You Don’t Need to Make More Content
How I 35x my Medium Audience in 6 Months by Posting Less
This goes against everything you’ve been told… but…
You Don’t Need To Create More Content.
Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it.
In the last 15 years, I’ve created over 1,000 pieces of content that’s gotten less than 100 views…
I’ve built an audience of zero. An email list of zero. And I’ve made zero dollar from it.
But it’s worse than that…
I’ve invested $15,000 into equipment, software, and courses…
This belief that creating MORE content leads to creating GOOD content cost me $1,000 every year, for 15 years…
That’s a shitty record…
In fact the only thing that I’ve gained from all that time and money, is this:
Creating MORE content teaches you how to create MORE content. It doesn’t teach you how to create GOOD content.
So in January, I started looking at content creation like a business.
How can I increase the chances that my content will go viral before I create it?
Here’s my reasoning:
- Create viral content to build an audience.
- Once I have an audience, use data from that audience to learn what good content is.
With this in mind, here’s what I changed:
- I stopped posting every day (I post 1–2 articles a week).
- I stopped writing articles that take days to complete (my average article takes 2 hours to write).
- I stopped posting on multiple platforms (I focused on one platform).
- I stopped coming up with hundreds of ideas for “original” content (I almost never wrote “original” content).
Here’s what happened:
Views and Reads Growth:
Email list Growth:
Other cool shit:
- I created a Writerpreneur community from scratch that now has over 70 members in it in the first six months.
- The first cohort I offered to the community filled up after sending only 3 emails.
- After sending a 4th email, 21 people signed up to the waiting list for the second cohort (it currently has over 40 people on the waiting list).
All of this, after I gave up creating MORE content and started focusing on creating GOOD content.
Here’s how I make GOOD content (not just MORE content).
- I identify the person I want to serve.
- I find content that serves this person, and has gone viral.
- I validate the metrics to make sure this content went viral because of the content — not the audience the creator has.
- I identify a unique perspective or value I can add.
- I recreate that content using the viral-content structure, but adding my unique value or perspective.
Simple. Effective.
If you have questions about this process, ask them in the comments — I’ll respond to each one.
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