What’s a Digital Creator, and How Do You Become One?

With the growing focus on social media marketing, an increasing number of companies and businesses are turning to digital creators to help boost brand awareness and conversions. This trend has helped make digital content creation a lucrative career path.

But you still might be wondering, what exactly does it mean to be a digital creator, and how can you become one? In this guide, we'll break down the role of a digital creator and offer some beginner-friendly tips on how to start your very own content creation journey.

What’s a Digital Creator?

Digital creators, also known as content creators, do just what the name suggests: create digital content. They dream up compelling ideas and translate them into engaging videos, photos, blog posts, podcasts, and other formats that appeal to users.

Digital creators aren’t just hobbyists — posting the occasional travel or food picture to Instagram isn’t quite enough to make someone an official content creator. What sets digital creators apart from casual posters is consistently published content that grabs your attention and leaves you feeling educated or entertained.

Successful creators understand how to film and edit videos, tell stories, and play to social media algorithms to build a following. Many have also figured out how to monetize their creations, turning what usually starts as a passion into a profitable part or full-time career.

Digital Content Creators Versus Influencers

An influencer is one type of content creator that uses digital material to develop their personal brand and build an online following. What sets influencers apart from other digital creators is their content’s purpose. Instagram influencers use media like Stories and Reels to inspire their followers to take a certain action (usually buying a product or service), while non-influencer digital creators aren’t selling anything but the content itself.

How To Become a Digital Creator

If you’re a creator who’s social media-savvy and itching to share your ideas with the world, here’s a step-by-step guide for becoming a digital content creator.

1. Find Your Niche

A niche is a space you carve out for yourself within the larger world of content creation. Why do you need one? It’s hard to build a loyal following if your content covers too much ground.

Think about the things that interest you most, like DIY home projects, makeup tutorials, or ASMR. If there’s enough to say about that topic to fuel a steady content stream, it would likely make a great niche. You’re bound to find followers just as passionate about your “thing” as you are.

2. Get Your Gear

You don’t need to invest a bunch of money into fancy video cameras or a home studio — at least not immediately. But if your phone is an older model that takes low-quality videos and photos, consider an upgrade. Otherwise, all you’ll need to get started is a low-cost tripod and some user-friendly editing tools like Captions.

3. Brainstorm Ideas

With your niche determined, think about what you can offer that other creators can’t. That might mean making tutorials for things no one else has covered before, or it could just be finding more creative ways to share that information.

Keep your target audience in mind as you come up with ideas. Consider what interests them and what delivery method will keep them engaged. Once you start posting content, pay attention to which posts people respond to most, and let that inform your brainstorming process moving forward.

4. Start Creating and Sharing

Don’t wait until you’ve perfected your creation process to start sharing — trial and error is the name of the game. The best thing you can do to refine your content strategy is to put yourself out there. You’ll learn as you go, but you won’t improve if you let the fear of messing up stop you.

5. Foster a Sense of Community

It’s called “social” media for a reason — and you’ll form better connections when you regularly interact with followers. Read, react, and reply to comments to nurture the community you’re building. To reach even more people, make your content accessible with features like AI Captions. 

6. Monetize Your Work

Here are a few ways you can monetize your hard efforts and affiliate marketing to monetize your work. You can also:

• Get brand sponsorships — Find relevant companies to partner with, creating content that highlights their products and services.
• Try affiliate marketing — Spotlight and share links to products and services, and when people click on these links, you gain a profit.
• Sell merch — Once you have a following, create and sell merchandise that features your tagline, a funny saying, or an image from a popular video.
• Sell courses or eBooks — If your content is educational, offer followers more in-depth options for learning via online courses or well-written eBooks.
• Sell subscriptions — Set up a Patreon account or an Instagram subscription plan that offers content just for subscribers.
• Get platform payouts — Once you’re established, your content can earn money through programs like the TikTok Creator Fund and YouTube’s Partner Program. 

Kickstart Your Content Creation Journey With Captions

If you’re just getting started, you might feel overwhelmed by the thought of handling things like video editing, captioning, and storyboarding all by yourself. With Captions, you don’t have to.

Captions is like an AI-powered creative assistant for digital creators. Fresh out of ideas? Captions’ AI Script has you covered, helping you brainstorm and script content for any social channel. Discover how Captions’ creative tools can boost you from casual poster to digital creator today.

FAQs

Can Anyone Become a Digital Creator?

People of any age, background, and skill level can try their hand at digital creation. If you have a skill to share or a personality that keeps people glued to their screens, you’re the perfect candidate. You don’t even have to be a tech wizard or have a closetful of expensive equipment — start with what you have and build from there.

How Do Digital Creators Make Money?

Some creators act as social media influencers. They use their rapport with followers to promote products and services through brand partnerships or share affiliate links to earn commissions on selling products they love. 

If you’re not trying to be an influencer, you can still earn money through ad revenue and subscriptions or by selling your own products.

What’s the Average Income for a Digital Creator?

The amount earned depends on several factors, like your niche, audience size, posting frequency, and — of course — content quality. Some creators do it as a side gig, while others earn a full-time living. Don’t quit your day job assuming becoming a digital creator will make you rich, but know that the possibilities are endless if you put in the work.

Do I Need a Big Audience Before Becoming a Digital Creator?

Having a strong following can help you jumpstart your content creation career, but putting out quality content is the best way to attract more followers. Depending on your niche, you may never build a huge following. But a small, super engaged community can be even more gratifying than a massive audience that never interacts with your posts. Focus on quality over quantity — both with your content and your community.

How Do I Get Started if I’m New to Social Media?

If you don’t have much experience with social media, get a feel for the most popular platforms, like Instagram and TikTok, before jumping in. See what other creators are doing on each, and decide which channel appeals to you most. Find some creators you admire and take note of everything they do, from captions and hashtags to audience engagement. 

When you’re ready, start developing some of your own content. The more you observe and experiment, the stronger your skills will get.