What I'd Tell Aspiring "Content Creators"

Someone was just in my DMs asking what three things I’d tell a creator who wants to be in my position.

I’ve been making a full time living from my video essays for 7 years now, and I get why people would want this. I love this job. Being a “content creator” provides a lot of freedom, has paid better than any other job I’ve worked (although that’s not saying much), and can be very rewarding and fun—even if sometimes it feels like I’m bound to the whims of a fickle algorithm, and required to work in an online media ecosystem that can feel downright toxic at times. Every job has downsides.

It was a fun question to try to answer so I thought I’d share here as well.

One more caveat since I’m skeptical of advice: This is not a recipe for success, or a comprehensive guide: just a reflection on some of the things that feel like they lead me to where I am now. It might be helpful if you’re looking to do what I do or something similar, or it could be outdated and too specific to me, so try to use your discernment about whether or not this might be useful for you, and please ignore it if not.

1.

Have a vision for who you are as a creative and what your work is besides being a generic “creator” or “youtuber” or “influencer” or “fill-in-the-blank.”

Are you a critic, a filmmaker, an entertainer, a comedian, an educator, a documentarian, a journalist? Whatever it is, I’d encourage you to focus on that as your identity and guide for your work and on “content creation” as just a means of achieving that. Yes creating youtube videos is what I do, but I’ve never thought of myself as being a YouTuber, and I think it’s healthier if I don’t. Maybe this sounds pretentious, but I think it’s good not to shape your personal identity around corporately owned platforms and I believe it’s a helpful guide for creating genuinely meaningful, engaging content. Most of the “content creators” whose work I love and respect the most seem to operate this way to some extent, even if it’s unconsciously.

A benefit of this approach is having an understanding of why your work is meaningful to you beyond the views/recognition/money. That meaning will be your fuel through the early parts when the views/recognition/money aren’t there, and help you avoid being distracted by views/recognition/money you’re lucky enough to get them. You’ll need this identity as a helpful defense against being corrupted by the algorithm and audience capture into just doing the thing that gets you the most attention.

2.

Iterate and experiment.

There are no formulas. There are no rules. Nobody knows what will work.

I got started by trying my hand at making things that were similar to successful work that other people were doing (I saw video essays from Every Frame A Painting and thought… I could make one of those), and then gradually developed my own voice, but what worked three years ago in content creation may not work now, and nobody can tell you what will work 6 months from now.

Try things, see if it resonates with an audience, and be willing to adapt and change based on what’s working. You’ll have to do this while trying to maintain your own voice, vision and purpose, and that’s genuinely difficult, but that’s the challenge you have to take on to do this kind of work.

3.

Figure out a reasonable and consistent rhythm for publishing your work and stick to it.

To get good at this you have to practice the entire process of creating a work from begging to end. You can’t let perfectionism get in the way of actually posting. I think you only really get better at coming up with ideas, crafting the piece, and marketing it to your audience through repetition and trial and error. If you get stuck forever fiddling in the “crafting the piece” stage—trying to make something so perfect that it goes insanely viral and launches your career, you won’t be getting the practice you need.

But don’t forget number 2: You can’t just keep posting into the void if nobody is watching expecting that to magically change. The difference between slow but steady audience growth, and having no audience or growth at all is huge. If it’s not working, you have to be willing to try something else. Before my current YouTube channel caught on, I had spent the previous 8 years experimenting with blogs, podcasts, and other youtube channels that never went anywhere. If it wasn’t working, I tried something new. With each new venture my skills were improving, but I also think I just finally found the combination of platform and format that fit with my interest and skills in the right way to create something compelling enough that people actually found value in it.

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Hopefully that’s a little helpful to someone out there. If you’re a person creation content online, what would you tell other people who want to get to where you are now?