I’ve now been blogging daily for nearly 21 months.
That process has been incredibly rewarding and fulfilling, and I’ve learned a great deal on the journey so far.
But I’ve been sensing the need for change for quite a while, and perhaps you’ve been growing wise to it as well. I was already beginning to talk about transitions last quarter, so at this point I may only be confirming your suspicions.
My daily blogging efforts are about to evolve. And rarely have I felt this lucid around changes that need to be made. Typically, I will sit on ideas for months, sometimes even years, before acting on them. But what I’m about to share here will be taking effect immediately.
Before I reveal where and how you’ll be able to find and follow me moving forward, I will be sharing my thought process with you.
Everything is Getting Harder
Ranking in Google is tougher than ever. The cost of Facebook ads continues to rise. The YouTube algorithm is a seesaw.
I’ve worked hard to build my own website and content platforms, and I don’t regret it. What I’ve said about digital sharecropping (on occasions too numerous to mention) still stands.
But I’m recognizing that it doesn’t make sense to rely exclusively on the platforms I’ve built anymore. I will continue to leverage them, but I need to dedicate more time and energy to showing up where people are already looking.
That means Amazon, Skillshare, Udemy, Medium, Tealfeed, YouTube, and other destinations. I have a bit of a presence on some, less on others, but I’m thinking to leverage these more, and that means creating and distributing content designed for these channels.
The newer platforms also represent a greater opportunity (Web3 inclusive), given that marketers haven’t necessarily had a chance to ruin them, and their algorithm restricts traffic to your content far less than, say, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. I’ve had a fair bit of success with BitClout, despite only having a small (but growing) following.
Moreover, the consistent and regular publishing of valuable content to my platforms used to boost traffic over time in a reliable way, but in the last four years or so, that has no longer proven true as a rule. Daily traffic on Music Entrepreneur HQ, for example, was at its peak four years ago.
I don’t see our traffic as dispensable but getting a sustainable number of email list signups and product sales gets increasingly harder when the search engine gods don’t reward us in proportion to our hard work.
We’ve all heard that insanity is doing the same thing expecting different results, and I grow tired of the content hamster wheel that seems to lead deeper into the abyss of obscurity, especially when it should be reaching new, engaged audiences. I’m letting go of the insanity.
Success Leaves Clues
Medium seems to like it best when I talk about self-employment, freelancing, and productivity.
YouTube thinks I’m an expert on the subconscious mind, social media, eCommerce, and affiliate marketing.
Similarly, I’m rewarded with more traffic to my websites when I cover certain topics over others. Having published for as long as I have, this trend is more clearly accentuated.
As they say, success leaves clues.
I’m a content creator with range and expertise in a variety of areas. But talking about anything and everything doesn’t seem to help my engagement.
If the gods that be are going to give me a hand up when I talk about specific things, why rail against it? I need to lean into it. That’s what I’ve realized.
Again, if I was as established as someone like Seth Godin, I might have the luxury of talking about whatever I want, whenever I want. But I’m in the fight of my life to grow my audience and increase my various revenue streams. So, I need to grab reality by the horns and hang on for the ride.
The Content-Product Equilibrium
A publishing schedule without a clearly defined scope can easily lead to endless busywork with no guaranteed payoff. I’ve been there too numerous a time to count.
A publishing schedule without a clearly defined scope can easily lead to endless busywork with no guaranteed payoff. Click To TweetAnd the greatest problem of all is that an overblown publishing schedule makes it harder to focus on the thing you’re supposed to be working on as a creator – your customer relationships and your products.
Yes, I’m here to inspire and help people as much as anything else, but it’s my conviction that people will only get so much feeding on free content. They are going to get the most from making a commitment, jumping in with both feet, and investing in themselves. That’s where the greatest breakthroughs and transformations happen.
I’ve often said that product creation is a matter of focus, setting aside at least an hour per day for its development, creating structures (eliminating, automating, and delegating) and ignoring fires that can be put out later. I still hold to this.
But there is a limit. You can end up spending too much time and energy on free content. If you’re okay with your weekends are spent over-exhausted, collapsed in your bed, no problem. But if you’re any less than superhuman and would like to look forward to your days off, there’s a different equilibrium to achieve.
Your content publishing efforts need to be finite, especially if you’re the one doing most of the work. You need to beware of scope creep.
Room for Expansion
This may seem to contradict what I said earlier about focus, but hear me out…
I’m recognizing that the greatest bit of pigeonholing in the preceding years was doing willingly, and it was done by me. I built Music Entrepreneur HQ, made it my mission, and saw it as my ticket to all I desired in life.
We’ve had some exceedingly good times with Music Entrepreneur HQ (it was probably at its peak in 2018, and it had another resurgence of sorts in 2020), and this isn’t the end of it. But for me it has sunk in that it’s not the golden ticket I thought it would once be. So, there’s no sense in having my identity wrapped up in it – it’s like peeling off my toenails with an icepick one by one hoping it will hurt less and less.
Music Entrepreneur HQ has its place in my ecosystem. But not trying to make it the main thing is incredibly freeing. I can hire writers to help out with publishing duties, put up ads, establish new niche sites, build a bigger presence on various social networks, and most importantly, focus more on customer relationships and product development.
The opportunity to cobble together an income from various sources is greater than ever, and it’s appearing a more viable pathway for me than anything else.
The New Publishing Plan
I know I’ve gone on long enough to get to this point in this post (long walk for a short drink, much?). But this is the essence of what I have in mind:
- Monday – video (Music Entrepreneur HQ)
- Tuesday – Medium story
- Wednesday – Medium story
- Thursday – Medium story
- Friday – podcast episode (Music Entrepreneur HQ)
- Saturday – weekly digest
- Sunday – reflections
This will form the foundation of my weekly content creation efforts, though doubtless I will be iterating on it. I think there could be a better use of my Sundays but I’m not sure what that is yet.
If all goes according to plan, I will also have six podcast episodes per month rather than four.
Much of my activity will still be shared or summarized on my blog, and I am looking at reviving income reports as well.
Of course, there is a distribution and syndication plan to go along with all of this.
Final Thoughts
And now you know where you’ll be able to find me moving forward. Like I said, you’ll still be able to see most if not all of what I’m up to on my blog, but this post will stand in case you start to wonder, “whatever happened to his daily blogging efforts?” I’m still in motion, it’s just that my content will be spread across more destinations.
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