A Broken Market: Why it’s so hard to make a living as a creator
The idea that anyone can create is true. The idea that anyone can make a living out of creating is not.
Gumroad processed $12.1m for creators in April 2020:
Of the 12.1m,
- ~6.5% of creators made 67% of the revenue
- ~93.5% of creators made 33% of the revenue
Note: based on the below tweet, assuming those in the ‘something’ category averaged sales of $50, and those in the ‘$100+’ category averaged $500 sales
I sit firmly in the 93.5% Like many others, I can work hard for hours on a creation and receive little to no engagement, let alone sales. But does that mean what I’m creating isn’t any good?
The problem: Supply is high, visibility is skewed.
There is nothing worse than working hard for hours on a creation and receiving little to no engagement.
I joined twitter to share my learning from consulting — I’ve got a lot to give: a decade of experience running projects; a good grasp of how to define a tech strategy; techniques for client / stakeholder manager and communication.
I could package my knowledge up into useful articles, tools, templates and provide one on one coaching. But I’ve come across a key problem— despite there being almost zero barriers to entry, there are huge barriers to success:
- Supply is high — lots of people are creating so there’s lots of competition for attention, but more importantly;
- Visibility is weighted — it’s heavily skewed to those who have built a large audience over many years. They are the hubs and gate keepers of engagement. This makes it incredibly difficult for the rest of us.
We are small fish in a world sized pond.
I don’t believe the best creators currently sell the most. This is not a perfect market, not by any means.
Indies just starting out may not have the time to develop content marketing and engage in comments on a range of social media, but they have value to give.
The lack of engagement and momentum early on can kill the enthusiasm and motivation of a creator and ensure she goes back to her reasonably paid job.
Solution — we need to level the playing field
How?
An Aggregator - an Ebay for Creations - an Amazon for creators - a Product Hunt for independent projects.
It needs to push and promote all projects equally and enable projects to be successful based on the merit of the content, the reviews and the ideas, not simply the reach of their creators.
If it works, it’ll give everyone a launchpad. It will allow the best to rise to the top.
If it works, breaking into the creator market should be far simpler. It will allow for a smooth transition from the corporate rat race to self sufficient.
If it works, the most original, inventive and compelling content will receive the recognition it deserves.
That’s the aim — let’s see where we get. Follow along on Twitter
