With The Creator Economy Expected To Reach A $500B Valuation By 2027, Here Are Tips On How To Become A Well-Paid Creative

Here are some tips to consider to become a well-paid creative.

The creator economy is projected to reach $500 billion by 2027, according to Sprout Social. If you are a creator, you don’t want to miss out on your piece of the pie. At NAB Show 2025 (National Association of Broadcasters) held in Las Vegas, NV, Rhea Allen, president and CEO of Peppershock Media, moderated a discussion that offers real-world strategies that can be applied by creators to increase your value and income.

Niche Down And Specialize

While it is OK to be a jack of all trades, it will be a better bet to narrow your focus on mastering one niche and to establish trust among an audience that will gravitate towards you for a particular subject matter. This can also be helpful as more companies seek expert commentary.

“Companies tend to hire experts, and they’re more willing to pay for the expert,” Allen explained. “And so if you position yourself as the go-to person for a specific skill or industry, you naturally command higher rates because your expertise is rare and in demand.”

To consider what your niche will be, you should look at your areas of interest because that will naturally encourage habits of curiosity and ongoing engagement. Also pinpoint your strengths and decide if your area of expertise has revenue promise.

An example Allen provided was a copywriter who carried that skill to UX design writing or fintech applications.

“What’s the market willing to pay for you? This ensures that you can actually make money doing it,” she said.

Develop Your Personal Brand

Becoming a well-paid creative also means making your messaging for your personal brand clear and memorable. Your personal brand can also dictate how you are viewed and what opportunities will be presented to you.

“A strong brand makes you memorable, builds trust, and allows you to charge higher rates because clients see you as an authority in your field, as a thought leader, or somebody with lots of experience that has done well with what they’re doing,” she mentioned.

Be intentional with all areas of personal branding — your taglines, color schemes, design, and even your tone should be personalized. Beyond this, be sure to utilize your platform to engage with your audience. This could be sharing insights on said topics or recapping your experience at an influencer event. As you share new updates, you are strengthening your brand’s profile and also making it easier for alignment with future opportunities.

Great platforms to consider to enhance your brand include LinkedIn, Facebook, or your website.

“You create and you put it out there, and then ideally it’ll return to you in abundance. Right?” Allen said. “A strong personal brand makes you more recognizable, trustworthy, and in demand. And when it’s done right, it does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Clients will seek you out rather than you having to chase them.”

Diversify Your Income

While she suggests considering a niche that does not mean your income streams have to be narrow. Multiple streams of income are encouraged. For a creator, this could mean producing batch content and packaging it in the form of digital downloads or webinars. You could also set up a storefront to sell products, stock photography, or Canva templates, even create a Substack that offers exclusive content to paid subscribers. Users can opt in to purchase, providing another stream of income. Allen labels this as passive income as well as work that does not depend on a new client, which would fall under active income.

“Relying on those active and passive more will create more freedom,” she detailed.

Resources she mentions that you can use to create digital products are Gumroad and Creative Market. Additionally, Teachable, Udemy and Skillshare are other resources given that will allow creators to share their expertise and package them into paid courses.

Network And Collaboration

While your talent matters, it won’t be the sole factor in growing your financial footprint. Your network is your net worth, and you should be strategic with meeting individuals both horizontally and vertically. This could be online or at in-person meetups. If there is alignment, consider a partnership.

“Partnering with others, whether through those co-branded content things that you can do online now, or on social media, doing guest appearances, speaking like this, doing joint projects to expand your reach and credibility, a strong network doesn’t just bring you more opportunities, it really positions you as that trusted and visible authority to your space because you’re doing the things in front of those people you want to do business with,” Allen noted.

Leveraging AI And Automation

Artificial intelligence is a tool that should be leveraged to help you be more efficient. Time is money, they say. A resource provided includes Sintra. It can help with repetitive tasks such as creating emails or creating a schedule so you have more time to put towards your creativity. The software can also be trained to align with your brand’s voice.

“I believe that AI does have a place in the creative process. It’s not the end all, be all, but it can help you speed up things and make more things efficient,” Allen said. “And this is why I think that charging based on your time now is going to be completely turned on its head. Because the things that used to take us hours to do, now it can take 20 seconds to do, but it’s also having the tools and having the knowledge and having the expertise to do those things.”