Creator economy predictions: The forecast for 2023 -
The world of creators was full of viral moments in 2022. ChatGPT came into the picture as did The Corn Kid and Chrissy Wake Up were rerun (IYKYK) And, of course, creators regularly graced our screens with something new to discover or laugh about. In the meantime the market for creators as well as the businesses that fuel it, underwent many changes. There were a lot of technology-related layoffs by players such as Patreon, Thinkific, and Meta and a 50% decrease in funds for companies that are based around creators. Many are in the dark about what's to come for the creator-related industry?
Going into 2023, companies in the creator economy will need to prioritize creator-first solutions that help solve the core issue around monetization.Before we dive into our predictions for the year and the most important creator starter packs for this year's calendar, we'll first review the top the trends that we observed in 2022.
Trends for creators in the top 10 from 2022
In order to gauge the life of creators last year we conducted a survey of creators about the sources of income, methods to monetize as well as social media usage. Three main trends were observed:
- Most creators can't afford to pursue their creator business full-time.
- Video content and the platforms supporting it rule supreme.
- A majority of creators use the monetization of third parties to earn money from their content.
Income trends
In a digital world where you can go viral one minute and have several brand sponsorships every day, people want to know what the creators make, especially amateurs that are interested in determining if this is a feasible career path.
We asked creators to tell us how much they had earned from online sources during the past twelve months. It was not surprising that 42 percent of creators earned more than $10,000,while just 9% of them earned more than $250,000. The average is 20% of the creators earned less than $1000from their content.
Creators that earned money from their content, YouTube at 23% of the market was the most popular platform which they earned the majority of their income. TikTok was second with third spot being Instagram and in-person events.
In the past, YouTube was among the sole social networks to offer ad revenues to creators by way of AdSense that is the reason for the popularity of YouTube among creators. Still, the payouts are low since 97.5 percent of YouTubers don't make enough to reach the U.S. poverty line. In TikTok as well as Instagram the feeds of sponsored videos and posts for brands are usually more lucrative as compared to creator fund payouts which are too little for the sheer number of creators who use the platforms.
There are many methods creators can earn money from their content including direct monetization (charging customers via their own tools/website or through a platform like ) and third-party monetization (brand sponsorships or ads to another business). We asked creators if and which ways they made money from these types of their content. These included online course, live webinars, coaching podcasts, newsletters online events, ebooks blog posts and social media posts. blog posts. Creators also had the option of choosing if they offered these types of content for free or not.
At 40% the online course proved to be the top option to directly earn money from. For third-party monetization, coaching with 35% of the market was most sought-after. Finally, newsletters and blog posts tied at 39% as the top kinds of content creators that are offered at no cost.
Cumulatively, third-party monetization was the most common method of creators. For instance, accepting sponsorships for a podcast or putting up an #ad on social media. This is in direct correlation to the truth that 69 percent of creators say they depend on third-party monetization, such as brands to earn money.
Trends in social media
Social media as it's an essential tools for communication and audience building. With regard to social media platforms, YouTube had the largest percentage of creators on the platform with 77%. Facebook came in third with 72%, Instagram with 70% and TikTok at 62%. The most popular social media platform was LinkedIn which was rated at just 27 percent. YouTube's rise in popularity confirms our earlier results that YouTube is the best platform on which creators earn most of their creator-related revenue.
Let's discuss the social media users. There's rhetoric within the world of creators that in order to become a successful creator, you need to amass hundreds of thousands or even million of fans. However, in our survey findings, the majority of creators have less than 10,000 social media followers cumulatively across all platforms. The majority of them reported following counts between 1,000 and 9,999 while 26% reported under 1,000. The majority of creators fall at the level of micro-influencer (less than 50k followers) which is more beneficial and attractive for brands because micro-influencers are an extremely loyal and local audience with a higher engagement level.
We also asked creators which actions on social media they participated in. In other words did they partner in conjunction with a brand for campaigns or even host an event live on a social feed? With 48% of the votes of the time, the most frequent task creators have reported was to respond to comments or questions on posts and stories. In second place, just 36% of authors stated that they designed digital products in order to complement with their marketing via influencers. Being connected to your online audience is essential for all creators; responding to questions and comments on posts is a great starting point for building a unique image and increasing engagement with customers.
The overall results of 2022 show that people are constantly creating a wealth of material, particularly for social media. However, only the top few have the greatest success.
Creator economy predictions for 2023
There's already been a lot of forecasts about the future of the creative economy in 2023. Hot new AI tools popping up, YouTube and TikTok going head to head to win over viewers, heightened the burnout of creators, and perhaps, TikTok replacing Google as the next search engine.
The most important elephant in the room is creators are increasingly finding that relying on social platforms to earn money doesn't make sense. Even the most successful creators have started to call this out. The influencer Hank Green revealed his earnings amounted to only $0.02 to $0.03 per 1,000 viewers on TikTok the world's most famous influencer MrBeast stated that he earned less than $15,000 per year from TikTok even though his videos have racked up billions of viewers.
When we reach 2023, creators will lean toward solutions designed for creators and strategies which allow them to make money from what their work is worth. Being a major player in the direct-to-creator marketplace, we have three key expectations for the year ahead:
1. Many creators will begin to control their own online communities.
2. Creators will depend on social media to be an avenue for traffic, not as of a revenue stream.
3. Live interaction with the public will make a full comeback.
Three years have passed since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2022, and the year 2023 is expected to see in-person events return in full force. Although events had a brief revival during 2022 the attendance of events was lower since people chose to stay home with alternative options. In 2023, we'll see that more creators will host live events in person, be it meetups, workshops, live classes, or retreats. We found in-person events were one of the three most popular ways creators earned the bulk of their money. It's likely they'll keep expanding in this area.
4. Creators will more often use AI tools to run their business.
Unless you've been living under a rock, know that ChatGPT has overtaken the internet. It's a model that has been trained by OpenAI which can assist in the creation of content--long story short, you provide a topic or a inquiry and ChatGPT creates the content for you. Also, (spoiler warning) the content is typically quite good. Creators will start to use software such as ChatGPT to assist them to increase and accelerate their content output. This will help prevent creator burnout.
The Starter pack of the creator for 2023.
Whatever happens this year Creators must ensure the security of their companies with the proper equipment. If you're a creative looking to take on this year, here's your most comprehensive starter kit
- Direct-monetization tool- In order for creators to do their passions full time, as well as earn what their work is worth, direct monetization is key. We call this the direct-to-creator economy. Instead of relying on third party sponsorships such as ads or brand agreements, the creators should be at the top of their game when it comes to in determining the cost of their own content. Creator-first tools allow creators to achieve this through the direct monetization of digital goods like courses, coaching podcasts, memberships, websites, and communities--plus, helps to streamline your company so that everything can be located in one place. creators have generated over $4.3 billion in revenues and keep all of it.
As we head into 2023, one thing's evident: the creators must take the lead in the decision of what their work is worth. Although social media is vital to building brand awareness and connecting with a target audience, creators who rely entirely on social media for their businesses are playing a dangerous game.
aims to be a key element of the creation economy debate. Through data-based findings and anecdotes, we hope that we can make making money easier for all creators. We've found one in three creators with whom we have a full-time online business make over six figures.
Methodology:
The findings in this survey are first-party information. We sent a survey to over 1,900 creators who are not using . We received 1,046 replies that have a 95% confidence interval. Please note we cannot access the email addresses of customers who use another email marketing platform We are unable to collect the revenue figures for transactions or revenue processed outside of the platform. The data we collect is intended to be used only for general research purposes. Individual responses are confidential, and we will not divulge information about the individual's identity with any third-party. For access to data or to discuss a collaboration contact us at [email protected].