• Provide insights into influencer (specifically influencers who sell online courses as a revenue stream) and author personas to see what motivates these two groups.
• Use this persona as an example and consider the following details as a starting point for the personas:

• Influencers: They have an existing audience, a skill or something to teach, are actively selling online courses as a revenue stream. Examples of influencers include Amy Porterfield and Haley Burkhead among others.
• Authors: Influential people with an audience, may or may not be selling online courses. Non-fiction and providing advice through health and wellness, self-help or business. Examples of authors can be found here and here.

Data Availability

• The initial round of research indicates that data availability is limited to provide insights into personas or motivations of influencers (specifically influencers who sell online courses as a revenue stream) and authors (specifically non-fiction authors who provide advice through health and wellness, self-help, or business).
• The available information focuses on the motivations of social media influencers, genuinfluencers, content creators, and authors of scientific/academic publications.

Motivations of Non-Fiction Authors

• Anne Janzer, author of "Get The Word Out: Write A Book That Makes A Difference" and Subscription Marketing, surveyed 400 nonfiction authors on their writing process and motivation for her book.
• In her survey, she asked nonfiction authors about their key motivations for writing and gave them a list of motivations to choose from (including, "Are you writing to advance your business, your business reasons to advance your career? Is it always a personal objective? Are you writing for a sense of purpose that you want to serve others? If you want to be rich and famous?").
• After the respondents (authors) selected their motivations, she asked them to pick their primary motivation. She found that, "When asked about all of their motivations, 80% of the people said that having the purpose of serving others with their ideas was important, was one of their motivations."
• However, "When they had to choose their primary motivation, 40% said purpose was one of their motivations. And in terms of the primary motivations, only about 20% of the people chose a, I'm writing a book, my primary motivation is to advance my business or my career."
• Although half of the respondents to her survey were business authors, only 20% of the respondents said they are doing this primarily to advance their careers.

Motivations of Influencers Who Sell Courses

• According to Dickie Bush, an influencer who talks about digital writing and digital leverage and sells the online course Ship 30 For 30, his motivation is helping people address common pain points.
• He says, "My focus is on helping people address common pain points as they build a writing habit and start publishing. These areas are rarely talked about in most courses."
• He further adds, "The biggest value-add, though, is the community. Learners support each other through continuous feedback, accountability and collaboration. We try to create a culture of action and iteration, the same values that power the course itself."

Summary

• During the initial round of research, we were able to identify very few insights into the persona or motivations of influencers who sell online courses as a revenue stream and authors (specifically non-fiction authors who provide advice through health and wellness, self-help, or business).
• The available information focuses on the motivations of social media influencers, genuinfluencers, content creators, and authors of scientific/academic publications.
• Based on data availability, we suggest expanding the research to focus to provide the motivations and other available persona details of content creators in general.