Table of Contents
20 tips for aspiring creators who don’t have a big budget to promote their content.
For those who plan to start a blog in 2023, occasionally write articles, shoot videos, record audio podcasts, or restore activity once started in this business.
In this publication, I have collected questions that I recommend to analyze before choosing a priority content channel (a place for a blog or regular publications). The purpose of the article is simple – to help novice authors increase the effectiveness of their content. And for potential readers or viewers of this content – to help increase its (content) quality and actual usefulness.
Most of the recommendations are suitable for text content (articles, social media posts), many of them are suitable for video and audio content (Youtube, podcasts). Some recommendations will be universal for shorter and more chaotic formats, such as stories.
The article contains my author’s experience of 2.5+ years. What is.
What we should think about before preparing content
In addition to the mandatory items: determining the purpose of the article / video, target audience and topic.
1. We compare the relevance of the content topic over time, as well as the potential “survivability” of this topic over time.
Explanation: You have chosen a topic idea for your blog or several articles, or are on the way to such a choice. Surely you want your content to be read / viewed by a large number of people and without the extra burden of distributing this content with your efforts.
Regardless of where you publish your content, evaluate:
a. How relevant is the topic of your content now in terms of time = how high is the mass interest in this topic now, how hot is the topic.
By comparing this parameter, we evaluate the potential for viewing content in the first hours/days of its publication. This parameter can also influence the potential virality of our content.
b. What is the potential for “survivability” of your chosen topic.
For one article / video, this item is almost not important. But if your plans include maintaining your blog, for example, throughout 2021, then I recommend thinking about whether the topic you have chosen will become obsolete in time – will it lose its relevance.
2. Goal – SEO or Engagement?
Explanation : before determining the content and style of an article / video, it is worth considering whether we want to involve the audience in comments and likes / upvotes or we make our content mainly so that it is successfully found by people in search engines for keywords (that is, by the main words and phrases from this our article).
For example, if we need engagement, then the choice of the style of narration (starting with the title), the choice of the content scenario, its structure will be extremely important. If our content is tailored more for SEO, then before the final editing of the content, we should first sort through the optimal keywords (including the title).
Combining both parameters (engagement and SEO) is possible, but for a start it is better to fulfill at least one of these goals qualitatively.
And, by the way, about the choice of a platform for the same articles. If the involvement of the audience is significant for us, then it is better to publish on usiic.co, in social networks or on highly specialized (niche) portals with high involvement. If only SEO is important to us, then Medium will often be enough for the article format (where there may be few views among the Russian-speaking audience, but you can easily get into the search for low-frequency queries simply due to the optimized internal algorithms of this article platform).
3. If we aim for SEO, do we understand SEO? Or what do we lack in order to sort it out so that everything turns out successfully?
Explanation : SEO (here about getting our content to the top lines of search queries that are beneficial to us) is not an easy topic. It happens that you are lucky with him, it happens that you are not lucky, even when you seem to have done everything right.
We approach this consciously. We want to get into SEO well = we need to understand the basics of SEO (better – separately for Google and Yandex) or attract those who will help us with this.
4. If we aim for engagement, then how important is it on average in this content channel who the author of the content is?
Explanation : Here, for example, I am writing this article. Suppose involvement is important to me. And suppose she does.
But what will this involvement give me, if most of the people who read it do not care who the author of this article is? Content – yes, interesting and useful, but who is the author – but what, in fact, is the difference.
If you want attention personally to your person (to be sure), then the way is for you in social networks. If you expect this on the same Medium (and even often from publications in the telegram channel), then you will probably be disappointed with the actual result of attention to your person. You will bring benefits, and no one will remember who brought this benefit.
5. If we aim for engagement, how long will we have ideas/content content?
Explanation: suppose we decide to gradually “warm up” and “ignite” your audience with interesting and engaging content on the same Instagram or telegram channel.
Okay, cool. But do we have enough ideas to warm them up in a long time period? It’s better not to start if you are not sure – otherwise there will be a chaotic dump of ideas without a sustained script.
As a solution, even before the first publication, think over and draw up a content plan for the period (even if it is simplified).
6. Is there a request from the audience for the opinion / content of an individual author, ideally within the framework of the topic chosen by him.
In other words, is someone actively asking for a particular author (that is, us), or at least showing interest in him separately? Or this author himself brazenly climbs into the air.
Explanation: here I am, for example, climbed to write this article. And someone asked me about it? Does anyone need it? And if necessary, did I understand the request from people correctly?
In my case, yes. About the topic of authorship (what, where and how) I have been asked regularly since 2018. Actually, I hope that this topic will be useful for you.
In general, many stories with meaninglessly “leaked” time for content ended badly, just when no one asked the author for content. And vice versa, it’s good if people themselves asked the author for separate useful content.
7. If you want to lead the reader/viewer to purchase: what products with information elements are paying for specifically in this niche topic of yours?
Explanation: If you are making content with the intent to sell something to your readers or viewers, then check first if this way of ‘selling through content’ has a market in your niche. For starters, do people actually buy this (product/service). Then check if people are buying it through the content. Especially when it comes to information products.
And it is precisely “do they buy”, and not “sell” similar things on the Internet! And then there are enough sellers, especially infobiz, on the Internet, and purchases, judging by the same reviews, can often be fictitious (that is, they don’t exist at all).
Check the actual purchases of what you yourself want to sell content (and not on speculation and rumors, but on facts). Content is able to “warm up” – yes. Selling is not a fact.
8. The dependence of the content channel on the platform algorithms and their specifics, as well as on the internal architecture of the platform where you plan to publish content.
Explanation: understanding the algorithms for issuing and ranking content, as well as their specifics for social networks, Youtube, search engines is an extremely useful thing, but not always predictable and repeated from time to time. But this does not negate the task of studying similar principles of algorithms and content delivery structures, at least approximately. Although, objectively, without experience and practice, it is very difficult to predict whether your content will be promoted by individual platforms.
About the structure. An example is Telegram. If we post in a telegram channel, it does not depend on any algorithms (except for the simplest ones) whether the user sees it. But there is a content delivery structure in the form of sorting channels into separate folders (an option from spring 2022). Previously (especially before the “Archive” option appeared), a post from our channel could flash in front of the user next to personal correspondence. And now we don’t even know if our subscriber goes to the folder where he put our channel. On vc.ru, this sorting is also available – by headings and internal subsections. That is, not everyone sees all the content.
9. Trigger capabilities of the content channel, that is, how easy it is to “stir up” the user’s attention so that he is distracted specifically by us.
Explanation: here, friends, the point is more in what form the preview (preview) of our content will be displayed to our potential readers and viewers.
For example, if I know for sure that somewhere they click more when an article has a cool title and picture, then this gives me the opportunity to work on a spectacular picture and title. On Youtube it’s dynamic previews. I conditionally called all this “triggering capabilities of individual sites / platforms”, that is, in what ways can I attract the attention of my potential reader.
10. The most preferred forms of content within the content channel (text, video, audio, or something else).
Explanation: I will explain using the example of Instagram. Once only photos were popular, once texts were still popular, now it is stories. This, speaking about the format beloved by users, is what we need to keep in mind.
11. Author-channel fit.
Explanation: startups have such a term “product-market fit” (this is when a separate product finds its target market). For content, the term “author-channel fit” came to my mind, that is, how a particular content channel fits a particular author and the author himself fits this channel (for obvious and non-obvious reasons for this).
For example, I like to write in Telegram (convenient, fast, easy, all possible emojis are nearby +, in my opinion, a convenient editor). Some people like Tik-Tok with its short video format. Someone likes to see and collect likes, someone likes views. Some people like it when people comment on it, while others don’t (these possibilities also depend on the sites).
In general, it’s individual here, but if you intend to post a lot of content, then it’s better that your conditional correspondence to the content channel as the author is and that you enjoy this business.
12. How long has this niche been occupied by competitors?
Explanation: now about a little more serious. We decided, for example, to write about business, about diet, about self-development. And to do this after 1-2 months of experience, which we would like to share in a hurry.
Initiative is great, and our experience is generally unique. But let’s be objective, just like that, “from scratch” on the content of general meaning (not significantly distinguished by anything), we are unlikely to attract much attention.
What to do? Look for points of uniqueness, not forgetting usefulness, moderate boldness and catchy headlines. Or look for another niche for our content.
13. How enthusiastic and powerful are competitors in their channels?
Explanation: again about competitors. We want to talk about marketing, for example. We ourselves are subscribed to dozens of telegram channels, bloggers, youtube channels, and in each of these channels we are bombarded daily with a mass of content on this topic. The result of this is called “audience saturation” with individual content. And for us, this is an occasion to think about whether it is worth it to “kill” for the user’s attention in this niche (of course, if our goal is to collect and loyalty to this audience).
14. How often do new quality/target users come to the platform?
Explanation: Telegram, Instagram, TikTok (as examples). All these platforms in the early (and not only) stages of development organically gathered a lot of users. By the way, a lot of global audience (not only English-speaking) is now running in Telegram.
Why might this be important? If, for example, we create our channel at the stage of rapid growth of the platform and do it even in conditions of high competition on this platform in our topic, then we still have a very high chance to attract a new (for the platform) audience to our channel and become this audience #1 in the niche or enter the same niche top 3 (until these new users get to other bloggers or channels in our niche). On Telegram, Instagram, and TikTok, many pioneering bloggers have evolved this way.
15. Checklist for Niche Content:
a. What is the potential share of a quality audience subscribed to the top 5 main niche channels that are actively and regularly maintained by their authors?
Explanation: a little more about competitors. If you are in your niche, definitely not in the top 5 or top 10. If you know the audience of your content channel well (where else they sit, who they read), then it will often be easy to estimate what approximately the share of your audience is subscribed to the top 5 main niche channels of the platform (usually they are known). For example, I know that in terms of the startup audience (I run a channel for it in Telegram), many of my audience are subscribed to 5+ channels that are more successful than mine.
The point here is that if the majority of your potential audience already reads or watches the top 10 main niche channels / bloggers (usually these top 10 load the audience quite heavily with content), then your chance to win the attention of this audience in a separate content channel extremely low. There is no need to despair – we just think about a different topic (you can make it narrower and more specific) or try to find a different audience for our content.
b. How many other niches active in this content channel does our chosen niche intersect with?
Explanation: here I’m talking about adjacent (partially similar) channels. For example, if your topic is abs training, and there are many bloggers or channels on fitness, home workouts and other similar things nearby (on Youtube, Telegram or elsewhere), then this is also competition for attention for you, which is worth considering.
in. How much potential specific quality attention of the ‘target reader/user’ remains from viewing the top 5 main niche internal channels (if Telegram) / profiles (if social network) + at least 5 related channels / profiles + 3 alternative platforms for the main niche and related channels /profiles + on his personal social networks?
Explanation: difficult to write. I’m trying it easier – if we want to post for a specific audience on vc.ru, Medium, Youtube, Telegram or anywhere else, we don’t forget that in addition to these sites, they also read and watch their social networks, chats, webinars, etc. Keep in mind this potential workload of your audience and at least estimate how much content they can potentially get. The content load is heavy on just about everyone right now, so on average, aim to simplify, structure, and visualize your content.
16. How psychologically easy it is in a channel to ‘unsubscribe imperceptibly, without forgetting or losing anything’, and ‘subscribing again later – preferably also imperceptibly’.
Explanation: This is an interesting point. Last winter, we somehow talked with the guys about who subscribed to whom (the platform is not important). It turned out that many people remain in subscriptions to various channels, chats and blogs, even when they are overloaded with work, content and study. And they don’t unsubscribe, simply because they are afraid then they won’t find these subscriptions or forget to subscribe again (when they are freer).
Many telegram channels or little-known bloggers on social networks are kept in this way. I personally unsubscribe easily, but often keep in my notes those whom I unsubscribed from (well, suddenly I will need it later).
About “imperceptibly” can also play a role – if the subscriber assumes that they will somehow find out about his unsubscribe, then he may not subscribe (not return) again. This principle of thinking occurs regularly – for example, in social networks between people who know each other or in telegram chats, which show who joined them and who left them.
17. How much the author himself is expected to develop in the process of developing this content channel of his.
Explanation: this, friends, is generally almost the main thing. When choosing your blog topic, content channel, platform, and, as a result, the approximate audience with which you will have to communicate in comments, consider how you yourself will develop in the process. Develop from understanding the content, from the selection of materials for it and, of course, from interaction with the audience. After all, the interest of people will pass, and your experience “in the bottom line” will certainly remain. Experience and skill.
In conclusion
Conscious authorship to you this year, effective targeted content and developing your personality in the process of creating and running this whole thing.
Let me remind you that the article contains only personal experience, observations and subjective understanding of all this.
