Creator Economy: definition, challenges and best practices

But what are the stakes of this new economy? How to define it? And what are the best practices to adopt by all Web 3.0 Creators? We decipher this topic 👇

What is the Creator economy?

More than an ephemeral trend, the Creator Economy is a new business model. Its development is recent (less than a decade). Also known as the "creator economy", the definition of the Creator Economy is as follows: it is the group of creators who manage to monetize their creations (often stemming from their passion). Today, this market is worth more than 104.2 billion dollars in the United States. The creator economy represents more than 50 million independent content creators, curators, community builders, influencers and bloggers. All these players have one thing in common: making creation the center of their business model.

To achieve this, the Creator Economy relies on many platforms: TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, Spotify, Facebook... On these platforms, creators produce attractive video content, text, visuals, podcasts or webinars.

With the rise of web 3.0, this new economy gives the power back to creators. They develop, become their own media and animate communities in the long term. But a new business model also means new challenges.

Creator issues in the age of the Creator Economy

29% of American kids would rather want to be YouTube stars than astronauts (11%) when they grow up (Harris Poll, 2019). Today, creating content and leading digital communities seems to have become the dream of the new generation. But what are the stakes, when the dream becomes reality?

Creator Economy vs Attention Economy

The Creator Economy is developing in parallel (but also replacing other models). For example, the growth of the Creator Economy is accompanied by the growth of the Passion Economy. On the Internet and on social networks, more and more people want to monetize their passions and make a living from content. We also talk about the "Ownership Economy", to put the power and empowerment back in the hands of creators.

However, these new models coexist with a major issue: attention. Attention is a rare and precious resource. Since the advent of the web and its evolutions (social networks, web 3.0, creators' economy, etc.), a real war for attention is taking place. We also talk about Attention Economy.

Infobesity is increasing, "snack contents" are multiplying and Internet users have never had so much choice of content to consume. For example, more than 100 million photos and videos are posted every day on Instagram and 720,000 hours of videos are added to YouTube per day... But our attention span is decreasing over time (only 8 seconds today).

From now on, it is essential for content creators to stand out. This differentiation goes through different actions:

✅ Breaking free from the ambient noise of social networks
✅ Successfully transforming their audiences into communities

By doing so, creators (freelancers, entrepreneurs, etc.) will go from an audience they address... To a real asset: a community they engage with, on a dedicated platform.

Creator economy: transparency and performance issues

In parallel to this issue of attention, the Creator Economy raises other questions: how to succeed in combining the creation of interesting and transparent content with a regular income?

Indeed, it is not always easy to combine passion and profitability. Creators have different ways to earn money from their content:

💰 Advertising revenues
💰 Sponsored content by brands
💰 Product placements
💰 Donations from the audience or community
💰 Paid subscriptions
💰 Paid events (physical or virtual)

Today, the viability of the model does not depend on a single remuneration lever. However, 77% of creators depend on corporate partnerships and sponsorships. To "take back the power", will it be necessary to accelerate the diversification of revenue sources in the future?

In the coming years, the challenge will be to find the best compromise to get a return on investment. Whatever the means used, a "Community-Led" strategy will be essential!

3 tips for today's and tomorrow's creators

Turn your audience into a community, thanks to Community-Led Growth

To win the battle for attention but also to combine passion and profitability as a Creator, the first good practice is the following: transform your audience into a community, while relying on a Community-Led Growth strategy.

Indeed, an audience corresponds to Internet users who passively follow the content of a brand or a content creator. Gathered on social networks, this audience is animated thanks to top-down communication. Without the content creator, the audience cannot live, be animated and engage.

On the other hand, the community is a space for sharing, which gathers committed members around common characteristics, objectives or values. Within a community, communication is transversal and proactive.

The community can live without the content creator (influencer, blogger, entrepreneur, freelancer, etc.). And this is a real benefit, made possible thanks to a Community-Led Growth strategy (growth strategy guided and driven by the community).

In this enlightening excerpt, Pablo Gonzalez shares his valuable insights on how to transform an audience into a thriving community. Drawing from his experience with podcast audiences, he unveils powerful strategies that can be applied to any social media audience as well.

Watch Pablo Gonzalez's full session from The CLG Summit 2023 on The Community Lab! Discover his innovative approach to nurturing a community and learn how to foster meaningful connections with your audience.

Become a versatile Community Builder

To achieve this, Community builders can:

All these actions allow creators to make their model viable and engage a tight-knit community, which will support their growth.

Rely on an all-in-one community-platform

The Creator Economy is not about scattering across multiple platforms to deliver approximate content. The Creator Economy is about federating communities around content that delivers value... while being profitable.

In this new era of web 3.0, the power no longer belongs to big companies and influential media. Creators are looking for alternatives, to create, animate and sustainably engage their own communities. The goal is to live a collective adventure and create new forms of relationships between creators and their communities. And to achieve this, one of the solutions is to rely on a platform adapted to Creators, like MeltingSpot.

MeltingSpot allows creators to create, animate and engage their communities on a single platform. Designed to meet their expectations, this platform is a lever for sharing and growth. Ready to discover how our platform supports Creator Economy players? 👇