🚀 Why the future belongs to creators
The creator economy isn't going anywhere. What began as a fringe rebellion against the status quo is changing the mainstream definitions of work and success. And the revolution is just beginning.
💬 In this week's issue:
- Define creator. Learn why the title you give yourself matters.
- Subscription types. Why everyone wins when you think outside the box.
- Gen Z is here. These digital natives are changing the publishing landscape, maybe for the better.
🎨 When did everybody start calling themselves content creators?
All of us will have to adopt some of the skill sets and behaviors of creators in order to be successful.
"Creator" is a term you hear everywhere these days. We regularly use it in this newsletter because the creator economy is such a strong undercurrent of what makes publishing a newsletter, blog, or other forms of content a viable business model.
If you follow the breadcrumbs, you'll find that creators are the most recent entry in a long line of titles that categorize independence: makers, DIYers, entrepreneurs, influencers, and more.
What matters are the ideas we connect to these terms. To be a creator means:
- To be part of a digital community that is redefining work, art, and society
- To build a passion-driven business that can "scale without permission" from the traditional gatekeepers
- To provide unique value to anyone, anywhere in the world — and get paid for it.
Yes, this opportunity has its challenges. But the upside and freedom are now more available than ever before.
🗞 Latest tips & stories
- Web analytics 101: What creators & publishers need to know
- How to learn from unsubscribes
- Readers' attention turns from national to local news
- 15 ways AI is pushing publishing forward
- Facebook adds monetization options for Reels creators
🏖 11 digital recurring subscription ideas creators can start today
A survey found that 46% of subscription owners spend only one to ten hours a week on their business.
You can build anything you want. When people talk about subscription products, they usually jump right to paid newsletters. But that is only one way to think about them. Subscriptions can unlock all sorts of opportunities once you start to think about this word: access.
Access is part of the creator funnel. When people pay for a subscription, it's to access something they otherwise wouldn't be able to. One option is content: giving members articles, newsletters, videos, or podcasts they can't get anywhere else.
But you can also grant access to: your time (coaching or consulting), downloadable resources, a private community, or a tool. A good subscription should enable your work, not subtract from it or push you towards burnout in order to maintain it.
What do you want to do? And what access can you give to support that work?
🔥 How publishers can appeal to Gen Z
After a decade or more building out programmatic advertising capabilities, Gen Z is throwing publishers for a loop.
Did you know that "the oldest people in Gen Z turn 25 in 2022"? As this generation moves into their prime career and consumer stages, publishers are finally starting to meet them where they're at.
If your topic or niche lends itself to this younger demographic, here are a few insights to keep in mind:
- They hate generic ads, even more than previous generations. But native advertising is accepted and often leads to very high conversion rates.
- Gen Z prefers individuals over brands. But it's a mistake to say they want amateur content. Instead, they want it to feel as direct and authentic as possible.
- Short-form content is here to stay. TikTok is the obvious category winner, but every medium has its own short-form opportunity if you know where to look.
👀 Curators pick
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