Authors Ryan Gum 🕶

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Ryan Gum \U0001f576
Ryan Gum 🕶
@ryangum
📖 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
CULTURE , ALL
Ryan Gum \U0001f576
Ryan Gum 🕶
@ryangum
The Compounding Creator

How one creator made $1,332,400 across 6 revenue streams in 2020:

🎬 $135k - Ads
🔥 $177k - Affiliates
💰 $182k - Sponsorships
📚 $470k - Self-paced courses
🚀 $295k - Cohort-based course
⭕️ $71k - Community

Breakdown 👇


In 2017, @aliabdaal created a YouTube channel.

He started with 0 views, 0 subs, but he posted 2 videos every single week for 6 months.

His revenue from this work? $0.

***This is when 95% of creators quit.***

But 52 vids and 6 months later he hit his first 1,000 subs.

🎬 $135,200 - Google AdSense

Channel growth:

2017: 59 vids, 1,600 subs, $0 from ads.
2018: 88 vids, 120k subs, $16,500.
2019: 62 vids, 450k subs, $44,600.
2020: 98 vids, 1.3M subs, $135,300.

More from Ali on YouTube revenue here:

This slide shows the average number of vids needed to hit subscriber brackets (data from @TubeBuddy).

- Top row: Number of subs.
- Middle row: average vids needed to hit number of subs.
- Bottom row: Ali's vids to hit number of subs.


In 2017, Ali was growing at 2X the average, with 27 subs and $0 per vid.

By 2020, he was growing at 10X the average, with 8,673 subs and $1,380 per vid.

But, his output remained steady at ~1.5 vids per week. This is the compounding nature of sub and revenue growth.
ALL
Ryan Gum \U0001f576
Ryan Gum 🕶
@ryangum
Thinking of starting a Substack?

Read this first 👇


As someone working in the creator economy space, I love the movement that Substack started.

They mainstreamed paying for independent writing, and changed the lives of thousands of writers in the process.

But they're building for a specific type of creator.

Substack has made it clear that they're focusing on professional writers.

(Putting my product hat on, this is a smart strategy for them to differentiate and win a specific market)

In 2020 they rolled out initiatives like grants, legal support, and mentorship for writers.

If you call yourself "not tech-savvy", their platform is the easiest out-of-the-box option.

Want to take some time off? One of their smartest features gives writers the power to pause paid subscriptions.

If you're a professional writer, Substack might be a good option for you to start with.

But, there are successful writers who are 'graduating' from Substack when they discover a few
FINANCE