In this newsletter: I explain the 3 main methods for making money while sharing free content as a Content Creator or Influencer, I discuss how those methods are changing, and ponder on why we assume online content should be free, but don't expect free work from other types of creators.
I found this entire discussion fascinating and have nothing helpful to add. I am a paying subscriber and always try to pay when a long time content creator asks (like you so kindly did), or donate to top jars, or whatever but I know it isn’t, as you said about hours, scalable … (15 blogs, $5/month, etc). I love the idea of Twitter/Instagram paying you, but those companies seem so big/selfish … hard to imagine this happening. But I LOVE your posts, and so many others, Amalah, Mimi Smartypants, etc.) that I wish there was some way for you to all make money from this work. Side note: I only read women blogs … are there men blogs? … and is this just more ‘Women’s work is free! And has no value!’ Like motherhood, house cleaning, etc. anyway. Thank you for all of your hard work, and for continuing to include all of us in your life, in the way that feels comfortable for you. You deserve to be paid for this.
Jan 14, 2022·edited Jan 14, 2022Liked by Gabrielle Blair
This is such an interesting topic, thanks for covering it. A couple of thoughts spring to mind. First, I support a number of podcast creators on Patreon because I want them to be paid for their time. I often see in Patreon groups people talking about which Patreons are the "best value" and that really makes me uncomfortable, because that value is generally not judged on the quality of the free content those creators have made available, but on what special bonus content is available, which puts even more of a burden on creators in terms of how much content they need to create to keep supporters subscribed. Second, I think there's just a general expectation that we should have access to unlimited content all the time that isn't healthy and I'm not sure there's anything that can be done to change that. What percentage of content do we engage with that is really meaningful to us and what do we just roam our eyeballs over because it's there? And I wonder how unlimited streaming services like Netflix or Spotify play into this expectation - we pay a small monthly fee to these big companies and then get unlimited content. That's never going to be possible for independent creators.
I know very little about making money from content, so I find this breakdown of how it works super interesting. I'm 100% comfortable with Sponsored Content. As a content consumer, I want to understand when something is sponsored vs not, and its important to me that you don't lie to me about liking or using a product a long time if you haven't. But its perfectly reasonable that you need to earn a living, and therefore need to include sponsored content.
Orlando Soria (former co-worker of HUGE blogger Emily Henderson) just posted a really honest article about trying to make money off of sponsored content on his blog and Instagram https://orlandosoria.com/2022/01/10/a-covid-comedy-of-errors/. I found it super super interesting, in addition to all the issues you raised, he was living very paycheck to paycheck and really struggling with how long it took larger brands to pay him for his work AFTER he had produced it.
I love your point about podcasts, it would be great if you could have a much wider opportunity for sponsors/advertisers that didn't have to be directly used in your home by your family. Something like, "this post is brought to you by Squarespace - thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring a week of DesignMom content. If you are creating a website, I encourage you to support the sponsors that support my work".
This happens all the time with online games. I cannot even count the amount of times my 9 year old has come to me asking for $1.99 to buy “a pack of gems” to expand upon the content in an otherwise free game. Most of the time, I do it! I look through her game, see what she wants to do with those “gems”, we talk through how much we can measure the utils she would get for it (I was an Econ major) and see if it adds up to the same monetary value. I would totally do this in the content world if somebody can figure out a way to streamline it the same way that iPad apps do.
I think content creators on social media SHOULD be compensated by those companies - that is a great idea. I completely agree that content should not be free - before the internet it never was except radio/tv which had ads. You had to buy newspapers and magazines, theater tickets... So we should keep moving in that direction (and I think streaming platforms have paved the way). But in the meantime, You should do what is best for you and your business!
I love this honest discussion and I agree that the hard work of creators is being exploited by platforms and they absolutely should be compensated in a way that doesn't have to involve prostituting oneself to sell stuff for large corporations. How is a difficult question but I think the browser Brave has the right idea, I've been using it for the past few months. You get tokens for watching ads or you can buy tokens and then you can tip creators (websites/twitter users/etc) easily (if they are opted in) and creators can then keep or exchange tokens for $. It seems like it could be a good solution for rewarding creators and also consumers (attention is valuable)
I believe that content creators should be paid. I am happy to pay an annual fee, but if you worked exceptionally hard at a particular post and wanted to charge individually for that post I know I would pay. I started following a couple of my favorite writers on Substack, but found that the writer tended to change their viewpoints to suit their audience. I have canceled almost all Substack and have no intention of following anyone again. I also will support certain individuals on Patreon - Humans of New York comes to mind - that I trust will use the donations wisely. I am very suspicious of Go Fund Me's as there are so many and I am not sure who controls the funds.
You are an exceptional writer/storyteller and I have referred many to your Instagram/Twitter accounts. I appreciate your honesty about how you get paid. You have some 140,000 Instagram followers and that is a following that you should be able to monetize. I am always stunned at how individuals believe that someone should provide you something for free.
First, I sort of miss when blogs were more hobbyists and they weren’t posting everyday and they weren’t so polished. And when it was just blogs (vs Instagram). It seems like a platform would be good…say sub stack and blogger and others at least offering a paid subscription and payment going to blogs based on readership. Remember when we didn’t pay a dime for online news articles? I hit my 5 free limit on WaPo all the time. I have a paid online subscription to the local paper b/c otherwise I could not read it. So I think the market is primed to start paying for some online content.
But part of the economics here is that there are SO MANY people willing to create content for free/affiliate money/marketing for their full time gig (stylists, party planners, etc). Or 15 min of fame. And the platforms of Instagram and Twitter allow for short form content where that is possible (unlike the full blog photo shoots of old, although I know people put that kind of effort in as well). I honestly don’t know if I’d pay for any Instagram content. Which makes me wonder why I’m addicted to it. I would definitely pay for ad free Instagram, or to eliminate Instagram’s suggestions. Suggested Reels are killing my soul.
Jan 14, 2022·edited Jan 14, 2022Liked by Gabrielle Blair
It may be worth noting that there are a lot of bloggers who actually do make a LOT of money (like more than any sane person would even think possible) on display ads. It all depends on the website traffic. This didn't really capture the giant range that exists in how content creators make money, so it's very possible that the "free" content you consume on someone's blog is actually making them a lot of money each month because a lot of people are consuming that. It's a system based on volume, which clearly works better for some than others. I agree that we should be willing to pay for content we value, but this is not representative of all content creators. Also: Instagram and Fb have started paying content creators for reels but not everyone, and who gets to be in the program is completely random. Which is grossly unfair.
1) Love the move back to newsletters and blogs posts and paying for that content (subscribers). Feels “cleaner/clearer” somehow and like your magazine subscription. Tho, I’m sure tedious and time consuming for creator. 2) I can’t afford multiple subscriptions to Newspapers around the country. I’d love for an entrepreneur to start/create a way to quickly and easily have a payment system for articles and images. So, for example, I buy $20 worth of content. newspapers, magazine, and creators are all part of network. When I click on an article it pulls between $0.10 to $1 for the content. When I’ve used up my card, I have to refill (like a Starbucks card). Feels like journalists and printed press need to be paid, and other content creators. Tho, there needs to be a clear demarcation between journalism and personal opinion/editorial pieces (in my opinion).
3) + and - to social media, and horrible comments, mental health, etc, it feels like such a mess. IG used to be a way to share and connect and now it’s an online shopping mall with me assuming that a baker I follow has “all the advice” and has a “perfect” life. It’s a very strange, surreal world. I’m not sure there is a going back or clear path forward with the current platforms. Time to evolve?
Thanks for sharing (as always) and providing such a great forum for discussion and thoughts sharing.
It’s been tricky for me to decide who to support on patreon and which subscriptions to hold on to (as Most of mine are currently paid). So yeah, it’s a big adjustment to go from free content to Paid because what one consumes is decreased and in this funny (strange not haha) over consumption of ideas and images place we are in societally that limitation can feel ‘hard’. I do enjoy the idea of paying for an article as opposed to paying for a monthly fee. That would allow me to spread my funds around more instead of committing to only a select few. On the other hand I wonder if I just need to adjust my budgetary expectations of how much all this consumption should cost. Like with many other things I buy cheap is bad for the makers.
As someone trying to write I would prefer to be paid. Also I wish I could pay more writers the monthly or yearly subscription. It would be interesting to pick a different Substack letter each month for maybe a $20 year subscription. That is what I feels I can afford. I pay about that each month in Patreon. So maybe I pay $20 a month to different authors. I always have one renewal each month, but different authors get paid each month. (If someone can afford more great.) Or maybe we need to pay online magazine options. Just spitballing here. Like a magazine that highlights some paid persons each week. I don’t know. (My Substack is Caitlin Chats)
Excellent post. And you have just convinced me to start paying for your content. I would totally pay for maybe 5 different content creators on Instagram, but probably not 15. I want to say there is an existing one stop easy way to pay for content that wouldn't interrupt the flow, but so far I have only seen it on Facebook. Some fundraisers have a 'pay now' button - and I think/guess it's via Paypal og G-pay. Instagram and Twitter should totally be paying content creators, based on numbers of followers and follower interaction. The fact that they don't makes me want to consume less.
I would argue that good content goes viral or is widely shared BECAUSE it's free. When you send links to people and the article is blocked, that puts a swift end to the sharing process. There are currently over 1 billion blogs and over 1.4 billion websites in existence. That's roughly 1 blog for every 7.9 people. If you had to pay to access an article or subscription to each of these blogs or platforms, it would be overwhelming even to decide which one you were committing to.
Paying for a consistently high-quality news source (such as the NYT for example) is one thing but, again, where does it end in terms of what content should be free and what should not be free? Does it depend on how much time the creator spent? Should people have to pay to watch Tiktok? IG Reels? Pinterest? What about free You Tube tutorials? Have a paid subscription to every platform they use? What about Apps - should all apps be paid?
As a small business owner, it's very frustrating to see the number of "content creators" trying to ride the Influencer wave and charging fees for a fleeting IG story, with often no revenue generated from paid posts or product placements.
There is another big benefit of having a large (even free) readership though, which is the power to secure other opportunities. Most bloggers/creators with genuinely valuable content and audience also have passive income in the form of e-books, book deals, online courses, subscription/membership programs, public speaking gigs, and at a certain level talent managers/PR agents.
In the same way that you can go to the library and access offline materials for free, I believe there should always be a place for free and accessible content online too.
I found this entire discussion fascinating and have nothing helpful to add. I am a paying subscriber and always try to pay when a long time content creator asks (like you so kindly did), or donate to top jars, or whatever but I know it isn’t, as you said about hours, scalable … (15 blogs, $5/month, etc). I love the idea of Twitter/Instagram paying you, but those companies seem so big/selfish … hard to imagine this happening. But I LOVE your posts, and so many others, Amalah, Mimi Smartypants, etc.) that I wish there was some way for you to all make money from this work. Side note: I only read women blogs … are there men blogs? … and is this just more ‘Women’s work is free! And has no value!’ Like motherhood, house cleaning, etc. anyway. Thank you for all of your hard work, and for continuing to include all of us in your life, in the way that feels comfortable for you. You deserve to be paid for this.
This is such an interesting topic, thanks for covering it. A couple of thoughts spring to mind. First, I support a number of podcast creators on Patreon because I want them to be paid for their time. I often see in Patreon groups people talking about which Patreons are the "best value" and that really makes me uncomfortable, because that value is generally not judged on the quality of the free content those creators have made available, but on what special bonus content is available, which puts even more of a burden on creators in terms of how much content they need to create to keep supporters subscribed. Second, I think there's just a general expectation that we should have access to unlimited content all the time that isn't healthy and I'm not sure there's anything that can be done to change that. What percentage of content do we engage with that is really meaningful to us and what do we just roam our eyeballs over because it's there? And I wonder how unlimited streaming services like Netflix or Spotify play into this expectation - we pay a small monthly fee to these big companies and then get unlimited content. That's never going to be possible for independent creators.
I know very little about making money from content, so I find this breakdown of how it works super interesting. I'm 100% comfortable with Sponsored Content. As a content consumer, I want to understand when something is sponsored vs not, and its important to me that you don't lie to me about liking or using a product a long time if you haven't. But its perfectly reasonable that you need to earn a living, and therefore need to include sponsored content.
Orlando Soria (former co-worker of HUGE blogger Emily Henderson) just posted a really honest article about trying to make money off of sponsored content on his blog and Instagram https://orlandosoria.com/2022/01/10/a-covid-comedy-of-errors/. I found it super super interesting, in addition to all the issues you raised, he was living very paycheck to paycheck and really struggling with how long it took larger brands to pay him for his work AFTER he had produced it.
I love your point about podcasts, it would be great if you could have a much wider opportunity for sponsors/advertisers that didn't have to be directly used in your home by your family. Something like, "this post is brought to you by Squarespace - thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring a week of DesignMom content. If you are creating a website, I encourage you to support the sponsors that support my work".
This happens all the time with online games. I cannot even count the amount of times my 9 year old has come to me asking for $1.99 to buy “a pack of gems” to expand upon the content in an otherwise free game. Most of the time, I do it! I look through her game, see what she wants to do with those “gems”, we talk through how much we can measure the utils she would get for it (I was an Econ major) and see if it adds up to the same monetary value. I would totally do this in the content world if somebody can figure out a way to streamline it the same way that iPad apps do.
I think content creators on social media SHOULD be compensated by those companies - that is a great idea. I completely agree that content should not be free - before the internet it never was except radio/tv which had ads. You had to buy newspapers and magazines, theater tickets... So we should keep moving in that direction (and I think streaming platforms have paved the way). But in the meantime, You should do what is best for you and your business!
I love this honest discussion and I agree that the hard work of creators is being exploited by platforms and they absolutely should be compensated in a way that doesn't have to involve prostituting oneself to sell stuff for large corporations. How is a difficult question but I think the browser Brave has the right idea, I've been using it for the past few months. You get tokens for watching ads or you can buy tokens and then you can tip creators (websites/twitter users/etc) easily (if they are opted in) and creators can then keep or exchange tokens for $. It seems like it could be a good solution for rewarding creators and also consumers (attention is valuable)
I believe that content creators should be paid. I am happy to pay an annual fee, but if you worked exceptionally hard at a particular post and wanted to charge individually for that post I know I would pay. I started following a couple of my favorite writers on Substack, but found that the writer tended to change their viewpoints to suit their audience. I have canceled almost all Substack and have no intention of following anyone again. I also will support certain individuals on Patreon - Humans of New York comes to mind - that I trust will use the donations wisely. I am very suspicious of Go Fund Me's as there are so many and I am not sure who controls the funds.
You are an exceptional writer/storyteller and I have referred many to your Instagram/Twitter accounts. I appreciate your honesty about how you get paid. You have some 140,000 Instagram followers and that is a following that you should be able to monetize. I am always stunned at how individuals believe that someone should provide you something for free.
First, I sort of miss when blogs were more hobbyists and they weren’t posting everyday and they weren’t so polished. And when it was just blogs (vs Instagram). It seems like a platform would be good…say sub stack and blogger and others at least offering a paid subscription and payment going to blogs based on readership. Remember when we didn’t pay a dime for online news articles? I hit my 5 free limit on WaPo all the time. I have a paid online subscription to the local paper b/c otherwise I could not read it. So I think the market is primed to start paying for some online content.
But part of the economics here is that there are SO MANY people willing to create content for free/affiliate money/marketing for their full time gig (stylists, party planners, etc). Or 15 min of fame. And the platforms of Instagram and Twitter allow for short form content where that is possible (unlike the full blog photo shoots of old, although I know people put that kind of effort in as well). I honestly don’t know if I’d pay for any Instagram content. Which makes me wonder why I’m addicted to it. I would definitely pay for ad free Instagram, or to eliminate Instagram’s suggestions. Suggested Reels are killing my soul.
Is there an alternative to “Apple Pay”?? Would love to support your content, Gabrielle.
It may be worth noting that there are a lot of bloggers who actually do make a LOT of money (like more than any sane person would even think possible) on display ads. It all depends on the website traffic. This didn't really capture the giant range that exists in how content creators make money, so it's very possible that the "free" content you consume on someone's blog is actually making them a lot of money each month because a lot of people are consuming that. It's a system based on volume, which clearly works better for some than others. I agree that we should be willing to pay for content we value, but this is not representative of all content creators. Also: Instagram and Fb have started paying content creators for reels but not everyone, and who gets to be in the program is completely random. Which is grossly unfair.
Great topic and discussion!
Few thoughts:
1) Love the move back to newsletters and blogs posts and paying for that content (subscribers). Feels “cleaner/clearer” somehow and like your magazine subscription. Tho, I’m sure tedious and time consuming for creator. 2) I can’t afford multiple subscriptions to Newspapers around the country. I’d love for an entrepreneur to start/create a way to quickly and easily have a payment system for articles and images. So, for example, I buy $20 worth of content. newspapers, magazine, and creators are all part of network. When I click on an article it pulls between $0.10 to $1 for the content. When I’ve used up my card, I have to refill (like a Starbucks card). Feels like journalists and printed press need to be paid, and other content creators. Tho, there needs to be a clear demarcation between journalism and personal opinion/editorial pieces (in my opinion).
3) + and - to social media, and horrible comments, mental health, etc, it feels like such a mess. IG used to be a way to share and connect and now it’s an online shopping mall with me assuming that a baker I follow has “all the advice” and has a “perfect” life. It’s a very strange, surreal world. I’m not sure there is a going back or clear path forward with the current platforms. Time to evolve?
Thanks for sharing (as always) and providing such a great forum for discussion and thoughts sharing.
It’s been tricky for me to decide who to support on patreon and which subscriptions to hold on to (as Most of mine are currently paid). So yeah, it’s a big adjustment to go from free content to Paid because what one consumes is decreased and in this funny (strange not haha) over consumption of ideas and images place we are in societally that limitation can feel ‘hard’. I do enjoy the idea of paying for an article as opposed to paying for a monthly fee. That would allow me to spread my funds around more instead of committing to only a select few. On the other hand I wonder if I just need to adjust my budgetary expectations of how much all this consumption should cost. Like with many other things I buy cheap is bad for the makers.
Thank you for writing this. I know it was a ton of work to put these thoughts together. We needed to hear it.
As someone trying to write I would prefer to be paid. Also I wish I could pay more writers the monthly or yearly subscription. It would be interesting to pick a different Substack letter each month for maybe a $20 year subscription. That is what I feels I can afford. I pay about that each month in Patreon. So maybe I pay $20 a month to different authors. I always have one renewal each month, but different authors get paid each month. (If someone can afford more great.) Or maybe we need to pay online magazine options. Just spitballing here. Like a magazine that highlights some paid persons each week. I don’t know. (My Substack is Caitlin Chats)
Excellent post. And you have just convinced me to start paying for your content. I would totally pay for maybe 5 different content creators on Instagram, but probably not 15. I want to say there is an existing one stop easy way to pay for content that wouldn't interrupt the flow, but so far I have only seen it on Facebook. Some fundraisers have a 'pay now' button - and I think/guess it's via Paypal og G-pay. Instagram and Twitter should totally be paying content creators, based on numbers of followers and follower interaction. The fact that they don't makes me want to consume less.
I would argue that good content goes viral or is widely shared BECAUSE it's free. When you send links to people and the article is blocked, that puts a swift end to the sharing process. There are currently over 1 billion blogs and over 1.4 billion websites in existence. That's roughly 1 blog for every 7.9 people. If you had to pay to access an article or subscription to each of these blogs or platforms, it would be overwhelming even to decide which one you were committing to.
Paying for a consistently high-quality news source (such as the NYT for example) is one thing but, again, where does it end in terms of what content should be free and what should not be free? Does it depend on how much time the creator spent? Should people have to pay to watch Tiktok? IG Reels? Pinterest? What about free You Tube tutorials? Have a paid subscription to every platform they use? What about Apps - should all apps be paid?
As a small business owner, it's very frustrating to see the number of "content creators" trying to ride the Influencer wave and charging fees for a fleeting IG story, with often no revenue generated from paid posts or product placements.
There is another big benefit of having a large (even free) readership though, which is the power to secure other opportunities. Most bloggers/creators with genuinely valuable content and audience also have passive income in the form of e-books, book deals, online courses, subscription/membership programs, public speaking gigs, and at a certain level talent managers/PR agents.
In the same way that you can go to the library and access offline materials for free, I believe there should always be a place for free and accessible content online too.