David Cummings on Startups

Spend Time Producing Content, Not Just Consuming It

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David Cummings

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Last week I was talking to a would-be entrepreneur and I recommended he start a blog to share some of his thoughts with the universe while he searched for a business idea. After hemming and hawing, he said he just likes to consume content. True, consuming content is fun and easy, but it doesn’t force thinking through ideas and articulating a position. The act of producing content, even for an audience of one, while difficult at first, gets easier with time.

Another entrepreneur I met with recently was asking for go to market ideas for her new product. With a focus on small businesses, it was clear that the cost of customer acquisition would have to be low based on the product price point, and that it was going to require a light-to-no touch sales process. I asked about search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing only to have her lament that they’d tried it without much luck. SEO and content marketing, just like most endeavors, takes a significant amount of time and energy to be successful. The best time to start producing content was years ago. The next best time to start is now.

Spend time producing content, not just consuming it.

Whether it’s simple tweets on Twitter, or long-form articles, entrepreneurs would do well to start writing more frequently. Take the time, put in the effort, develop the muscle — it’s not easy, but, ultimately, it’s worth it.

What else? What are some more thoughts on producing content, not just consuming it?

Comments

4 responses to “Spend Time Producing Content, Not Just Consuming It”

  1. Tom Lyttleton PMP, PBA, ACP Avatar
    Tom Lyttleton PMP, PBA, ACP

    Very timely article for me to read. I am developing contacts for our Contract Project Management services. I now realize that by contributing content created through my lens on the world of implementing and upgrading multiple business information systems for many years I will gain more than it costs. I also need to share the knowledge. Learning is a wonderful thing. Thank you!.

    Reply
  2. Dan Smigrod (@DanSmigrod) Avatar
    Dan Smigrod (@DanSmigrod)

    David,

    I am always amazed when I hear someone say that they tried Content Marketing and that it did not work. As you shared, “SEO and content marketing … takes a significant amount of time and energy to be successful.” In my case, four years.

    I became a Content Marketer, without knowing that was a thing. In August 2014, I wrote my first We Get Around Network Forum post targeting real estate photographers researching buying a Matterport Camera to create 3D Tours to help agents win more and bigger premium listing presentations.

    Today, our free WGAN Forum is the world’s largest knowledge based of its kind with 52,000+ posts among 7,600 topics. Without the aid of any paid media, this content has resulted in 10,000+ monthly Visitors from 100+ countries. More importantly, we have hundreds of monthly requiring subscriptions for 40+ Membership benefits to help real estate photographers succeed faster in sales, marketing and operations. Camera companies, platforms and 3rd party service providers pay a premium for their monthly subscription to engage with the Community.

    In 2017 we went all-in on video content too. We added a live-streaming, interactive TV channel within the WGAN Forum. To date, we have created 250+ hours of original programming – content – that contributes to SEO. Plus, we re-purpose 2-4 minute segments of WGAN-TV within the WGAN Forum to answer questions and to begin new discussions. And, re-purpose the content in the WGAN-TV Podcast in the Apple Podcast app.

    We have no sales people. Freemium Members self-activate their paid subscriptions. And, with our own Forum Community, we’re not at the mercy of other social media platforms changing the rules of whom and how many people get to see our content.

    As a bootstrapping ‘Royal’ entrepreneur, I saw SEO and Content Marketing as my only viable option to attract real estate photographers. Sometimes not having money is a good thing.

    By the way, the Forum-in-the-Cloud platform that we use is Ninja Post. Not surprisingly, you were one of the original investors in this platform that enables SEO and Content Marketing on Steroids.

    Dan

    Reply
  3. nicklewis Avatar
    nicklewis

    I could not agree more. I need to take a leaf out of your book and get more productive with my blog. I also think it is important whilst consuming content that you engage with the people writing it. WordPress is fantastic for this because it is more about the conversations that stem from an article, such as this one. Anyway, I am off to get productive!

    Reply
  4. betuttle Avatar
    betuttle

    Thanks for the writeup, David. In relative terms, I’ve created small amounts of content for small projects over the years… That content, though, has helped immensely with seo / ranking. I feel like it’s getting easier, but look forward to finding my cadence, my ‘voice’… Time will tell!

    Reply

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