How to Become a Content Creator (With or Without Experience)

A content creator, also called a digital creator, is someone who creates digital media for a living. No formal training or education is required, though content creators tend to be trusted experts or authorities with experience in a particular field.

The goal of content creation depends on the individual creator, their niche, and their target audience. Likewise, what a content creator does depends on the type of content they’re creating and how they plan to monetize it.

For some, the main purpose of content creation is to inspire. For others, it’s to provide entertainment. And for many, the true meaning of content creation is to educate.

Types of content creators

There are many ways to make a living as an online content creator. Before you start to create content, you should consider the various specialties and choose a format and platform that plays best to your strengths.

Digital content creators generally fall into the following categories:

• Bloggers: If you’re a skilled writer, you can start a blog on just about any topic. Blogging is a classic form of content creation that has minimal barriers to entry and startup costs.
• Video content creators: Video is a content format that consumers crave because it tends to be shorter and easier to consume than written media. As a result, there’s a lot you can do as a video creator or vlogger, like create YouTube unboxing videos, post entertaining dances on TikTok, live stream your video game sessions on Twitch, or upload videography footage to your website or social media pages.
• Podcasters: Podcasting is another form of content storytelling, entertainment, and education, only this one takes the form of audio. Listeners enjoy a wide variety of podcast content, so there are lots of niches for you to explore, including business, health, and true crime.
• Photographers: While photography is a profession in and of itself, one of the top photography side hustles is content creation. This can take the form of a photo blog or digital portfolio, photos posted to social media, or even a monetized Pinterest board.
• Social media content creators: Social media content creation overlaps with the other types of content creation because social media platforms are so varied and support a wide range of media, including written text, photos, and videos. A social media content creator may work as an influencer, but they may also use other content monetization strategies beyond influencer marketing.

These are the roles that are generally associated with content creation. However, in a broader sense, there are lots of other types of digital content you can create as well. For example, you can sell online courses, write and self-publish your own ebooks, or create digital art.

Content creator vs. content marketer

Content creators are sometimes confused with content marketers. The primary difference between the two is employment.

A content creator is self-employed. They create content on behalf of their own brand. A content marketer, on the other hand, sells content creation services. They’re employed or contracted by brands to develop different types of content or media on their behalf.

Do you need experience to become a content creator?

Anybody can become a content creator. You don’t necessarily need to have a background in content creation or experience using content production tools to get started in this line of work. However, a bit of training can certainly help you succeed.

Before launching into a content creation side hustle, it could be a good idea to get a regular job in the field of content creation or content marketing. This is what social media creator Hannah Wilson did. She began her career as an in-house creator for Insta360.

“There, I learned how to consistently create engaging content, adapt strategies to the ever-changing social media landscape, and build communities through educational videos,” Wilson said.

This type of work experience can give you a solid foundation for beginning an independent career in content creation. Think of it as an intense training program where you also get paid. You’ll learn the ropes in your target niche and medium and set yourself up for success.

With all the perks that come from this line of work, there are plenty of people wondering how to become a content creator with no experience. Many wonder whether it’s still even possible.

The good news is that it’s not too late to become a digital creator. While standards and strategies have certainly evolved the past few years, we can tell you the exact steps to take to be a content creator in today’s increasingly creator-saturated and algorithm-centric digital world.

1. Choose a niche

Regardless of what type of content you’re creating, the biggest factor determining your success is how algorithms rank and categorize your content. Focusing on one specific niche will help algorithms draw the right crowd to your work and solidify your reputation and credibility in a particular space.

As an example of how this works, let’s say you want to become a blogger. You’re interested in movies, dogs, and knitting. Unfortunately, you can’t just write about all of these diverse interests and hobbies. Doing so will make it much harder to reach your target audience.

Ultimately, you have to find a way to convince Google’s algorithm to show your blog before others in the search results. That’s very hard to do if your brand and content don’t have a clear and specific focus. It might seem counterintuitive, but you’ll amass a much bigger and dedicated following if you specialize rather than spreading yourself thin by covering as many topics as possible.

The right niche will be at the intersection of the following considerations:

• Your skills and experience
• Your interests and passions
• Market demand

Choose a field with lots of consumer demand and not a super high amount of competition. The first two points are equally important because audiences gravitate towards people who really know what they’re doing.

2. Research your target audience (and competitors)

After you’ve decided what your content will focus on, you need to figure out who your target audience is what what they care about. While it’s certainly possible to create great content based solely on topics and themes that interest you, it’s incredibly difficult to actually find success as a content creator without first doing some research.

This preliminary research will be essential when it comes time to decide what subtopics to cover and create a content schedule. It’ll also help you figure out where you should share your content and how to make yourself stand out from the other creators in your space.

3. Develop a unique personal brand

To garner a large audience, you need to stand out in a way that is relatable and excites curiosity in the people interacting with your content. Part of the secret to achieving this is authenticity. Don’t be afraid to show your real self.

Here’s how to develop your unique personal brand as a content creator:

• Choose a goal: Education, inspiration, or entertainment.
• Come up with a unique value proposition that makes you stand out from other creators.
• Show a side of your personality that’s authentic to who you are and that your target audience will relate to.
• Come up with a unique and memorable style for yourself, your voice, and your work.
• Create digital branding elements (e.g., logos, taglines, color choice, font selection, and graphics) that align with your identity.

A strong personal brand identity will make you stand out from all the other content creators out there doing the same thing. And the more authentic and consistent you are in your branding, the more effective you’ll be at reaching your target audience.

4. Choose your content creation platforms

When choosing your platform or platforms, the first thing to consider is which ones make the most sense for your particular type of digital content creation. In addition to publishing content on your own website, there are several external sites and apps you can use.

Popular Platforms by Content Creator Type

Depending on the type of content you’re creating, you’ll have more luck reaching your audience on some platforms over others. For example, take Wilson, who specializes in sharing tips and advice with other content creators on how to capture the best videos and photos on your own.

Because Wilson’s content revolves around photos and videos, she primarily uses Instagram. But this doesn’t mean she doesn’t use any other social media platforms. She also posts on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Pinterest to broaden her reach.

One other factor to consider is your monetization strategy. For instance, social media platforms often have their own monetization programs, but they have different thresholds and requirements for when you can start earning.

5. Create your toolbox

Each type of digital content creator has a unique set of content creation tools. The table below should give you an idea of what you need to get started as a content creator.

Tools for Content Creators

6. Establish your content creation process

Establishing a routine content creation process ensures you don’t miss any important steps. A repeatable process will allow you to create and publish content more quickly.

The process for making content will look a little different from creator to creator. In general, though, here are the steps to follow:

1. Brainstorm ideas: After a while, you may struggle to come up with new content creation ideas on your own. Use tools like Google Trends, follower surveys, and mind mapping to keep a fresh flow of ideas coming in.
2. Create a content calendar: To keep an audience engaged, publish content on a regular and predictable schedule. Creating a content calendar where you plan out the steady creation and release of your content will help you post consistently.
3. Conceptualize the content: Pro content creators rarely wing it. They use outlines, storyboards, wireframes, scripts, and other tools to plan out what they’re going to create beforehand.
4. Create the content: Block off time to make your content. Then get to it. If other people are involved (like if you’re interviewing someone on your podcast), make sure to schedule with them ahead of time and confirm the day before and of.
5. Edit it: To maintain your credibility, you must edit everything to a high quality standard before you share it with the public. It’s a good idea to block off time for the editing process so you’re not rushing to fit it in.
6. Publish it to your platforms: Content publication requires more than uploading a file or text to your platform and hitting “publish.” Depending on the content, you may need to perform search engine optimization tasks, upload transcripts, or add descriptions.

Feel free to modify these steps and add in ones that will streamline your workflow. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to adjust your content creation process down the line if you’re not getting the right results or you discover your process isn’t sustainable.

7. Monetize your content

Because creators are self-employed, people often want to know how and when content creators get paid. It all depends on the monetization strategies you use. The table below summarizes the various strategies that content creators use to make money.

Content Creator Monetization Strategies

It’s best to set up multiple revenue streams so that if one monetization strategy starts to slow down, the others can pick up the slack. For example, Wilson’s main source of revenue is brand sponsorships, but she’s also building an online course to sell through her website.

When choosing monetization strategies, it’s important to factor in more than just earning potential. You have to think about your audience, too. For instance, a podcaster would likely have better luck selling subscriptions to listeners than a photographer would to their customers.

The best content creators didn’t end up at the top by chance. Content creation takes a lot of hard work. Follow these content creation tips to improve your chances of really making it as a content creator.

Understand the common challenges that digital creators face

If you know in advance about the struggles that content creators face, then you can prepare for them and even try to avoid them.

Here are the most common obstacles for a digital content creator:

• Growing an audience when you have zero experience or brand recognition
• Using the wrong technology or platforms and having them slow you down
• Struggling to constantly come up with fresh ideas
• Not being able to find enough time to get everything done
• Trying to stay relevant in a saturated creator economy
• Dealing with negative and downright mean comments
• Experiencing stress and burnout

Many of the tips below will help you avoid these pitfalls of being a content creator.

Track your performance

Successful digital creators analyze their content performance over time. Tracking and analyzing performance metrics will give you several valuable insights:

• How your content as a whole has performed over time
• How individual pieces of content performed compared to others
• How each piece has done in terms of metrics like views, comments, shares, and clicks
• Which types of subjects the target audience prefers or doesn’t prefer
• If there are certain timeframes or occasions when content performs best
• How the follower count has changed and what may have triggered those changes
• How revenue has increased or decreased from month to month

There are various tools that will allow you to track your performance as a content creator. It depends on which platforms you use. For instance, you can use Google Analytics to monitor website activity, an affiliate platform like PartnerStack to track revenue, and Sprout Social to monitor all your social media accounts.

However, before you begin publishing content and analyzing its performance, it’s important to identify which metrics matter most to your success. Choose analytics tools that make it easy to track those metrics over time.

Your chosen tools should also help you make confident decisions when adjusting your content strategy. Some content is going to work for you while some won’t. Your data will provide you with insights that show what your audience wants so you can give them more of it.

Create content regularly

By producing content on a regular basis, you strengthen your creation skills. This allows you to work faster and smarter.

Additionally, by producing content regularly and consistently, people will gravitate towards you as a credible and reliable source of information, inspiration, or entertainment.

Engage with your audience

Marketing is an important part of content creation. Even if you’ve published content on a social media marketing platform, you still need to promote it. For example, if you recently published a TikTok video, you could post it to your reels on Instagram.

However, marketing your work is about more than just distributing it to your audience across multiple platforms. You also need to engage with your audience.

One reason to do this is because it demonstrates that you actually care about your supporters and want to hear what they say. Another reason is to collect valuable feedback and new ideas. You create content for your audience, so there’s no better source of inspiration.

What’s more, audience engagement helps you build a community around your brand. Rather than be seen as someone just in it for the likes or money, new users will see how devoted you are to your audience.

Network and collaborate with others

Networking with other creators will allow you to do the following things:

• Share your experiences with people who get it
• Meet seasoned creators who can offer helpful advice
• Gain greater insights into what’s going on in your niche
• Trade ideas
• Discover collaborative opportunities

Content creation may be a solitary activity for many. However, that doesn’t mean you have to feel alone in it.

Be authentic

Your brand identity is one of the first things that people will notice about you. It’s also what will keep them hooked. That’s why it’s vital that you craft an image that’s true to who you are. If it’s forced, it’ll become difficult over time to maintain.

Prioritize quality over quantity

Content creators don’t become successful because they’re able to churn out more content than others. Quality matters a good deal more than quantity. What’s more, prioritizing quantity will inevitably lead to burnout, especially if you’re creating content you don’t care much about.

Instead, be intentional about what you create and ensure that everything you put out provides real value to your audience. That’s what matters most to them anyway.

Stay up-to-date on the latest trends

As a digital creator, you need to stay on the cutting edge of news in your industry, the tools creators like yourself use, trending topics, and more.

The best way to do this is to keep your eyes and ears open. Subscribe to blogs and newsletters. Follow industry leaders on social media. Listen to podcasts. Aggregate news from around the web using a tool like Feedly.

Spend your time wisely

Successful content creators know that in order to maximize their profits, they need to optimize their workflows. What’s more, greater efficiency can help them better maintain their mental and physical health while avoiding burnout.

For example, they’ll do things like:

• Create templates for the kinds of content they produce
• Use project management tools like checklists or content calendars to keep things organized and on track
• Invest in tools that automate mundane but necessary administrative tasks

They also follow a dedicated schedule, much like someone who is employed would. This allows them to take time off and bring some balance to their hectic work life.

It’s incredibly rewarding to be able to create your own content, have people show their appreciation for it, and even get paid for it. While the most profitable content creators commit to their work full-time, content creation can still make for a great side hustle.

Here are some reasons why:

• You get paid for doing work you’re passionate about.
• You’re your own boss and can work whenever you want.
• Aside from some equipment, there generally aren’t a lot of startup costs.
• You have the chance to start with a content creation side hustle before committing to full-time work and quitting your day job.
• Content creation can be a lot of fun, especially as you learn new skills, meet other creators, and get to know your followers.

In terms of the benefits of being a social media content creator, Wilson highlighted the complete control you have over your content and personal brand, which she said is a huge asset in the media industry. “Getting paid for creative work brings me a level of fulfillment that I never experienced in my previous career in marketing and broadcasting,” she added.

On top of that, Wilson’s content creation career allows her to travel all around the world. Working in content creation gives you a level of freedom and flexibility that’s incredibly rare in other industries.

Drawbacks of a content creation career

Despite all the perks that come with doing content creation, the life of a content creator isn’t always easy. You have to work really hard to actually start making money and earn a living from your content.

Wilson also pointed out some of the ways that the job can take a psychological toll. “I sometimes struggle with feeling like I’m not doing a ‘real job,'” she said. “The unpredictable schedule and constant travel can occasionally make me feel lost.”

You also need thick skin and plenty of drive to keep creating content when you hit a wall. “When engagement drops or videos don’t perform as expected, it can be disheartening,” Wilson said. “However, I’ve learned that this is an opportunity to work harder, do more research, and produce better content.”

How much money do content creators make?

There isn’t much formal data available on the typical content creator salary. But there’s plenty of misleading information circulating about how much you can earn as a content creator. The truth is that the majority of content creators don’t even make enough for a full-time salary.

Ultimately, there are several factors that impact how much you earn as a content creator:

• Type of content creation
• Years of experience
• Target industry
• Audience size
• Platform
• Monetization strategies

Moreover, the amount of time you invest in content creation impacts how well you do. Creating content isn’t easy. There’s more to it than just writing, filming, or recording yourself.

Plus, top content creators devote themselves to their craft regularly, so there’s a huge difference in earning potential for someone doing this as a side hustle vs. full-time.