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.
And 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.
👉 Friendly reminder… Your week is what you make of it. It doesn’t matter what you’ve encountered this past week, you can get something from everything if you have the right mindset. Just look at me. I’m playing catchup with my projects on a Saturday.
🎛️ My new musical gear came in (and I’m able to get back to recording my demos):
💻 I continue to enjoy myself on BitClout. When will you be joining me? You do know we can elevate each other on that platform, right? I’ve decided once and for all it’s the better Twitter.
The allure of social media and big promises of engagement, followings, and sales brought you to the giants – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and so on.
But. Even after implementing all the latest best practices and strategies, you’re still having trouble seeing what all the fuss is about. Results aren’t forthcoming, and it’s not as though any of these platforms are out to help you.
That’s where I was at as I began exploring the new horizons of the latest free speech and decentralized networks. Eventually, I came across BitClout, which is a growing decentralized network that, when properly understood, looks far more attractive than the platform it took inspiration from – Twitter.
Here I compare Twitter to BitClout and consider which is better for new users.
I don’t know at what point digital marketing got reduced to creating an Instagram cat meme account, but such ephemeral tactics are hard to tie to real results in the business world, and if your neck is on the line with your business and making payroll each month, such advice is thoroughly unhelpful and even perilous.
That said, I am not anti-social media. As with anyone else, though, I like to be liked, to be appreciated, to see engagement on my posts, to see my email subscribers go up, and ultimately, drive sales. This is where the real transformative difference is made in my life. Likes and followers are as meaningless as ice to an iceberg. I make no bones about the fact that sales are what light me up. And so, I experiment widely.
And recently, I’ve had traction on a handful of platforms. When all others seem to offer nothing, after I’ve given, given, and given some more, these are showing some appreciation in return.
Tealfeed
Tealfeed is fast becoming my favorite Medium replacement.
No matter how many great posts I write for and add to Medium, no matter how much I promote them, no matter how much consistency and tenacity I bring to my publishing efforts, I only see small amounts of engagement and a trickle of new followers.
It’s a completely different story on Tealfeed. Several of my posts have already gotten over 500 views (in 365 days, I never saw any of my stories on Medium exceed 300 views until after the fact). And my follower count on Tealfeed, while humble, reliably goes up every week if not every day.
I’m not planning to abandon Medium. But by the same token, I’m not seeing it amount to more than a few fruity Starbucks iced teas per month. And so, it’s not deserving of more attention from me.
I will go where the audience is. I will go where I’m appreciated and wanted. And let the cruel mistress of Medium meander meaninglessly in the mess of missed potential and moronic mockery of so-called Medium masters.
Now I’m just waiting for Tealfeed to add monetization options.
Any time I go on a clout storm (which would be the equivalent of a Tweet storm), I see a ton of engagement on my posts. And my following count on the platform is incredibly humble. No matter – BitClout users are more active, generous, and engaged. And that makes a difference.
I see some engagement on Twitter, but never to the same degree.
After buying a couple of eBooks and learning everything I could about Twitter, I took it very seriously for about six months last year, only to see my follower count go up by 30. No, not daily. Not monthly. Total. And I’ve gone backwards from there.
I know some people are going to chime in with:
Yeah, reading two eBooks on Twitter isn’t going to make you a master.
Understand – I’m an old guard tweeter. I joined the platform in February 2009. I’ve taken multiple Twitter courses on HubSpot. I’ve shared original content, curated content, images, videos, threads, polls, practically everything you can think of. I’ve branded and re-branded my profile to appeal to my target audience. I’m pretty sure my tweet ship is not coming in. Twitter is dead.
Again, this is not to say I will not use Twitter. My sister continues to schedule my tweets for me (thank you!). But beyond that, there’s no way I’m going to give it as much time and attention as BitClout. No way.
Odysee
YouTube? Well, I have no intention of writing off YouTube, but in terms of engagement per capita and overall monetization potential, I can honestly say Odysee is far superior.
My daily publishing efforts and channel makeover efforts did lead to about 180 new subs on the Music Entrepreneur HQ YouTube channel last year, which is great, but I haven’t seen a whole lot of movement since.
And I’m not going to say that engagement on Odysee has been better by leaps and bounds. It has been better, but my impression is that audiences are still small.
What is quantifiably better is monetization, which is available to you as an Odysee user from day one, versus YouTube where you must get 1,000 subscribers first (and even then, you’re earning pennies on performance).
I haven’t entirely cracked the code on video yet, but for the extra five to 10 minutes it takes me to distribute my videos to Odysee, I can’t see why I wouldn’t.
Wisdom
Plenty of platforms are pushing audio-based conversations right now – Discord. Clubhouse. Didn’t Twitter create something similar too?
Who cares? I will go where I can get engagement and be rewarded for my work. And that’s Wisdom.
I have only gone live once on the platform (last week, in fact), and I have already seen more interest in my content there than on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter combined (because I usually multi-stream using StreamYard).
I have ranted on this very topic before, that in the world of social media you’re the donkey, and the platforms are the masters, shoving carrots in your face so you’ll stay. After a while, though, they take away even the carrots, knowing full well that you’ll be hopelessly addicted and keep coming back after their algorithm has taken a giant dump on your hard-earned engagement.
I, for one, turn away from such abuse, and cut off boat anchors as quickly as possible, because they can only weight you down. Give me a reason to go on the date, before asking me to commit to a nagging, sexless marriage.
I like what Wisdom is doing. They’re moving in a good direction. I don’t expect the gold rush to last forever (it certainly didn’t with NewsBreak), but I will take advantage of it while I can.
Final Thoughts
Beyond the platforms mentioned here, I also have TikTok in my crosshairs, because engagement on the platform is stupid. And by that, I mean you create stupid, lowest common denominator feeder content and get a stupid number of views on it.
Look, no matter the platform, ultimately, if I can’t tie it back to business results, I could give a hot damn. And that will always be my prerogative. That doesn’t mean I won’t be friendly, courteous, value-adding, as awesome as I can be in every situation. It just means I don’t care about your one million views unless you’re growing your email list or converting them to customers after the fact. Show me that you’re filling your funnel, or I don’t care.
Anyway, if you’ve any recommendations for viable Facebook and Instagram replacements, or other platforms you’re excited about and are turning hot right now, let me know.
👉 Just a friendly reminder… Your week is what you make of it. It doesn’t matter what you’ve encountered this past week, you can get something from everything if you have the right mindset. Just look at me. I had to get my battery boosted by a friend to get home today.
📚 My close friends have gotten a lot out of my book recommendations, and they requested I create a page where they can find all my favorite books. Now there is.
🎨 What can you do to ensure you make all your creative goals a reality in 2022? I prescribe reading this blog post for starters…
❓What is Content Marketing Musician? I wrote an overview, so you aren’t left in the dark anymore. Let’s flip that light switch!
🎙️New podcast – Thought Thursday. It’s a free form, succinct show on anything I feel like talking about. Episode 1 was on my current promotion of 10XPro. Is the platform too expensive? Not if you problem solve…
👩💻 Question for this week: “Do you need talent to be an artist?” Go and answer it!
🍖 This is what I had for lunch today:
😔 I wanted to acknowledge that I’m falling behind on updates for Music Entrepreneur HQ. My goal for next week might be a little ambitious, but I’m planning to publish three podcast episodes.
💻 I’m having fun on BitClout. When will you be joining me? You do know we can elevate each other on that platform, right? I’ve decided once and for all it’s the better Twitter.
🔉 I’ve started going live on Wisdom and will be hopping on to share at least once per week. Better get the app if you want to join me!
