, because it was like a four letter word. People like associated newsletters with big brands that were just spamming their audience and they're like, ah, I don't want to do that. It's not this like mass corporate calm. It is something that is an intimate email for me to my audience. But newsletters have made a comeback this year and I've seen some really cool things that people are doing. They are sending newsletters that are subscriptions, which you can do with ConvertKit. They are sending newsletters that are their podcast information. So it's like short, quick, like hey, this is what my podcast episode is about this week. Click here. You can listen directly on Apple Podcast or Spotify or wherever you listen, but it's just been really cool to see what others are doing.

Speaker 1: 20:07

So newsletters are gonna continue, continue to be super important to your creator business. So, from one creator to another, please don't just create everything on one platform and not have an email list. You can do your Instagram, you can do your TikTok, you can do YouTube, you can do all the things and create your content, but have that one place where you continuously send people for them to get on your list. And for me, I actually have this link for my creator profile on ConvertKit, but I also have at the footer on my website. It just says want updates? And it's literally put your name and your email and it's on every page of my website. It's just at the very bottom because people just want to know how to get on there. I say go to crystalprofitcom, go all the way to the bottom. You can get on my email list. Very simple. So let's move on. Let's keep talking about this.

Speaker 1: 21:01

So AI we knew we were going to get here because we've been talking about short form videos and videos for the last few years. Now, ai is here to stay and everyone wants to have a conversation about AI. How are you using it? Which tools do you love and what are the things that I need to be using as a creator creating in this world of AI? So, 34% up to 66%, which is a big leap of using AI and I'm actually going to come down here because it says AI usage and how do creators use AI so generating written content.

Speaker 1: 21:40

Now, as a podcast coach and someone that really loves to look at AI and how you can use it to just really repurpose and further what you're already doing creating that written content from your audio on your podcast or your video content from your YouTube channel, or even calls that you do with your community or within your courses or memberships or webinars or wherever you're creating this content. Repurposing that by using the transcripts and the raw information that you've already shared can be so massively important and impactful to what you're already doing. So I do this every single week. I create a podcast episode and a YouTube video and from those I will create a blog post on my website. That is the written content. I'm no longer creating all of that from scratch.

Speaker 1: 22:35

I used to sit down and say, okay, what was this podcast episode? Okay, now, what should I write about that? And I would use like some of my notes and I would make them a little bit prettier, give them some subtitles, throw in some more context, maybe a few more stories, but it was a whole long process where now I create the audio file, which I'm so much better at just talking instead of writing anyway. So I'll create the audio or the video file and then I will have AI generate a blog post for me using my own language, using my content. It's not going out to the internet and grabbing some weird statistics or something else. Like. I've already done my research, I've created the content. Now it's stripping out the most important things that my audience needs to hear and it's creating a blog post from that. I could also create my YouTube titles, my YouTube description. I can create newsletters, like.

Speaker 1: 23:29

There's so many awesome things that you can do once you have that original piece of content, which is another reason I want to give another plug for longer form content, because you can do so much more if you already have this long piece of content and then you can chop it up into little bits and pieces that you can share on all of your other platforms. So, huge plug, huge plug for long form content and then using AI to help you make it even better. Now, editing, marketing all of these are other great uses for AI, and I also do that as well. So let me know, drop in the comments how do you use AI in your content? Or how do you want to learn? Like, where is, like, the pain point? There's just like, oh my gosh, if I could just learn how to use AI in my content for this specific purpose. Let us know and we can recommend some tools that we love here at Profit Media for AI and the different things that we use for our platforms.

Speaker 1: 24:24

Now let's hop down. So AI usage by creator type. It's funny, because podcaster isn't on here. I feel a little offended that we were not included, but maybe that was one where people just didn't self-select and say they were a podcaster. But we'll lump them into marketers and YouTubers right, because we do that too. So marketers, youtubers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, coaches, writers, designers, educator, author and artist are the ones that you see using AI and the ones that are not using AI.

Speaker 1: 24:59

Now I want to give this feedback. Call it critical. I was going to say this critical feedback. I don't want to feel like I'm attacking anybody, but also I know that there's a subset of people that really find their content precious. They're like this is my precious little baby that I spent so much time and effort and energy creating. And then I edited the thing and all of it is 100% original. Look at it. It's so pretty Like they're. They're just like oh, it's, it's, it's all mine and I created the whole thing.

Speaker 1: 25:31

I will never use AI. I do not want the assistance of AI, and to those people I say how much time, how much time did you spend creating your little precious? How much Because maybe you're saying hours, maybe you're saying days, maybe you're saying weeks in creating your little precious thing. While you were doing that, I created five more podcast episodes, four more YouTube videos, I wrote my newsletters and I have all of my content batched and created for an entire month because I used AI. So that's the level that we're at today that if you are not using AI, then you're going to be left behind, because there's other people out there that are using it and they're getting 10 times more work out of their day than those of you not using it. So I'm never going to sit here and tell you you have to use AI. It is the only way forward, but I am going to say that you're wasting time and you're not going to have as big of an impact with your content if you don't use it in certain strategic ways. So that's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying.

Speaker 1: 28:20

I encourage you to try it and, like I said, we will link to any of our top resources. Just let us know which ones you need the most help with and we'll link them below All. Right now let's go, because, man, we gotta keep on moving. We're not even halfway. We're not even halfway through this, but I wanted to talk about AI super important, since AI isn't a brand new concept in the creator economy anymore. Unfamiliarity is becoming less of a barrier for trying AI, but skepticism is on the rise. So this is where I go back to.

Speaker 1: 29:03

I like to use my go out to the internet and just get random ideas or say, oh, brainstorm this or help me with that, without a little like finagling and massaging and really doing some great, prompt engineering to make sure that I have something that's strategic and really smart for my audience, because that's really the only way to do it. You can't just go out and grab stuff, because one thing I've noticed is when I try to do that, when I'm like, oh crap, I got to create something. You know, let's let Chad TBT come up with you know the next four things that I'm going to talk about. When I do that, what happens is it's not in my body. I know that sounds super weird, but just bear with me, it is not an original thought that I had. Therefore, therefore, it's not something that I can just riff on, or I could just like go off the cuff like I would have to stick to a script and verbatim like talk about every single point that I want to make, and then I myself sound like a robot. So not only did the robot create it for me, I sound robotic.

Speaker 1: 30:02

I don't have stories and little things that I really like to include in my content, to make it my own. So that's where I will say I am a skeptic about just taking something from an AI bot and then trying to sell it as your own. It's not going to work. It's not going to work. Please don't do that, like we talk about using AI. Please do not do that, because my skepticism will continue to rise if people do that because it's lazy. It's lazy and it's not good marketing and it will catch up with you. People are like people aren't stupid. We know what you're trying to do Okay, just just throwing that out there but lack of familiarity with AI software automation tools I've really honestly thought that would still be higher Cause. I know that there's a good chunk of people that I engage with and interact with on a regular basis and they're still intimidated by AI, but I think that that's starting to come down as everything just gets more and more accessible and you're seeing some of these really large companies integrate it into their other existing products. So I don't feel the need at this time again to each their own. People can decide what they wanna do with AI.

Speaker 1: 31:14

I'm concerned about keeping my content original. This is the precious ones that we were talking about earlier. I feel that AI software takes away from creativity. That can happen, but I think it also boosts creativity whenever you can sit there and go back and forth with a chat bot like you would an assistant or like a marketing person that you're balancing ideas off of. I don't know about you, but I've been part of so many teams and organizations where I was the go-to marketing person and everyone looked at me as like oh well, you're the content person, you have all these ideas and I'm like, wait, hang on. So I have like all the ideas. I'm the only one that's gonna chime in, like you're not even gonna give any input or feedback. They're just like oh, that's a great idea, let's go with it. And I'm like that was a terrible idea. You wanted me to go with it. I now have chat, gpt and other AI platforms where I can just go back and forth and say I like that. But let's do this instead. Or let's adjust this for this type of audience, or let's assume that they're in this kind of mood, or I need this kind of feedback. So you can absolutely get better with AI the more that you play with it. But let's skip down a little bit because there's some other just so many more.

Speaker 1: 32:30

And I want to talk about money. Okay, we're going to skip to talking about money. So it says best fit for audiences. Six figure creators prefer advertising for easy monetization. So if you have a big audience, big audience, like we're talking tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people yeah, advertising is the way to go. Like it's a no brainer. It is a no brainer when people ask me well, how do I monetize? People will throw money at you. If you walk up to them and say I have a hundred thousand people interested in this topic, what should I do? They will say here's our money. Please go talk about our product. It's just that simple. The next one is best income to effort. Mid-sized creators say digital products are the easiest and most lucrative. Totally agree, 100%. I have a $27 product. I have a $37 product. I also have a 797 digital course that is very lucrative for my business. So I can tell you that digital products work and they're absolutely worth the time and the effort to set up those funnels and have them operating in the backend of your business.

Speaker 1: 33:36

New creator, mvp Subscriptions and paid memberships made new creators the most money. Now I'll be really honest. I have done a membership. I have done subscriptions in the past. This hasn't been something that's worked well for me, but I think it's because I don't have the right model for exactly what my audience wants. But if you've had success with creator memberships or subscriptions, let us know in the comments. I would love to hear from you because, again, I don't know everything, I don't have all the answers, and I would love to hear what you have done to make this successful for your business, and what you're doing and how you're creating content.

Speaker 1: 34:52

Now, how much creators earn. If you're sitting there and you're like, okay, I know how much money is in my bank account, but what are other people doing, here's the slide that you want to see. So the value of hearing how much other creators earn goes beyond simple curiosity. It does because we all want to know. We're nosy, I know. Knowing the real numbers behind the stories helps creators know what's happening in their community.

Speaker 1: 35:17

More creators made over 100,000 in 2023 than the previous year. So 12% up to 16%. So let's look at this how much creators earned in 2023? So we can see that 10% here between 50 and 100K, and then 10% here 100K and then over 250,000, like, y'all are the big ballers, right, I do not fall into this camp. Let's be clear. I don't fall into the camp of over 250,000. I actually am in this little sweet spot right here between 50 and 100K. But I think it's just so interesting, so fascinating, that there are people that are making. Like 30% of people that answered are making under 10,000 and some are making none. And if you're like, well, crystal, that's not very encouraging, I have to tell you I made little to like no money. I was gonna say little to very little, little to no money whenever I first started in my creator business, but now, again, I'm making between 50 to 100K in the last two years. So it's been worth it to me. It's been worth it to me to make that happen and I'm hoping that this is the year I'm hoping like fingers crossed, toes crossed this is the year I'm getting over that a hundred K mark just in my creator business, right, just in the things that I'm doing to create content. So we'll see, we'll have to update you for next year on that one.

Speaker 1: 36:46

But top earning creator types designers, coach, YouTube educator, entrepreneur, blogger, marketer, author I said it right that time writer and artist. So who's really making the most money? It's this right here, over a hundred K. It says YouTuber. Then we jumped down to educator, designer, like those are really the top three. So designer, youtuber and educator. And again, I just think it's super fascinating. I think it's so cool. So if you are a YouTuber, a designer or an educator making over a hundred K, like kudos to you. But I also think it's really cool to see that. You know, people are still making money in all of these different ones, like 66% as a marketer, like y'all are still making bank like bringing in some money even if it's under a hundred K, like, or under a hundred K, under 10 K. I find it fascinating that we can even make money online the way that we do. So if you're an educator and you're falling into this 57% just teaching people how to have a garden in your backyard and you pulled in $9,000 last year, that's pretty freaking incredible, because I don't know about any other hobbies you can start where you just go and talk about it and then boom, you're making $9,000 with it. So I think it's really fun. I think it's really fun.

Speaker 1: 38:10

Digital products are the easiest way to monetize. We kind of talked about that. So I want you to like really see what this could look like for your business. But now the most loved income streams is professional services, coaching and freelancing digital products, and then my creator business did not generate income. So again you can see like people were really honest about this. Like I didn't generate any income in 2023, 12% of respondents said that for their business. So comb through this information and, like I said earlier, see how you can use this in your business, in you know your next webinar and your next podcast episode. If you need to create a piece of content and you're like I don't know what to talk about, go download this Again. You can go to crystalprofitcom, forward slash creator24 to download this entire workbook and go through and read the stories and see what's relevant for your audience. It's a fantastic resource. It's a great reference to have in your back pocket.

Speaker 1: 39:10

But now let's go down here. So the challenges of earning top three monetization challenges, balancing content creation with monetization efforts Can I get an amen? Can't I get an amen? Cause I hear this all the time. It's not just me, it's my community that's telling me this. They're like how am I supposed to get strategic or look at marketing and monetization opportunities when I'm just trying to create content, like I'm just literally trying to get my next podcast episode out the door, trying to publish a YouTube video, I'm trying to get my email newsletter out every single week. I'm trying to post stuff on Instagram. I'm trying to connect with my audience. I'm trying to do all these things, like Crystal. What am I doing? How do I keep going? I get it. I get it Because, again, it's not just me.

Speaker 1: 39:56

It's not just this community. I feel like it is part of the bigger creator economy and we see it right here, with 43% of you really struggling with creating content, with monetization efforts and, at the end of the day, it really comes down to, I believe, strategic collaborations where you may be spending time with some of the wrong people not in a bad way, but they would take interest in what you're doing and have that really cool affiliate opportunity. That's not just oh, you know, here's a link like go sign up, you get 5% for the perpetuity of when someone signs up. Like there are so many other lucrative ways for you to make money. Maybe you just haven't explored them because, like you said, you haven't had time right, you haven't had time to explore them. You need to make the time, because if you can start generating more revenue with your creator, you know platform and the different things that you're doing. That frees up so many other things.

Speaker 1: 41:05

One of the blessings that I feel like I was able to do this year was I hired a video editor and I have a full-time like VA now, and that has just released so much of the pressure on my brain to think about strategies and other things, because now I can afford to pay a video editor and pay someone to help answer my emails and stay on top of the other backend processes of my business. That would not have happened had I not put monetization at one of my top goals in the last 12 months. So, while, yes, it can be hard to balance, it is one of those things that I highly encourage you to put as like those are the podcasts you need to listen to, those are the YouTube videos you need to watch, those are the newsletters you need to be subscribed to. It's figuring out how to monetize, because it is a challenge. It is a clear problem that we have as creators, but it's also one that's not impossible and you can get strategic and creative and figure out ways to monetize your content. All right, so, box done, I am stepping down, but let's go into the top three monetization challenges. So we have balancing content, marketing and making sales of my products and services, understanding what my audience will pay for. So dive into the rest of these. I really want you to understand more about how this affects you and where you are in your creator business.

Speaker 1: 42:31

So bonus stats about creator earnings. This is just more on higher income, higher satisfaction. So it says overall satisfaction score. So if you're making no money, you probably not loving your content. But, like I just said a second ago, I'm making more money and I'm loving my content that much more, especially whenever I get a contract Like I just recently like signed a new contract and I'm loving my content that much more, especially whenever I get a contract Like I just recently like signed a new contract and I'm super excited about creating some sponsored content that I was like man, I'm excited to get started. Like immediately whenever it was done, the deal was closed, I was like I can't wait to go and create this content because I know I'm getting paid for it. It feels so good, it feels so good and I want everyone to get to that stage of being paid for what they're creating. So, a hundred percent agree. Satisfaction score goes way, way up.

Speaker 1: 43:20

So let's talk about the future. So creators set their sights on higher income and expect to get it. Yes, we do Like. Oh my gosh, we expect to get it. I love the demands. Right, we expect this to happen. It's like putting me and my elder millennial and like Gen Z and Gen X's shoes of like oh no, that's not right? Not Gen X, gen Z, right. I get all of them confused. I get all the generations confused. But you see what I'm saying? Like we're going to demand it. We're going to demand that we get paid. And it says creators who expect to make more from their creator business in 2024 than they did in 2023.

Speaker 1: 44:00

Hi, this is me. I expect to make more money this year. And it's just broken down by the different people who think they're going to make more money this year and then how creators expect to increase their income adding additional income streams, a new product or service launch. I'm going all in on my creator business. I just feel optimistic. Okay, we love the people that are just super honest. They're like I don't know how it's going to happen, but I'm just. I know it's going to happen for me this year. I love your optimism. I plan on taking more clients. I will be raising my rates. I did this last year and it very much helped in getting more money. I'm transitioning from client work to product-based income. I'm going to focus on setting up funnels and running sales. So for me, I actually launched a new product and service and I have been adding additional income streams. It's not necessarily new income streams, it's just having more opportunities.

Speaker 1: 45:00

Again, going back to like strategic brands and aligning with certain companies. Like I have more things coming inbound to me. They're like you know, I've seen what you're doing with ConvertKit. I've seen what you've done with other companies. Like we want you to create content like that for us. And I'm like, absolutely, let's make this happen. So when you start doing really cool things with your content, you just never know what's going to happen.

Speaker 1: 45:25

And I don't even have a huge audience. Okay, look, let's make that clear. Remember, we talked about having a really big audience earlier. And like the advertisers are knocking at your door saying, hi, you have hundreds of thousands of people. That's not me. That's not. People aren't coming to me saying you have this massive platform, can we please borrow it and give you lots of money? That's not me. They're saying, hey, we've seen you work with these other companies really strategically and I think we would also be a good fit. Can we talk? And I'm like, uh, yes, we can. Let's pull up a chair and make this happen. So fun things happen whenever you get serious about your creator business and you align and get clear on who you want to work with.

Speaker 1: 46:08

That's another really important piece too. All right, let's keep on jumping down, jumping down. I want you to go read all of this, but I'm going to skip down because we're already really far into this and I don't even know how much more like we're just we're about to have to cut off. We're about to cut it off in a second, but I want to go down here because this is the dirty little secret, the one that we really don't want to talk about, and it says burnout increased over the last year. I don't love this. Right, because this is part of my business is keeping you from burning out and feeling really confident in what you're creating, and I can't always do that. Right, I try to very strategically help you have the tools and resources that help you avoid burnout, but it still happens, and I think one of the ways I mean it says it right here it takes you a while to start making money. It does. I didn't start making money in 2018. As soon as I launched my first podcast, it did not happen.

Speaker 1: 47:11

But the thing that I have found is, whenever I create strategic content that I love and is fun and it makes me super happy, like it just keeps going. The momentum just stays and I love what I do. I love being able to help people with their content and it's just one of those things that I have struck a nice balance of boundaries between my personal life and my professional life and being able to say you know what, I'm not going to be on Instagram 24 hours a day and I don't have to upload to YouTube every single day with shorts and long form and all. I don't have to be all the places. So I don't know if that's part of my millennial, like I'm getting older and I don't have to be all the places. So I don't know if that's part of my millennial, like I'm getting older and I just have clear boundaries for my content.

Speaker 1: 47:55

But I really want you to avoid burnout, because being a creator is just super, super fun and I want you to keep doing it. But I want you to go check out Jay Klaus. Like he is a creator. I've seen him speak at Craft and Commerce. This is Converts Kit Conference and I'm going to it very soon when this episode goes live, like we're actually. I'm going to be in Boise June 5th for Craft and Commerce 2024. So if you're there, come say hi, but go check out Jay's newsletter. He is someone that's really cool to follow. He's mentioned multiple times in here, so you can go check out some of his case studies.

Speaker 1: 48:33

But I want you to go download the rest of this because you can see if you're watching. On the video you see all of the different resources and everything that ConvertKit has. But I just want to leave you with a few parting words, because this is probably the longest long form piece of content I've done in a while. But things needed to be said here today and there's probably, like I overshared. I probably shared way too much information that I should have kept behind closed doors and said, oh, they can just go download it. But I do want you to go download this.

Speaker 1: 49:07

Go to crystal profitcom forward slash creator 24 to grab ConvertKit State of the Creator Economy, dig through it, comb through it and, like I said, use this as a piece of content for yourself. Like create a podcast episode about it speaking to your audience, or create a YouTube video about it, diving into the stats and figures that you find interesting. But at the end of the day, really look at this and see where are you right now and where do you want to be in the future. That's really what I get from this. Yeah, I love the predictions and I love the kind of like looking back to see, like, what happened in the last 12 months, but the thing that really propels me forward is where do I want to be 12 months from now and how can I get there? And I just can't wait to hear what you thought about this.

Speaker 1: 49:56

So tell me in the comments what you thought about this year's state of the creator economy by ConvertKit. Again, thank you so much to ConvertKit for sponsoring today's video. This was so much fun. I love doing these videos every single year. We're going to link to the one that we did last year for you to go check out, but make sure you hit the subscribe or follow button wherever you are listening and, as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.