Hello from Colorado!!

Albeit a bit hectic, the move has been going well and I’m about to start my travels again on Thursday with a trip to LA!

While I would love to link up with some of you LA-based readers on Friday (reply to this email or shoot me a message on LinkedIn), I’ll be attending Camp Flog Gnaw all weekend long!

If there are any festival-goers who are reading this, let’s most definitely link up and enjoy some music together. ❤️ 

Outside of my travels, I’ve gone ahead and switched up the layout of this newsletter with the help of my Co-Founder, Dylan Wilczkowiak’s killer design mind, and I think it looks gorgeous. Plus, it’s way easier to read and is probably less scary than the wall of text that was my last few issues LOL.

Let me know what you think of the new layout by replying to this email! I look forward to hearing your thoughts and critiques. 😎 

-Luke

🚨 Top 3 Stories This Week

1. China makes creators display their full names on socials

China's six most popular social platforms are now forcing content creators with over 500k followers to display their real names, or the names of their financial backers on their profiles.

With the goal of "enhancing the credibility" of creator’s accounts China will be implementing this for creators in fields such as current affairs, military, finance, law, and healthcare.

Interestingly enough, regular users and accounts that post personal daily life content will not be affected or be forced to list their names.

Creators, would you feel comfortable if you were forced to list your full name on your YouTube, TikTok, IG, or beyond? Would this change what platforms you prioritize? Reply to this email for a potential feature in next week’s issue!

2. Understanding X's Ad Revenue-Sharing Payments

Let’s talk about how you get paid on X. It’s a bit confusing, but it essentially boils down to a few key factors.

Eligibility and Payment

To participate in the ad revenue-sharing program, you first need to have a verified account. But don’t forget, you can only earn ad revenue if your views are from other users who also have a verified account, and you can only get paid out if you’ve generated more than $10 in ad revenue.

Factors Affecting Payouts

• Audience Demographics: Advertisers are willing to pay more to reach certain demographics, so if you’re not making money, you might have the wrong target audience and advertisers just don’t care.

• Post Engagement: Understandably so, the more replies a post receives, the more ad revenue you can earn. But again, these views need to be from another paying customer of the platform.

• Content Suitability: Just like demographics, if your content is a bit risqué, advertisers may not want to have their ads next to your content. So if you want that X money, figure out what advertisers want… sigh* 😔 

• Subscription Options: Creators can apparently increase their chances of earning ad revenue by subscribing to a Premium version of X. But again, you can’t make any money if you don’t buy the premium version.

To sum it up, X is all pay-to-play right now. I don’t believe this is sustainable for creators and will lead to many creators bringing their content to other platforms that value them as creatives rather than as a paycheck.

3. Instagram Wants You to Have an AI Friend.

Everyone: “We want to see our friend’s posts again like we did when Instagram first started!”

Instagram: “No. You get AI.”

Instagram is reportedly working on a new feature that would allow users to create their own customizable AI friends. Apparently, users will be able to choose the race, gender, age, and personality of their AI friend.

Personalities for the “friend” include reserved, creative, enthusiastic, witty, pragmatic, and empowering, and will “inform the tone of your custom AI’s speech.” There are some other customization features slated, but let’s talk about why this is stupid.

The gimmick of companies using AI ”friends” instead of allowing you to connect with your actual friends is, excuse my language, total bullshit.

These AI systems will more than likely be used as another means of data collection and will push creators and normal folks alike deeper into silos instead of providing connections as they did so long ago.

I’m not going to go on a whole rant (believe me I could),

👀 You Gotta See These

Rhett and Link Launch a Cereal Brand

• Move over Frosted Flakes, Mythical is looking to take over your mornings, again, with the launch of their new cereal brand.

• Rhett and Link have dropped MishMash, a 90s-inspired cereal brand that’s not afraid of a little nostalgia baiting. As a 90s kid, this branding makes me feel warm and fuzzy, and I can’t NOT think about the early days of Rhett & Link. Holy F this was 14 years ago… 🥴 

• The cereal will launch with two flavors that are so good, you won’t even care that your dog died of a broken heart. But my heart might break after seeing the $20 price tag on a single box, or four for $40.

• Will you be buying MishMash? Will we see it in stores? Let me know your thoughts by replying to this email, and if you did get a box, the rest of our readers may need a review, so keep me posted. 😎 

Smosh Bringing Back A Classic Series

• I’m going to stay on the nostalgia train today, this news has me feeling some type of way. I might even have to go get some MishMash and spend a morning watching YouTube classics, like Smosh’s gem of a series that launched 17 years ago (seriously guys I’m gonna have an existential crisis if I keep seeing how old these videos are).

• Food Battle was one of my favorite videos/series when I was a youngin’, and I looked forward to it every year, so when Smosh dropped the trailer for the first Food Battle video in 7 years, all of the mems came rushing back. RIP my family computer, murdered by Limewire.

• So creators, I’m curious to learn what videos or creators make you feel nostalgic! Reply to this email and show me what kind of YouTube kid you were. Muffins? Jenna Marbles? Philly D? Let me know!

TikTok Says No More Payout for You

• TikTok’s apparent $1B creator fund is coming to a close on December 16th, cutting off access for creators to monetize their content through the original fund.

• Earning money on TikTok has always been more unpredictable than other platforms like YouTube or Twitch, but that may be why TT is killing this program.

• While TT is cutting off the fund, they’re pushing for users to hop on their new monetization method called the Creativity Program.

• The Creativity Program requires creators to make videos longer than one minute and pays creators based on views and other engagement metrics, similar to YouTube.

• TikTok claims that creators can earn 20 times more money through the Creativity Program than the original fund, but then again, creators were making basically nothing so 20x doesn’t mean much, in my opinion.

• Creators in the US, UK, Germany, and France who are part of the OG fund can roll over to the Creativity Program. TikTok creators, have you found any value from the OG fund? Will you swap over to the Creativity Program? Let me know in the comments on this LinkedIn post!

🔦 Spotlighting Julian Fountain

Meet Julian Fountain, a creator, a dad, and one of the most genuine creators I’ve seen recently. Julian mainly focuses on vlog-style content with topics ranging from spending a day with his son to meeting up with creator friends, or just generally capturing whatever he is getting into.

Julian’s videos are a fantastic view into his life and are a very relaxing yet entertaining watch. With his laidback but super positive tone paired with beautiful B-roll edits and on-the-run camera work, Julian doesn’t just vlog, he showcases his storytelling abilities throughout these videos, leaving a viewer with something more than just having watched a video.

Julian deals out life lessons along with his daily activities, but it’s not through straight up telling you what the lesson is, it’s teased out through his narrations and allows you to place yourself in similar positions.

Julian will no doubt continue to put out super wholesome and heartwarming yet introspective content, so be sure to go give him a sub and check out his stuff!

Keep up the amazing work, Julian!

Also, a big thank you to an avid reader and massive supporter of the newsletter, Alex the Grape for replying to the newsletter to shout out Julian! I absolutely love finding new and incredible creators like Julian, so if you have anyone in mind that you want to see covered, reply to this email and drop a link. ❤️ 🙂 

🚀 Wanna go even further?

If you’d like to keep learning about topics like the ones shared above, stick around! But more importantly, check out the links below to further your development as a creator. 😎

Be sure to follow and connect with me on LinkedIn and Check out CreatorPad to find other creators to collaborate with

1. Find other creators to collaborate with on CreatorPad

2. Join our free creator community

3. Follow and connect with me on LinkedIn