To Be a Successful Content Creator, Focus on Your Audience. But Don’t Forget Yourself.
How I turned my dream business into a nightmare and then rescued it.
Many content creators fail because they are too selfish. They prioritize their interests, prioritize profit, and rarely prioritize problem-solving. This is why everyone warns beginner creators to follow an audience-first approach: selfishness is the norm.
I am the opposite. For a while it was an advantage. But I brought it to the extreme. I focused so much on my audience that I forgot about my needs. I suffered and in the long term the business suffered, too.
As always, reality is complex. Rigid axioms aren’t enough to guide thoughtful decisions. We need nuance.
So, here’s how I learned to go beyond the “audience-first approach” to improve my business and my life.
Everything goes when things work
My first online business was a success from the beginning. I launched a photography blog in Italian, which soon grew to 300,000 pages per month, exclusively through SEO.
For a while, I thought I found the way. I prioritized my audience because I targeted the most searched keywords. But I was also talking about something I…
