Should you quit your job and become a content creator full time?
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Many of us have watched one or two YouTube videos in which content creators reveal they left their 9 to 5 jobs opting instead to create content full time and essentially become “online entrepreneurs”. Whilst content creation for many who loathe the idea of working for a boss or working 8 hours a day seems like the ideal working situation for millennials or Gen Z’s, North West University (NWU) Economics Professor Waldo Krugell, says one should err on the side of caution when considering being a part of the digital/creative economy.
Krugell tells the OFM Business Hour, that research has found that the distribution of income in the digital economy is unequal. With the “superstars” of the content space out earning everyone else significantly. The NWU Economics Professor says this is due in the main to the nature of the product. Online platforms’ algorithms are more likely to recommend already popular content to users, thus creating these digital superstars.
These platforms don’t charge users any fees for availing their content to the public but they use viewer numbers to lure advertisers, which is where they generate their revenue.
Now Krugell isn’t discouraging you from becoming a content creator, he says make sure that you have a unique idea that will draw viewers organically to your pages. He makes mention of a viral Johannesburg-based Mozambican musician who writes gossip songs at the behest of a client about a relative or friend etc and distributes these songs on WhatsApp. This is how the man earns a living.
Irrespective of how you feel about it, Krugell says the digital economy will continue to be around for as long as the internet is.
So shoot your shot at content creation, but do your research first before quitting your day job.
Krugell tells the OFM Business Hour, that research has found that the distribution of income in the digital economy is unequal. With the “superstars” of the content space out earning everyone else significantly. The NWU Economics Professor says this is due in the main to the nature of the product. Online platforms’ algorithms are more likely to recommend already popular content to users, thus creating these digital superstars.
These platforms don’t charge users any fees for availing their content to the public but they use viewer numbers to lure advertisers, which is where they generate their revenue.
Now Krugell isn’t discouraging you from becoming a content creator, he says make sure that you have a unique idea that will draw viewers organically to your pages. He makes mention of a viral Johannesburg-based Mozambican musician who writes gossip songs at the behest of a client about a relative or friend etc and distributes these songs on WhatsApp. This is how the man earns a living.
Irrespective of how you feel about it, Krugell says the digital economy will continue to be around for as long as the internet is.
So shoot your shot at content creation, but do your research first before quitting your day job.
