A few days ago, I wanted to make something new for dinner. I went to YouTube, searched for dinner recipe videos, found a pasta-making tutorial, and followed along step by step.
The result was a fabulous homemade dinner, all thanks to a video someone I'll never meet filmed and shared online. That video is content, and the person who made it is a content creator.
We enjoy content like this all the time, often without noticing. Recipes, how-to guides, product reviews, travel blog itineraries, the podcast playing on your commute. The average person now spends 2 hours and 21 minutes a day on social media alone, not to mention everything else we watch, read, and listen to.
So what exactly is this "content" we spend so much of our day consuming, and where does it all come from?
Simply put, content is information. It can be social media posts, articles, videos, pictures, online courses, and really anything else that shows us something new. Most of the time, content is produced by content creators, not massive teams or media agencies.
Content creators are the people who make the memes, how-to guides, pet vlogs, fashion roundups, and tech tutorials that keep us coming back to the internet again and again.
In this guide, we're pulling back the curtain on what it means to be a content creator today. We'll cover:
- What do content creators do?
- How do content creators make money?
- How much do content creators make?
- How to get started as a content creator yourself
At Podia, we’ve helped over 15,000 creators make money selling what they know. We’ll talk more about digital products later in this article, but if you’re an aspiring content creator looking for your online home base, you can give Podia a try free for 30 days.
What is a content creator?
A content creator is anyone who shares information, inspiration, humor, experiences, or advice with an audience through their writing, videos, pictures, or audio.
Content creators use a variety of media to share their work, such as:
- Videos or vlogs
- Written articles and blog posts
- Social media graphics, videos, and captions
- Email newsletters
- Music and podcasts
- Video game streams
- Communities
- Digital products and online courses
Basically, if you make something, post it online, and other people see it and interact with it, you’ve created content. While making a living from posting online may have sounded like a fantasy a few years ago, it's a very real opportunity today.
Goldman Sachs estimates there are around 50 million content creators worldwide, and the creator economy that's grown up around them could approach $480 billion by 2027.
With more people than ever getting in on the creator economy, you might be wondering, “What does a content creator do?” I’m glad you asked!
What does a content creator do?
Day to day, content creators do things like filming and editing videos, writing and researching blog posts, planning upcoming social posts, designing graphics, recording podcast episodes, and sharing it all with their audience. The exact mix depends on what kind of content they make and who they make it for.
There are really two routes content creators can take. The first is working as a salaried or freelance content creator for a company. 76% of businesses now have a dedicated content marketing person or team on staff, so the demand for people who can make good content is high. In this role, you're usually part of a marketing team, helping shape and carry out a content strategy.
The second route is going independent. Here you're creating content for your own brand and building an audience that's yours. This is the path if you want to earn through sponsorships, affiliate partnerships, ads, or selling your own products. Most independent creators start by focusing on one main platform, whether that's YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, a blog, or an email newsletter, then show up consistently to grow a following.
Because there are so many kinds of content creators, no two days look quite the same. Here are a few examples of what kinds of things Podia content creators do in their businesses.
Jonathan and Ashley Longnecker run Tiny Shiny Home, a YouTube channel with more than 100,000 subscribers where they document off-grid living with their four kids. A typical week might mean filming a solar build, editing the footage, answering questions inside their membership community, and working with 1:1 coaching clients.
Masha, the creator and blogger behind Masha Plans, built a whole business around bullet journaling. She might spend her time writing new blog posts, researching what her readers are searching for, designing printables and doodle guides, and building lessons for her online planning academy.
Dani Bruflodt, the creator behind Thyme is Honey, has sent a newsletter every Friday for seven years without missing a week. A typical day for her might mean writing the next issue, designing the free printable calendars and planners to grow her list, welcoming new readers, and planning her next online course based on feedback from her subscribers.
Even though a good content creator wears a lot of hats, the goal never changes: make something genuinely useful, entertaining, or inspiring for the person on the other end.
Once you've built an audience that trusts you, you can start earning a living from what you create. Up next, let's look at exactly how creators make money.
How do content creators make money?
Most content creators earn from a mix of sources, and the healthiest businesses usually have a few income streams working at once.
Broadly, the money falls into two camps: getting paid to promote other people's things, and earning directly from your own audience.
Promoting other people’s things is where a lot of people start, and it usually looks like:
- Sponsored posts: a brand pays you to feature their product in a video, post, or article.
- Brand partnerships: the longer-term version of a sponsored post, an ongoing relationship rather than a one-off.
- Affiliate marketing: you recommend products you already like and earn a commission when someone buys through your link.
- Advertising: if you have a blog or YouTube channel, you get paid based on views or clicks.
These can all work, but the catch is that someone else sets the terms, and you're usually earning a slice of a sale rather than the whole thing.
When you make your own products and programs, you're selling straight to the people who follow you. You choose what to create, you set your own price, and you keep the revenue rather than taking a cut of someone else's sale.
When you package what you know into an online course, a digital download, a template, or an ebook, you set the price, press publish, and start earning. You're not waiting on a brand to say yes, and you can sell your creation long into the future since it’s 100% yours.
Paid communities and memberships can also be a good revenue option for content creators. Instead of a one-time purchase, members pay monthly for ongoing access to your work, to each other, and to whatever you share inside. It turns an audience into recurring, dependable income.
Paid newsletters work on the same subscription idea. Readers pay for premium editions, deeper content, or simply to support your work. Many creators keep a free newsletter to grow their audience and a paid tier for their most engaged readers.
The nice thing about making your own products is that you can start making sales even when you’re a smaller creator. You’re not competing with huge accounts to get sponsorships. You don’t need thousands of views to make money on ads. If you find the right audience, even if it’s a smaller one, you can spend time getting to know your people, providing them with great quality work, and making products that they want.
This means spending less time chasing views and more time building things your audience actually wants to buy. Which raises the obvious question: how much can you actually make as a content creator?
How much do content creators make?
Honestly, it varies enormously. Where you live, your niche, your audience size, how engaged they are, and how you monetize all change the math. There are no standardized rates in this industry, so two creators with the same following can earn wildly different amounts.
Still, it helps to have ballpark numbers, so here's what creators are earning across the major platforms right now based on various sources around the web.
To make money on Instagram, you’ll usually use sponsored posts or brand deals, and rates scale with your following. As a rough guide, Influencer Marketing Hub puts current rates per feed post at $10 to $100 per post for nano creators (under 10,000 followers), $100 to $500 for micro creators (10,000 to 100,000), and $500 to $5,000 once you pass 100,000. A highly engaged or niche audience can push those numbers higher, so take follower count with a grain of salt.
TikTok
TikTok has its own Creator Rewards Program, which is estimated to pay roughly $0.40 to $0.80 per 1,000 qualified views (a view counts once someone watches for more than five seconds). To join the Rewards Program, you need at least 10,000 followers, 100,000 views in the last 30 days, and videos that run a minute or longer. Brands also pay for sponsored content on TikTok, so that’s another way to earn whether or not you participate in the Creator Rewards Program.
YouTube
On YouTube, many creators earn through ads. Once you hit 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in a year (or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days), you can join the YouTube Partner Program. After YouTube takes its cut, creators typically keep an RPM of about $1 to $5 per 1,000 views, though it swings a lot by niche and audience location. Ad money alone rarely adds up to a living, which is why most established YouTubers pair it with sponsorships and their own products.
Podcasting
Podcasters mostly earn through ads sold on a per-listener basis. The going rate is around $20 per 1,000 listeners for a pre-roll ad and about $25 per 1,000 for a mid-roll. Ad income tracks closely with audience size, so smaller shows often start out by selling their own products or exclusive content while they grow.
Newsletters
Paid newsletters have become another potential income source, especially on platforms like Substack, which now has more than 5 million paid subscriptions and over 17,000 writers earning money. The catch is that earnings concentrate at the top. For most creators, a newsletter pays best not as a subscription on its own, but as a way to build a loyal list you can eventually sell products to.
Blogging
Bloggers typically monetize with ads, and ad networks pay out a rate per 1,000 page views (often written as RPM). According to the annual Blogging Income Survey, bloggers in their first year earn just a few dollars a month on average. Those blogging for three to five years earn around $747 a month, and those past the ten-year mark average just over $7,000 a month.
Interestingly, the survey also found that many successful bloggers earned more from their own digital products than from ads. That makes sense when you think about it. If you write a blog on a topic and create a premium course on that same topic, the people who find and read your blog are also great potential customers for your course.
Selling your own digital products (the most reliable way to earn)
Ads, sponsorships, and per-view rates can all be strong streams of revenue for your creator business, but you’ll always be dependent on other brands to make it happen, and it can be hard to compete when you’re starting out and still growing.
Selling your own digital downloads, events, online courses, and community memberships flips that. You set the price, you don’t need to wait for a brand’s approval, and you can keep selling access to your work long after you make it.
This is what we see every day at Podia, and our own creator data backs it up.
Among creators actively selling products on Podia, here's what average monthly earnings look like by product type:
- Bundles: ~$955/month
- Courses: ~$898/month
- Community memberships: ~$674/month
- Coaching: ~$640/month
- Digital downloads: ~$226/month
Most creators don't rely on just one, either. The average creator has 5.6 products published, stacking a few income streams for more security.
It adds up. More than 15,000 Podia creators have earned over $900 million in total sales, including more than $437 million from online courses alone.
Communities and ongoing memberships are also interesting because they’re not just a one-time sale. A paid membership brings in steady, recurring income, and it's one of the fastest-growing ways creators earn. On Podia, community memberships bring in an average of $674 a month for creators making sales, and our top community creators have each generated over $1 million in membership revenue in the past year.
The takeaway isn't that ads and sponsorships are bad. It's that the creators who build something durable tend to own their audience and sell them something worth paying for. And you can start doing that with a surprisingly small following, which is exactly what we'll cover next.
How to become a content creator
The simplest way to become a content creator is to start making things and publishing them. You learn the most by doing, so I always recommend jumping in sooner than feels comfortable.
Here's a simple way to start:
- Pick your content type and platform. Choose the format that genuinely excites you, whether that's video, writing, audio, or something visual. You'll be doing it a lot, so pick something you enjoy.
- Choose your niche. The main topic you'll be known for. A focused niche makes it easier for the right people to find you.
- Create and publish your first piece. It won't be perfect, and that's completely fine. Think about your ideal audience and what would genuinely help, entertain, or inspire them, then hit publish.
- Listen and adapt. Pay attention to how people respond. Real feedback from real visitors is the best guide you have for what to make next.
- Show up consistently. This is the one thing nearly every successful creator has in common. Building an audience takes time, so choose something you can enjoy doing for the long haul.
There's no shortcut around consistency, so pick a cadence that you can stick to (daily, every other day, weekly) and give as much value as you can along the way.
Once you've started making content, it’s time to set up the business side. There are a few things you need to build a strong foundation, and it's worth putting this in place early, because it works even when your audience is small.
Three things make up that foundation:
- A website. Your home base, a place you own where you can tell your story away from the algorithms and competition. It's where people can find everything you offer in one spot.
- An email list. A direct line to your audience that doesn’t depend on a third-party platform. When you have something to share or sell, you can reach people right in their inbox.
- Products. Something your audience can actually buy, whether that's a course, a digital download, a coaching offer, or a membership. This is what turns an audience into a source of income.
You don't need a huge following for any of this to work. A small, engaged audience who trusts you is worth far more than a big one that doesn't.
Together, your website, email list, and products keep you in the driver's seat. They let you earn from your followers from day one and keep earning as you grow, so you're set up for success right from the start.
Your content is worth building a business around
Being a content creator simply means sharing what you know with an audience, and it's a more realistic way to earn a living than ever before. Whatever platform you choose, the creators who build something lasting tend to do the same thing. They stay close to their people, listen to what they need, and offer products that entertain, educate, and transform.
To do that, you need three things working together: a website to call home, an email list to stay in touch, and products your audience can buy. That's exactly what Podia brings into one place. You can build your website, send newsletters and marketing emails, and create and sell courses, digital downloads, and communities, all from a single platform. So you can focus on making incredible content.
Ready to start? You can try Podia free for 30 days and start building a home for your content today. We can't wait to see what you make.
