Michelle Anyango: “The job of the future is in content creation.”
Tell us about yourself, Michelle?
My name is Michelle Anyango. I am a second born in a family of 4 children. I was born in Nairobi then my parents moved to Mombasa a few years later, that is where I grew up. Fast forward to today, I am a lady who wears many hats however, at the moment the things that occupy my days is being a student, I am a final year student at Catholic university pursuing a degree in psychology, I am a content creator and I am also an author. A fun fact about me is that I have always been obsessed with Korean culture. I listen to Korean music, I teach myself how to read, write, and speak the Korean language. My peers think it’s weird but that doesn’t prevent me from being obsessed with the Korean culture.
You joined one of our programs at Nailab in 2019, how would you narrate your experience while at Nailab?
Before joining Nailab, I had never heard of Nailab; however, at the beginning of 2019 I had decided to learn new skills and get into networks that grow me. The first thing I did when the year started was to unfollow anyone who did not share informative content from my Instagram account and automatically my Instagram feed changed. One day I saw a post from Adele Onyango talking about the Next Economy program at Nailab. I applied, I was invited for an interview, and lucky for me I was among the few who were chosen to join the program.
It was a wonderful 6 months journey, I learned a lot about entrepreneurship skills, core life skills, and emotional intelligence. The one thing that I will forever carry with me is that while at Nailab I felt safe, I could easily express myself during class and no one would look at me like I am weird. All my life in the different spaces that I have been, every time I would express my ideas people would look at me funny and that made me hate being around people. Nailab changed that.
Let’s talk about your journey in content creation: What inspired you to start creating content?
All my life, I have always loved journaling. I documented the highlights of my day, my best memories and experiences and I would write short stories. In 2019, I saw an ad on social media for a giveaway for a hair product. I decided to buy the product and after using the product I thought of sharing my experience of using the product on video and I shared it on youtube. That is how it all started. Later on, I decided that instead of journaling, I can document my experiences on video and share online.
What is the common misconception that people have when it comes to creating content?
You need expensive equipment to shoot your videos. When I started making videos I would use my phone and natural lighting. I could not afford all this equipment. I would edit my videos using applications that I used to download from the play store. There are so many applications that you can use to edit your videos. Another misconception is that you need to have a big online following to start sharing your videos online. When I started I only had 8 followers and that is my parents, siblings, and 2 of my professors from school. Your page will grow if you are committed to sharing good content regularly.
How do you come up with ideas for the content you create?
At first, I used to get burnouts after every 3 months. I decided to be taking a break from Youtube to brainstorm on content ideas every once in a while. For instance, during the pandemic, I have been documenting a lot of happy memories and encouraging my audience to do the same. These are difficult times and people need to hold on to the happy moments in their lives. I have committed to posting a video every Friday at noon therefore, I have to plan activities ahead of time.
Break it down for us, how does one make money by sharing their content online?
Let me start by saying that there are different ways to make money by sharing your content online. For example, one can strive to join the Youtube partner program where you get a cheque for sharing content. What you need to join the Youtube partner program is to have more than 1000 subscribers, at least 4000 hours watch hours, to achieve this is not easy especially because every year the watch time is refreshed. Another way that you can make money is through sponsorships and advertisements. If you have viewership then you can approach organizations to advertise through your page. You have to be very careful though to not overwhelm your subscribers with advertisements. Keep advertising to a minimum. Please note that you can only make money from your videos if the content is yours. For instance; if you share a video where the background music is from a popular musician, let’s say, Sauti Sol, if that video generates money, all that money will go to Sauti Sol. My advice is to share your content and do not do advertisements for free. Remember you are spending a lot of time creating content so do not let anyone take advantage of you.
