From watching a TikTok video to reading an article about any sensation (often referred to as people who suddenly gain popularity), everything you consume on the internet is created solely by Digital Content Creators.

And there is nothing to surprise,
Because the internet and technology are at their peak right now, because of their ease of use and accessibility which brings more consumers that tend to attract more creators and the cycle goes on. You might never think of all these things, but every piece of content you consume on the internet is the result of a Content Creator’s brainstorming.

But wait, you might notice that instead of Digital Creators, I use the word, Digital Content Creators, but don’t confuse, both terms are exactly the same, in fact after adding content to this word, I make it sound more professional & promising and yeah it clears the confusion right away about what the shit I am talking.

So, there is a huge probability that you somewhere hear the word “Digital Creator” but would you ever question what exactly a Digital Creator is, Are they the same as an influencer or is there any difference, What does a Digital Creator Do, How do they make money and how much, and how you can become a Digital Creator or Digital Content Creator (in a professional way).

Well, this guide will answer all these questions with some right and straightforward tips to get started.

So, let’s start, with our first question,

From the above definition, you can argue that anyone who creates content on any digital platform is a Digital Content Creator, well you can say that, but this doesn’t clarify all the possibilities, so look at some different explanations.

Anyone who creates content on any Digital Platform can be a Digital Content Creator as long as their aim is to solve people’s problems, provide some valuable information, educate them, or make them feel that what he/she is doing is somehow gonna help them make the right decisions.

Still not clear, okay, You can also verdict it as,

Anyone who can influence people with their content and can able to keep them engaged, or he/she is making some money out of his content in any way either paid promotion, Affiliate commissions, with own product or service sale, or in any other ways (and why am I saying this, is because only worth content can able to make money), is a Digital Creator or Digital Content Creator.

I think this clears up the confusion about the Digital Creator meaning,

So, let’s talk about what is the difference between Digital Creators and Influencers

Digital Creators vs Influencers

Both words look the same and are sometimes familiar, but if you experience it on the ground, both are totally different, but the difference lies behind the intention of the work.

As I define above, Digital Creators are someone who creates Digital content with the aim to engage the audience to generate more leads, and on the other side Influencers are someone who also creates content but mainly on Social Media Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok with the aim to influence people buying behaviors.

Yeah, both of them create the content but the key difference is the Goal of their content creation.

How do Digital Creators make money?

Making Money in Online World is somehow easy but not a piece of cake, you need to have the proper Knowledge, Skills, and Resources to make it possible. And if you have all these things, then you still need an engaged audience to make money as a Digital Creator because in Online World, Audience is the King.

After then as a Digital Content Creator or Digital Creator you can start making money and you have hundreds of ways to make money. Here are some of the best and most common ways to make money as a Digital Creator, You can sell your own products, Create and Launch your own Course, Make money with Affiliate Marketing, Sponsorships, Brand Deals, Advertisements, and so much more.

Hence, there is a lot of potential for making money as a Digital Creator, but if we see the Data, then it is estimated that an average salary of a digital creator in the U.S. is around $46,000/year (Glassdoor), and it’s growing year by year.

How to Become a Digital Creator

There is no one-stop solution to becoming a Digital Creator, you have to follow some proper steps and strategies and implement them as you grow to become a successful Digital creator.

But first, take a look at what skills you need to be a Digital Creator.

Skills needed to become a Digital Creator.

You can be a Good Writer, Speaker, or even a good Researcher but these are not enough to become a successful Digital Creator, you need to maintain a balance between all the essential skills a Digital Creator needs. Just like if you aren’t good at Time Management then you can’t able to achieve your desired goals.

So, here are some most important skills that in my opinion, a Digital creator should master. And I have divided it into three sections, Basic Skills, Technical Skills, and Soft Skills.

Basic Skills

• Research: The first and most crucial skill to diving deep into it, because at every point you need to perform research, starting from your Niche Selection to Money Management, you need to do research and this is where most people fail.
• Content Creation: It is the base of any Successful Digital Creator, NO matter on which platform or field you are working, you need to create great content.
• Social Media Management: Social Media is the second home for your content because every time you create content you need to promote it on social media and why you need to do so because of its popularity and userbase. Social Media Management is a must-have skill for you because it can gain a lot of attraction in just a matter of time.
• Marketing: First Step towards acquiring new customers, Without Marketing and Promotion people are not gonna know about you and your content, and for letting people know you need to do marketing to witness your content and product, such as Running Advertisements and Email Marketing. And yeah you can also get some tips and advice from Content Marketing Experts to stay in the loop with the latest Marketing Trends.

Technical Skills

• SEO: It is the reason behind your Success. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the core of any successful content, and this is “The most important skill” every Digital Creator must have. No matter which type of content you are creating it requires SEO, and the better you know it the better you can implement it, and ultimately the better your content will rank in search engines.
• Analytical Skills: This tells you the truth, In other words, Analytics can tell everything about your content and your Users. You can find out which of your content is performing well, which part of your content users love, which content is shared the most, and so on. And so for the users, where your users are from, which device are they using, etc. so you can create targeted content.

Soft Skills

• Learning: This fuels your knowledge database, You have to learn on the go, no matter what are the sources, you have to keep learning either from other people’s success or your own mistakes.
• Time Management: It fastens your process of success, with proper time management you can boost your speed toward success as it gives you more chances to correct your mistakes.
• Communication: It is where you build relationships, As you grow into your career, You need to make relationships with other creators and brands, and good communication skills will create unbreakable relationships.
• Creativity: This will set you apart from the crowd, No matter which type of content you are delivering to your audience, you need to be creative to showcase your expertise in your field. (One of the best examples is Brian Dean’s “SkyScraper Technique”, which sets him apart from other SEOs)

Tip to get started as a Digital Creator

There are no shortcuts to this, instead, you need to follow these tips to get a better start.

• Choose your topic of interest or expertise
• Choose your Platform
• Gather all the materials
• Start Creating the Content
• Set the Goals
• Promote your content
• Find Monetization Opportunities
• and, Chill

1. Choose the Topic of your Interest or Expertise

Choosing your Niche (Topic) is the first and most crucial step because the rest of your journey as a Digital Creator revolves around it. So choose that niche in which you have some knowledge and interest and you are also passionate about. So whenever you talk, wrote, or discuss that topic it looks like you are an expert in that particular field.

Seems quite easy, but still many of you fail in the first step and the reason is simple, you choose to go with that niche that makes you money but you have almost zero knowledge about that topic.

So, stop going after money-making or trending niches instead follow your passion and knowledge, and then select your niche. And for that, think about what you love talking about, or what you are good at, because when you know what you are talking about or writing then it inspires you to create more great content.

And the main benefit of selecting a narrow niche is you can prove that you are an expert in your field and your audience will know that what to expect from you.

For example look at this food blog Cookieandkate.com by Kathryne, where she only talks about Cooking, Dinner Ideas, Breakfast recipes, and so on. She doesn’t talk about anything else other than this and this builds trust with the audience.

So, select a niche that you love writing or talking about and post your content regularly with consistency because consistency is the key to success.

2. Choose your Platform

This is really an easy one, but first, you have to figure out which type of content you are going to create like Blog posts or videos, and on this basis, you need to choose the right platform.

So as you finalized which type of content you are going to create then choose your platform and keep in mind that the platform has a good userbase, and the ability to monetize your content.

For instance, if you choose to create videos then obviously Youtube is going to be the best fit for your content with 2.6 billion active users as of 2023. And if you choose to create Blog posts then you have so many options to go with, you can write on microblogging sites like Linkedin, Medium & Tumblr, Create your own blog on Blogging sites like Blogger, Wix, Squarespace, WordPress.com, and So on.

But if you choose to go a more professional way then you can go with WordPress.org, where you can create your own Website or Blog with lots of potentials to grow. And for your help, I have written a full guide on How to set up your First Blog, and if you want me to set up your Blog then you can check out my Free WordPress Blog Setup Guide where you just have to follow some simple steps and I and my team will set up your Blog for absolutely Free of cost.

Now you have completed two important steps, choosing the niche and selecting the right platform, So let’s gather all the essential tools to start creating content.

3. Gather all the materials

This step is mostly for people who want to make videos because for creating videos you need different tools like Camera, Mic, Laptops, Editing Software, lightning, etc.

You can also say that I can do everything with my smartphone, yeah you can, but with these tools, you can do your work seamlessly as everything will be for specific work. But it’s still fine if you have a tight budget but remember you need to deliver a better user experience, your sound needs to be clear, and video quality is still a thing to consider.

In my opinion, A good mic and video editing software are worth the money.

And for Cretors who want to write blog posts, I have already a whole guide on this, Check it out here.

4. Start Creating the Content

Now after Selecting the right niche, Platforms, and equipment, it’s time to start creating content. In the beginning, it seems quite stressful but doesn’t go off your track.

If you are writing any blog posts try to schedule it and then start writing, and also you will have to take care of a lot of things including Grammar, Spelling Errors, Content Format, and many more. Yeah, you can automate all these things with Grammar Checker Tools like ProWritingAid and Grammarly.

And if Content Writing seems difficult, you can create videos and social media posts, yeah these are trending nowadays. You can also take inspiration from other creators or can signup for a course, but in the end, you have to create videos on your own. But don’t lose hope if some of your videos aren’t perfect at the beginning. Just keep doing your work with full dedication and you will automatically get better with each and every piece of content you published.

Just Content Writing and Video Creation is not the only choice, you can also choose different content creation format just like if you love talking or sharing your knowledge in form of Audio, then you can also try Podcasting. And yeah Social Media is also not a bad choice, there is a huge probability of making yourself a Brand.

5. Set SMART Goals

By setting Goals you can double your productivity and this is one of the best ways to know your potential as a Digital Creator. For example, if you run a Blog then your goal should something be “I have to increase my Email Subscribers by 10% till next month”. This type of goal can give you a sense of direction to move, motivation to work, and a clear focus to aim for.

But make sure that you set that type of goal that can be achieved, not something like far from the moon, and for doing this correctly you should follow a simple goal-setting rule called SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely).

6. Promote Your Content

You have created your content, Done all the Technical Stuff, but still, people aren’t able to find your content, then it’s time for Promotion. You heard it right you need to promote your content to gain some early attraction.

So, Where and how to Promote it?

You probably know some type of promotion techniques like Running Advertisements, Collaborating with Influencers, and so on but these types of promotion require cash, and I know you don’t have it (Maybe). So you can use Social Media, Yes, Social Media to promote your content. There were a lot of people on these platforms (almost 4.9 billion users globally) to which you can share your content.

But to get success with Social Media, you need to be super active and consistent so your users don’t forget you and your brand. But wait the most important thing is you need to grab people’s attention within a few seconds otherwise they will scroll.

So, you need to create eye-catching and valuable content, Like you can create Infographics, Short Videos, Create Polls to keep the audience engaged. Here are some tips for becoming successful on Social Media as a Digital Creator.

7. Find Monetization Opportunities

And Last, you need to monetize your content.

All the effort you have made from the beginning is for making money, right? So you need to find ways for monetizing your content.

But wait, You may know that platforms like Youtube and Twitch have inbuilt monetization options for creators who have a certain number of Followers and some engagement, so all you need to do is to enable the monetization option whenever you are eligible for that, Making Money is that simple as a Digital Creator.

But these can’t make you a lot of money, So you need to find other sources of making money, like Affiliate Marketing and Sponsorships. For more on making money as a Digital Creator, you can read this article.

Now, you are ready to start your journey as a Digital Creator.

All you need to do is to Take the First Step.

Look Becoming a Digital Creator can be Challenging, Stressful, and Tedious but also very Soothing and Rewarding at the same time. It’s totally upon you how to take it. Every Creator has different Goals but the way to get there is almost the same as above.