7 Jeopardising Mistakes I’ve Seen in 7 Years of Content Creation
Avoiding them can put you years ahead in the game
I have been creating content since I was 18. Ironically, none of my accounts have had influencer or DM for collab/ Paid collabs only in their bio. My LinkedIn doesn’t say content creation either.
It’s a few years ago that the term content creator became famous. But for me, I did it because I had a lot to say and had a lot of fun talking to the world. On the other side, I suppose people loved to hear what I had to say, so this has been a great match.
I’ve had 11,000+ followers on my [now-deleted] Instagram, 58k+ followers and over 7 million views on my [now-inactive] Quora, and 100k+ views in a few months into my WordPress blog where I documented my weight-loss journey in Undergrad.
I suppose the metrics aren’t so bad, after all?
Currently, I’m creating more on Medium, meeting cool people on Twitter and penning some thoughts on LinkedIn and BitClout. Okay, I’ll confess that the stuff on LinkedIn is stolen from my Twitter, but that’s not the point here!
I’ve experimented with, and if I can take a deep breath and put my self-doubt aside, excelled across various platforms. I’ve had a viral post with over a million views on two platforms, and highly engaging posts on the others.
These are the 7 mistakes I’ve seen people make since the last 7 years that I’ve been creating content. I’m guilty of some too!
1. Competing with the wrong people
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” — Maya Angelou
In my early Instagram days, I stalked many people. I saw a photographer friend with a low follower count than mine suddenly pick up because he started shooting celebrities.
What I didn’t realise was this guy was pursuing photography for 8 years. His account had a few years’ worth of work and he was juggling photography gigs with his full-time job. That was a lot of work, as compared to my inspirational pictures and stories.
There’s no end to how well somebody else is doing. There will always be somebody better. Anchor to competing with yourself because as a creative, thats what makes you special.
And don’t forget, somebody else’s ‘sudden rise’ is probably backed with years of consistency.
2. Don’t let stats become a sword
One week, I had 300 people unfollow me on Instagram. I’d also see over 30 people share my story, which isn’t informational, maybe just a selfie. I’d get so insecure and had anxious thoughts like:
- Is my face looking weird?
- What's wrong with my content, why are people unfollowing me?
- Am I no longer relevant?
These are very toxic thoughts to handle, and one of the reasons I deleted that app and started a journey into mindfulness. But this can happen on any platform. I’ve seen writers go bonkers over stats too!
Please don’t let them become so important that it leads to self-doubt. Look at stats to come up with solutions to grow, but don’t let it affect your mental health.
3. Chasing patterns
There will always be a format that suddenly becomes popular. Whether it’s an Instagram feed look, a newsletter format, or hacks to get an engaging piece of writing on a platform.
But you can only chase them for so long. You can only use vintage Lightroom for 30 of your pictures and your feed will eventually look boring. Your newsletter subscribers will get bored with the same format if you don’t throw in a different one once in a while.
Change is constant, and chase patterns you resonate with instead of chasing what's popular. After all, filters can only make something attractive if it's an excellent piece of work in the first place.
4. More followers can be worse than fewer followers
I’ve seen people with 4000 followers do much better than those over 15,000 followers. Tell me, would you rather have a community that actively engages with you and roots for you or a vast audience that isn’t as enthusiastic about your work?
Your follower count is not a validation, it hardly matters. What if you had 100k followers but only 100 people looked at all your work? It won’t be fulfilling.
Not bothering about followers has ironically helped me attain followers.
Worrying too much about followers will make you mould things in a way so more people get attracted, but not worrying will help you be yourself and add value. What sounds better?
5. Trying too hard
"Great work is the result of seeking out tension, not avoiding it. Great work doesn’t require reassurance, in fact, it avoids it."— Seth Godin
When you try too hard for validation, people will know it.
These are the people who are chasing to fit in something that's trending even though they won’t resonate with it. Whether you’re a model or an artist or a writer, people can sense your discomfort just like they can sense authenticity.
Having fun is a much easier (and fun) option.
Last weekend I opened my newsletter at midnight to make some changes. I thought hard about how can I add certain information without making it too long, and then I thought, fuck it. I’m going to write and I’ll mention in the beginning that I’m going through a thought process at midnight and I want people to know it.
The response was brilliant. Your audience isn’t perfect, they’re just like you! Being relatable will take you further than being perfect.
6. Doing it because it's easy
I’ve had a number of people tell me to quit my job because my Instagram was great. Well, here’s the truth — it wasn’t paying me. There were no brand collaborations and no income. Zero.
The only offers I got was for barter like, please take three ayurvedic juices and talk about them. There was one from a world-renown alcohol brand that didn’t have the ‘budget’ to pay me a single penny!
If I wasn’t having fun, I wouldn’t have created content on any of these platforms. It’s after six years that I started making any kind of money through writing, but let’s not forget that I had been writing since elementary school and writing online since 18.
Nothing was overnight, and it was anything but easy.
7. Outcome obsession
I’ve been guilty of this too. If my one picture had 2000+ likes and another one had 128, it was disheartening.
Same with writing. Some of my pieces have a lot of work put into them but don’t perform as well.
Instead of creating, it’s easy to get focused on the reward. While likes and followers are dopamine, when money comes in, it’s a different ball game. You want to do better each month. You try to use the blueprint of your highest paying video or article to recreate that income.
The internet has algorithms that may or may not be in your favour for each piece you put out there, but your job is to create, so don't lose that focus.
For me, over 30 likes on LinkedIn felt like I’ve done something good. Last month, one of my posts got 1,000,000+ views and tens and thousands of impressions.
The outcome isn’t in your control, but the process is.
Lastly
Here are the seven mistakes I have seen people make over my last seven years of content creation:
- Competing with the wrong people
- Letting stats become a sword
- Chasing patterns
- Follower-obsession
- Trying too hard
- Doing it because it's easy
- Outcome obsession
These may lead to short-term rewards. But if you’re in this for a bigger picture, you might as well avoid this for better rewards and more fulfilment to come your way!
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