JUNE 20, 2023

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Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

You’re Not an Influencer, and That’s Good Business

In the corner of the creator economy conversation sits a powerful but little-noticed sector – the expert creators.

They don’t grab headlines like influencers do. Their videos rarely, if ever, reach millions of views. Most importantly, they don’t rely on social media channels to deliver the revenue that sustains their business.

In 2023, they expect to gross over $108K, according to The Tilt’s 2023 Content Entrepreneur Benchmark Research. And that’s a big difference between expert creators and the rest of the creator economy.

​Goldman Sachs recently predicted the 4% slice of the creator economy pie that earns over $100K a year will remain steady even though the number of creators will go from 50M today with a 10 to 20% compound growth rate over the next five years.

Given your participation in The Tilt community, you likely are an expert creator.

What exactly is an expert creator? The Tilt defines expert creators as “people who create content about their area of expertise or passion. Expert creators build media companies (even small ones) and monetize their content. Some expert creators also sell a service (e.g., coaching, consulting, educating).”

Expert creators don’t need big social media audiences. They average 4K followers across social channels. Creators derive value from their audiences by engaging them more deeply.

Often, these entrepreneurs have built businesses based on what they learned in their traditional professional lives. Alexis Grant used her experience selling two companies to launch They Got Acquired to help other entrepreneurs considering selling their smaller businesses.

A trained engineer, Anthony Fasano left the traditional side of his profession to launch an engineering podcast and has grown it into the Engineering Management Institute.

​Jade Weatherington, a former classroom teacher, went online to teach writing courses to school students. She expanded to grow a network of teachers and added a new business line – teaching others how to build online courses.

How do expert creators earn money? Influencers usually earn the lion’s share of their revenue through brand partnerships – promoting their products and services to their audience. Expert creators, though, say their most profitable revenue stream is consulting and coaching. It’s also the most frequent money-making channel, as almost half of creators (49%) say they offer that service.

Books are next up in popularity and profitability (37% of expert creators have them). As The Tilt partner Lulu explains, publishing a book can have a bigger revenue impact than book sales. It builds your authority as a subject matter expert and can open doors to speaking events. It also can act as a lead magnet to attract readers to your other revenue streams, such as online courses, consulting, and coaching. Online courses ranked third in frequency (35% of expert creators) and third in most profitable.

Of course, expert creators also work revenue streams common with influencers, such as affiliate marketing/links (30%), advertising/sponsored content (26%), and donations (15%).

“The paths to content entrepreneurship are vast. But by building a business based on your expertise, the starting point is extremely solid,” Joe says. “That’s why being an expert creator in the creator economy is a smart business move.”

– Ann Gynn

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StreamYard loves The Tilt community. Sign up through this page to get a free trial and lifetime discount.​

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Entrepreneur and Biz: Corina Layton, RDH, aka Tooth Fairy

Tilt: Dental health

Primary Channels: TikTok (2.5M), Instagram (130K)

Other Channels: YouTube (3.19K)

Time to First Dollar: 18 months ($50 deal)

Rev Streams: Brand deals, YouTube ads, speaking engagements

Our Favorite Actionable Advice:

• Consistently post consistent content: Set up the expectation for your audience on the type and frequency of content you deliver. Then meet that expectation.
• Reply one way or the other: Reply to comments in the comment section of your feed and answer followers’ questions in separate posts. It engages your audience more than a one-way conversation.
• Don’t get stuck on numbers: Corina used to stress out about why a video hadn’t gotten 1M views. But then she shifted her mindset so she didn’t define her worth based on the numbers.

– Sarah Lindenfeld Hall​
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​Learn more about Corina’s story.​

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• As content creators you are in the results business. Present it as such. (Content Inc.)
• Joe and Robert talk about the creator-friendly site known as Twitter opening up a flawed advertising model for a handful of people that will pay pennies on the dollar. (This Old Marketing)
• Learn from the leading creator experts in your field with our CEX Digital Packages. From mistakes to avoid to driving revenue with online courses or podcasting to how to improve your content operations, we have a package for everyone!
• ​What’s a creator flywheel? Here are five examples from content businesses. (CreatorBoom)
• Do you want your kids to get your business? (Small Business Trends)

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