Whether you are a blogger, YouTuber or any sort of CONTENT CREATOR, consistency is KEY! I am sure you have heard this before in far more than just this becoming a blogger post. That is because consistency is what gets you places. It is what gets us to our goals! It is also what all these algorithms look for in content creators. So it is crucial if your goal is to earn money from you content.
In my “How To Become A Blogger Series” I chat about all sorts of things to set yourself up for success as a blogger or content creator using tips, tricks & strategies I have learned through my own experience as a monetized content creator.
Although my series is about becoming a blogger, it truly does apply to being a content creator as a whole. I have mentioned it before and I will continue to mention it, blogging & creating YouTube videos really go hand in hand. I do both which is one of my strategies as a content creator. I believe it is what helped me reach monetization so quickly (in only 4 months!). Never put all your eggs in one basket!
You can “major” in one platform, but they really both help each other out to boost traffic to each of your platforms as well as give people options: some enjoy reading while others enjoy watching or listening to what you have to share.
So, in this post, I want to tell you one of the MOST IMPORTANT rules with becoming a content creator of any sort & that is you must be consistent at all times!
Think of it this way: say you have your favorite podcast or tv show. Every week on Wednesday they put out a new episode. You know they are going to put out a new episode so you are always right there ready to watch or listen. Now say this show or podcast never has a consistent schedule and sometimes they have new episodes weekly and sometimes monthly or even several months apart. Are you going to keep up with watching or listening to it? Not likely.
You want your readers, viewers & listeners to know & TRUST when you will have something new for them. Without our viewers, readers & listeners, you will not have much luck at success.
However, being consistent can be tricky sometimes especially when life is crazy busy and you are not a content creator as your full time job. So how do we manage this consistency? Creating an ideal weekly plan & guidelines!
I personally have set up my own schedule so I know what days I would like to post a blog post and days to post a new YouTube video. I take it even further by creating an ideal weekly schedule pertaining to all the tasks I need to do to get this content up in a timely fashion as well as not being so overwhelming or time consuming for me.
Aside from blogging and YouTubing (is that a word?!), I work a regular job day to day as well as have a family and home to take care of. So I want to be consistent without making my life consumed by these things so I can still have the time to do fun things with my family & friends. WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER is what I am going for here. I am able to achieve this by setting up an ideal plan for myself so I have some guidelines to follow to stay on track.
So let me help you… say your goal is to produce 1 YouTube video and 1 blog post per week. Get a paper, planner, calendar- something- to jot this down! You want to choose what days you would like those to be posted. Take into account perhaps when your viewers are on these platforms most often (check out your analytics to find that out) so you have a better understanding of when they will see you have created something new and they go read, watch or listen to it.
Let’s say you choose to do a blog post every Tuesday and a Youtube video every Friday. Now, let’s break down the tasks to create that content without overwhelming yourself. Choose a day (obviously prior to your upload day) that works best for you that you have time to film the video(s) you want to share or draft up the blog post.
Next, schedule some time in a day to edit that video or blog post. Add your descriptions, affiliate links, ads, etc. (ps, I will go into those things in a future post). Now you need to upload and schedule the video and save your blog post so they are already to go on the day you need them to.
Think we are done? Nope. Being a content creator is a lot of hard work but with a good routine you can achieve your goals for your content.
You need to now schedule in some time to market yourself. This is so important! You, and only you, are going to be the one marketing yourself and without it, you won’t be getting much traffic to your platforms. You need to be creating and scheduling Pinterest pins and social media posts! This takes some time but once you get the hang of it, it’ll become like second nature. I will also get into my Pinterest & social media strategies in a future post for you all!
So let’s use my schedule guidelines, roughly, as an example:
For me personally, I aim to have 1-2 blog posts per week plus 1 YouTube video a week as of now (this could change slightly in the future). I make one of my blog posts optional so I do not feel pressure if I just didn’t have the extra time to get it done that week. I spend a couple hours on one specific day to film and I honestly try to film a few videos in that time to help work ahead, this also is a really good tip for creating more in less time.. mass producing. When you are working on the same thing in one chunk of time you can get more done because you are not jumping around from thing to thing or multi tasking.
On another day or time frame I will edit my video(s). I LOVE the editing process but it can definitely take a lot of time! So I like to edit my video(s) and then immediately upload them to YouTube & either save them privately or schedule them if their descriptions are also ready to go! I LOVE to schedule videos! When I am feeling very ambitious, I will schedule an entire month’s worth so I have some extra time to spend with my family & from then I am also working ahead on other things & projects so I never fall behind or am working on things last minute.
On a different day I will draft up some blog posts for the week depending how many I want to produce that week. If I find I have some spare time I might start a couple for the future. They always come in handy if you happen to have a ridiculously crazy week and never find the time to type one up.. bam!- you have one almost ready to go so you can remain consistent. The best thing about drafting a blog post is you can do it at anytime from anywhere. All you need is a computer, unlike filming, where you need a quiet space, good lighting, filming gear etc!
On a different day I will spend some time drafting up a bunch of Instagram posts as well as creating & scheduling Pinterest pins so I am constantly marketing my platforms during the week. I do go on IG daily to post my drafts as well as interact with everyone! I also check in on all my other platforms to answer comments & interact. It is important to stay connected.
Once you get your ideal weekly plan set up for your content schedules, now you need to follow it & do the work. Whether you like to take a couple days and do the bulk of the work and prepping or maybe you like to spread it out over the week so you can chip away at it little by little, do what works best for you so you are working smarter, not harder. Also, you decide what you can & want to do as far as how often you want to create new content. As long as you do it consistently, that is key here.
Soon, you will be producing awesome content consistently and gaining a following built up! Keep up the great work!
I hope this has helped you set up your content schedules & inspired you in some way. We ALL have something worth sharing with others!
Be sure to check out the rest of this series for more tips, tricks & strategies I have learned from my own experience as a monetized content creator!
DISCLAIMER: as mentioned before, these are my personal strategies & opinions based on my own experience. I am not a professional.
