How are Creators Making Money in 2022?
Talks of the creator economy are all the rage these days, it is a real phenomenon that is definitely not just a feeling! According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the creator economy is worth US$100+ BILLION in 2022 and is set to grow to trillions in a few years 😲
This has attracted no less than 50 million independent creators so far, and it is only the beginning 🚀
Not all creators are equal when it comes to monetizing their activity, but exploiting all possible sources of income certainly is a first step towards financial success in that field!
Let’s talk about all the ways creators can make money in 2022 🤝
Brand Deals
Influencer Marketing is BIG! In 2021, brands spent $13.8bn in Influencer Marketing, a figure expected to reach $16.4bn in 2022(1). Marketing budgets are increasingly focused on deals with influencers, given their high returns on investment vs. more traditional marketing techniques. So much that more that 75% of brand marketers intend to dedicate a budget to influencer marketing in 2022(1).
Brands are constantly looking for influencers to promote their products and services, as it has become unavoidable for any company willing to make their brand visible to grow their sales. In this context, there is definitely money to make in the creator business and even more in the future as it is extremely hard for brands to keep up with the speed of the trends. See for yourself – most brands haven’t stepped foot on TikTok yet, meanwhile most of us are totally addicted to the app! 🤤
You will have guessed, brands are paying creators to get a share of their audience’s attention. But not just any audience – an audience with the highest conversion rate possible to maximize their return on investment 📈
As a matter of fact, the more an audience is qualified, the more valuable it is for creators and consequently for brands. Surely, the number of followers matters, but so do engagement and community metrics.
The best way for creators to make the most out of brand deals is to be able to precisely identify their audience, it is a distinctly powerful tool for creators to build their pitch 💪
It is no secret that social media platforms are competing to make us stay longer on their platforms, which has the ultimate goal of growing their advertising revenues 💵
Digital advertising is booming at 30% yearly growth, as a result competition will only get fiercer between platforms 🥊
With the rise of YouTube, platforms quickly understood that having creators publishing content is a great way to keep users online, so most of them are actively designing strategies to attract creators on their platform, including sharing advertising revenues with them 🤝
Platforms currently engaged in sharing ad revenues with creators are YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitch. To be eligible for monetization on these platforms, there are requirements set by platforms which are constantly evolving. Rules are always being changed and monetization options are expanding over time. Learn more about current monetization models and rules on platforms for creators here.To get more views on any platform and hence more revenue, it’s important that you ensure your videos are optimized for publication on each social platform 👌
Check out our Creative Studio tool for help!
Creator Funds
Creator Funds are quite different from ad revenue sharing programs in the way they reward creators.🎁 Most popular creator funds are TikTok Creator Fund, YouTube Shorts Fund and Snapchat Spotlight Challenge.
To be eligible to TikTok’s Creator Fund, you need to apply and meet certain criterias regarding your location, age, number of followers and video views. It’s estimated that the creator fund pays around 2 to 4 cents per 1,000 views. This all depends on your views, comments and likes but TikTok doesn’t disclose their actual formula to calculate the earnings. 🤑
Snapchat Spotlight Funds apparently paid $250M to creators in 2021. Similarly to all creator funds, they keep their revenue formula secret 🤫 and calculations are dynamic on a daily basis. All Snapchat users are eligible to participate, but not all Snaps will qualify for payment!
YouTube has announced the launch of its Shorts Fund in 2021 and pledged $100M for creators. Criterias for eligibility apply. YouTube directly reaches out to creators 🤳 eligible for payment every month based on internal undisclosed calculations.
Subscription-based content
Subscription-based content offering is a great way to monetize your content. It generally works with viewers paying a fee on a recurring basis to have access to your content. 💻
There are many platforms offering to host your content in addition to helping it be discovered – we’re thinking of Twitch most specifically which is the leader in this space. Twitch gets paid by taking a commission out of the creator’s subscriptions.
Alternatives have been made available through platforms offering solutions that are not commission-based, such as Uscreen and many others. Uscreen provides creators with a platform to host their premium video content. To access their services, you only need to pay a monthly subscription to their software.
Donations from Fans
Creators can also count on the support of their fans, and we mean here financial support! 🎀💰
Platforms such as Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee or Liberapay allow creators to collect donations from their community with recurring or non-recurring solutions and more!
Affiliate Links
Affiliate marketing is used by companies willing to promote their products. They offer affiliate programs, for which anyone can apply to become an affiliate. An affiliate earns a commission for marketing a product or service, generally indexed to each sale that is made. Sales are tracked via affiliate links from one website to another.
Creators are well positioned to promote products as affiliates, which can become an interesting source of income. Be careful not to do too much affiliate marketing, or doing it for products you don’t believe in. It is essential to remain authentic and preserve your reputation as well as trustworthiness amongst your community!
Build your Own Brand
Easy to say, much harder to do! This won’t be a fit for all creators, but for those of you who are relevant to building their own brand this is an amazing way to develop your creator business and can even become your main source of income.
Building your own brand has been very popular amongst beauty creators 💄, Jeffree Star Cosmetics is one of the top brands making now US$100M+ of revenues and was created in 2014. Fitness content also got Heidi Somers a long way, as she created her own apparel brand BuffBunny in 2017 and hit US$112M+ of revenues lastly reported!
You can start using a Shopify platform or any equivalent, it is affordable and is a great way to start before investing in your own website!
Online Courses
If your content fits within a niche that can be material for courses, you should definitely monetize your expertise and audience with online courses. There are plenty of platforms to start out and you certainly have a lot of things you’ve already made that you can repurpose!
Social Media Services
Social Media Management market size is projected to grow from US$14 billion in 2021 to US$42 billion in 2026, an annual growth rate of 24%(2) on average. The need for social media management services is booming so it might be the right time to add that string to your bow.
This requires quite some work but can be very lucrative. You can perform consulting-types of work such as portfolio reviews, deliver strategic recommendations, marketing analysis etc. Another option is to provide social media management services which will most likely include daily management of accounts. It is time consuming for sure, but it has the benefit of being more of a long term and steady source of income.
Conclusion: there is no one size fits all approach to establishing the ways you can monetize your content, but you have a few ideas here to try out or to inspire you! Depending on your niche, community engagement, and aspirations, you will find some of these options to be further relevant. In any case, spending time looking at feedback from your community and interacting with them can and will give you the best ideas. Be creative, as you know how to be! ✨
(1) Source: InfluencerMarketingHub.com
(2) Source: Marketsandmarkets.com
