Content Creation Is Not a Money Tree

It is the soil where you plant a seed to create a money tree!

It is no longer a secret that you can make a full-time living from content creation. Whether you are a full-time Youtuber or full-time blogger or both, many people have created full-time livings based on content creation.

As more of these people share their income reports, many people tired of corporate jobs flock to content creation ready to make their money. We see others trying something out and making thousands quickly, such as Shelby Church’s experience on Medium. Her video likely brought thousands of people to the Medium platform including me.

However, many of these people were expecting to have similar success. They expected that they could write a couple of stories on random topics and watch the money start rolling in. Then frustrated with the lack of instant success complained about how Medium was against them.

This same story plays out over and over again on YouTube, podcasts, and blogs. To any aspiring full-time content creator, this is what you need to realize. Content creation is the platform that you put the seeds of your creation into. There are many different factors on whether it will actually grow into a tree. The soil does not owe you a tree just because you bury something in it.

Content Platforms as Soil

To continue with the analogy, your content platforms are the soil that you bury your seed into. The soil can be rich with nutrients ready to bring you new audience members. However, you cannot always control the conditions of the soil.

Some soil is not as good as others. Even the same soil may be better for some seeds than they are for others. Let’s take Shelby Church’s success on Medium. The main article that has earned her the most was about how much YouTube paid her for a video with 1 million views. On Medium, a large number of members are also medium writers that are wanting to make money from content creation.

Therefore, it would make sense that Medium is a great platform for that story to do really well.

When I first started on Medium, I was unsure what niche I was going to write in. Initially, I started writing on research information that would be helpful to graduate students. Unsurprisingly, those stories did not do well on the Medium platform as Medium does not have a large population of graduate students. At the same time, placing those same stories on Vocal Media and YouTube do much better because they are not placed behind a paywall that graduate students will not pay for.

You need to select the right soil for you and the seed you want to create. Investigate the soil and try it out. You cannot assume that by planting a seed in random soil that it will do as well as someone else’s seed.

Your Content is Your Seed

Once you know where you are going to plant it, you need to choose good seeds to plant. You do not want to plant a seed that is rotten. In fact, you don’t want to plant only one seed. The more seeds that you plant the more that will successfully grow. However, if you plant 100 million rotten seeds, you will likely not have any trees.

In your content, you need to be consistent and have quality pieces for you to be successful in creating your money tree. If you write hundreds of stories of Medium that are not helpful to people, have grammar mistakes, and are not formatted well, you cannot expect that you are going to receive a full-time income from that work.

If you make YouTube videos of you ranting about a topic, no editing, and no value to the reader, you will sit at very low views and never reach the monetization threshold.

You need to focus on the quality of your content, take critiques, and strive to make every piece of content better than your last.

You Have to Water Your Seed

Even if you choose the best soil and provide the highest quality seed, you will not grow a tree if you do not water your seeds. This is the part that many people stop at. They put their content out on the platform and expect that it will flourish.

So, how do you water your seed in content creation?

You promote your work. Now that you have put your content out there, it doesn’t mean that people will flock to it. You need to bring people to your content first. There may be an occasional rain shower that brings viewers, but if you want consistent viewers you have to do the work to water it.

When it grows into a strong tree, this work doesn’t have to be done as much if you choose the right tree for the right conditions. This is the same with your content. When you build a large enough audience, things will happen automatically for you instead of having to bring your audience members to your content.

Your Tree Should Have Branches

When your money tree grows, you want it to have many branches as nuts and fruits don’t grow out of the trunk of the tree.

You can create a many-branched tree by creating multiple streams of income. You should start this at the beginning of your content creation. While you likely won’t see much return initially, it can grow as your tree grows.

If you are a content creator, most people think about pay from the platform, either through ads or member pay. However, if you only set yourself to receive this income, then if one branch gets sick your entire income dries up.

Instead, you should invest time in becoming an affiliate for brands you love and place affiliate links in appropriate places. Repurpose your content. Make a blog post into a YouTube video. Identify brands that you could partner with in the future. Create your own paid products!

There are multiple different ways to make money in the online space, but it takes time and preparation to actually make a full-time living in this space.

Your Money Tree Is in Your Hands

The biggest lie circulating the online space is that “if you build it, they will come”. If you post a piece of content, there will not be a flocking to your profile or content. There is more work than just producing a piece of content to be able to make a full-time income in this space.

You have to realize that your potential future income is really in your hands. No more waiting for an algorithm to change or waiting for your platform to pick up your videos. Instead, focus on these areas that you can actually control and you will reap the rewards eventually:

• Find the right place to post your content
• Create high-quality content
• Promote your content on multiple platforms
• Investigate and branch out into multiple income streams