How to Become A Digital Creator ($5,000/MO)
How To Make Money As A Content Creator
Want to know how to become a digital creator and earn over $5K/mo?
Well, becoming a digital creator, AKA a freelancer, could help you do just that.
How? By becoming a Content Creator.
But, it’s not what you think…
When I think of a content creator, I think of people who LIVE in front of the camera with hundreds and thousands of views.
But there’s another take on freelance that I never heard of before, and it’s all behind the scenes.
When I think of freelancing, I often associate it with activities like writing, graphic design, or even working as a Virtual Assistant.
However, there’s a part of freelancing that I recently discovered, and it operates discreetly behind the scenes.
I had the pleasure of meeting with Shannon Livingston, who does this, and I was so impressed.
You can see a video of our interview here.
Related: Passive Income Ideas
She makes so much money she could retire her husband AND continue to be a stay-at-home mom!
So, if you’re interested in making money from home and setting your own work schedule.
Make sure to read this article until the end because you’ll learn what she does, how she was able to make so much money so quickly, and how you can do it too,
You do NOT need any previous experience.
And the best part is the earning potential!
So, if this is something that you’re looking for, THIS is the article for you!
And this is not just something that moms can do! This is something that anyone can do if you want to make money online.
This is something that you can do.
So, I’m going to show you guys what this is, how much you can make, and most importantly, how you can get started!
This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission at no cost to you if you make a purchase through a link.
How To Become A Digital Creator.
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? And the “How” and “Why” you started this business?
I am a wife and a mom to two little girls. I come from a corporate marketing background, like ten years of sitting at an 8:00 – 5:00 p.m. job. And for like the last five of those years, I did not want to be in the job anymore.
I was looking for a way out.
I tried all kinds of things to work from home. But nothing worked until I found freelancing.
I started freelancing while still working my job, and I started as a general virtual assistant with skills that I already had and things I knew how to do.
After I was freelancing, my sister, who was a blogger at the time, told me about a woman who was working as a content creator for bloggers.
Basically, she was working from home, taking pictures of things like recipes and crafts, and she was selling photos to bloggers and making really good money doing it.
I was a general VA at the time, and I was not making good money. I was not making what I needed to make.
So I thought this is really enticing because it’s behind the scenes, and she’s making really good money, so I’m just going to give this a try.
So I studied what she was doing, and I started, and that was nine years ago.
I just got better and better. I’ve worked with hundreds of bloggers since then.
Last year, in 2022, I launched the Content Creator Lab, and now I teach people all over the world how they can do this, too. So they can work/ from home, stay behind the scenes, get out of the job they don’t like, be with their kids, and have flexibility and freedom.
Related: Side Hustle Ideas
2. Can you describe the primary ways creators generate income at the Virtual Career Academy?
As a Content Creator, you would be working with Bloggers, and you would be creating content things like recipes, crafts, and printables that you can create in Canva.
In our kitchens, at home, we create things like cupcakes, trending recipes, or even classic dishes, like things you would make for dinner.
We will take photos of the step-by-step process of how to create that recipe or that craft, and then we take really pretty styled images that the Blogger can use to market that recipe or craft on Pinterest or Social Media to get traffic back to their Blog.
Our main job is just taking photos of what we create at home, and then we package it up and sell it to the Blogger. The copyright is transferred over to them, and then it’s theirs to use however they want.
3. How Much Can You Charge Bloggers?
It’s a wide range depending on your skill level and photography skills. There are also different models and ways that you can sell, so that’s going to affect pricing.
But most packages sell anywhere from $200 up to $600+.
So you can make pretty good money doing this.
To put it in perspective, a content package takes about 3 – 4 hours, so if you break that down, if you’re making $400 for one package, you’re doing pretty good.
You can definitely work part-time hours and make a full-time income doing this if you get your skills up there.
4. Is There Any Equipment You Need To Have To Be Successful? i.e., Camera, Lighting?
Shoot for using a DLSR or a mirrorless camera. If it has an interchangeable lens, that is a great option.
Some students use this one Sony A7iii camera and my lens is the Tamron 28-75mm f2.8.
In Course Creator Lab (CCL), in my course, I recommend specific lenses to get because upgraded lenses are going to create more of a professional look, and you’ll be able to charge more for your work.
You will definitely make that money back from buying the upgraded lens. It is just something that has an interchangeable lens, so you can use different lenses for different purposes.
I teach how to start with natural lighting in my program. I can share resources with my students if they want to learn artificial lighting. But I don’t specifically teach artificial lighting.
I do have several students who only use artificial lighting because they shoot at night or their house is dark. But natural lighting is free and easy to get started with, and that’s what I show my students.
5. What Types of Content Services Do Creators Typically Offer to Monetize Their Presence?
Food is the most in-demand type of content. In my course, I really dive deep into that because even if you don’t like food, you can sell things like charcuterie boards, dips, or desserts that require no baking.
There are so many different things you can do. You can make really good money selling recipes, so we dive deep into recipes. However, you can also do crafts. Bloggers buy crafts. They also buy things like meal planners or party invitations for their kids and different kinds of fun holiday printables and things like that that you can make in Canva. They buy all of those types of content.
6. Do You Recommend That They Build Their Program in Canva?
Yes, if they’re doing printables, I would recommend Canva just because it’s so easy you don’t need graphic design skills, and it still makes you look like you know Graphic Design.
I talk through Canva in my course, but I also share several other resources to help them get graphics and things and just get inspiration and ideas for things that are trending things that will sell well.
Related: How to Make Money with Canva
7. Could You Provide Examples Of Success Stories From Students Who Have Taken Your Course?
Yes, I have several students who have been successful with the program. There are different success levels depending on what that person’s goal is. Some people want to make $2,000 a month, and that was their goal, and they’re able to do that.
Other people want to save for a house, and I had one student in particular who was able to use her content creation and come to buy a house with her husband just a couple of months after joining the program. I had another student who wanted to retire, and she just came out of retirement, and she is now doing this behind the scenes.
I had another student who just graduated from the program and made $1,000 in her very first-week selling content. She’s a stay-at-home mom and also nannies on the side.
And several others who were able to get to the $ 100-an-hour mark within the first couple months of selling. There’s been a lot of them who’ve been able to do that.
8. What Are Some Common Challenges That Creators Face When Trying to Monetize Their Content, and How Does Your Program Address These Challenges?
I would say photography is the most challenging thing to grasp just because most students who are coming into the program are brand new to photography.
I was new as well, and I learned. I’m self-taught. A lot of it is just getting experience. The more that you do something, the better you get, and you start to see things that work and don’t work.
Photography is what sells our work, so getting that skill down is the most important. CCL dives deep into photography. We go through how to set up your photos in a way that’s going to be visually appealing to bloggers.
We talk about composition, camera angles, every piece of the photo, and how to put it all together.
There’s a photography learning library in the program with different lessons on different topics. I also have a tutorial where you are sitting over my shoulder for 40 minutes while I’m actually doing a content package. And you’re seeing me photograph it, and that’s been super helpful for students because the experience is live.
9. How Does Your Program Handle Issues Related to Copyright and Intellectual Property When It Comes to Monetized Content?
Yes, copyright is a very important topic for us because we are creating content, we’re then selling it to somebody else, and it can’t be an exact replica of something else that’s out there.
A lot of what we do is taking things that are already out there. We’re not reinventing the wheel.
We take trending content and recipes and things like that, and we create it in our own unique way.
In CCL, I have a lesson that shows students if you find something that you want to recreate, here’s how to do it to make it so it’s your own spin so it’s a completely unique piece of content and you’re not violating any copyright laws and bloggers won’t have to worry about that either.
There’s also another lesson where I talk through copyright laws and what’s copyright protected and what’s not. I also share a few tools that my students can use to run the recipes through to make sure their wording is OK and there’s no plagiarism happening. And also instructions for crafts.
10. Can Creators Set Their Own Pricing for Their Content, or Are There Standardized Pricing Structures in Place?
There are standard tiers of pricing, and I go through those with my students, but you get to set your own pricing.
It’s based on skill level and the work involved and that kind of thing. If you’re more experienced, you have more options as your work is selling out. Or if it’s selling out quickly, I encourage them to bump up their prices because we want them to make the most money.
You can’t be afraid to increase your prices because bloggers are willing to pay a great price if you are selling them something that’s great quality, ranks well, is going to bring them traffic, they’re going to make money off of that, so you’ve got to charge accordingly.
Some of these bloggers have a following of millions, so they’re happy to pay a premium price.
11. What Can Students Expect From Taking Your Course?
The course is six weeks, and there are several bonuses that are packaged up that they will get immediate access to. Like the photographer learning library, a guide that talks them through specific types of content to start with and what to avoid if they are not skilled in photography yet. Some projects are easier than others. They’ll get a tutorial. And they’ll also get three months of coaching with me. There’s nothing I haven’t already gone through, so I’m happy to help them.
12. How quickly do your students have success?
About a week after they finish the course, they start making money. But two weeks after is the average.
They are figuring out how to become a digital creator.
The students who prepare packages during the course by week six are making money right off the bat.
13. I Heard That You Retired Your Husband From Doing This. Can You Tell Us How This Happened?
When COVID was happening, my husband was burned out, and he was ready to move on. He had been in physical therapy for 20 years. He was just ready for a change. And I was ready to step it up in my business.
And when we did the math, I’m actually making more per hour than you are, so why don’t you just come home and let me take over? You can have a break, and we’ll go from there.
That ended up working really well for us. And it was later on down the road where I thought, OK, I wanna teach this too. I have time; my husband’s home, he can watch the girls! So that’s when I started building the Content Creator Lab, too.
Depending on your income goals, that’s something that could be possible for you, too.
If you’re interested in becoming a content creator who is 100% behind the scenes, make sure to check out Shannon’s Free Masterclass! 3 Secrets to Earn $100 Hourly as a Creative Freelancer.
Now, you know how to become a digital creator.
People also ask:
How Much Do Digital Creators Make?
Digital Creators/Freelancers in this space typically can make around $5,000 per month, doing this part-time. But it really just depends on your goals.
How Do I Become a Paid Digital Creator?
To get paid as a Digital Creator, you will need to put in the work first. Shannon walks her students through the process of how to work with bloggers to get paid.
Can Anyone Become A Digital Creator?
Anyone can become a digital creator/freelancer. You don’t need any special skills to make money doing this.
I hope you enjoyed this article and are as inspired as I have been by Shannon’s journey of making money behind the camera.
If you’re considering doing this, let me know in the comment section below.
As someone who has always loved being behind the scenes, I thought this was right up my alley.
If you’d like more tips, tutorials, and money-making success stories, LMK in the comment section.
And let me know what else you’d like to learn so I can do more articles to help you find real ways to earn money from home.
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How To Become A Digital Creator
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How To Become A Digital Creator
