That’s an existential question every content creator faces today. With the ginormous amount of content out there (videos, audios, texts and what not) prolific content creator are always on the edge of yet another crises — no content. At least nothing significant to say.
I get it. I face the blank page almost every other day. And while it looks easy on the surface, showing up and expressing your thoughts are hard things to do. Perhaps that’s why not everyone is doing it. Which is okay because the expectations were low anyway. If you think about it, most content creators (particularly the ones whose content go viral or get at least a 100,000 likes/shares and above) have teams at disposal. They’re doing that for a living.
You and I have other things to do (like er, work? Service? Your business) than just create content for education and entertainment.
I think the number one misconception about creating content or putting something online is that we have to go big or keep trying. There are hundreds and thousands of businesses (including soloprenuers, micro and small businesses) that just have a bare basic website with a frequently updated testimonial section. These people understand and value the importance of creating content but don’t have the time or resources to do what millions of others are trying to do (often in vain because only a handful of content actually go viral). So, they just focus on their ‘testimonials’ section and frequently updated. Guess what’s so smart about it? It’s user-generated content and useful enough for website visitors to get a flavor of what the service is all about. Do you think the takers won’t sign-up for a service like that? Hell, yes! I definitely would. And guess, what — people like you and I are enough for this business to become profitable.
I’m a huge proponent of setting up your own corner in the world, a website that is. Once that’s done, just focus on maintaining it every now and then. If you’ve got content to share, great! If not, well at least you’ve got a presence. The key is to understand that creating content not a be-all-and-end-all of businesses. Unless they’re actually in the business of creating content for others.
Thousands (perhaps even millions) of entreprenuers get burned out chasing this idea of creating content that goes viral, which will help them and their business earn worldwide fame. It’s not a bad ambition, it’s just fighting the odds. And I believe we’ve got better stuff to like work on our big goals, serving our clients and making an impact than worry about what content to put out.
So, am I suggesting that we should stop creating content? No. What I want is that we don’t waste our time majoring in the minor things. We need to get real about content and understand that it’s just a piece of the puzzle that has several alternatives so much so that it doesn’t even matter.