The following article first appeared on Airschool and has been reproduced with permission.
The rise of social media influencers has given birth to the Creators Economy. In simple words, ‘Creators Economy’ is the set of tools and businesses created to support independent influencers.
Digital creators spend almost 60-80 hours a week producing content, yet their incomes are not reliable and fixed. This is one of the factors why most consider their online presence as side hustles. These creators have enormous stress to support their passions and themselves.
Since digital is the norm in this day and age, how can these influencers become financially independent? Read on:
First, identify your super fans 🦸♂️
Most digital creators have superfans. Superfans are your most enthusiastic followers. They believe in you, talk to their friends about you, can travel miles to meet you. In short, they love you wholeheartedly. If you are creating original content, on average, 2% to 10% of your followers can be your super fans.
Create an exclusive community ⭕️
As a creator, you can launch paid, invite-only communities. These communities can help you establish a stronger relationship with your superfans. And you can do a lot with your community – have meetups, calls, discussions, and web events. MightyNetworks, Circle.so, Facebook Groups, Slack are great platforms to do that.
Kanwal Ahmed has an amazing community with the name of Soul Sisters Pakistan, but she isn’t monetizing directly. Doesn’t mean she shouldn’t…
Create your own product ⚒️
Sell your merchandise. But make sure it distinctly personifies your values and core beliefs. We’ve known digital creators around the world to do this, and it has worked. Why? The secret is: SUPER FANS! 🤩
You can use Fishry, Shopify to manage/sell your products e.g YouTube creator Irfan Junejo runs his own e-commerce clothing store with the name Furor.
Start a paid newsletter/podcast 💌🎙
You can create a paid podcast or newsletter for your followers. It is, although, a one-way channel but can help you share exclusive content with your super fans. Look at platforms like Supercast, Substack.
Muzammil Hasan and Junaid Akram, both do a podcast. They both have the potential to monetize their listeners directly.
Sell your knowledge 📚
Become a knowledge entrepreneur by selling courses. Airschool provides an all-in-one tool for launching a knowledge-sharing business with local and international payments enabled.
Ayesha Zaman is one of many digital creators taking full advantage of our tools by teaching courses at Airschool, and fully embracing the perks of being part of a creator economy.
Take donations, tips 💰
You can ask your followers to support you by giving a monthly or one-time tip. This can help you generate some income. We love Patreon, Ko-fi, etc for that. Several local digital creators, like Sarmad Hashmi who is an Art Director, are using Patreon.
If you are a creator and want to increase your sales. Then, book a consultation call with us at calendly.com/airschool
