🎨 The Creator Economy

Welcome to the 440 new entrepreneurs who joined last week. Congrats to Vajresh for collecting the first Trends.vc NFT and becoming a Lifetime Trends Pro Member. Hey there, Welcome to the 440 new entrepreneurs who joined last week. Congrats to [Augusteo]( for collecting our last NFT and becoming a Lifetime Trends Pro Member. We have another up for grabs this week with ⏰ 3 hours left in the auction. 👉 To check it out, [click here](. 🎨 Let’s talk about The Creator Economy. Thanks to [Stewart Townsend]( (Podcast Hawk), [Shayla Price]( (PrimoStats), [Rick Segal]( (CRAAG Angel Group), [Ethan Jones]( (Tools for MGMT), [Jeremy Abraham]( (Spiffy), [Yarty Kim]( (A4E), [Mike Privette]( (Return on Security), [Kevin Deol](, Mike Donoghue (Subtext) and [Michael Pearson-Adams]( (MPA Fine Art). We had a great time jamming on this report. What you'll learn: - What drives the creator economy? - How to monetize? - What’s a product ladder? - Which virtual influencers have personal brands? - How to repurpose content? - How to build flywheels? - How to prevent burnout? - (📈 Pro) What’s a minimum viable audience? - (📈 Pro) Which business models are used by writers, gamers, musicians and more? - (📈 Pro) How to hedge platform risk? - (📈 Pro) What’s customer concentration? - (📈 Pro) How to sell merch without inventory risk? - (📈 Pro) How do web2 and web3 airdrops work? - (📈 Pro) How to avoid commoditization? - and much more... Unlock Trends Pro ✅ Access All Trends Pro Reports ✅ Stay Accountable with Daily Standups ✅ Meet Curious Entrepreneurs in Weekly Meetups ✅ Discuss Reports with Domain Experts ✅ Collaborate on Upcoming Reports [Become a Trends Pro Member]( [The Creator Economy]( [View on OpenSea]( “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man.” — Jay-Z 💎 Why it Matters The ability to create and distribute work is being democratized. 🔍 Problem Barriers to create and share lead to homogeneous content, products and experiences. 💡 Solution Democratized code and distribution lets creators focus on what they’re best at. 🏁 Players Creators and Niches - [Arvid Kahl]( • Bootstrapped Businesses - [Rosie Sherry]( • Community - [Michell Clark]( • Affirmations and Community - [Alex Llull]( • Audience-Building - [Lwany](• Petite Fashion - [Edmund Amoye]( • Belief Capital and Community - [KP]( • Building in Public - [Ash]( • No-Code - [Whit Anderson]( • Mini Startups Tools - [Gumroad]( • Sell digital products - [WordPress]( • Publish content - [Patreon]( • Get recurring support from your audience - [Shopify]( • Start an online store - [Rally]( • Launch and manage creator coins - [MailerLite]( • Email your audience - [Printful]( • Sell merch - [Stripe]( • Process online payments Platforms - [YouTube]( • Share videos and music - [Instagram]( • Share photos and videos - [TikTok]( • Short short clips - [Twitter]( • Share news and thoughts - [Twitch]( • Livestream and interact with your audience - [OnlyFans]( • Get direct support for photos and videos 🔮 Predictions - There will be more options to monetize. [NFTs]( make digital scarcity possible. Recurring revenue stems from royalties on secondary sales. You can also: - Get tips on [Twitch]( - Sell merch on [Printful]( - Chat with fans on [Subtext]( - Sell courses on [Teachable]( - Offer memberships on [Patreon]( - Give shoutouts videos on [Cameo]( - Sell books via [Kindle Direct Publishing]( - Become an affiliate with [Amazon Associates]( - The reach of new mediums will leapfrog the reach of old mediums. - [Top podcasts]( have more listeners than radio shows - [Top newsletters]( have more readers than newspapers - [Top YouTube channels]( have more viewers than TV shows - The ability to create and share work will become more accessible. - Merch is designed in [Figma]( and fulfilled by [Printful](. - Newsletters are written on laptops and sent via email. - Movies are filmed on [phones]( and shared on [YouTube](. - Songs are made on laptops, sent to [DistroKid]( and heard on [Spotify](. - There will be more virtual influencers. “Personal” brands are being built around characters like [Miquela](, [6529]( and [Jenkins The Valet](. ☁️ Opportunities - Build a product ladder. A series of offers ranging from less to more expensive options. [Flavio]( has a blog (free), books ($), courses ($$) and bootcamps ($$$). Higher tier offers are easier to sell once you deliver on promises in lower tiers. - Stick to a schedule. Build habits for yourself and anticipation with your audience. [Ira Glass]( shares [his thoughts]( on this. Your talent can catch up with your taste. Great newsletters, YouTube channels and podcasts often run on schedules. - Repurpose content. - Turn your newsletter into tweets like [Trends.vc]( - Turn your blog posts into books like [Derek Sivers]( - Turn your videos into podcasts like [Nomad Capitalist]( - Make content more accessible. - [Two Minute Papers]( popularizes ideas from cutting-edge research papers - [Founders podcast]( shares stories from business biographies - [Nat Eliason]( summarizes books - Build flywheels. These are self-reinforcing revenue streams. See [Issa Rae’s flywheel](. Bilal and I discussed the risk of stakeholder conflict in our [podcast episode](. 🏔️ Risks - Platform Risk • Being at the whim of “trusted” third parties. You can be deplatformed, suffer from [outages](, have terms arbitrarily changed and unheard complaints. - Burnout • Chronic exhaustion. This is the flipside of creative schedules. Unsustainable commitments can lead to burn out. - Switching Costs • Losing productivity due to a lack of focus. This is the risk with a portfolio of small bets. Multiple projects come with opportunity costs and switching costs. Explore and exploit. Concentrate to build wealth. Diversify to protect wealth. 🔑 Key Lessons - Pick what you can stick with. You’ll need to iterate to find what works. - Be a non-fungible person. The more unique you are. The more value you can capture. The less unique you are. The more competition drives prices. 😠Haters “The Creator Economy is a buzzword.” It’s a meme that persists because it’s descriptive and effective. “Decentralization has downsides.” There’s no free lunch. One downside may be slow decision making. Hence the push for [progressive decentralization](. Representative models may emerge in decentralized networks. ​​🔗 Links - [Who should I talk to about the creator economy?]( • The tweet behind this report. - [Creator Economy Market Map]( • A breakdown of the creator economy. - [The New Creator Economy]( • Web2 democratized information. Web3 democratizes ownership. ​​​​📁 Related Reports - [Personal Brands]( • People are becoming businesses. - [Audience-First Products]( • Building trust is hard. Monetizing trust is easy. - [Million-Dollar, One-Person Businesses]( • APIs, productized services and no-code tools lead to highly-leveraged people. - [No-Code]( • Commoditized code helps you build faster and focus on differentiated value. - [DAOs]( • Access, ownership and governance are being democratized. Want the Full Report? [Trends PRO #0073 — The Creator Economy]( has more insights. What you'll get: - 25 Creators and Niches (177% More) - 24 Tools (200% More) - 15 Platforms (150% More) - 10 Predictions (150% More) - 12 Opportunities (140% More) - 7 Risks (133% More) - 5 Key Lessons (150% More) - 10 Links (233% More) - 20-minute audio episode with exclusive Creator Economy stories, insights and opportunities. With Trends Pro you'll learn: - (📈 Pro) What’s a minimum viable audience? - (📈 Pro) Which business models are used by writers, gamers, musicians and more? - (📈 Pro) How to hedge platform risk? - (📈 Pro) What’s customer concentration? - (📈 Pro) How to sell merch without inventory risk? - (📈 Pro) How do web2 and web3 airdrops work? - (📈 Pro) How to avoid commoditization? - and much more... Unlock Trends Pro ✅ Access All Trends Pro Reports ✅ Stay Accountable with Daily Standups ✅ Meet Curious Entrepreneurs in Weekly Meetups ✅ Discuss Reports with Domain Experts ✅ Collaborate on Upcoming Reports [Become a Trends Pro Member]( Thanks, Dru Riley Founder, Trends.vc Trends.vc 101 Marietta Street Northwest, Atlanta Georgia 30303 United States [twitter]( You signed up on [our website]( to discover new markets and ideas. [Unsubscribe](