Welcome to the first ever Scroll & Share Newsletter. Today is a very big day for me. This newsletter has been months in the making and it’s finally ready to be shared with the world. So, thank you for reading and hopefully you will join the Scroll & Share community, here's to happy scrolling & sharing!

About the Writer:

I am a 26-year-old LA-based new content creator with no prior experience or expertise, so why should you listen to my advice?

The advice I give is easy and contain actionable steps that any content creator can follow and use, whether you have ten or ten thousand followers.

— Max Grauer

TikTok's Creator Fund Clocks Out, Making Way for 'The Creativity Program'

TikTok's $1 billion fund, which it's been using to pay creators since 2020, is no more. Starting on December 16, 2023, creators from Germany, France, the UK, and the US will no longer receive payouts from the fund. The sunset of the Creator Fund wasn't a surprise; the initiative was started back in 2020 and was expected to last three years. 

The fund was started with a total of $2 billion, of which $200 million was designated for the US market. Which meant TikTok had around $550,000 per day to split between all of its US creators. So as more and more high-quality content was being made and more creators were added to the fund, the CPM was dropping, and creators were getting paid mere pennies. Prominent creator Hank Green disclosed that he was making 2.5 cents per 1,000 views.

TikTok's solution to this is the creation of their new program, the "Creativity Program," which appears to pay creators not from a stagnant pool of money but based on views and other engagement metrics. While it's great that TikTok is pivoting to this new program, this opens the door for creators to seek out brands for more deals. Creators who once relied on the creator fund as their source of income will be looking to use their established audience to generate income from their favorite brands.

Here's my advice for both creators and brands:

Creators: Take stock of the products and brands you use on a daily basis and start reaching out to them so you can collaborate with them.

Brands: We live in a time where people are more willing to buy a new product if they see someone, they are familiar with endorsing the brand. Gone are the days of making ads with regular actors. Focus on bringing in these creators and having them be the spokespeople in ads.

Now, if I were a brand owner looking to work with creators, I would make a deal to create three pieces of content: a 15-second, 30-second, and 60-second reel, and use that across all major platforms to advertise my product.

But most importantly, I would let the creator have total control over the production of the content. They know their audience best and know how to create content that will resonate with them.

So let the creators create.

Making Sense of the Ride: Breaking Down Twitch's CEO Dan Clancy “Dan in the Van” series

Twitch's CEO, Dan Clancy, is taking an unusual approach to business in the hopes of helping make Twitch a better platform for its streamers. Clancy, 59, embarked on a 4-week cross-country listening tour, where he visited 15 cities and met with 80 prominent streamers to offer a listening ear to hear out their ideas and concerns surrounding Twitch.

While on his tour, he sat down with Tyler "Ninja" Blevins and his wife at a Florida steakhouse, got the opportunity to check out rapper and streamer T-Pain's elaborate setup at his Georgia home, and even did a bit of streaming himself, where he jammed out to music and answered questions from his viewers.

His tour culminated in Las Vegas to attend Twitch's annual convention, TwitchCon. During the convention, he took a moment to reflect on his tour and had this to say about the meetings he had "It's all input… So many people understand a problem. It doesn’t mean they understand the solution."

These broadcasts earn Clancy praise from former Twitch executive Marcus Graham, who wrote on X that “Dan is bringing the empathy Twitch was missing for years back into the limelight" and continued by saying that "community only works when leadership is committed… and this is leadership committed again."

I view this approach as a must for any leader that owns or runs a business with a strong community engagement and that work with creators (i.e., YouTube, Kick, Meta, etc.). Far too often, decisions are made to help the company generate more profits without thinking how those decisions are going to affect the very people that help drive audiences to your site that generates revenue for your business.

Instead of trying to make decisions based on the numbers, take a moment to talk with the creators. This small but impactful conversation can help you build not only trust with the creators but also save you negative publicity for making a decision that upsets creators and consumers. Don't get me wrong, I am all for making more profit, but I think you can generate even more profits by having these proactive conversations with your creators and the community than you can by trusting some faceless numbers on a profit and loss statement.

📸 Creator of the Week 📸

Meet Alexander Varga, a.k.a. Alexander the Guest!

Alexander is a content creator and co-owner of the Michelin-starred restaurant 42 Restaurant in Esztergom, Hungary. I stumbled upon Alexander's channel in May of 2023 and have been watching his content religiously ever since.

As a foodie and culinary graduate, his content spoke to me on two levels. First, his content is easy-to-digest, with mini-deep dives that highlight the history of the restaurant and its chef and owners, and simple-to-understand breakdowns of each dish.

Second, he presents everything in a no-frills manner, using straightforward language to describe his thoughts, and even gives you a detailed reason behind his opinions.

With his slow-paced speech, easy-to-understand vocabulary and language, and slow and simple editing style, he makes a luxurious world that's normally seen as uptight more approachable for everyone, which I love!

Alexander, keep up the great content, and I hope to meet you one day.

Check out my favorite video on Alexander's channel!