Where I Failed as a Content Creator, and How You Can Learn From My Mistakes
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The internet is just great. There’s freedom to explore, gather new information, share fun things with strangers all over the world and connect with people from so many different cultures. It’s a place where you can be a creator, loved by many, if you play your cards right.
Where I Went Wrong
How I Started
I was maybe around 15 when I first started creating content on the internet. On an old MacBook, I discovered iMovie and decided to play around with it. It was so much fun to make compilation videos, putting them on YouTube and seeing the reactions from all these people I didn’t know.
After a while, I decided to be in front of the camera as well and talked about pop-culture things, did sketches and challenges with friends, made stop-motion stories with Lego’s and in general made anything I could think of and just put it online.
Years later, I’m still doing this but obviously to a much smaller audience. Views are almost non-existent, yet I’m still putting so much time and energy into creating whatever I feel like in my free time. Knowing I’ll never be able to turn this into a career or become a fulltime “YouTuber”, I still might have a bit of useful tips to help you become a “YouTube Star” or creator of content on the internet in general.
My Biggest Mistake
Consistency. You might think “that’s it?” but this goes on many different levels. Being consistent isn’t just having a schedule, it’s much more than that. It’s being consistent in what you do, where you upload, when you upload but also in language, growth, style, expanding, learning and much more. I didn’t do these things.
I created a bit of stop motion videos, got a bunch of subscribers for it, and then quit. Months later, I started vlogging; meaning those people that subscribed for stop motion things left, and new subscribers came in for the vlog. Months later, I quit and started uploading sketches in a different language, which resulted in again: Previous subscribers left, new ones arrived. But months later, you guessed it, I quit and did something else. And that pattern continued for years, leaving me with a scattered audience and no real interactions on anything I make and publish.
Repetition is Persuasion
You need to create, a lot, for little to no traction. That can be hard but don’t forget the upside of it. The benefit of creating a lot of content is that it will improve your craft. These months (perhaps years) of creating in anonymity are a gift, that you should use to your benefit. This is the perfect time to produce content, and produce a lot of it, and become exceptionally good at what you do before you start gaining traction.
There is credibility in volume, however there is even more credibility in the love you put into your work. Your work needs to make you come alive. Doesn’t matter if you’re a cartoon illustrator on Instagram, a Streamer on Twitch or a Vlogger on YouTube; you need to create in volume and do that consistently.
Keep Pushing
You truly need to commit to the zero-audience phase of your online content creator path. If you accept this, you’ll be able to push through it and continue to create in volume and improved quality (which is where I went wrong).
Yeah, it sucks to put hours of work into something that has little views or engagement. Eventually, your work will reach people, all you need is patience and consistency in what you do.
I can’t remember who said this but I remember this quote from years ago:
‘Anything worth doing, is worth doing every day.’
So go create. Get into a rhythm and grow. Produce, create, learn, improve, … make so much that it becomes near-impossible to ignore you.
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