This week’s Creator Lowdown

_{Source (left): Techlusive (right): ABC News}

• There’s a new way to earn money on YouTube. YouTube’s officially made its play for TikTok Shop, you can now tag Amazon products in your videos, Shorts and livestreams and earn commission on every sale.

  How this helps you get ahead: sign up to YouTube’s Shopping Affiliate Program, & link your Amazon Influencer Account, it’s that simple! (Early tests show 110% more clicks on affiliate links when you use this feature vs when you just dump links in the description).

• Brands don’t care about your follower count. No, seriously. I see headlines like this all the time, but this one stuck with me. Brands now rank content fit as the top thing they look for in a creator, follower count comes dead last. But here’s the catch - your follower count still predicts pay better than anything else.

  How this helps you get ahead: don’t stop trying to grow your following, but know that if yours is on the smaller side, it shouldn’t hold you back from landing the brand partnership (it may just impact your pay).

• Apparently, your Instagram captions really do matter (according to Instagram). Instagram just confirmed captions feed directly into its own search & discovery systems, meaning the words you write help decide whether your content actually gets found.

  How this helps you get ahead: next caption you write, swap the vibes opener for something more specific & searchable... describe what’s actually happening in your content, then tell people what you want them to do next.

• Instagram is now on the big screen (& i’m not convinced anyone’s gonna use it). Instagram’s pushing its TV app HARD this week, it’s now live on Fire TV, Google TV & Samsung Smart TVs. Naturally, I’m a bit sceptical… the idea of watching vertical content on my TV screen doesn’t quite align with my viewing habits... yet. The truth is, connected TV already makes up 15% of Shorts viewing in the US, so there’s a chance this could be the next big thing.

  How this helps you get ahead: optimise your content quality so it holds up on the big screen.

On 26 August, Meta agreed to pay around $18 billion to settle a lawsuit from 29 US state attorneys general over claims it built apps designed to keep teens hooked.

Alongside it, Meta’s rolling out real restrictions for under-18 US users: a 2-hour daily cap across Facebook & Instagram combined, a block between midnight & 6am, muted notifications during school hours (8am to 3pm), & a non-algorithmic feed teens can set as their default.

Here’s what actually matters if you post on these platforms: the school-hours notification mute means teen followers won’t get pinged about anything you post between 8am & 3pm US time. If your audience is teenage & American, that segment’s posting schedule effectively needs to shift toward evenings & weekends.

The bigger one is the non-algorithmic default feed. Teens have to opt in for now, but if enough do, they’ll mostly only see content from accounts they already follow, so new creators lose a real discovery channel with that audience.

Also (plot twist) Meta wants TikTok & YouTube to go down with them! They’re publicly pushing both to adopt the same restrictions.

As always, I want to know what you think about these changes…

^{Source: Instagram}

• This new Instagram tool turns your camera roll into a Reel in seconds. Instagram launched First Draft this week, a one-tap feature that picks the best parts of your existing clips & stitches them into a rough cut Reel automatically, so you’re not starting from a blank timeline.

  How this helps you get ahead: use it as a starting point, not your finished video... it’s not going to nail your vibe first try, but it saves you the boring bit of the edit so you can spend your energy on the creative choices instead.

• Meta’s Edits app just got a serious upgrade… project folders are now reorderable, US users can turn a still image into a video clip using just a text prompt, & you can bookmark your favourite caption styles to reuse across projects.

  How this helps you get ahead: if you’re already cutting Reels in Edits, explore using these new tools to speed up your workflow, but don’t force it. If they’re not making your process quicker or better, skip them.

Each week I select a question from my social media comment section to dive into, this week’s topic is… MONEY 🤑

Let’s cut to the chase: I looked through my transaction reports from a couple of months ago, and in a single month, I’d spent £11,103, all of that just to keep my personal creator brand alive. That’s not even counting expenses from my social media marketing agency, this was literally just what it cost to keep my creator business running(!)

Now I know that number sounds ridiculous to a lot of people (it still sounds ridiculous to me, tbh!). But when you break it down line by line, it actually makes complete sense.

If you want me to break this down further, I left you a voice note, click the link below to get the full breakdown of where my money goes each month 👇🏾

• Kylie Cosmetics is running a TikTok Shop affiliate push plus a fresh round of August gifting, open to beauty & lifestyle creators, apply through their TikTok Shop creator hub.

• GigaStar is hiring a Partnerships Manager (remote), one for anyone more into the business side of the creator economy than making content themselves.

Paid members of The Creator Project get the full monthly opportunity drop, every brand deal, sponsorship & job opportunity we’ve tracked, this is just a taster! Subscribe for more.

That’s it for this week!

See you next Friday,

Jade 🖤