The Cold Hard Realities of the Content Game Other Gurus Won't Tell You (But I Will)
The Cold Hard Realities of the Content Game Other Gurus Won't Tell You (But I Will)
Sell the hype, buy into the reality
Two things are true at the same time:
Making money online is easier than you think
Making money online is really difficult
The steps themselves are straightforward.
Say you want to be a content creator.
First, you start creating content about a subject you’re interested in that has an overlap with an audience.
Second, you build an audience who you can sell to.
Third, you build a product, attempt to sell it, improve it, sell it some more, and scale.
Say you want to be a creative professional—a freelancer who sells a skill and/or an agency owner. The path is even more straightforward.
You’d create content and build a portfolio to attract clients and show you know what you’re talking about.
Selling a service is straightforward because you just have to perform the service—no need to create something complex like an online course.
Selling services is dead simple because you can literally keep putting up shots until one goes in — DM prospects every day and you’ll get clients.
Both paths aren’t complex, but they’re difficult because of the realities of the content game most gurus won’t share with you, but I will, right now.
Low Barrier to Entry = Merciless Competition
It’s never been easier to start creating content or building an online business, but there’s also never been more competition.
It feels like my entire timeline is solopreneurs building a one-person business teaching people how to build a one-person business or content creation experts teaching people how to become content creation experts.
When something becomes popular, everyone jumps in, and they’re all incentivized to copy what they see works, which makes every creator look and sound exactly the same. The space is extremely noisy right now.
That being said, I’ve always said the same thing about saturation and competition. Neither truly exists because the vast majority of people who start end up quitting. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up in that category too.
You beat the competition by outlasting them. Most people in the space right now are playing short-term games for quick cash crabs and low-stakes prizes. If you want to win, you have to be in this for the long haul.
All of the top creators I know have been in the game for 5-10 years. You can achieve success faster, but that still looks like 1-3 years of fast and aggressive execution and implementation.
If you lack patience the hyper-competitive content creation buzz-saw will rip your career to shreds. I’ve seen it happen over and over again.
You’re Probably Playing the Wrong Game
Most people want to play the sexy version of the content game:
Build a massive audience
Go viral constantly
Sell a bunch of courses or products
This game can be won. It’s the game I’m playing, but I’m only playing it now because I’ve dedicated so much time to it. If I could go back in time, I’d do it differently.
If I were you, honestly, I’d focus on monetizing a specific skill, service a specific niche, and build a cash-flow business first before trying to go full-guru mode.
It’s not as sexy, but you’ll make money, which means you’ll be able to quit your job faster.
Then, once you have cash flow, you can open yourself up to opportunities like teaching other people how you build that cash flow business and adding another income stream.
I’m in a program with other creators who have specific niche businesses that print cash. Most of them have small or Medium sized followings.
They perform services like:
Video editing and YouTube channel growth consulting
TikTok growth for DTC e-com brands
Creating professional slide decks for high-paid execs and company founders
Ghostwriting
Helping creators grow their paid communities
Instead of going for mass appeal and trying to sell a bunch of products, they have niche businesses that command high rates because they’re very good at a specific skill and serve customers who already have money.
Right now, on Instagram, there are these video animation-style reels that are going crazy viral. I checked with someone who makes them to see what they cost. He said $250 per reel. And he’s a newer provider who’s less established, so I know he’s undercharging.
If you can create an animation that can help people add hundreds or thousands of followers per reel, you could easily charge $500-1,000 per reel.
The real alpha in 2023 isn’t being a guru, it’s working behind the scenes and providing a specific skill for people who need it. You might not be famous, but you’ll, you know, have money.
You’re Lazy AF
Speaking of building a niche-specific business, I saw a brilliant idea in a YouTube short the other day. It’s a system you can use to get clients as a short-form editor —making clips for TikTok and Reels.
Here’s how it works:
Find popular long-form YouTube creators
Download their videos and chop them up into cool clips
Send them the videos to use for free
Repeat this and eventually make the ask
Keep sending them new videos and making the ask until they say yes
This is a process you could use right now. You could take the time to learn short-for editing and do outreach like a madman or woman. You could build a six-figure business doing just this. You could scale it to a 7 figure business by taking on more video editors and scaling your systems.
But you won’t, because you’re lazy as fuck.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across “freelancers” who don’t do any outreach to get clients.
If you don’t have a big audience and traffic to attract inbound leads, you won’t get clients without doing outreach.
Then, the ones who do outreach do it horribly and lazily.
“Are you looking for freelance services?”
No, I’m not. I am looking to make money and if someone reaches out to me without a crystal clear neon-green sign showing they can help me make more of it, I ignore them.
If you went the extra mile, you’d win.
If you wanted to pitch freelance writing services, you could reach out to prospects with:
A list of target keywords that could get them traffic.
A sample draft of an SEO-optimized post for them to look at.
A carefully crafted pitch that shows them how getting X amount of traffic converted at Y percentage could make them Z amount of dollars, which would easily justify the cost of your services because you’d help them make way more money than they’d pay you.
Everyone is looking to get traffic without posting content.
Everyone wants to build an agency without reaching out to people.
Everyone wants a mentor without being someone worth helping.
There is cash floating everywhere online and some of it could be yours but you’re just not willing to do the leg-work it takes to get it. Until you’re ready to go the extra mile, you’ll remain broke.
It doesn’t have to be this way. It’s on you to change this.
Most Content Creators Shouldn’t be in the Game at All
I have zero interest in being the panacea-spouting cheerleader that is trying to encourage everyone to join the game.
There are two types of people who try it—only one wins.
Creator A is the type of person who has taken a stab at trying content creation.
They’re naturally ambitious, but they just don’t know exactly what to do to win. That’s a person I can help. All of my best students are the ones who were trying some things on their own, hit a wall, then came to me for advice.
Most people who do well with online courses were going to be successful anyway, the course just helped them speed up the process.
Then there’s creator B. Creating content, for them, is like pulling teeth. They are not a self-starter. They don’t feel compelled to create content but instead dream about doing it because it looks cool.
There is no umph in their soul and you have to drag them to the finish line. They are the types who reach out to me and ask me to be their mentor when they’ve done zero work on their own. These people will fail.
You have to be brutally honest with yourself and decide if this is something you even want to do.
You want to know another cold hard truth? Most of the people who succeed as highly influential creators take to it naturally and pick it up quickly. When it comes to teaching people how to create content, it only works if there’s fire to pour the gasoline on.
There are plenty of ways to make money. You could take a loan out and own a laundromat, start a power washing company, buy index funds, or rental properties. Don’t get into the content game because it’s sexy. Get into the game because it’s what you want to do with your life.
For many of you, it might be in your best interest to abandon this dream altogether.
Why am I pouring cold water all over your dreams if this newsletter is intended to be helpful to content creators?
I’m looking for the types of people who have read this entire post and thought to themselves ‘Hm…good thing he’s not talking about me. I’m not lazy, I understand the realities of the game, and I will go the extra mile.’
That happened to me back in the day. I took this online course for writers where the creator talked about how most people will quit and never finish the program. I knew he was talking about those other writers and not me.
Here’s the good news…
The bar for success isn’t that high.
You don’t need to be a genius to win at this game nor do you need to be extremely gifted. You need some talent and need to somewhat have your wits about you, but anyone of reasonable intelligence and skill can build a six-figure business in this game.
You just need to exceed the bar most people never cross over — a 6 or 7 out of 10 effort done consistently for a couple of years puts you in the top one percent of all people who try because most people never do.
If you’re still feeling motivated after reading all of this, your success is just a literal matter of time :)
Links to Cool Stuff You Might Enjoy
Watch this webinar replay I co-hosted with Self-Publishing School to learn how to write a best-selling book
Take my free 5-day course that teaches you how to make a living writing on Medium
Buy my best-selling book - Real Help: An Honest Guide to Self-Improvement
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram because I create unique content on each platform
Great perspective and great peace, thank you for putting it out there
PS - Read the whole article and said 'Hm... Good thing he's not talking about me' ;)