3 Paths to Success as a Content Creator

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sing as much on the stats as I became obsessed with them. That wasn’t great motivation. So I stopped focusing on my stats and putting more work into my content regardless of the outcome. It has been really beneficial for me.</p><h2 id="10c6">2. Persistence</h2><p id="98e4">You stick with content creation for a long time. You refine your craft. You build up your audience over this time and eventually you build up a large enough audience to support you. This is where I can shine. I’ve been writing for over 9 months now and while I don’t write as regularly as I did when I first started, I’m putting out higher-quality work when I write. And even if I don’t write as much, I still make sure that I write on a fairly regular cadence.</p><h2 id="9805">3. Network</h2><p id="7691">You already have a support network in place, and this network spreads your content for you. They might not directly be your audience, but they support you in your endeavors and help get you to your audience. Or they have an audience that you can borrow that overlaps some of yours. This is something that I have keyed in on as an interesting place that can be improved. There is a huge focus on building up large networks. It’s my belief that this is what social media has taught us to do. But the interesting part to me is when I contrast this behavior with what has been successful in starting my company. I’ve tried expanding my network as widely as I can. I’ve met some interesting people that way. But I haven’t been nearly as successful as the times that I’ve put efforts into building relationships with people. That’s where social media goes wrong, in my eyes. It creates an environment in which the goal is to amass the most followers and not build lasting, high-value relationships.</p><h2 id="c839">The Creator Middle Class</h2><p id="046c">And that’s the part we need to focus on. If we want to build a strong creator middle class, we need to help creators build

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long-lasting, high-value relationships. These will help negate the need for luck and make persistence easier. There needs to be a support system for creators, not just platforms that reward users for pushing out viral content continuously. It becomes unsustainable and I think we will see creators burn out at a very high rate.</p><p id="92d0">But what if there was a support system? What if you could write your blog, someone else could edit it, and then a team of people could help distribute it? Perhaps you have a writing coach that could help show you where you could improve your writing. If you look at the top creators, you see that many of them have support systems like this. The problem is that, as a starting creator, you likely don’t have the network or the resources to have a support system like this. I know I didn’t (and still don’t).</p><p id="b852">And that’s why I’m building one. But I don’t want to build one for just me. I want to build one that I can share with any other creator that could use one. There will be a focus on helping creators that are just starting out. I’m currently putting together a community of people who want to be part of the creator-adjacent economy. I want to find people who can help creators become successful. I view revenue sharing as an economical model that can help reward people to work with creators and help them become successful and that’s what I’m building with my startup. I’m going to be putting together events with the creators I’ve met in my journey and explore the paths that people took on their way to success. And together, we are going to build the support structures necessary to build the creator middle class.</p><p id="9d7c">If you’d like to be part of this community, you are welcome to join us. We would love to have you. <a href="https://join.slack.com/t/definet/shared_invite/zt-nnw95i1z-Omj8woA6hagj302FAQ6WBA">Sign up for our slack community here.</a></p></article></body>

And what the creator economy is missing for us to have a creator middle class

I’ve been spending way too much time studying the creator economy. As a creator and a founder that’s trying to build within the creator space, I need to understand the ecosystem and all of its moving pieces. I’ve studied how platforms pay creators and how creators can be successful. I’ve started finding my voice and building up my audience.

But there’s a piece missing. See, my goal is to build up a creator middle class. It’s not as sexy as becoming a millionaire TikTok star, but it’s something that I believe is necessary to bring about a healthy economy. Before I show you what’s missing, let’s look at what you need in order to be successful as a content creator.

I’ve figured out that it takes at least 1 of 3 things:

1. Luck

The algorithm decides it likes you and distributes your content to a ton of people and it takes off. The “viral” effect. This is what most new creators think will happen. I’ve been hoping to hit the lottery with my content for 9 months now. It hasn’t happened yet. There are lots of reasons for that but looking back, I’m thrilled I didn’t hit the lottery yet. It has forced me to continually get better and grow my audience the right way. I’ve been creating connections with my audience and gradually growing my numbers. I stopped focusing as much on the stats as I became obsessed with them. That wasn’t great motivation. So I stopped focusing on my stats and putting more work into my content regardless of the outcome. It has been really beneficial for me.

2. Persistence

You stick with content creation for a long time. You refine your craft. You build up your audience over this time and eventually you build up a large enough audience to support you. This is where I can shine. I’ve been writing for over 9 months now and while I don’t write as regularly as I did when I first started, I’m putting out higher-quality work when I write. And even if I don’t write as much, I still make sure that I write on a fairly regular cadence.

3. Network

You already have a support network in place, and this network spreads your content for you. They might not directly be your audience, but they support you in your endeavors and help get you to your audience. Or they have an audience that you can borrow that overlaps some of yours. This is something that I have keyed in on as an interesting place that can be improved. There is a huge focus on building up large networks. It’s my belief that this is what social media has taught us to do. But the interesting part to me is when I contrast this behavior with what has been successful in starting my company. I’ve tried expanding my network as widely as I can. I’ve met some interesting people that way. But I haven’t been nearly as successful as the times that I’ve put efforts into building relationships with people. That’s where social media goes wrong, in my eyes. It creates an environment in which the goal is to amass the most followers and not build lasting, high-value relationships.

The Creator Middle Class

And that’s the part we need to focus on. If we want to build a strong creator middle class, we need to help creators build long-lasting, high-value relationships. These will help negate the need for luck and make persistence easier. There needs to be a support system for creators, not just platforms that reward users for pushing out viral content continuously. It becomes unsustainable and I think we will see creators burn out at a very high rate.

But what if there was a support system? What if you could write your blog, someone else could edit it, and then a team of people could help distribute it? Perhaps you have a writing coach that could help show you where you could improve your writing. If you look at the top creators, you see that many of them have support systems like this. The problem is that, as a starting creator, you likely don’t have the network or the resources to have a support system like this. I know I didn’t (and still don’t).

And that’s why I’m building one. But I don’t want to build one for just me. I want to build one that I can share with any other creator that could use one. There will be a focus on helping creators that are just starting out. I’m currently putting together a community of people who want to be part of the creator-adjacent economy. I want to find people who can help creators become successful. I view revenue sharing as an economical model that can help reward people to work with creators and help them become successful and that’s what I’m building with my startup. I’m going to be putting together events with the creators I’ve met in my journey and explore the paths that people took on their way to success. And together, we are going to build the support structures necessary to build the creator middle class.

If you’d like to be part of this community, you are welcome to join us. We would love to have you. Sign up for our slack community here.