8 Essential Lessons from a Successful Content Creator

The first thing to learn is that you’ve got to put in the work, show up every day, and do the best you can with the skills you have. Be patient; this is a long process and a game of continuous self-improvement.

You should only measure yourself if you are having fun and are continuously learning. Stay away from analytics and metrics for the first six to twelve months.

Here are the lessons from a successful content creator.

Avoid distractions and embrace failure

Do not give up and resist distractions, which come in many forms. It comes in negative feedback, low views, or even low monetization numbers.

Ignore those who don’t care about your success and realize that no opinion can hurt you without your permission.

It’s essential to try new things and make mistakes; this makes us uncomfortable because the risk of failure is high. We’ve been trained through our education system, parenting, and our culture to do what we can to avoid disappointment.

A natural human instinct is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. We need to fail more and reframe it in our minds.

Fight perfectionism

We live in a society, especially the creative community, where we always chase perfection. It was ingrained inside us when we were going to school, and this pursuit of perfectionism prevents us from success.

Splitting big projects into small tasks leads to fundamental breakthroughs in your work because perfectionism is the enemy of execution.

Perfectionism is a form of procrastination that puts pressure on you to do the work you need. It prevents you from showing up and doing work every day.

Only by creating our ideas and releasing them into the wild do we realize that someone somewhere is going to connect to this content and
tell you an incredible story that will reaffirm your belief in yourself.

Don’t over-plan and overthink

Plans are overrated, and the problem is that they blind you to unforeseen opportunities. My advice to you regarding content creation is to move in a direction where you create based on intuition.

People get stuck in the planning and preparation stage and never get to the creation. It’s paralysis by analysis; we overthink it because we want the perfect plan. We don’t want to fail, we don’t want to make any mistakes, and so we plan.

Don’t be afraid to be different

Being different gives you a competitive advantage.

It would be best if you leaned into your uniqueness and realized your crazy personality, style, or way of creating content would help you stand out. Do not be afraid to show the real side of yourself.

So many content creators come across as fake and impersonal because they behave how their audience wants them to act.

Ignore those who don’t care about your success

Some people thrive on seeing others fail, and negative comments are what attract our attention the most. The best way to deal with negative people is to ignore them. Don’t delete their comments or respond to them because this is the response they want from you.

You may have family members and friends who do not share the same passion for content creation; they might very likely tell you that making money from your passions isn’t possible. Use this as motivation to succeed and make a living from what you love in life.

Know your audience inside out

We won’t go into too much detail here because we’ve covered this topic a lot in our audience-building articles, but honestly, get to know your target audience, especially where they are active online.

Figure out their pain points and create content to help them through these challenges. Focus on helping your audience by achieving small wins.

It’s the more in-depth, step-by-step content you want to monetize because when you have helped them with the more minor issues, they will trust you to teach them what they need to achieve their goal.

Have a monetization strategy

Before you create content and build an audience, you must think about how you will monetize your content. Will you create courses and digital products or make money from AdSense and affiliate marketing?

Maybe you will do all of these ideas, but is it possible within the niche you are focusing on? Will Google allow you to add adverts to your website? Are there many affiliate programs available?

Don’t be an expert on everything

If there’s a mistake many content creators make, it is trying to be an expert in all aspects of the industry they are focused on.

Instead, find a niche that you can become an authority on. Focusing on a specific topic will make life more straightforward regarding marketing and targeting the right people to consume your content.

As Pat Flynn always says, the riches are in the niches. Try to find a niche that isn’t too competitive but has plenty of searches on Google (and YouTube if a video is your thing) by using keyword discover tools.

We recommend the free Ahrefs keyword tool for this task.

Networking is your route to success

We’ve left the best to last. Content creators undervalue networking and collaboration. When we refer to networking, we mean finding people within your industry that can help you achieve your goals.

• Need to increase visitors to your website? Collaborate with other creators who share the same target audience as you do.
• Need links to your website? Network with journalists.
• Need to find sponsors for a podcast or video series? Reach out to companies who share the same audience.

Building relationships is vital as a content creator, and you must start networking as soon as you publish your first piece of content.

What’s essential is that collaboration and networking are not one-way; think about how you can benefit the other person. Do you have a skill that they are looking for help with? Get creative and think smart. Hopefully, this article will help you learn lessons from a successful content creator