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I spent my weekend thinking of how #creators can monetize better their content and my conclusion is that there is much more interesting stuff to do than just paid content, ads, subscriptions… Basically, if I had to summarize my thoughts I would say the following:
Advertising is definitely a broken model for content monetization. Ads lead creators to look for millions of views and therefore to privilege sensationalism.
People will always be more attracted by a video of a plane crash than by a reflection on the harmful effects of opioids on the younger generation. No wonder there’s so much shit online...
Subscriptions and paywalls are a great improvement and have proven the fact that people are not willing to pay for content is a myth. It has also allowed creators to have a more consistent influx of revenue.
Great, BUT we will soon reach subscription fatigue, not to mention that people’s budget for content is limited.
Today’s forms of monetization are one-way. Fans are always the ones paying and never get rewarded for their participation or engagement.
Yet this commitment is critical and valuable to creators. How much is a retweet, a like, 5 stars, a recommendation, a suggestion, a connection worth?
A community of followers participating in your creative process can make all the difference. It’s time for its members to be rewarded for their support.
Creators find it difficult to sort through their audience. Who among them is just a follower, a fan, or a super fan? If they could better understand their audience, I’m sure they would be willing to create more personalized and valuable content for each of these cohorts.
The future of content monetization will be more egalitarian. We need to invent more balanced and less transactional models.
We need to go beyond the simple customer/supplier relationship and consider each party as a stakeholder who is rewarded for creating or contributing to the content.
