Beyond the 9-5: How social media and AI are shaping income generation.
Noorhan Al-Zan, CFA, MBA
Entrepreneur | Investment Advisor | Startups Coach | Lecturer | Ex Banker
When I started off my career in the banking sector, career paths were direct and almost standard. You landed a job; grew within the job and hopefully made your way up the ranks. A process that could take decades (depending on your growth trajectory) and potentially quite bureaucratic. Now – the “jobs market” is not only shifting but is offering us a range of unconventional methods to generate income – potentially a lot faster.
TikTok & Creators: Could content monetization be a path for you?
The temporary ban and subsequent reinstatement of TikTok in the U.S. was particularly interesting because it highlighted the importance of the Creator Fund for plenty of content creators in the U.S.
What’s TikTok’s Creator Fund? It was launched to reward content creators for their contributions, and it highlighted how monetization opportunities on social media are becoming a critical lifeline and a full-fledged career for many around the world. On our side of the world, in Bahrain and the GCC, data reflects the generous advertising income that creators make from their careers on social media. Depending on the follower-ship and “influence” of the Creator we can find ads revenue and brand partnerships (per post/reels) can range anywhere between BHD 150 to 3K+ and more (could be skewed based on limited data availability).
To put things into perspective, as of January 2025 the average annual salary for a Tiktok influencer in the U.S. is $116,615 a year. The TikTok temporary plan, boosted other platforms where monetization for content creation can kick off from the start helping budding creators (versus Tiktok that rewarded more established creators) as well and not just established ones.
AI – Monetization Beyond Research
Now, if we’re discussing unconventional, we can’t go far without discussing how AI is revolutionizing how entrepreneurs and professionals are making money. With a range of AI tools available, “solopreneurship” has become more achievable for professionals that have limited time and would like to explore having their own business and for anyone really who wants to add an extra source of income or build a powerful business. In my line of work, there is a growing number of coaches all over the world that are integrating AI into their coaching experience to be able to onboard a larger quota of clients and to service them faster, with less dependence on their “manpower”. Also, from trainers, using AI to create their courses and market them, to professionals monetizing their thought leadership through e-books and digital products.
If you’re in the art domain, you’ll find MidJourney and DALL-E are empowering artists to sell digital creations creating a new market for digital goods. Or Canva, where you can sell your designs. Now, with President Trump announcing “Stargate Project” and pouring $500 billion in AI development, we’re likely to see more opportunities emerge – but not just for mega projects but for you, and other professionals and entrepreneurs like yourself to create additional revenue and to revolutionize our relationship with work and income generation.
These developments force us to ask how we as entrepreneurs and professionals can leverage this change, to be amplify our revenue sources, income generation and economic participation. Which one of the many available models that can help you (us) do better professionally and financially.
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In my view, if you haven’t asked yourself this question yet, 2025 would be the year when you should ask it – how will you adapt your portfolio and income structure to fit the world of tomorrow? Now, maybe for you it’s content creation, or monetization of your services. Could be AI powered solopreneurs or AI automation or your services. Or a range of alternatives.
But the point of this article is to get you to think – at least I am for sure. That’s all.
#monetization #careers #markets #AI
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1 个月This is such a positive perspective on where things are headed and I appreciate that. Although I detest the way corporations are utilizing Ai, including some startups, it refreshing to see the good and not focus on the bad. Hopefully, 2025 will also be the time when engineers and scientists figure out how to Ai without the negative impact that it has on the environment (or at the very least lessen it)
Senior Analyst - Retail Banking Supervision at Central Bank of Bahrain | PRM, SCR, RAI
1 个月Nice thoughts