Summary

The website content discusses the importance of sharing and consistency in building an audience for creative work online.

Abstract

The article emphasizes that content creation is just one aspect of building an audience; sharing content through social media and personal networks is equally crucial. It suggests that artists and creators should leverage the internet to reach a global audience and not be discouraged by a lack of immediate virality. The author, an extrovert, advocates for starting with a known support base, such as friends and family, and gradually expanding to public platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The article also advises against obsessing over daily metrics, recommending periodic analysis instead. A roadmap for content creation and sharing is suggested, with a focus on long-term goals and trends rather than short-term statistics. The author shares their personal approach to blogging, including a 100-day streak, and cites the importance of patience, with top Medium writers often taking years to build their audience.

Opinions

The author believes in the power of personal connections as a starting point for building an audience.
Sharing content on social media is considered essential for reaching a broader audience.
There's an emphasis on not being overly concerned with immediate success or virality.
The author, who is a data analyst, suggests that frequent checking of metrics is less valuable than periodic analysis to understand trends.
The article promotes the idea of having a long-term roadmap and target for content creation and audience building.
The author quotes Austin Kleon, suggesting that geography is no longer a barrier to reaching an audience, thanks to the internet.
Patience is highlighted as a key factor in audience growth, with a minimum of two years mentioned as a reasonable timeframe for significant progress.
The importance of "word-of-the-mouth" combined with internet exposure is underscored for content dissemination.

How Long Does It Take to Build an Audience

“Content creation” is one side of the coin. The second one is “sharing”.

As an artist, people all over the world consume your content. The sure way to accelerate consumption is to harness the power of the internet to overcome the distance barrier.

When things get viral, they do so online, not offline. But what if they don’t go viral? You still have to keep moving, right?

We all start somewhere.

One common question we ask ourself when starting a creative career,

“What if no one reads my blog?”
“What if no one watches my YouTube video?”
“What if no one listens to the cover I made of my favourite song?”

The solution is: you already know some people who care about you on some level and will support you no matter what. I’m an extrovert, so I’m easy going. I can even make connections with total strangers on a travel trip without being a pushover.

If you are an introvert who doesn’t talk too much and spends most of the time in their head, you have a small group of people you hang around. No man is an island. If you think you are starting from zero, then your acquaintances are your primary audience.

Social media

The power of sharing reaches next level when you use social media. Instagram is my jam. So, I share my blogs there every day.

One of my friends also writes on Medium, but she didn’t share her last blog anywhere after publishing. That’s when I explained to her the importance and the power of sharing your work.

But what if you don’t use social media? Come on! Not even Whatsapp? Share there. Use your phone for things that matter, once in a while.

Based on the initial responses, you will want to share on public platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Call it motivation, or call it curiosity, you will want to see what it’s like to see positive reactions at a large scale. That’s what your dream is, right? You want to break the internet like never imagined before. If you are reading this, I think you’ve already started working for your dream.

Have a roadmap, or at least an overview

People often ask me this question, “How many views do you get on your blog?” I say, “what do you mean by views on a blog?”

The view count increases with time, and for me to have a logical idea of how views change, I can’t analyse it from a single blog.

That is why I have never looked at the statistics in the last 90 days (including today) of my blogging streak: no read-ratio, no views, nothing. Just showing up every day is all I do.

Why? Because I am a data analyst by profession. I like to see the statistics when they make sense.

When it comes to a metric, analyse periodically, not frequently.

Medium sends statistics every Friday. On day 100, I will have around 14 emails from Medium about weekly views. On week one, I had seven blogs; week two was 14 blogs; week three was 21, and so on.

On day 100, I'll have a substantial amount of data points. Then it will be logical to trust those number up to some degree.

On day 100, I will see the trend of my blogs and then have another roadmap for the next days. The next target will probably be one of these three: 150, 250, or 365. 365 is ambitious, I know!

Final words

“Geography is no longer our master” — Austin Kleon

Some of the top Medium writers spent years reaching where they are. If you want a number, the minimum I’ve read in their stories is two years. That is what my target is for now.

Before two years, I won’t even judge how many followers I have on Medium. Although they are increasing every day, it just doesn’t make sense to look at the number frequently.

If you want to build your audience sooner, then to speed up your process, you’ve got to start sharing.

Share with your family, friends, coworkers, colleagues, partner, children, relatives, etc. Share with everyone you know and see how “word-of-the-mouth” will combine with the internet to spread your content all over the world.

This blog belongs to a series of posts I am publishing in this 100-days streak. Today is day 90. Navigate to the end of article 22, for the references from day 23 onwards. If you would like to read the ones before day 22, here is the first one that documents them in the end.

~ Sanjeev