Issue #4: The Business of Being a Creator 💎

Issue 4
October 16th, 2025

It's been a slow news week in the creator world, which honestly gives us a moment to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. And what I'm seeing everywhere is a pattern: AI-generated content (some are calling it "AI Slop") is flooding every platform, and the overwhelming advice for creators is the same—it's time to level up and turn content creation into a real business.

Here's the thing: this is arguably a better world for creators. Instead of the old playbook of pumping out endless content with a set formula to feed the algorithm, the future belongs to creators who think deeply about their audience and find unique ways to engage them. It's about building communities rooted in trust and authenticity. That's what will make creators of the future stand out in a sea of AI-generated noise.

The bar is rising, but so is the opportunity.

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Like I mentioned above, this week is a bit of a slow news week. So instead of a big story from the week, let’s talk trends. Trends are useful if you’re a content creator or brand looking for new ways to win over the algorithm (as long as you can make it fit your existing niche/content). So here we go: “Budgeting Hacks” and “Blissful Lights” are taking off on TikTok, while the AI Homeless Prank and Sora 2 videos are going viral across all platforms. “The Magic Bomb” has over 6 million TikTok videos and the “Move Your Thumb With The Beat” challenge is popular.

So now you know! 😄

Posting more than 11 times per week on TikTok doubles your average views. Buffer analyzed 11 million TikTok uploads (there’s a lot of 11’s ‘round here!) and found that accounts posting 2–5 times per week saw 17% more views per post than those posting once a week, while those who post more than 11 times a week more than doubled their average. So it’s still clear that frequency matters on TikTok, and hitting the feed often increases the chance of a viral hit.

Will that always be the case? Only time will tell, but we’ll continue to explore in future issues of The Creator Trove.

As AI reshapes the job market, creators are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the massive demand for reskilling. While traditional education moves too slowly, creators can deliver practical, specialized training at the speed the market needs. This article from Forbes highlights a crucial shift: "Ten years ago it was a side hustle. Today, it's a full-blown industry… We'll see creators with CFOs and COOs – the new small-business economy." Love that!

This isn't just about making content anymore – it's about building legitimate businesses and this article shows why the next wave of successful creators will look more like small business owners than influencers.

This challenges the age-old advice to "niche down." It suggests that for some, authenticity and personality can be a powerful enough brand to attract an audience, offering a path to avoid burnout from being stuck in a single content box

Forbes dives into how gaming platforms like Roblox are turning players into devs, highlighting a creator-driven shift in interactive media. This one's timely for game-loving creators; it's inspiring to see communities monetizing passion projects, potentially sparking your next side hustle?

(Sorry, this is the second Forbes link this week. Don’t kill me if you’re out of free article credits. Like I said, it was a slow news week)

Two major AI announcements in the world of video and image generation show how rapidly the tools available to creators are evolving. Google's Veo 3.1 now generates video with native audio—meaning you can create high-quality video content complete with sound effects and ambient noise from a simple text prompt. Meanwhile, ByteDance's Seedream 4.0 is quietly outperforming Google's image tools, offering 4K resolution and lightning-fast editing that's 10x faster than previous versions. For creators, this means the technical barriers to producing professional-quality content are disappearing fast. The playing field is leveling, and the creators who learn to leverage these tools now will have a massive advantage.