How to Make Money and Be Free as a Creative
Advice on becoming successful in the ‘Creator Economy.’
We live in a fun world. Think about it: your grandparents and parents would have never gone to a ‘career counselor’ or passed the MBTI test for strengths and weaknesses to determine what their ‘passion’ is. They would have gone to a factory (or the office, which are basically the same things) and worked. Provided. Made money.
Today though, you can make money by just being who you are.
You can make videos and not be a professional director. You can write books and not work with a major publisher (or any publisher for that matter). You can create your own show, and you don’t even have to pitch it to your local radio or TV station. You can just hit ‘Record’ on your iPhone and upload it via YouTube or Anchor.
We — Millenials and Generation Z — often take this all for granted. We forget that just 20 years ago the world was very different. But that’s just how it works. In 20 years’ time, we’ll look back to today and think the same thing, “Oh, back then, it was soooo different.”
Because today we’re going through another significant transformation.
The ‘Gig Economy’ that prevailed for the past ten or so years and which gave birth to freelancers, agencies and digital nomads is being slowly pushed by a new world — the ‘Passion Economy’ (or, ‘Creator Economy’ as I like to call it), which allows creators of all shapes and sizes have their voice to be heard by people and make money.
In this economy, there are (again) new rules, and there are new ways of doing things. And it’s already here. I am welcoming you to this new world.
If you’ve missed the ‘dotcom’ (because you were too young), the early days of YouTube (because you didn’t like makeup) and the ‘Gig Economy’ (because you were too busy partying), you have a chance now.
Welcome to Creator (Passion) Economy
But first, let’s go back a few years and remember what the ‘Gig Economy’ was all about.
In that world, you could quit your job and become a new species of animal, called ‘a freelancer.’
You could travel the world as a digital nomad, live in Thailand, and do SEO for other people and get paid. I always thought it was incredibly dull, but even I lived like this for a few years (I created content for other people).
Here are a few traits of the ‘Gig Economy’:
- You get paid proportionally to the work you do. The more you work — the more you get paid.
- Your earn by the project.
- Your main asset is your client base and your portfolio. ‘Who have you worked for?’ — is the defining question.
- You compete with other people, and nobody wants you to be original or creative. People just wait for you to get stuff done and do it quickly and at the highest quality possible.
While this was happening (mainly, thanks to marketplaces like Fiverr and UpWork), technology kept evolving. And slowly, new marketplaces like Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, and Medium came into play. What at first seemed like a place for people and companies to distribute content became a world in itself.
People started to make money off YouTube videos. Top Medium writers began to make $500k+ per year (some even more). And self-published authors on Amazon (like S. J. Scott) made $40–50K per month from selling books.
This gave rise to a new economy, which we call the ‘Passion Economy’ (Creator Economy) — and which gave birth to a whole new class of professions.
On top of that, you have SaaS companies like Anchor (podcast platform), Podia (online course platform), Substack (newsletter platform) that help creators who amassed audiences on platforms continue to increase their earnings and build loyalty among their communities.
Being a full-time ‘blogger’ is not a joke anymore.
A few traits of the ‘Creator Economy’:
- You get paid proportionally to the audience you’ve got. The more attention you’ve aggregated (i.e., the more followers you’ve got), the more money you make.
- You earn recurring revenue.
- Your main asset is your audience and the engagement (loyalty) of that audience. ‘How many followers have you got?’ — is the defining question.
- You don’t compete with other people, because in this new economy originality and individuality is seen as a positive trait, not a liability. The more original you are (the more you are yourself), the better off you’ll be.
How to Make a Living Doing What You Love
That’s really what this whole new economy is about.
You can make a living doing what you love. Or just being who you are — and allowing your personality to shine through your work.
Here are a few ways you can start making money doing what you love right now, depending on what you like to do most.
Writers
If you’re passionate about writing, you can start blogging on Medium and get paid by the reading time of your followers. Or you can build an email newsletter on Substack and charge people for it. Or start self-publishing books on Amazon (it’s free) and make money while you sleep.
Podcasters
Podcasting is booming, but it’s never too late. Remember: the more you’re you, the better off you’ll be in this new economy. You’ve got tools like Anchor, Castbox, Descript, or Supercast at your disposal. You don’t need to buy anything, just put your headphones on and hit ‘Record’ in the Voice Memos.
Teachers
If you’re a real teacher, you’ll benefit from something like OutSchool — a platform where experienced teachers can continue working without having to ‘go’ to work.
If you’ve got something you want to give to the world, but no rea; credentials — don’t worry, a platform like Podia will take care of your new online course and digital downloads.
You can also create audio courses on platforms like Knowable.
Video Makers
YouTube is the platform where you build an audience. Just like Medium, you get paid by the platform itself. You then transfer that audience into an email newsletter or create an online course to further your audience engagement.
These are just examples. However, there are 1M+ ways to make money in this new economy.
Two Things You Need to Remember In This New Economy
Transition to a new economy requires a shift in thinking. Start with these two.
Audience matters.
In fact, that’s all that really matters in this new world. The more attention you’ve got — the better off you’ll be.
Build that attention by creating free content at first (on platforms like Medium and YouTube), and you’ll be able to monetize it later on via SaaS tools like Podia.
Be yourself.
Unlike the ‘Gig Economy,’ where you got paid by just getting your work done on time, in the ‘Creator Economy,’ you’re paid by being unique. And the best way to do that is to let go and just be yourself. Copying somebody else is a recipe for disaster. Being yourself is the recipe for success.
1,000 vs. 100 True Fans
Kevin Kelly wrote a blog post in 2009 that went viral. You’ve probably heard of it.
If not, here’s a short version of the idea:
In order to make money as a creator (somebody who makes things), all you need is 1,000 ‘true fans’. A true fan is somebody who will travel a long distance to get your latest book. It’s also somebody who will buy $100 worth of value per year from you, given that you produce that much. If you multiply 1,000 by $100 per year, you get $100K per year — which is a nice living.
However, there’s another approach to this: 100 true fans (which was popularized by Li Jun, one of the partners at Andreessen Horowitz)
Li proposes that instead of having 1,000 true fans, we can have 100 true fans — and charge not $100, but $1,000 per year. The ‘1,000 true fans’ model still works, but if you decide to go the second way, you will need to make a fundamental shift in thinking.
Instead of trying to maximize the number of ‘true fans’ and ways to get paid, we should be providing high-quality, unique products and services to a few people — our core community.
Maybe it’s paid content membership that costs $85/mo ($1,020/yr). Or perhaps it’s personal coaching for a premium Patreon Tier of $100-$300/mo.
But I don’t think we have to choose. The two models can co-exist.
Your Creator’s Funnel
I propose we go even further and combine these two models into one funnel:
Free Fan –> Patron –> True Fan
- Free Fan. People who don’t pay you directly (although they may be paying the platform), but still follow you. These are your followers on Medium and YouTube, for example. You can always make money from the platform, but there is a limited direct relationship between you and the consumer. You make $0/yr from these people.
- Patron. These are the people from your ‘free fan’ cohort, who want to support you. These are your ‘1,000 true fans’ — and they support you via Patreon ($5–7/mo) or buying eBooks or affiliate links. You should be able to make about $100/mo per person from this cohort.
- True Fan. Now, these are the ‘100 true fans’ who pay you $1,000 per year. These are your hardcore fans, and if you’ve got 100 of those, you’re already making a decent living. You make $1,000/yr from these people.
In order for this funnel to work, you’ve got to maximize the number of ‘Free Fans’ (e.g., followers on Medium or YouTube or your own blog or newsletter). These will be converted into Patrons, and Patrons will be converted into True Fans.
Let’s talk numbers for a second.
Imagine that you’ve got 10,000 followers on Medium (which is doable). You make about 40–50% of your follower count per month, given that you’re diligent with your writing. Hence, at 10,000 followers, you make at least $4,000/mo. Not bad.
Let’s say that your conversion rate from ‘Free Fan’ to ‘Patron’ and then to ‘True Fan’ is always 1%. That’s pretty conservative.
Hence, if you have 10,000 Free Fans, you’ve got 100 Patrons and 1 True Fan.
That’s: $4,000 from Free Fans + $500 ($5 x 100) + $85 ($85 x 1) = $4,585 per month. Or $55K per year. That’s pretty good for a small blog.
But let’s say that you decide not to blog on Medium, and you’re not making any money from your first Tier (free fans), and only monetize your Patrons and True Fans, $100 and $1000 per year respectively.
If you’ve got 100K followers in your Free Fan segment, that means you’ve got 1,000 Patrons and 10 True Fans. That’s $100,000 + $10,000 = $110,000/yr.
And that’s considering that your conversion rate from Tier to Tier is just 1%, which is pretty conservative.
Takeaway
Welcome to the Passion (Creator) Economy. What we think of when we say the word ‘work’ is changing.
If you were born just 30 or 40 years earlier, you wouldn’t have had the freedom to make a living doing what you love and by being yourself. There are no middlemen, and we (creators) can do anything we want.
Embrace that freedom.
You’ve got all the tools at your disposal to let your creativity shine. And by following two principles: focusing on building the audience and being yourself — you’ll be able to make a living doing what you love.
The good news is, you don’t need to hit extremely high to be successful. You just need 100 or 1,000 true fans to make that happen.
Thanks for reading. Too many books, too little time. Join my email newsletter, and I’ll send you books to read!
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