Business of Creators 💬

Stay ahead of the curve in the creator economy...

Everytime you see overwhelming and disheartening news for creators, just remember that the Creator Economy could approach half-a-trillion dollars in worth by 2027... you’re not going anywhere. 

Industry latest

💸Meta is experimenting with a new program for its Threads app, where creators can get paid for their posts - one condition, only if the post is good enough. 

➕IG Chief says followers is not a good enough metric… Duh! It’s your engagement rate, look at your likes/views divided by the number of followers. 

Snapchat is teaming up with Snowflake, a data tool for targeting and measuring ad performing, making advertising more data-informed and effective.

📍Snapchat's annual Partner Summit, where it unveils new updates for the app and its expanded projects, is set for September 17th, 2024, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, CA.

Sponsored by Canva

🌈 Got a knack for creating? Canva's looking for Empower Canvassadors! Share your skills, make tutorials, and join a community eager to learn and grow. From TikTok to YouTube, we’re all about spreading creative vibes. 🎨 

Perks? Beta testing, workshops, and some cool Canva swag. Applications open again in March 2024. Learn more!

Ads for creators and brands is going to start looking very different

In a recent YouTube video, Shelby Church talked about quitting Airbnb. Then, out of nowhere, you see two soda cans appear on the screen with a message saying "This video is brought to you by Bubly." This is part of a new way of advertising on YouTube and TikTok that doesn't interrupt your viewing but still helps creators make money.

This new approach comes from a start-up called Rembrand who want to make ads less annoying by using AI to create animations that fit right into the video instead of pop-ups (I think we can all agree that’s an improvement). 

For creators like Shelby Church, who have lots of subscribers, this means they can earn some extra cash without doing much extra work - they get a cut of the money that Rembrand makes from advertisers. Right now, most of these ads you'll see are on YouTube, but they're starting to show up on TikTok too. They're usually a couple of minutes long, but they blend in so well you might not even notice them.

And Rembrand is making it easier for creators to get in on the action. Soon, creators will be able to use Rembrand's tools themselves to add these cool animations to their videos and get paid for it. Stay tuned! 

Platform round-up

Leverage the latest updates and features across digital platforms to help you get ahead of the game…

🛍️YouTube is introducing new in-stream shopping tools to boost product discovery and purchasing within the app, offering creators the ability to curate product collections from their favorite brands, including their own products, with hopes of increasing revenue opportunities and monetization potential.

🧠TikTok has released a comprehensive guidebook on maximizing its "Promote" feature, akin to Meta's "Boost" option, allowing users to enhance their content's reach through paid promotion. The 42-page guide offers insights on leveraging Promote effectively to optimize your ads. 

Unlocking TikTok earnings: Creative Challenge program

Last year, TikTok rolled out a new initiative known as the Creative Challenge program, which was designed to encourage creators 18 years and older, based in the States and with a minimum of 50k followers to create engaging and inventive content that would be fitting to create brand deals. Lots of TikTok users are still unaware of the Creative Challenge program. Here’s what to expect if you’re interested in pursuing monetization: 

👉Once accepted into the program, creators gain access to a dashboard within the TikTok app, where they can manage their submissions and track their earnings. They are then provided with opportunities to submit videos to brands for potential collaboration. 

👉These submissions undergo a review process and may require revisions before being posted on the brand's account. All communication between the brand and the creator is facilitated through TikTok's platform.

👉Creators earn revenue from their contributions to the Creative Challenge program based on a share of the generated ad revenue, which is determined by the brand. 

👉Additionally, creators have the chance to earn bonuses for achieving specific milestones or for referring other creators to the program.

👉Gaming creators, such as Cristina Johnson and Joey Barton, have found substantial success within the program. In January 2024, Johnson earned $20,529, while Barton earned $17,533.