3 Things I Keep Falling For As a Content Creator
Although I Know Better
Being a content creator in 2022 can either be the greatest decision of your life… or your worst nightmare.
To achieve number 1, here are 3 things I try my best to avoid. They always get me again though.
Don’t be everywhere online because you can’t
To me, this is both the hardest and the most straightforward of these 3 tips.
“How to gain followers on Instagram, why you need Pinterest as a blogger, Twitter is the go to for writers, LinkedIn is the place to be in 2022 as a content creator, start writing on Simily before it’s too late, how much I made on NewsBreak“
Do these headlines sound familiar to you?
This is basically what my Medium feed looks like. And that’s nobody’s fault but mine. I read that stuff. I write some of it. (And, in fact, this is by no means an offense to any of these platforms or the people who write about them!).
But do you see what all these titles suggest? You need to be on every online platform out there to make it.
These are drivers for severe FOMO. Fear of missing out.
The fact is you might miss out on some cool things but juggling between all these platforms will do more damage than good, I strongly believe.
This is why I try to approach my content creator life in a more minimal fashion. With a little caveat:
I’ll usually try new platforms, see how it goes for a few weeks or months, and then leave if I don’t like it.
See, I can’t help it. 😏
You’re going to suck at some things
Online writing… is really not about writing. Unfortunately.
As an online writer — or any content creator for that matter — you’re also a (or strive to be a):
Marketer
SEO specialist
Social media manager
Email marketer
Your own brand
A copy and/or content writer
You’re own boss
and much more.
There’s a reason why these gigs are usually handled by multiple people.
You’ll suck at some and rock other tasks. Embrace that!
24/7
Your writing is a side-hustle? I feel you.
The day only has 24 hours. The week only 7 days. You will run out of time. Consistently. Even a full-time content creator will.
There are also more things to life than work. For me, it’s kids and a wife, as well as some hobbies I notoriously neglect most of the year.
I can’t tell you how important time management is.
Tom Kuegler recently tweeted:
/media/482cbe02596e9c2a783a94515126b5d6
And we talked a little about it.
I fully agree with him here, as much as this sounds counterintuitive. As a father of 5, I kind of have to optimize my time and manage pretty much every minute.
But that’s not a process of maximizing every minute’s potential, it is — and to a much larger extent — the realization and the reminder to wind down and enjoy every free minute I get.
Because frankly, I can't afford burn-out or mental health issues.
Nevertheless, there have been times when I spent way too little time with my family than I should have. Because I managed my time in a bad way.
The bottom line
The title is no clickbait. I truly keep falling for these 3 things. It’s hard to be a content creator in 2022. Whether you’re doing it full-time or on the side.
So, try to keep these 3 things in mind:
Don’t be on every platform. As I said in a previous post, it’s better to excel in a couple of things than to be mediocre in a dozen.
Don’t beat yourself up for being good at some things and bad at others. We can’t do it all well.
Don’t maximize every minute of the day purely for work, rather enjoy and embrace the free time you have. There’s nothing wrong with your couch and a good Netflix show.
This post is basically a reminder for me. But thank you for reading it anyway :-)