TOGETHER WITH

It's Thursday and if thinking about the Roman Empire is taking up all your energy, don’t fret: Panera Bread’s got your back (and your taste buds) with a brand-new TikTok-inspired menu.

ATTENTION ECONOMY

Linktree’s new report is all about the “hamster wheel” of online chaos—and the 200 million creators who can’t get off

Linktree’s 2023 Creator Report has arrived. For the latest edition of its annual study, the link-in-bio company pulled data from its 40 million users to take a closer look at the “attention economy”—a sphere it defines as the place “where everyone on the internet competes for eyeballs by creating more and more stuff and viewers feel overwhelmed and creators can’t step off the hamster wheel of content creation and the internet is total freaking chaos.”

On that cheery note, here are some of the most interesting stats from Linktree’s annual report:

• Only 25% of the 100 million Linktree links created since the start of 2022 go to “big platforms.” The link-in-bio company pulled together far-flung websites as it competed with Instagram and YouTube, which updated their own first-party linking tools earlier this year.
  
  

• After two years of COVID, creators got back to work in 2023: The Linktree destinations with the biggest year-over-year bumps include Substack (up 157% year-over-year), Typeform (+94%), and Patreon (+33%).
  
  

• Links to merch platforms like Shopify and Spring also remained relevant, driving 38 million Linktree clicks in 2023.
  
  

• By connecting multiple platforms in one convenient location, Linktree has helped creators bring together more than 7.5 million websites since the beginning of 2022.

Is that all-in-one link-in-bio service the secret to “unifying” an increasingly “fragmented” internet ecosystem? Maybe, maybe not—but either way, Linktree’s latest report gives the attention economy’s 200 million creators plenty to think about.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Welcome to Juice banking: Where top creators manage expenses and maximize earnings

There’s a reason Creative Juice counts top creators like MrBeast, Roberto Blake, and Shelby Church among its investors. Unlike other banking services, Juice is designed specifically for creators—meaning every single banking and tax tool can be tailored to your creator business.

In fact, when you ​sign up for Juice banking​, you’ll be able to… 

Track expenses and generate invoices 💸 
With a Juice account, you’ll be able to generate and schedule invoices, pay contractors, categorize expenses, make transactions with virtual and physical debit cards, and more.

Make connections and attend expert-led community events 🤝
Juice creators gain access to a range of community perks, from exclusive creator Discord channels to virtual events led by industry experts like Jon Youshaei and Paddy Galloway.

Supercharge your business with unparalleled growth insights 🔥
Check out Juice’s ​ultimate guide to creator growth​—aka Pulse—to discover optimization strategies, audience-building tips, and banking advice. Need more guidance?

Juice is here to help with taxes, too: in fact, you’ll ​receive your first CPA session for free​ when you open a new Juice banking account and fund your account with $100 using code CPA. (​Terms & Conditions​ apply.)

​Learn more at getjuice.com →​

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• TikToker Serena Kerrigan is launching SFKTV, a $6.90/month (or $69/year) subscription service for her biggest fans. (Tubefilter)
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• Meta’s latest AI chatbots include characters based on celebrities and creators like MrBeast, Charli D’Amelio, and Snoop Dogg. (TechCrunch)
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• Snap will reportedly lay off around 170 employees in the process of shutting down its brand-focused AR Enterprise Services division. (Reuters)
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• New AI tools will give Instagram creators the ability to add AI-generated backgrounds to images. (The Verge)

DATA • STREAMERS ON THE RISE 📈

This gamer has been dominating at League of Legends since she was 12 years old

When gamergirl first began playing League of Legends, she had “a dream of being really good at it.” Fast forward to 2023, and that dream is now a reality: the streamer has reached League’s top rank on three different accounts, hit the front page of Reddit, and collected nearly 350,000 followers on Twitch.

In other words, gamergirl is really, really good at League of Legends.

Of course, that dream didn’t become a reality all at once. gamergirl approached each step of her journey with a smaller, more attainable goal in mind (at least, attainable for a top LOL gamer). First, she “made it a goal” to “get three challenger accounts on League.” After that, the creator decided to host an AMA on Reddit—a quick promotional activity that she figured would be a “fun” way to draw a little attention to her Twitch channel.

That AMA was fun—but it also increased gamergirl’s average stream viewership by over 200% and shot her to the front page of Reddit. According to the creator, that’s where all her growth started.

She’s been streaming on Twitch ever since.

So, what’s next for gamergirl? With six years of streaming and a university degree under her belt, the creator is at a crossroads. She might focus on Twitch full-time—or she might go back to school. But either way, gamergirl is up for the challenge.

LOOSENING UP

YouTube is giving creators a way to have tough conversations without losing money

YouTube is making it easier for creators to monetize videos that touch on difficult issues. In the past, content focused on topics like abortion, adult sexual and domestic abuse, and disordered eating could be demonetized for covering “controversial issues”—even if the videos in question handled those subjects with care.

Now, YouTube is adjusting its ad-friendly guidelines to help creators “earn more revenue” on potentially controversial content.

According to YouTube Lead for Monetization Policy Conor Kavanagh, creators will now be able to “fully monetize” videos on “topics such as abortion and adult sexual abuse” as long as they avoid “going into graphic detail.” Content featuring “graphic depictions” of those subjects will still have ads turned off in the interest of brand safety. Overall, however, YouTube’s latest policy update is a win for creators who—as Kavanagh noted—often feel that their content is demonetized at a higher rate simply "because they're uploading content about topics that disproportionately impact them.”

Interested in more info? Check out Kavanagh’s full explanation of the new guidelines here.

WATCH THIS 📺

Roblox players will soon be able to attend school in the Hunger Games universe

A new Roblox world is building hype for the upcoming Hunger Games prequel A Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. The interactive experience—aka Academy Adventures—is designed to look like the film’s academic set and allows players to enroll in virtual classes, participate in weekly challenges, score exclusive items, and watch Songbirds & Snakes content.

25,000 students have already enrolled to start their studies on October 1—so if you’re planning to grab a seat, don’t forget to clear some space on your calendar.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort.