It allows you to express your creativity while making something other people can enjoy. Content creation is also a great way to make some money on the side, or even earn a living by doing it full-time. Add to this the potential of going viral and becoming an internet celebrity, and you can see why content creation is one of the fastest growing industries today.

So how does one become a content creator? Here are 7 tips to help you get started.

1. Find Your Strength as a Content Creator

The first step to becoming a content creator is figuring out what you’re good at. What can you make that others will enjoy enough to support and enable your work?

Consider which of your existing skills can be used to make content. If you can draw really well, you could make instructional videos to teach others how to do the same. If you have good comedic timing and like playing video games, you can stream yourself cracking jokes while playing multiplayer games online. If you read a lot of fantasy literature, you can make long-form reviews of your favorite books. Any talent or skill you have can be useful for making content.

With that being said, a content creator doesn’t have to be an expert in any given field in order to make good content. Maybe your gaming skills are lacking but you can put out videos really fast, so you can always offer viewers fresh content. Maybe your speaking voice leaves something to be desired, but you’re reviewing books no one else is, making you the exclusive authority on the topic.

The point here is that you need to have a unique selling point as a content creator, whether it’s your work ethic, the quality of your work, the topics you cover, or something else entirely.

2. Look for a Content Niche You Can Occupy

Finding your niche is essential for launching your career as a professional content creator. A content niche is simply a topic that attracts a certain online audience. If your content doesn’t occupy a specific niche, you will have a hard time growing your audience and sustaining a large enough following to make content creation worthwhile.

To determine your content niche, start by looking at what other content creators with a similar skill set are doing. For example, if you’re streaming gaming videos, check out trending channels related to gaming on YouTube, Twitch, and other gaming platforms. For additional research, browse social networks such as Twitter and Instagram, and read content on gaming industry websites such as Gamasutra and IGN.

To take a more active role in defining your niche, participate in community discussions related to your content on forums, live events, and social media groups. Reddit is a great place to get a feel for what’s trending in any given content niche.

3. Get the Necessary Tools

What separates the amateurs from the professionals in the field of content creation is polish and production values. A low-res video with crackling audio is an instant turn-off for most people, even if your script, delivery, and analysis are all top-notch.

But what if you can’t afford professional production equipment and software? The good news is, quality production is more about making best with what you got and picking the right tools for the job, than it is about burning money on expensive hardware and apps.

Any PC or laptop bought during the last 5 years should be enough for all content production tasks that don’t involve live-streaming in full HD.

In terms of recording equipment, you can use a tripod mount (~$10) for your phone to turn it into a desktop camera, and you can use your headset mic for recording sound. Later upgrade your gear with a dedicated mic (~$50 for a basic model). Lighting makes a huge difference in video production, but you can make due just by arranging lamps in your home.

As for recording software, OBS is your software of choice. It’s completely free, it supports live-streaming, and there are tons of guides on how to set it up. For video editing, DaVinci Resolve is a free alternative to Adobe Premier, and it’s available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. And that’s basically everything you need to start producing.

4. Monetize Your Content

To make it as content creator, you need to find a way to monetize your work. In the past, this has been a major barrier for new content creators. The situation is much better today, and there is a wide variety of monetization methods and services to choose from.

The most popular way to monetize your work as a content creator is crowdfunding. Platforms such as Glimpse allow your followers to support your work with direct and recurring payments. In exchange for their support, you offer exclusive content, early previews for future content, extra materials, or even merchandise.

Another way to monetize content is through ads on YouTube. Once your channel has reached 1000 subscribers, you can join the YouTube Partner Program which allows you to post ads on your videos and collect earnings once you’ve earned at least $100.

You can also choose to host your content on multiple platforms. For example, host content on YouTube and on crowdfunding platforms, such as Glimpse. Repurposing or creating complementing content for several platforms is a good way to expand your audience.

5. Promote Your Content on Social Media

In an ideal world, creators could simply publish content and let followers gather in an organic way. In reality however, content creators have to deal with competition from other content outlets, including media production companies, content syndication networks, and other content creators. Hence the need to promote your content.

The easiest way to get started with promotion is by sharing your content on social media. It’s free, it’s easy, and there is probably already an audience for your content just waiting. For example, you can create a page on Facebook and invite your friends to follow you. Follow it up by sharing your page in groups related to your niche.

Expand your audience beyond the people you know. Always look for opportunities to share links to your content in discussions, share snippets of your content on your page, and notify followers whenever you have new content out.

6. Help People Discover Your Content with SEO

Another way people can discover your content is by using search engines. If your content matches what people are searching for on Google, YouTube, or Twitch, it will rank higher among the results. This means that over time your content will reach a bigger audience.

So how do you make search engines more likely to recommend your content to users? Through a process called search engine optimization (SEO). SEO involves using analytics tools to look for trending search topics or keywords, and then creating or adjusting your content to match the intent behind these keywords.

For example, if you want your video review of Super Mario Galaxy 2 to reach a bigger audience on YouTube, you will want to give your video a clear title (e.g., “Super Mario Galaxy 2 Review – More of the Same?”), a description summarizing the content of the video (e.g., “In this video, I will explain why SMG 2 is a lackluster sequel…”), and tags (super mario galaxy, video game review, critique).

As a final note, remember that good SEO will not make up for bad content. The idea behind SEO is to help search engines understand what your content is about to have a better chance of appearing in the search results. But it is ultimately up to users to decide if your content is what they were after in the first place.

7. Collect and Analyze Feedback

A single quality piece content is enough to make a name for yourself. But if you want to pursue content creation as a career, you will have to create content on a regular basis. Not only that, but you should also strive to make each new piece of content better than the previous. Therefore, it’s essential to collect and analyze feedback for your work.

One form of feedback is explicit user feedback. This includes, comments, reviews, response videos, and other instances where users talk to you directly about what they like and dislike about your content. By listening what users have to say, you can adjust your content output by picking topics that interest your audience.

Metrics are another form of feedback. Metrics are data that describes how your content is performing in terms of raw numbers and statistics. Each content platform has its own built-in systems for metrics. Metrics would tell you how many people have viewed your content, if they took any follow-up actions such as subscribing, etc. Metrics are essential for making small adjustments to your content to improve its performance online.

Launch Your Career as a Content Creator

Getting started as a content creator can seem daunting at first, but the feeling will dissipate as soon as you release your first piece.

Ultimately, being a content creator simply means making stuff for other people to enjoy. If you get this part right and ignore all other unnecessary details, you will be well on your way towards launching your career as a content creator.

The more listeners you have, the easier it is to accomplish your podcasting aims such as earning money, establishing authority, raising awareness around a topic, or even just earning fame as a podcaster.

So, let’s get started by looking at a list of some of the methods you can use.

15 Methods for Growing Your Podcast Audience

There are many ways to attract listeners, from simple methods like inviting people to follow you, to complex strategies such as optimizing your content descriptions for search engines. The methods you use, and their level of effectiveness depend on factors like:

• your goals
• your budget and other resources
• your content niche and format
• your intended audience

We have arranged this list in no particular order. Most of these methods don’t require you to spend any money. So, the best way to find out what works for you is to try out a couple, measure the results, and see which one managed to attract the most listeners.

1. Be Clear About Your Podcasting Goals

People podcast for different reasons. Some are in it for the money, others like the attention that comes with being a famous internet personality, and some even do it for the love of podcasting. Your motivation for podcasting influences the way you grow your audience.

For example, if you’re podcasting as a hobby in your spare time, you have no reason to pay for advertising. By contrast, if you’re targeting a large audience as a part of a sponsorship deal, you won’t get a lot of mileage from posting on forums.

Outline your goals in a document and use it as a reminder when deciding which method to use.

2. Understand Your Audience

People also listen to podcasts for different reasons. Some are there for the entertainment, others do it to hear about industry news, and some just like to hear voices in the background while doing housework. Your podcast appeals to some of these groups, but not others. This makes trying to grow your audience by appealing to the latter a futile task.

A better strategy would be to first try and understand the audience. For example, imagine you’re making a podcast about video games. If you see your listens go up on SoundCloud on episodes that cover a certain game or game genre, take that as a hint about what your audience prefers.

The key to understanding your audience is to analyze your content from different perspectives. Always consider who is listening to your podcast and why.

3. Work on Your Reputation

Your reputation can be a powerful tool for attracting new listeners. Reputation helps audiences associate certain topics with your name. This means your name will come up more often in conversations, which will generate interest for your content, resulting in shares and mentions online.

You can build your reputation in many ways. For instance, you can become an authority on a topic by making well-researched content that shows off your knowledge. Another way to build reputation is by having provocative opinions and defending them in public. Reputation can also come from your achievements outside of podcasting, such as being an esports veteran.

However, if you choose to build your reputation, be consistent about, and work your strengths. You’re not likely to build a reputation as an esports player if you’re podcasting about sports fishing, for example.

4. Maintain a Broadcast Schedule

Building listenership online is not unlike building viewership in television. Your goal is to keep the audience hooked to your content, so it becomes a part of their daily routine. It boils down to the same thing: releasing content on a regular schedule.

Maintaining a release schedule is easier in podcasting than in other forms of content creation. This is because recording a podcast usually takes less work than making video from scratch. Podcasters often maintain a daily schedule, which is hard to accomplish if you’re making fully produced videos.

When you release your content during the day, week, or month is less important – people will ultimately listen to your content when they feel most comfortable. What matters more is to commit to producing content on a regular basis.

5. Build a Website

Building a website is one of the easiest ways to expand your audience. You can customize your website to fit with your image as a podcaster while giving listeners a convenient way to access your content. But more importantly, your website can also be optimized to generate new listeners.

For instance, you can make your website easier to find for search engines through SEO. This involves using keywords that are popular among your audience, so they are more likely to receive your website as a search engine result.

Another way to leverage your website for audience growth is to provide exclusive features such as an archive of your old content or a forum, or additional content in the form of blog articles. Finally, use your website to share links to your social media profiles to help visitors share your content further.

6. Promote Your Podcast on Social Media

Social media is the fastest channel for sharing content online. This makes social media a powerful tool for acquiring new podcast listeners. You can use social media to run ads, optimize content for search, or communicate directly with listeners and spread your podcast through word of mouth.

Another reason to use social media is the fact that you broadcast your podcast through their built-in content streaming and hosting tools. For example, you can use Facebook Live to stream your podcast live (either regularly or as a one-off event) to generate likes and shares.

Social media is also a great place to learn more about your audience and the kind of content they like. This will help you discover new audience niches, or find overlap between your audience and other audiences.

7. Ask for Shout-outs From Influencers

Sometimes the best way to promote your podcast is to have influential people put in a good word for you. You probably already know a couple of influencers in your content niche, so it is only a matter of finding someone with a common interest willing to give you a shout-out.

The best way to receive a shout-out is to give one out for free. Find a podcast that covers a similar topic to yours, and give a couple of episodes a listen. If you come across a piece of information that would be valuable to your audience, or an opinion that matches yours, give a shout-out to the creator. Then, reach out to the creator in question, provide a link to the episode where you’ve mentioned them, and ask if they could do the same in return.

You can also pay influencers to spread the word about your podcast, but this kind of approach can be risky because the audience is sensitive in discerning between a genuine recommendation and a sponsored one.

8. Share Your Podcast to Multiple Platforms

The more platforms you have hosting your content, the more listeners you’ll have, it’s as simple as that. Even better, it costs you nothing to have your content available on as many platforms as possible, all you have to do is create an account on each.

SoundCloud is the obvious choice when it comes to podcasting. In addition to hosting your audio, SoundCloud provides options for promoting and monetizing your content. YouTube is another obvious choice with similar benefits, with the caveat that your podcast will perform better if it has video.

In addition to content platforms, you can list your podcast-on-podcast directories and aggregators. These are websites and services which organize and classify podcasts according to genre, topic, and other categories, making it easier for listeners to find what they like. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher are some of the most popular podcast aggregators.

9. Create Different Kinds of Content

Another way to acquire new followers is to use your podcast as a jumping-off point for making other kinds of content. This will help you branch out to other content platforms and tap into new audiences.

For example, you can add a video component to your podcast. Record yourself while you podcast, or stream the contents of your screen (hint: playing video games in the background while you talk is great for long-form podcasting). The audience will empathize with you for showing your face online, and the extra content will make them more engaged. Upload your video podcast to YouTube, or stream it on Twitch or Glimpse.

10. Do Podcast Crossovers

Another way to grow your podcast audience is to look for opportunities for cross-over content with other podcasters. This is one of the most common ways to enlarge your audience in an organic way.

The key to doing crossovers is to network with other podcasters. Look for other popular podcasts in your niche, and try to find a topic where you feel you can contribute with your knowledge, opinions, or personality. Then reach out to your fellow podcasters and offer to host them on your show, in exchange for them having you over as well.

11. Invite Listeners to Like, Share, Subscribe, and Comment

This is not so much a strategy as much as it is common podcasting knowledge. Even long-time fans of your content will forget that the online reputation economy is based on likes, shares, comments, and subscriptions, and that each of these interactions count. To remind them and new listeners alike, always invite your audience to like, share, subscribe, and leave comments on your content.

12. Invite Listeners to Check Out Your Older Content

Another piece of common podcasting knowledge is to remind listeners where they can find your old content at every opportunity. The reason you want to do this is because listeners will come across your content following different paths. Some might do it through a recommendation, others through a search engine, others yet by browsing a podcast aggregator.

To see why this is important, think of a listener that was given a link to the latest episode of your podcast without any further information. The new listeners won’t have a clue about the rest of your content, and they might think that the episode represents your content as a whole. If it’s about a topic they’re not interested in, they likely won’t tune in next time. But if you remind them that you cover different topics in your other content, they can be persuaded to stick around and listen.

13. Cover Relevant Events

It is always good to remind listeners about the fact that your podcast is grounded in reality. And one way to do this is to cover newsworthy events. That establishes you as a relevant source of information on a particular topic.

When covering organized events, always be sure to mention your stake in the matter. If you’re appearing at an event personally, be sure to mention it to listeners to establish your credibility as a news source. If you’re involved in organizing the event, be sure to mention that as well. Finally, fact-check what you’re talking about if you’re covering an event you’re not attending in person.

14. Entice New Listeners with Contest and Giveaways

Sometimes the best way to entice new listeners to follow you is to give them something of value in addition to your podcast. A simple freebie can often buy you a listener for the long-term, if you play your cards right.

Contest and giveaways are the two most commonly used methods to hand out gifts to listeners. To make effective use of giveaways, be sure the odds of winning are distributed evenly across all listeners. As for contests, a neat trick is to ask users to share your podcast to participate.

As for what to give away, it’s best to stick with digital goods. A free subscription for an audiobook service is common practice. Other options include digital items in games, software subscriptions, discount coupons for online stores.

15. Track and Analyze Your Podcast Statistics

The last thing to consider when talking about ways to grow your audience is analytics. Analytics is a way to assign hard numbers to your podcast performance, including how many people are listening. Analytics helps you correlate these numbers, giving you deeper insight into the behavior of the audience.

Use analytics on your website to track:

• How listeners interact with your content on the streaming platform (how many listens it has, how its performing compared to content from other creators).
• The success of your social media profiles (tracking how much your content gets shared and liked)
• How your website is performing in terms of SEO (demographics and traffic numbers).

Conclusion

We’ve only scratched the surface of what’s out there in terms of ways to acquire more podcast listeners, but we hope that the ones we’ve described have given you an idea about what works and what doesn’t.

Give these methods a try, and you’re bound to find a couple that work for your podcast.

Watching quality content made by others will also help you understand what the audience wants, so you can appeal to them with content of your own.

So, without further ado, here are our top picks for content creators worthy of inspiration.

1. David Firth

David Firth has been making web cartoons since the early 2000s. His unique style has garnered him many fans over the years.

David uses a variety of animation techniques to give life to a cast of bizarre characters living in a surreal world. His content has a dark sense of humor and is often disturbing and macabre, but therein lies its appeal – there is nothing quite like it on the web.

David publishes content on YouTube and on his personal website. We recommend you watch Salad Fingers, a cartoon about a deranged hermit living in a post-apocalyptic countryside.

2. Red Letter Media

Red Letter Media is a duo of Milwaukee-based film makers, film critics, and b-movie know-it-alls called Mike Stoklasa and Jay Bauman.

Mike and Jay take delight in making fun of both mainstream and indie cinema. Their content is part sketch-comedy, part serious film analysis, and a 100% homage to the art of film-making. They are an independent voice in the over-saturated, hype-prone world of online film content.

You can find Red Letter Media content on their official website, as well as on YouTube and Bandcamp. To best place to get started with RLM content is their multi-part series on the Star Wars prequels.

3. Every Frame a Painting

Every Frame a Painting is the moniker of Tony Zhou, a film producer that examines the works of cinema through an editor’s lens through video essays.

Tony’s content is always well researched, polished, and focused on the topic at hand. He analyzes film-making techniques used by famous directors, and explains how and why they work to produce memorable cinematic experiences.

You can find episodes of Every Frame a Painting on YouTube. We suggest starting with his analysis of Buster Keaton and his effect on the art of comedy in cinema.

4. Zero Punctuation

Zero Punctuation is a one-man show starring Yahtzee Croshaw, a fast-talking video game critic with a massive chip on his shoulder. Yahtzee has been making content since the early 2000s without missing a beat.

Zero Punctuation is an animated video game review series where Yahtzee performs emergency-room dissections on mainstream (and sometimes indie) games. The games Yahtzee reviews are frequently left in a mangled state after he’s done with them, which makes for excellent comedy.

Yahtzee publishes regularly on the Escapist, and you can also watch episodes of Zero Punctuation on YouTube. We recommend watching his review of Metal Gear Solid 4 to get a sense why Yahtzee remains unmatched in his content niche.

5. Matthewmatosis

Matthewmatosis has turned video game analysis into a science. He publishes content infrequently, but each video is clearly a labor of love and well worth waiting.

In his videos, Matthewmatosis goes over games with fine-tooth comb, focusing on design, mechanics, themes, and how they interact to make games work. Watching his videos on games like Mario Galaxy or Metal Gear Solid 3 feels like participating in game-development seminar on prestigious university.

You can find all of Matthew’s content on YouTube. A good place to get started is his analysis of Dark Souls.

6. SsethTzeentach

Ssethtzeentach reviews obscure video games using memes and internet humor. His content resembles a fever-dream of gaming addicts, and the audience loves it.

Sseth’s approach to content creation is to find a game most people haven’t heard of, and then hype it up in the most bizarre way possible using obscure references, gaming humor, and a bit of game-analysis on the side.

SsethTzeentach publishes videos on YouTube and streams on Dlive. Check out his review of Recettear to get a taste of what his content is about.

7. Jim Sterling

James (Stephanie) Sterling is an old-school video game critic that started their career on Destructoid and the Escapist in the early 2000s. Since then Jim’s gone fully independent to pursue greater creative freedom.

Jim offers scathing criticism of the video-game industry and its various shady practices, including predatory monetization, corporate shilling, workplace abuse, and terrible game design. If you feel there is something deeply wrong with the current state of the video game industry, Jim is who you want to follow.

You can find Jim Sterling on their website, YouTube, and Twtich. Tune in to the Jimquisition, a weekly show that covers the latest news from the gaming industry.

8. Super Bunnyhop

Super Bunnyhop is made by George Weidman, a mild-mannered video game journalist specializing in gaming history. His content is topical, on-point, and easy to follow for anyone who shares his interest in games.

George’s videos often analyze long-running video game series such as Mario, Zelda, or Fallout to understand how they fit in a wider cultural context. Sometimes he does interviews with figures from the gaming industry to get an inside look into how games are made.

Supper Bunnyhop is hosted on YouTube. Check out his deep dive into the Metal Gear universe to see what his content is all about.

9. PowerPlayChess

PowerPlayChess is a chess show hosted by chess grand master Daniel King. His commentary videos are a must-watch for anyone with an interest in improving their chess game.

Daniel has years of experience under his belt as a professional chess player so his advice is always on point. But what sets Daniel apart from other chess content creators is the comfy atmosphere. Daniel’s soothing voice makes it easy to follow intricate chess games between high-ranking players, making it easy for newcomers to follow along.

You can find PowerPlayChess on YouTube. Daniel’s coverage of the historic match between Kasparov and Carlsen is great entry point for the channel.

10. Shut Up & Sit Down

Shut Up & Sit Down is a show produced by a trio of board game enthusiasts, Quintin Smith, Matt Lees and Paul Dean. They review board games both new and old.

Shut Up & Sit Down delves deep into board game mechanics, themes, and moment to moment gameplay to judge if a game is worth playing or not. They often use sketch-comedy to spice up the reviews, which adds to the charm of their content.

Shut Up & Sit Down has its own website where you can find reviews, top games lists, reports from board gaming conventions, and everything else in between. Check out their review of Concordia to get a taste of their content.

11. Numberphile

Numberphile is a YouTube channel about maths made by Brady Haran. Brady collaborates with mathematicians from Nottingham University and beyond to explain complex mathematical topics in an easy to understand way.

The main appeal of Numberphile is that it has something to offer both to professional mathematicians as well as laymen. Math-curious viewers can learn about cool topics such as infinity, Klein bottles, and math riddles, while the more mathematically-inclined can appreciate the underlying math that makes them possible.

You can find Numberphile on YouTube, as well as content from Brady’s other channels including Computerphile (computer science), Periodic Videos (chemistry), and others. We recommend watching the video on how 1+2+3… = -1/12.

12. 3Blue1Brown

Grant Sanderson is the creator of 3Blue1Brown, a YouTube channel that explains tough math concepts with elegant visualizations. Grant also produces content for Khan Academy’s math courses.

3Blue1Brown is a channel dealing with a niche topic, but it does such a stellar job illustrating how math works, that it has much wider appeal than it appears. It is effectively a free advanced math course with production values that rival university-grade content.

3Blue1Brown is hosted on YouTube. We recommend checking out the episode on exponential growth and epidemics.

13. Kurzgesagt

Kurzgesagt produces pop-science cartoons that explore innovative ideas in ecology, space travel, science fictions, and related fields. It stands out among similar content creators thanks to its bright and colorful visuals and rich audio.

Kurzgesagt decides which topics to cover based on popular demand. They also take the time to research the topic extensively, resulting in highly polished content that everyone can enjoy.

You can find Kurzgesagt on YouTube. Watch the video about the ant megacolony to see what Kurzgesagt is all about.

14. Domains of Science

Domains of Science creates bite-sized science presentations through animated infographics. They cover STEM disciplines including maths, physics, biology, chemistry, and computer science.

Domains of Science uses the infographics content format to its full extent. To explain a graph can take longer than to make one, and DoS capitalizes on this by giving guided tours through the information presented on the graph.

Watch DoS on Youtube and be sure to check out the Map of Quantum Physics,

15. World War Two

The aptly-named World War Two is a channel dedicated to chronicling the events of World War 2 on a week-by-week basis. It is hosted by the documentarian Indy Neidell.

World War Two is styled as a news broadcast, with Indy narrating the events that happened during the same week back in the war. The war is covered from each sides’ perspectives, making the content feel like a sprawling epic.

World War Two is hosted on YouTube. Check out the series of episodes on Perl Harbor.

Conclusion

Finding a content creator that you like is the best way to get inspired to make content yourself. We hope you found something to your liking after browsing our list.

Staying on top of industry trends lets you discover what the audience wants in terms of content, as well as what other content creators in the community are doing to meet the demand.

Streaming stats are a good indicator of the direction in which the industry is going. Even though they don’t paint the whole picture, they are an essential source of information, and you should use them to guide your efforts as a content creator.

To better understand the current state of livestreaming, check out these 39 key streaming stats for content creators.

Stream Viewer Stats

As a content creator, understanding people’s streaming preferences is essential for making it in the livestreaming business. These stats will give you a glimpse into the mind of the audience, helping you understand how they are likely to behave.

1. 80% of the US population uses streaming services to watch online videos every week (Vanguard).
2. Viewerstypically decide if a stream is worth watching within 90 seconds. (TechRadar)
3. 88% of viewers have issues finding content on streaming platforms. (PwC)
4. Viewers tend to watch live video 10 to 20 times longerthan pre-recorded content. (Forrester)
5. Viewers are 39% more likely to share video than other kinds of content. (Forrester)
6. 7 out of 10 livestream viewers watch livestreams on a daily basis. (Interactive Advertising Bureau)
7. Millennials and Gen Z viewers spend 9.4 minutes on average sifting through content when looking for. (The Drum)
8. Millennials and Gen Z viewers are 35% more likely than average to look for different content than they’re used to, but also 28% more likely to give up searching and not watch anything. (Nielsen)
9. Households subscribed to streaming devices spend 19% of their viewing hours streaming content. (Nielsen)
10. 45% of viewers are willing to pay to watch livestreams featuring their favorite sports teams, speakers, or performers. (Livestream)
11. 52% of viewers prefer ad-supported content instead of paying a subscription fee. (Interactive Advertising Bureau)
12. 26% of viewers watch live video for access to exclusive content or services. (GWI Consumer Trends Report)
13. 31% of consumers believe that watching live videos will give them insider knowledge about a brand or its products. (GWI Consumer Trends Report)

Streaming Platform Stats

Streaming platforms shape the livestreaming landscape as a whole. As a content creator, understanding how these platforms are performing is crucial for getting your content in front of as many viewers as possible.

1. The combined hours watched across Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook Gaming surpass 7.46 billion hours. (The Verge)
2. 28% of livestream viewers on social media watch content on multiple platforms, whereas 26% watch exclusively on Facebook, 15% on Snapchat, 13% on Instagram, and 13% on Twitter. (GWI)
3. Twitch is the largest livestreaming platform in terms of hours watched, with over 5 billion hours watched. (StreamElements)
4. Twitch has over 3 million content creators (500 000 of which stream daily), and over 15 million unique visitors per day. (VentureBeat)
5. Twitch has 67.6% of the livestreaming market share. (Streamlabs)
6. Just Chatting is the most-watched streaming category on Twitch. (StreamElements)
7. The next 9 most-watched categories on Twitch are video games, with League of Legends, GTA 5, and Fortnite taking up the second, third, and fourth place. (StreamElements)
8. Twitch hosts more than 91% of all streaming content. (GeekWire)
9. YouTube is the largest livestreaming platform in terms of monthly active users, with over 2 billion active users per month. (Variety)
10. YouTube Gaming had over 692 000 concurrent viewers in Q2 of 2020. (Streamlabs)
11. 2 out of 5 of channels with the most subscribers on YouTube feature gaming-related content. (Google)
12. Twitter’s streaming platform Periscope features over 9.3 million streams per month. (Dustin Stout)
13. On Facebook, livestream content receives 10 times more comments than on-demand video content. (Business Insider)

Streaming Industry Stats

Understanding industry-wide livestreaming trends can help content creators develop their long-term career strategy.

1. Livestreaming is set to become a $70.5 billion industry in 2021. (Cision)
2. 82% of all internet traffic will be video by 2022. (Cisco)
3. 79%of all mobile traffic by 2022 will be video. (Cisco)
4. Live video will represent a 17% share of all internet traffic by 2022. (Cisco)
5. 90% of all 5G traffic will likely be video. (Business Wire)
6. Online video is the only form of home entertainment spending that has not been in decline for the past 5 years. (Streaming Media)
7. With more than 75 million hours watched and 5.3 million followers, Summit1g was the most popular livestream content creator of last year. (Esportz Network)
8. A content creator called Viya managed to drive $50 million worth of sales through livestream product sponsorships on the Chinese platform Taobao. (AliZila)
9. Livestreaming is growing in popularity in China, with over 600 million viewers. (Statista)
10. The fitness industry saw an increase of over 1300% in minutes streamed during 2020. (Uscreen)
11. Remote education saw an increase of over 980% in minutes streamed in 2020. (Uscreen)
12. Wellness content saw an increase of over 392% in minutes streamed in 2020. (Uscreen)
13. Church services saw an increase of over 40% in minutes streamed in 2020. (Uscreen)

Conclusion

Livestreaming stats are a good way to orient yourself within the livestreaming landscape and find your niche or platform as a content creator.

Overall, livestreaming is on the rise across different platforms, niches, and audience segments, and the sooner you start streaming the better.

The good news is, content is a hot commodity online. Businesses, investors, content platforms, and regular internet users are more than willing to spend a premium on quality content. Whether you’re making cartoons on YouTube, recording podcasts on SoundCloud, or streaming competitive esports matches on Twitch, there is always some way to make money with your content.

The main challenge with making money as a content creator is that you’re not the first person to come up with the idea. Content creation can be incredibly competitive, so you have to be careful about what you’re trying to sell, for how much, and to which customer.

To help you find the best way to monetize your content, check out the 10 examples we have outlined below.

How Content Creators Make Money – 10 Examples

When it comes to content monetization, there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Some content creators like to paywall their content, others prefer to sustain themselves through voluntary donations. Some are willing to work with businesses to create sponsored content, others like to maintain their creative freedom and do everything themselves.

In practice some forms of monetization work better with certain kinds of content than with others. To help you find what works for you, here are 10 typical ways to monetize content depending on your background and skills as a content creator.

1. Sell Content Directly to Customers

The most obvious way to make money as a content creator is to sell directly to customers. This way you get to keep the majority of your earnings, and you don’t have to rely on third-party platforms to host and distribute your content. Once you agree to a price, all you have to do is send the finished product to the customer.

Selling content directly to customers is best suited for artists. Art has lasting value, and it is easy to distribute online through websites, platforms, p2p sharing, and even email. This means illustrators, animators, musicians, and other digital artists can easily earn money simply by producing content. Established artists can choose to sell their existing work, while newcomers will often have to take art commissions.

2. Sell Content to Stock Content Websites

Another way to make money by making content is to let others do the selling and distribution. This approach lets you focus on making content, while a third-party handles monetization.

Stock content websites are a typical example of this monetization model. The content creator produces content according to specifications set by the website, and in exchange they get an upfront fee and/or a percentage of sales. This approach limits what you can make in terms of content, but you also don’t have to worry about trying to appeal to individual customers.

Selling content to content resellers is best suited for photographers, illustrators, and designers. Stock photos, illustrations, and designs are most often used by businesses as a starting point to create their own custom content. Stock content might be tedious to produce, but the fact that you can sell it more than once means it can be a good source of recurring revenue for content creators.

3. Sell Content to Online Learning Platforms

A more specialized way of making money with content is through online learning platforms. In contrast to stock content websites, online learning platforms give content creators the opportunity to make a name for themselves and develop their own brand, in addition to making money.

Online learning platform content often has to fulfill higher standards than other forms of content. But this also means you can charge more for it. Knowledge is in high demand, especially knowledge that can help people learn a skill, find a job, or solve a problem.

Producing content for online learning platforms is best suited for academics, scholars, and teachers. Instead of confining yourself to producing content for a limited audience within the confines of a school or university, you can make money by sharing your knowledge with a global audience.

4. Charge for Premium Content

As a content creator, you don’t have to limit yourself to a single monetization strategy. What you can do instead is divide your content into categories and apply a different monetization model to each. The most typical way to do this is to offer both free and premium content.

Premium content comes in a variety of forms, including:

• Early access content – users pay for access to content before its officially released,
• Bonus content – users pay for access to extra bits of content, including unused material, early versions, leftovers from editing, etc.,
• Sequel content – users pay for access to parts 2 (3, 4, etc.) in a content series.

Selling premium content is best suited for established content creators. In order to be able to charge a premium for content, you need to have an existing content portfolio, as well as an established audience.

5. Set up a Donation Box

Sometimes the best way to earn money as a content creator is by giving it away for free. If you offer well-researched, well-made content without asking anything in return, you will earn great sympathy from your followers. As a result, some of these followers will want to support your work financially. All you have to do then is give them a convenient way to donate money.

This donation model has been successfully leveraged by platforms such as Kickstarter, Patreon, Ko-Fi, and Glimpse. These platforms allow users to donate directly to content creators to support their work either through one-time donations or recurring payments.

Donations are best suited for casual content creators, podcasters, and streamers. The key to leveraging donations as a monetization model is to keep your content production costs low, while maintaining a high standard of quality and releasing content frequently.

Podcasts are good example of content you can monetize effectively through donations. They cost almost nothing to produce, they can be released on a regular schedule, and they offer great value to listeners, giving them a good incentive to donate.

6. Enter a Sponsorship Deal

In addition to earning money directly through content, content creators can also perform valuable services for businesses and other clients. The most common practice here is to create sponsored content.

Sponsored content is simply content that has to fulfill an additional goal – promote a brand, a product, or a service. Some sponsored content is devoted entirely to promotion, such as reviewing products created by the sponsor. Other sponsors will only request a shout-out or a short segment mentioning their product or service. If you plan on doing sponsored content, make sure to specify all the details in a formal sponsorship agreement with the sponsor.

Sponsored content is best suited for new content creators. It’s difficult to earn money as a content creator if you’re just getting started, and you don’t have a huge portfolio or a big enough audience. Doing sponsored content will help you work on your skills as a content creator, earn money to buy better equipment, and acquire critical early followers.

7. Work as an Influencer

Another way to leverage your position as a content creator is to act as an influencer for brands, businesses, and other content creators. Being an influencer is a more informal way of doing sponsored content. You get paid to sponsor people, but you are given more leeway with how you do the promotion. The goal is to raise brand awareness for the clients you’re working with, and not to generate sales directly.

Acting as an influencer for money is best suited for social media content creators. Influencing is often a numbers game. The more followers you have, the greater your reach is, and reach is something clients are more than willing to pay for. Content made by social media content creators also has a tendency to go viral, which further increases your value to sponsors.

8. Syndicate Your Content

Traditional forms of content such as films, TV series, cartoons, etc. still command a high price on the market. If you have experience with producing this kind of content, you can earn money by selling it to content syndication networks. This gives content networks exclusive rights to use and distribute your content.

Before you can apply for content syndication, you’ll have to build up a portfolio of work. Ideally, your content should follow a common thread or theme, with episodes of roughly equal length and structure.

Making money with syndicated content is best suited for animators and film makers. Syndicated content works best in a serialized format, which is something animators and film makers have experience with.

9. Work as a Consultant

The benefits of doing content research extend further than content creation. You can make money by using what you’ve learned during research to act as a consultant on the same topic. Admittedly, this is a niche that’s difficult to get into due to the expert knowledge required, but it is possible.

For instance, if you’re a video game speedrunner, you likely have expert knowledge on how certain games and game mechanics work. There are many cases where game developers have reached out to speedrunners to hear their opinions regarding a game they’re making to make it more speedrunner-friendly. Sometimes, speedrunners even get hired as level designers, developers, or QA testers.

Making money through consulting is best suited for experts on niche topics. If you have a skill few people have, and are able to produce content with it, you are eligible to be a consultant on the topic.

10. Monetize Through Ads

We saved the easiest method to make money as a content creator for last. Platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, Facebook Live, and others allow you to monetize your content through ads. Every time someone clicks an ad in one of your videos, you get a small commission. These commissions add up over time, earning you passive income while making content.

The difficulty with making money with ads is that you need to have a significant number of followers to make it work is as a revenue stream.

Making money through ads is best suited for streamers. If you regularly stream content that has wide appeal, you will eventually hit a point where you can earn a living through ads. But getting there will take some time.

Conclusion

Learning how to monetize your work is one of the main challenges of being a content creator. The same approach won’t work for everyone, but if you try some of the methods outlined above, you’ll eventually figure out what works for your unique set of skills.