Making a living as a creator shouldn’t be some elusive thing. And what’s the best way to learn how creators are making it work? To go behind-the-scenes. These bi-weekly interview issues are like having coffee with your favorite creators. If we haven’t met before, I’m Amanda Smith. I write about solopreneurship and the creator economy.
Good morning. If you’re into ghosts, conspiracies, true crime and all things horror, this week’s creator story is for you.
It’s a playbook in turning tricky topics into binge-worthy content… all while making millions and not being afraid of death.
Not bad for 28 years old.
Enjoy it.
🌀 What’s new in the creator world?
TikTok fixing issues with reach
High-profile users have complained about censorship and restrictions under US team.
Um, what? Is this real life?
The 2016 rewind trend is telling
Nostalgia is back.
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Creator profile: Nicki Baber
Handle: nickii
# of followers: 8.1 million
Annual revenue: Not disclosed
Acquisition channel: Organic
Biggest lesson: Vlogging daily for a year taught her how to turn a video into a story, how to edit quickly, and how to comfortably film in public. Short form is where she started to understand social media.
Nicki Baber
LA-based content creator, Nicki Baber, wanted to be an actress. She was in film school while taking auditions but always struggled with the competitive side of show business. She was more collaborative than competitive.
As a broke college student, then popular app Musical.ly was running a comedy competition giving away a free iPhone. Baber created short videos that blew up and it there she realized she didn’t have to only be an actor. She could also be the director, the screenwriter, and the editor.
Baber switched from film school to social media marketing, and it paid off. She started out posting relatable girly content, couple’s pranks, and DIY stuff. About four years into her creator career (when she was at 1 million TikTok followers), her friend and housemate, Mackenzie Marie, invited her on a ghost hunt.
Baber had a formative experience as a child, growing up in a house where weird things would happen all the time. This started Baber on the path of ghost hunting content, traveling to haunted places around the United States. She doubled down on the haunted spooky niche – transforming paranormal and conspiracy content into binge-worthy stories. It was a hard switch from relatable content and niching really hard on scary horror stories hurt her for a bit, but consistency was key.
Quantity over quality
By 2020, Baber’s content career had taken off, and she had quit her job. Then the pandemic happened. She wasn’t able to travel to paranormal locations, but she dialed up the content to 8-20 posts per day. She grew to four million TikTok followers that year.
“On YouTube, someone might watch a 40-minute ghost video. But on TikTok, someone might watch you for 10 seconds. If you’re every fourth scroll, they start to wonder why they keep seeing you, and it piques their interest,” Baber said.
Instinct vs. intentional
Good lighting, sound, and timing are important to get noticed – but there are videos that go viral that don’t have any of those elements.
“People want something that’s real, especially in the past three years. I feel like there’s almost like a muse and you get these downloads of ideas. I’ll be doing something else and that’s when I get an idea. If you act of those ideas, I believe that you get rewarded,” she shared.
Baber’s biggest platform by far is TikTok at 7.4 million followers. She has 340,000 on SnapChat, 241,000 on Instagram, and 119,000 on YouTube. She explained how it’s not easier to grow on a second or third platform with a main one.
“TikTok won’t really help you grow on other platforms as significantly as in the past. I’ve had to grow them all by themselves. You have to repurpose things, especially if you’re in an education niche. Different things work on different platforms, but you can still use the same knowledge point in each one.”
Her revenue streams
Baber earns money in two main ways:
80% from brand deals (lifestyle, makeup, home items etc.)
20% from UGC (videos that are posted elsewhere)
Brands reach out to her given the size of her audience, then she cherry picks which ones she likes. Baber used to make a substantial amount from TikTok too, but that’s changed.
“All TikTok creators that I speak to are probably make 10x less now than they were making six years ago. For example, if I had a million views on a video, I’d make over $1,000 a few years ago. Now, I might make $30 on that same video.”
“I was making the same amount of money at seven million followers as I was with two million followers,” she revealed.
Baber admits she should be more diversified, with other options like affiliate selling and TikTok Shop. Although she’s not really into courses and would prefer to release a book about her spiritual experiences.
While she’s been invited to some pretty epic events, like Halloween parties hosted by Disney, her favorite experience was from a fan. Baber was invited to go ghost hunting at Missouri State Penitentiary.
“Every time I do a paranormal investigation, I’m constantly learning something new, as well as confirming things I thought. This line of work has taught me that you really don’t have to be afraid to die.”
Takeaways
Go from creators that you admire around like 100,000, not 1 million, and study what they’re doing. Do this with five creators and figure out what you can use from each one to build your own thing.
Stop gatekeeping. Help other people grow from the bottom up because there’s so much money in the creator space. They’re not going to steal your brand deal.
Forecast for the future. You might make $30K one month, then get no brand deals the next month. A lot of creators make the majority of their money in the holiday months, from October-December.
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Amanda
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