Finding success as a content creator, be it on Instagram, YouTube, or OnlyFans, does not come easy. It takes a lot of hard work, time, and energy to reach the point where you can actually feel like you’ve “made it.”
With that said, finding success involves doing more than simply hustling. It’s about doing things sustainably, because ultimately, there’s little value in building an audience and generating revenue if you’re on a one-way street towards burnout.
Many creators think that sustainability and growth exist on opposite ends of the spectrum, but that’s not true. They can absolutely go hand-in-hand, provided you have the right systems in place. In this post, we’ll run through some of the key strategies for making your life as a content creator easier, which should have a ripple effect that also leads to brand growth.
Make Content In Batches
Content is your business, and that makes it all too easy to put it on such a high pedestal that you find yourself creating content every single day. That’s possible for a few weeks, but eventually, choosing to follow every content idea there and then will lead to exhaustion.
The smarter approach is to set time aside to make content in batches. Rather than going through the creation process multiple times a week, you get it all done in one go. For the rest of the week, you can focus on other things that grow your brand, such as marketing and strategy.
Stick to a Posting Schedule
Content creators often start from a position of fun. Once they’ve built an audience, it can begin to feel like an obligation and that can quickly turn into a scenario where you feel like you have to be posting all the time, for fear of losing your audience.
First of all, that’s not the case. Your audience won’t disappear if you don’t post for a couple of days. Second, creating and sticking to a posting schedule (say, posting 3x per week at set times) allows you to relax on non-posting days. You don’t need to feel guilty because you haven’t uploaded anything, because you’ll know that it’s coming. In the end, this is one of those moves that’s good for you, and good for your audience. Remember, it’s much better to post consistently rather than dump a load of content then disappear for a couple of weeks.
Know When You Need Extra Support
Perhaps the best thing about becoming a content creator is that there’s virtually no barrier to entry. If you have content ideas and a smartphone, then that’s enough to get started.
However, there comes a point when operating as a one-person operation begins to impact growth. If you’ve reached the stage where you have an audience and are in a position to make real money from the venture, then it’s best to bring on board additional help.
If you’ve found that your growth has stagnated or you’re drowning in admin overload, then working with an influencer, Patreon, or OF management agency can help to reclaim your time while also ensuring that your brand continues to move in the right direction. Those agencies have the experience and expertise to unlock your full potential while also making your life easier. It’s a win-win situation.
Establish Community Engagement Hours
Community engagement is vital for finding success as a content creator. The problem is that the internet — and your fans — are always on. That can make it feel like you should always be online, there to respond to comments or messages as soon as they come in.
That’s not realistic even when you have a modest audience. When you have a sizable audience, it’s impossible. The best approach is to establish your own community engagement hours, which are essentially set times that you dedicate to engagement. This approach not only protects your time and mental space, but can also be better for your brand. You’re more likely to create thoughtful, meaningful replies when you have the time and space to do so.
Build a Content Buffer
You’ll likely love creating content, but there’ll also be times when it’s just not possible. You might be sick for a week, be traveling, have family obligations, or just one of the many other events that life throws our way from time to time.
Those moments can’t always be avoided. When they do, you’ll find that you can ride them out a lot more comfortably if you have a content drawer to dip into. Building a content buffer seems like extra work at the time, but it’s an investment in your future self. When you’re not in a position to publish, you can simply browse your archive and pull out some content that helps you to stick to your posting schedule.
Focus On What’s Having an Impact
Attempting to do everything is a fast-track way towards burnout. You simply can’t spread yourself too thin.
The good news is that you don’t have to. You’ll have access to a wealth of data that can point you in the direction of the things that actually deserve your attention. Understanding what content leads to subscribers makes it a lot easier to make strategic decisions that can grow your brand, all the while removing the stress of feeling like you’re walking blind.
Schedule Days Off
It makes sense that content creators would want to work every day that’s available to them, but that doesn’t mean that they should. As much as we’d like to think otherwise, the reality is that we all only have finite energy. You can work every day for a while, but eventually it’ll all catch up with you.
Scheduling days off — and actually sticking to them can sound counterproductive when your goal is to grow your brand, but it might just make the difference between crashing and burning within a few hours, and actually growing a brand that pays off on a long-term basis. Plus, it’ll allow your well of creativity to fill up, too!
