Essentially, creators have to balance the distribution potential of certain platforms with the risk of becoming dependent on them, and monetize by either earning a little off of each fan from mainstream content for a big audience or earning a lot off of deeper connections to a smaller set of fans through niche content.

Each platform should be treated as a distinct component of a larger ecosystem, and the creator-model journalists finding traction know this. They're building direct audience relationships through newsletters while using social media for top-of-funnel discovery, creating premium content behind paywalls while offering free content for acquisition,... See more

Creators as influencers want to know how to spark and grow engagement as well as how to get paid for their efforts. The most successful also wonder how to scale themselves and not be relegated to being paid arithmetically — i.e. paid by the hour or one-off projects/tasks.