Janis Mjartans, founder of Audience Monetize, a solo venture where he helps content creators and coaches monetize their expertise, has released the Creator Economy Map after realizing no complete visualization existed that showed how the various stakeholders interact. The map identifies approximately 12 key building blocks of the creator economy and illustrates their interconnections, revealing insights about power dynamics and sustainable business models.
“If you search for a creator economy map on Google, all you find are images and lists of startups and companies that operate in the creator economy. But there’s much more to it,” Janis says.
For him, the Creator Economy Map is more than just a visualization tool—it’s a new way to understand the business of content creation. As someone who has worked extensively in this field, first as a teenage gaming YouTuber, then as a freelance video editor, followed by a full-time role as a “Creator Success Manager” at Amsterdam-based startup Fangage, and now with Audience Monetize, Janis has witnessed firsthand how the various components interact.
“The map is for you to get a better overview and a better sense of how big the creator economy actually is,” Janis explains. “It’s not just about the creators, brands, and audiences.”
What makes his map unique is its depth, acknowledging not just the visible front-end players, such as creators and platforms, but also the infrastructure that supports them—the professionals who provide services, the freelancers who execute strategies, the tools that enable monetization, and the investors who fuel growth.
Perhaps most surprisingly, Janis found that while creators themselves get the spotlight, the system would collapse without the middle layer of professionals. “What if those people who do influencer marketing don’t exist anymore? How are the creators going to make money?” he asks. “What about all the startups that cater towards the creators? They have founders and employees. What if they’re all gone? It would fall apart.”
This insight is particularly valuable now, as the creator economy undergoes what Janis describes as a “correction”—similar to what happened with funded startups. Just as many startups that received funding struggled to build sustainable and profitable businesses, many creators who achieved early success are now facing similar challenges.
Janis reveals that the Creator Economy Map helped him understand how the industry is separating into tiers, similar to broader economic patterns. “We’re seeing this huge middle class of creators emerge, but only the top 1% make a lot of money,” he observes. “These are the people who are taking a very entrepreneurial, business-minded approach. They know what to sell, how to sell, and how to build something more sustainable.”
Hence, Janis has developed a methodology at Audience Monetize to help creators build sustainable businesses that are not dependent on a single platform.
Image credit: Audience Monetize
A Methodology for Creator Business Success
At the core of Janis’ methodology is what he calls the Layered Access Ecosystem—a multi-tiered approach to monetization based on different levels of creator access.
“Instead of just charging people $1,000 for a coaching program, you charge people depending on how much access they get to you,” Janis explains. “You can start with a $50 mini-course where they acquire all the knowledge they need. Most people won’t act on it, so then you upsell them accountability mentorship where they work directly with you.”
This tiered approach is complemented by Hypnotic Storytelling for digital product launches, a strategic marketing method that engages audiences through compelling narratives. “To capture attention, you use hooks and buyer psychology. But in 2025, attention isn’t enough. Trust is the new currency, and it’s built through storytelling. Then you use storytelling—through emails, Instagram stories, and strategic sequences—to sell without selling,” he says.
Janis has implemented this approach after working with over 100+ creators, coaches, influencers, and music artists during his time at Fangage, a startup similar to Patreon or OnlyFans that allows creators to build and launch membership platforms. Last year, he founded Audience Monetize and tweaked his approach to accommodate higher-priced offers & ecosystems.
Some of his success stories at Audience Monetize include assisting a business coach in generating $23,000 in 10 days, a gaming YouTuber in earning $11,000 in 15 days, and a sales coach in transitioning from a $150/hour rate to a $13,000 cohort model.
The key factor in these successes was identifying genuine audience demand. “Both creators would get a lot of questions in their DMs, in their comments,” Janis notes. “For example, the gaming YouTuber was getting questions like ‘How do you edit your videos?’ or ‘I want to make videos like you. How did you reach 500k followers on TikTok?'” These questions signaled a monetization opportunity, though the approach needed to be tailored to each audience.
Creating Value in an Age of Content Abundance
Janis’ Creator Economy Map has also helped him identify how value creation is changing amid content proliferation and the rise of AI tools. One of his main insights is that traditional information products are losing their competitive edge.
“I think online courses are becoming a little bit outdated because information is just everywhere at this moment,” Janis observes. “If you want to learn copywriting, go on YouTube. You can watch a 10-hour copywriting course. It has the same information as a copywriting course that you’re going to buy for $1,000.”
This perspective leads Janis to focus on a different delivery model rather than merely providing information. “People need more than information. They need accountability, they need someone to hold their hand, and more importantly, they need someone that they can trust to go through that transformation,” he explains.
The quality of the audience matters more than quantity in this model. “The more niche sometimes the better,” Janis advises. “I know this guy, he is coaching parents of children who have ADHD who play football. He’s making a lot of money. He started off creating educational content around that topic. Focus on the quality of your audience, not the quantity.”
For creators wondering how quickly they can monetize their audience, Janis offers practical advice based on his experience: “You can start monetizing as quickly as 30 days if you post a reel every single day or if you post content every single day. If you create long-form content, even faster.”
His recommended ecosystem is straightforward but strategic: “Short-form content paired with YouTube or LinkedIn, depending on the niche. Feed them into your own micro-offer. It could be a $7-$9 product. And then upsell them something else, such as a community or a course. Then upsell them something else, which could be a coaching or mentorship program.”
Understanding the Next Phase
The Creator Economy Map has given Janis a unique vantage point from which to identify emerging trends. One of his predictions, informed by patterns visible in his mapping of the system, concerns the change of creator businesses toward software solutions.
“I see a rise in creators that are starting to build their own software, their own SaaS,” Janis predicts. “They try to solve problems on a bigger scale because SaaS is quite scalable. The most successful companies out there are software companies.”
Janis points to creators who are already leading this shift. “Dan Koe creates content around monetizing your skills, productivity, and writing. He built Kortex, which is a competitor of Notion. Marcus Jones has a YouTube channel with over 400,000 subscribers, helping people build successful YouTube channels. He’d launched courses and coaching programs in the past. Now he runs Velio, a SaaS that allows you to find video ideas for your YouTube channel.”
Even MrBeast recently tested this approach with an AI-generated thumbnail (though it was later removed due to backlash). Janis sees AI tools as an intermediate step between information products and full SaaS solutions. “AI is in the middle in the sense that people who aren’t ready to make the jump into SaaS yet start to implement AI for their info products. They might clone themselves or build a semi-scalable AI-based chatbot that their audience can use to talk to them directly.”
This progression from content creation to education products to software solutions represents what Janis sees as the growth path for the most successful creators. It’s also part of a broader trend he identifies on his Creator Economy Map: the blurring of boundaries between different sectors.
“It’s going to be harder and harder to draw the line where the creator economy starts and ends,” he predicts. “The creator economy has ingested a bunch of different industries at this point. Marketing has already become part of the creator economy. Whatever you do, you always reach audiences through platforms inside the creator economy.”
Looking forward, Janis sees both expansion and specialization defining the future of the creator economy. Business owners will increasingly become creators, while successful creators will develop into business owners and potentially software developers. Meanwhile, AI will continue to lower barriers to entry while simultaneously increasing the value of real, human connections.
“If you’re a creator,” Janis concludes, “now’s the time to start thinking about building something sustainable rather than relying on ad revenue from the platform or those brand deals alone. Time to diversify.”
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
Janis Mjartans, founder of Audience Monetize, a solo venture where he helps content creators and coaches monetize their expertise, has released the Creator Economy Map after realizing no complete visualization existed that showed how the various stakeholders interact. The map identifies approximately 12 key building blocks of the creator economy and illustrates their interconnections, revealing insights about power dynamics and sustainable business models.
“If you search for a creator economy map on Google, all you find are images and lists of startups and companies that operate in the creator economy. But there’s much more to it,” Janis says.
For him, the Creator Economy Map is more than just a visualization tool—it’s a new way to understand the business of content creation. As someone who has worked extensively in this field, first as a teenage gaming YouTuber, then as a freelance video editor, followed by a full-time role as a “Creator Success Manager” at Amsterdam-based startup Fangage, and now with Audience Monetize, Janis has witnessed firsthand how the various components interact.
“The map is for you to get a better overview and a better sense of how big the creator economy actually is,” Janis explains. “It’s not just about the creators, brands, and audiences.”
What makes his map unique is its depth, acknowledging not just the visible front-end players, such as creators and platforms, but also the infrastructure that supports them—the professionals who provide services, the freelancers who execute strategies, the tools that enable monetization, and the investors who fuel growth.
Perhaps most surprisingly, Janis found that while creators themselves get the spotlight, the system would collapse without the middle layer of professionals. “What if those people who do influencer marketing don’t exist anymore? How are the creators going to make money?” he asks. “What about all the startups that cater towards the creators? They have founders and employees. What if they’re all gone? It would fall apart.”
This insight is particularly valuable now, as the creator economy undergoes what Janis describes as a “correction”—similar to what happened with funded startups. Just as many startups that received funding struggled to build sustainable and profitable businesses, many creators who achieved early success are now facing similar challenges.
Janis reveals that the Creator Economy Map helped him understand how the industry is separating into tiers, similar to broader economic patterns. “We’re seeing this huge middle class of creators emerge, but only the top 1% make a lot of money,” he observes. “These are the people who are taking a very entrepreneurial, business-minded approach. They know what to sell, how to sell, and how to build something more sustainable.”
Hence, Janis has developed a methodology at Audience Monetize to help creators build sustainable businesses that are not dependent on a single platform.
Image credit: Audience Monetize
A Methodology for Creator Business Success
At the core of Janis’ methodology is what he calls the Layered Access Ecosystem—a multi-tiered approach to monetization based on different levels of creator access.
“Instead of just charging people $1,000 for a coaching program, you charge people depending on how much access they get to you,” Janis explains. “You can start with a $50 mini-course where they acquire all the knowledge they need. Most people won’t act on it, so then you upsell them accountability mentorship where they work directly with you.”
This tiered approach is complemented by Hypnotic Storytelling for digital product launches, a strategic marketing method that engages audiences through compelling narratives. “To capture attention, you use hooks and buyer psychology. But in 2025, attention isn’t enough. Trust is the new currency, and it’s built through storytelling. Then you use storytelling—through emails, Instagram stories, and strategic sequences—to sell without selling,” he says.
Janis has implemented this approach after working with over 100+ creators, coaches, influencers, and music artists during his time at Fangage, a startup similar to Patreon or OnlyFans that allows creators to build and launch membership platforms. Last year, he founded Audience Monetize and tweaked his approach to accommodate higher-priced offers & ecosystems.
Some of his success stories at Audience Monetize include assisting a business coach in generating $23,000 in 10 days, a gaming YouTuber in earning $11,000 in 15 days, and a sales coach in transitioning from a $150/hour rate to a $13,000 cohort model.
The key factor in these successes was identifying genuine audience demand. “Both creators would get a lot of questions in their DMs, in their comments,” Janis notes. “For example, the gaming YouTuber was getting questions like ‘How do you edit your videos?’ or ‘I want to make videos like you. How did you reach 500k followers on TikTok?'” These questions signaled a monetization opportunity, though the approach needed to be tailored to each audience.
Creating Value in an Age of Content Abundance
Janis’ Creator Economy Map has also helped him identify how value creation is changing amid content proliferation and the rise of AI tools. One of his main insights is that traditional information products are losing their competitive edge.
“I think online courses are becoming a little bit outdated because information is just everywhere at this moment,” Janis observes. “If you want to learn copywriting, go on YouTube. You can watch a 10-hour copywriting course. It has the same information as a copywriting course that you’re going to buy for $1,000.”
This perspective leads Janis to focus on a different delivery model rather than merely providing information. “People need more than information. They need accountability, they need someone to hold their hand, and more importantly, they need someone that they can trust to go through that transformation,” he explains.
The quality of the audience matters more than quantity in this model. “The more niche sometimes the better,” Janis advises. “I know this guy, he is coaching parents of children who have ADHD who play football. He’s making a lot of money. He started off creating educational content around that topic. Focus on the quality of your audience, not the quantity.”
For creators wondering how quickly they can monetize their audience, Janis offers practical advice based on his experience: “You can start monetizing as quickly as 30 days if you post a reel every single day or if you post content every single day. If you create long-form content, even faster.”
His recommended ecosystem is straightforward but strategic: “Short-form content paired with YouTube or LinkedIn, depending on the niche. Feed them into your own micro-offer. It could be a $7-$9 product. And then upsell them something else, such as a community or a course. Then upsell them something else, which could be a coaching or mentorship program.”
Understanding the Next Phase
The Creator Economy Map has given Janis a unique vantage point from which to identify emerging trends. One of his predictions, informed by patterns visible in his mapping of the system, concerns the change of creator businesses toward software solutions.
“I see a rise in creators that are starting to build their own software, their own SaaS,” Janis predicts. “They try to solve problems on a bigger scale because SaaS is quite scalable. The most successful companies out there are software companies.”
Janis points to creators who are already leading this shift. “Dan Koe creates content around monetizing your skills, productivity, and writing. He built Kortex, which is a competitor of Notion. Marcus Jones has a YouTube channel with over 400,000 subscribers, helping people build successful YouTube channels. He’d launched courses and coaching programs in the past. Now he runs Velio, a SaaS that allows you to find video ideas for your YouTube channel.”
Even MrBeast recently tested this approach with an AI-generated thumbnail (though it was later removed due to backlash). Janis sees AI tools as an intermediate step between information products and full SaaS solutions. “AI is in the middle in the sense that people who aren’t ready to make the jump into SaaS yet start to implement AI for their info products. They might clone themselves or build a semi-scalable AI-based chatbot that their audience can use to talk to them directly.”
This progression from content creation to education products to software solutions represents what Janis sees as the growth path for the most successful creators. It’s also part of a broader trend he identifies on his Creator Economy Map: the blurring of boundaries between different sectors.
“It’s going to be harder and harder to draw the line where the creator economy starts and ends,” he predicts. “The creator economy has ingested a bunch of different industries at this point. Marketing has already become part of the creator economy. Whatever you do, you always reach audiences through platforms inside the creator economy.”
Looking forward, Janis sees both expansion and specialization defining the future of the creator economy. Business owners will increasingly become creators, while successful creators will develop into business owners and potentially software developers. Meanwhile, AI will continue to lower barriers to entry while simultaneously increasing the value of real, human connections.
“If you’re a creator,” Janis concludes, “now’s the time to start thinking about building something sustainable rather than relying on ad revenue from the platform or those brand deals alone. Time to diversify.”