The end of Tiktokification?

Hi! 👋

Patreon's "State of Create 2025" report is out. 1K+ creators and 2K+ fans spilled the beans, and I'm here to tell the future by looking at the data. 🔮

Welcome (back)! 🤗

This is Petra from ​The Creators' Diary​. If this is your first TC’D newsletter, welcome! We’re happy you’ve subscribed!

Share what you think about this issue or the questions you struggle with as a creator by simply replying to this email. A ​real human (Petra)​ reads it.

Story of the week 🗞️

I have 3 things to highlight from the report and 3 things for you to consider:

1. Short-form vs long-form content: Twice as many fans say they see more short-form than long-form work on social media, but when asked which provides more value, fans favour long-form; and when asked which they’d be more likely to pay for, long-form wins in a landslide.
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   👉 Creators may grow quicker producing short-form social media content, but you need long-form to build lasting trust with fans (and buyers).​
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2. Fans vs platform users: 81% of creators want a direct channel with their fans because they realised they don’t actually own the relationships with them on many of the major platforms. No emails or contact info. No way to continue reaching those fans if they ever go somewhere else. The platforms keep all of that for themselves. A lot of these people are simply platform users, not true fans.​
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   ​👉 Creators need to stop mainly catering to algorithms that, in return, mainly deliver platform users. Instead, you need core fans who provide long-term stability. And, to maintain a connection with them, you need channels where you can directly contact them. (Goodbye, our nemesis: platform risk.)​
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3. More stable, direct-to-fan revenue streams on the rise: 67% more creators report earning from subscriptions, and 29% more creators report earning from sales of digital goods than five years ago.
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   👉 Creators need to invest in "direct-to-fan" revenue channels, like subscriptions and digital stores, as these are more stable and predictable than ads or brand deals, for instance.

📐 The LONG-TERM formula 📐

In a nutshell, this is the formula forming in my head:

1. Create long-form content that pulls in potential core fans.
2. Build trust and connections with your core fan base on platforms where you can directly reach them.
3. Turn the long-term stability of your core fans into financial stability with direct-to-fan revenue channels.

(By the way, it's not about abandoning short-form content, but definitely don't overprioritise it because the algorithms say so.)

If I had a lucky coin for creators, I would write this on it to shine for eternity: LONG-TERM.

This is what you need for your future creator life. 🔮

Creator quote of the week 📌

Painter Brooke Cormier was featured in Patreon's report with the quote below. You can follow her here and here.

See you next week,

Petra

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