How to Become a Full-Time Content Creator: Different Content Creator Career Paths

When it comes to being a “content creator” there are so many different directions you can take to grow and monetize. The question is, which path is right for you and your niche. Today, I want to walk you through three content creator different paths you can take to become a full-time content creator.

The Influencer Path

First on the list is the Influencer Path, which a lot of outsiders probably immediately assume is how most content creators make a living. The influencer route is perfect for those who really just want to be a creator and get paid to create content in their niche.

How can you grow as an Influencer?

If you are looking to grow online as an influencer, it’s best to focus your energy on one evergreen platform and one timely platform - this could be something like TikTok and YouTube or Instagram and a Podcast. Between these two platforms, your main goal would be to generate views by creating niche-specific content, which would help you build an audience surrounding that one specific topic. If you are trying to be an influencer, it’s very important to focus on attracting a niche audience, because this is going to help you with monetizing, which we will chat about in a minute.

How you can make money as an Influencer?

There are a few major ways to make money as an influencer:

Brand Partnerships: First, let’s chat about brand partnerships, which some refer to as Brand Deals or Collaborations. This is when a brand pays you to deliver some sort of advertisement for their product or service on your content. This could be a 45-60 second mid-roll ad on a YouTube video or a mention of their product or service on an Instagram Reel or Story. You can negotiate all of this with the brand. But something very important you have to remember is making sure you have a niche audience, within the same demographic of the brands you are trying to work with. One thing most brands will want to see is the demographic of your chosen social media platform because they do not want to waste their time marketing to an audience that wouldn’t buy from them.

Affiliate Marketing: Another solid way to make an income as an influencer is with affiliate marketing. If you are new to this, affiliate marketing is where you mention products or services you like and provide your audience with a tracking link. If someone makes a purchase after clicking your link, you will get a small commission at no extra cost to your audience. You can set up affiliate links through the company's direct websites or there are companies like Amazon Associates and Reward Style that offer affiliate links through various products or companies.

Google AdSense: This is more relevant to YouTubers or Bloggers, but one way to make additional income as an influencer is through Google AdSense. Google AdSense is just referring to the ads you can place before, within, or at the end of your YouTube videos or if you are a blogger, you can place these ads on your website pages. The revenue you can make from ads is dependent on the niche and traffic you get to your platform.

Merchandise: Once you build up an audience and you have those ride-or-die “fans” - another way you can bring in additional income is through selling your own merchandise. You can go through companies like Spreadshirt, so you can avoid upfront costs. This is something that might not give you a lot of income, but it is something that can make your audience feel a bit closer to you and build a bigger sense of community.

The Educator Path

Now moving on to the second content creator career on my list, the Educator Path. Which I guess is the path I am currently on. It’s important to know that there is definitely some overlap with these various paths - as an educator, you can still work with brands, share affiliate links, collect AdSense, and sell merchandise. But there is even more you can do to monetize on the educational route.

How can you grow as an Educator?

First, before diving into monetization, let’s talk about how to grow as an educator. Just like being an influencer, I recommend choosing an evergreen and timely platform - which by the way, if you want to learn more about these various platforms, we just went over all of this in a recent podcast episode called, “What Social Platform Should You Start With in 2022 “ - so check that out. As an educator, I would recommend with starting with a YouTube channel or Podcast - as these two platforms are great for educating and interacting with a large audience. Then pair this with something like Instagram, allowing you to dive even deeper with your audience.

How you can make money as an Educator?

In addition to still being able to make money with brand partnerships, affiliate marketing, etc. You can also sell your education through digital products and services.

Digital Products: First up, digital products. There is an endless list of digital products you can create for your audience. You can create and sell project management or design templates - for example, if you use Notion (like we do), you can create templates that relate to your niche in Notion and sell them. You can create management systems for any niche - if you educate your audience on taking care of plants, you can create a Notion page for tracking your plant care. If you are in the physical fitness niche, you can create a Notion page for a workout or meal regimen. Regarding design templates, this could be something like Canva templates - this again could be any niche. If you have a niche where you are educating folks on how to grow on social media, you can sell social media design templates or say you’re in the wedding and event field, you can sell a planner or documentation of some sort. As I said, the list is never-ending.

On top of those digital products, you can also create and sell a course. Courses are a great way to provide more structured education on various topics and have an all-in-one place to teach your audience. This is one of the more popular products you see a lot of educators selling online.

Services: In addition to digital products, you can also sell services. This might look like one-on-one coaching, group coaching, or set monthly packages. Using my social media agency, Creatorly Media, as an example - we sell monthly Instagram packages for strategy and content creation (which by the way, we do have some openings for August, where we will strategize and create your September Instagram Content if you’re interested), but the point is - we offer this service to the audience I have built on my personal platforms, this Podcast, and more. Depending on your niche, will depend on the service you offer. Let’s use the plant niche as an example again. Let’s say you educate your audience on how to care for plants. You created a few Notion templates and a course that walks them through the basics of the various plant varieties and how to care for them. Now you want to take it to the next level, so you offer a plant care management service, where they provide you details of all of their plants and you create a personalized management system for their plants - providing advice and instruction on care and maintenance. You can create a service based on the problem your audience needs solved.

Memberships: Finally, another way to make money as an educator is through a membership program. This is a monthly subscription service that will provide your audience with exclusive content or education that they cannot receive through your social media platforms, products, or services. You can update this monthly with various freebies, resources, lives, videos, and so much more. You can then have them pay a monthly fee to continue getting access to this exclusive program. This is a great way to generate consistent monthly income, though please remember the time commitment this also brings.

The Entertainer and Artist Path

The last path on my list is the Entertainer and Artist Path. This is for those of you who strictly create content to share your art (this could be music, painting, etc.) or you are just here to entertain - maybe you’re a gymnast or comedian.

How can you grow as an Entertainer or Artist?

Honestly, your main focus on this path is growing an audience and community who supports your passion. This will be done through having your two platforms, as we discussed before, and pushing out content that focuses on reach - like YouTube videos, Reels, etc. While also focusing on ways you can leverage trends to help circulate your content.

How you can make money as an Entertainer or Artist?

Again, you can jump on any of the other ways to make income we have talked about in this episode if it feels like a good fit - but beyond that, there are a couple of ways you can make money online as an Entertainer or Artist.

Donations: The first option that comes to mind is donations - this doesn’t just have to be straight donations for nothing. I have seen many artists on TikTok and other platforms who will accept donations and based on that will paint the person's name inside the painting as a way to show their appreciation. When it comes to entertainers and artists, a lot of people understand the struggle and are happy to support you in some way if you give them options.

Start a Patreon: Patreon is actually a membership program, just like what we chatted about for educators - but Patreon especially is known to house artists and musicians. Patreon provides a sense of community and closeness for artists and/or musicians with their fans. This is a very direct source of contact that can help build relationships which therefore builds the following and commitment. This is a great way to build community and with the monthly subscriptions, can help build a steady income as well.

Sell your Products: Finally, let’s talk about selling your products. This one is pretty self-explanatory, right? If you are creating something, like music or a painting, your end goal might be to sell it. You can host your music on Apple Music or release a CD or refer to paintings or sculptures, you can lease it out or sell it. The idea here is to grow your online community and once you built that audience, you will then have customers.

If you still feel lost and want some additional help, shoot us a DM on @creatorlymedia and we can chat about the various services we offer that can help you build your social media presence