đź“– Creator economy reading list

As we kick off 2021, here's a roundup of my favorite Creator Economy / Passion Economy reads from 2020, covering:

• State of the market
• State of creators
• Trends and insights
• Platform strategy

👇

How many creators are there? Who are the key players? What are the key trends? If you're looking for an overview of the creator economy, this is a great place to start.

https://t.co/fJUxbVqAen by @YuanlingY, @JoshConstine
A different take on the creator economy map, but equally as interesting. This map categorizes 150+ companies by creator lifecycle: content creation, audience growth and ownership, monetization, and biz ops.

https://t.co/928VB6uFJO by @HugoAmsellem
How do creators build wealth?
• Promote other people's products
• Sell their own products
• Invest

https://t.co/dMXiW6VFzn by @mariodgabriele
What do creators sell?
• Sharing profits w/ an audience
• Borrowing from Reddit
• The @MrBeastYT Flywheel

https://t.co/clxNk1NNm3 by @mariodgabriele
Creators have a hierarchy of needs that follow a rough priority order from creation through to monetization.

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.

https://t.co/Qh3OBbq7ds by @petergyang
In 2008, @kevin2kelly proposed that the internet would enable creatives to skip the middlemen and make a good living by engaging and monetizing fans directly.

Today, creators can make the same amount of money from even fewer fans.

https://t.co/zv1g6nKoD7 by @ljin18
Just like millionaires have an average of 7 income streams, the most successful creators have multiple revenue streams.

Enter, the Multi-SKU Creator.

https://t.co/WUiAnq3nnA by @hunterwalk
With more creators, content, and choice than ever before, consumers are in a state of analysis paralysis.

The real scarcity isn’t content. It’s attention.

As the amount of content grows, so does the market for credible curators.

https://t.co/3KFdkYgOnE by @gaby_goldberg
3 broad trends driving the future of creators:
1. Everyone can be creators
2. They have direct, authentic connections to communities
3. Creators have new tools to monetize their work

(Use "influencer" and "creator" interchangeably here)

https://t.co/4gkRmx95f2 by @rex_woodbury
Peter outlines 8 creator platform models that are universal. A must-read for both creators and the creator economy industry.

https://t.co/pnsf2mY359 by @petergyang
If you’re a startup building a platform for creators, here are the key metrics you'll want to track across success, revenue, engagement, growth, and community.

https://t.co/HNFwWfxK7o by @ljin18
It’s a common belief that in online communities, 90% of users are consumers/lurkers, 9% are contributors, and 1% are creators. This is often called the 90-9-1 rule.

This study found that this ratio may no longer be true.

https://t.co/30l1zXpIlM by @HigherLogic
Super Fan: someone who wants authentic interactions with a creator, and is willing to pay a lot for them.

Startups can grow by helping creators make money through authentic interactions with super fans.

https://t.co/9BRj4ZzlGw by @petergyang
The creative economy looks a lot like the U.S. economy — there are a few big winners and a lot of people hustling to make a living and barely getting by.

Here are 10 strategies for fostering the creator middle class.

https://t.co/ZWL4qzKmOO, https://t.co/C84Yh154qw by @ljin18
An insightful response to Li's article above from a self-confessed middle class creator:

• The value of a shoutout from a large account
• Attention to capital conversion efficiency
• Creator monetization strategy

https://t.co/0dS1irJ4Bm by @jomaoppa
2020 was a breakout year for the creator economy
• Substack has 250k+ paid subs
• Patreon is now valued at $1.2B
• OnlyFans earned $300M in profit
• Cameo handled $100M transactions
• Twitch 2X'd the number of streamers

https://t.co/pHgBkT8eaU by @sarafischer
What am I missing?

More from Culture

@bellingcat's attempt in their new book, published by
@BloomsburyBooks, to coverup the @OPCW #Douma controversy, promote US and UK gov. war narratives, and whitewash fraudulent conduct within the OPCW, is an exercise in deception through omission. @BloomsburyPub @Tim_Hayward_


1) 2000 words are devoted to the OPCW controversy regarding the alleged chemical weapon attack in #Douma, Syria in 2018 but critical material is omitted from the book. Reading it, one would never know the following:

2) That the controversy started when the original interim report, drafted and agreed by Douma inspection team members, was secretly modified by an unknown OPCW person who had manipulated the findings to suggest an attack had occurred. https://t.co/QtAAyH9WyX… @RobertF40396660


3) This act of attempted deception was only derailed because an inspector discovered the secret changes. The manipulations were reported by @ClarkeMicah
and can be readily observed in documents now available https://t.co/2BUNlD8ZUv….

4) @bellingcat's book also makes no mention of the @couragefoundation panel, attended by the @opcw's first Director General, Jose Bustani, at which an OPCW official detailed key procedural irregularities and scientific flaws with the Final Douma Report:
One of the authors of the Policy Exchange report on academic free speech thinks it is "ridiculous" to expect him to accurately portray an incident at Cardiff University in his study, both in the reporting and in a question put to a student sample.


Here is the incident Kaufmann incorporated into his study, as told by a Cardiff professor who was there. As you can see, the incident involved the university intervening to *uphold* free speech principles:


Here is the first mention of the Greer at Cardiff incident in Kaufmann's report. It refers to the "concrete case" of the "no-platforming of Germaine Greer". Any reasonable reader would assume that refers to an incident of no-platforming instead of its opposite.


Here is the next mention of Greer in the report. The text asks whether the University "should have overruled protestors" and "stepped in...and guaranteed Greer the right to speak". Again the strong implication is that this did not happen and Greer was "no platformed".


The authors could easily have added a footnote at this point explaining what actually happened in Cardiff. They did not.

You May Also Like