Creator Economy Archives - IdeaEconomy.net

The Passion Economy

Great essay on the growing passion economy, remote-first companies, using AI to augment our work, and more. It covers many of the themes I’ve been focusing on in this newsletter. There has never been a better time to start businesses around our creative passions.

Here are some highlights:

“People will need to learn to monetise their skills and create unconventional economic opportunities for themselves. Waiting for the economy to bounce back is not the smartest recruitment strategy in the COVID-19 era.”

“A key component of the passion economy is storytelling and Marte tells a gripping story through his business. It creates a strong bond between customers and instructors.”

“While the passion economy will be immensely rewarding for creators, it will not be all fun and games. People will need the discipline and the rigour to work hard, experiment fast and deliver consistently. Unlike regular employment, creators will need to figure out human resources, accounting and legal issues themselves.”

“Instead of debating whether artificial intelligence (AI) will exacerbate job losses in the COVID-19 era, we must figure out how it can augment the productivity of creators and micro-entrepreneurs who will be the pillars of economic rebuilding in the post-coronavirus world. We need to free up time for creators to do the work they truly care about and are good at. That is how the passion economy will blossom and lead to the next wave of economic growth.”

via Ollie Forsyth

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Mapping the Creator Economy

“I spent the past couple of months going down the Creator Economy rabbit hole. Here is a map of 150+ companies I found.”

Comprehensive organization of the companies that are shaping the creator economy.

“The Internet is magic. Let’s not forget that just 15 years ago, in order to reach an audience, you had to go through a hyper-selective process where one person had the power to decide if you’d be allowed to speak to the general public. Then the internet came along (for real), and suddenly anyone could put anything online. Today, curation isn’t done by any one person, but by the public who votes with their attention. This new democracy has seen a new class of citizens emerge: The Creators.”

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Building the Middle Class of the Creator Economy

“The American Dream exists, but what is the reality?”

“The move to digital content hasn’t been correlated with a burgeoning long tail: the top creators are massively successful, while long-tail creators are barely getting by. On Spotify, for instance, the top 43,000 artists—roughly 1.4% of those on the platform—pull in 90% of royalties and make, on average, $22,395 per artist per quarter. The rest of its 3 million creators, or 98.6% of its artists, made just $36 per artist per quarter.”

li.substack.com

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Corbett Barr: 10 Trends for Creators to Watch in 2021

Corbett Barr of Fizzle.co offers his business predictions for next year. I’ve been sharing many links about the creator economy and paid newsletters, so I’m very bullish on those trends.

Two of the more interesting observations are JamStack websites and Video Books

I’ve researched static websites a lot and agree these will grow in popularity because of the faster page loading times and elimination of security issues.

The idea of video books can be extended to almost all the information we consume. We need better ways to curate and summarize important information. There will be many opportunities like this in the future.

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Gumroad Creator University

Gumroad has launched its own educational resource directory aimed at creators.

The creator space is going to get a lot bigger in 2021!

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Creator Hierarchy of Needs

Creators have a hierarchy of needs as they grow. Understanding these needs helps you build products that customers love so let’s explore each need in detail.

“As a creator, it’s hard to build an audience without finding a good niche, and it’s hard to make money if you haven’t built an audience. Try to tackle each need in rough priority order to work your way up to a personal monopoly.”

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Modern Suppliers

“If you zoom far enough out, is it possible that software companies in the future are either suppliers or marketing businesses?

“These modern suppliers are fundamentally democratizing the opportunity for anyone to build and scale. It’s, arguably, never been easier to start a software company. However, distribution and attention is the bottleneck for most companies.

We are starting to see a clear bifurcation of suppliers and marketing companies.

Suppliers focus specifically on certain elements of a business, while marketing companies are focused solely on captivating and nurturing an audience and community.”

Big Idea: This is a very important idea. Technology is getting easier and cheaper while reaching an audience is getting harder and more expensive. Having the attention of an engaged audience is becoming critical to business success.

blake.substack.com

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The Rise of Co-Op Media Outlets – Business Model to Watch

The Hustle has an interesting story on how many writers from the now-defunct Deadspin sports site quit en masse after a management demand to only focus on sports content. About 20 of those writers are now working together on a new platform called Defector Media. I think these types of content creating cooperatives are a business model to watch. It’s getting harder for a single writer or entrepreneur to gain traction, but 10 or 20 of these writers is an instant media platform. Could you accomplish more as a team?

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Large Directory of Resources for Creators

Resources for influencers, newsletters, podcasting, community, digital goods, virtual events, and more. Each category has it’s own subdirectory of even more resources. This is a good site to bookmark.

Marketing Idea: These resource directories are getting more common, but they can still be a good way to get everyone in a niche to know your business. They are still popular to launch ProductHunt, also.

Found on Josh Spector’s For the Interested newsletter.

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The Story of Humans of New York in a Twitter Thread

You’ve probably heard about Brandon Stanton and his project to photograph 10,000 people in New York City. This Twitter thread tells the full story.

He has gone on to raise millions of dollars for charity.

This is a great lesson in the power of consistency and how opportunities will come if you just persist long enough and adjust.

Marketing Idea: Telling the story in a Twitter thread like this is also worth noting. This is a good way to get more attention on Twitter.

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Media 2020: Rise of the Renaissance Creator

“The hybridization of the individual as both a creator and an entrepreneur. This development and definition of ‘creativity’ is one of the more interesting things happening today because it is contrary to the supposed logic for a creator to go independent. We like to say independence (see: passion economy) is valuable because it lets a creator focus on what they do best; create. But actually it’s the opposite. By going independent, the creator is aspiring to not only create, but willingly assume the management and business of their entire self.”

“If independent writers are like independent artists, newsletters are an entry into the media business like mixtapes are an entry into the music business. That’s because newsletters offer a medium of creation that has no barrier to entry and no production costs other than the willingness for the person to enter the ring and write. The business, the audience, the words, the design, the distribution…EVERYTHING is on the individual to learn, adapt and build on their own.”

Business Opportunity: I believe this is the greatest time ever to be alive. We are in the midst of a global pandemic and face other threats, but the opportunities are here. Your laptop and internet connection are a gateway to the world. Show up every day and hone your craft. The world needs your art.