Creator Spotlight

I've never been a viral creator. My audience size *never* appears on creator charts. But I now run a creator business. How? By actually getting to know my audience. Strong content/audience match = sustainable business That means - 30% of my email list has purchased something from me - $42 is avg annual spend per subscriber (this year) - Over 50% of my audience found me from referrals (via partners, clients, customers, members, subscribers, etc) I'm not a multimillionaire. I live a pretty austere life. I joke sometimes that I'm just a 'newsletter dirtbag.' But I do make a living from content and community and I have for the last 3 years. I get to wake up every day and write, speak and teach people I absolutely adore spending time with how they can find their buyers. It works because I don't just show up to push out content. I investigate why you're here too. I know that I need your help as much as you need mine and I also know who else can help us and I love convening us all to make great things happen. My audience shares this collective spirit with me. That means they stick with me, even when I launch something confusing or change lanes entirely ?? Want to know more? Watch my interview with Francis Zierer on Creator Spotlight (out now) and subscribe to get the write up (today) breaking down my channels, audience sizes and revenue. https://lnkd.in/gmwNBUmf

Most creators don't need a massive audience. Most creators will never achieve a massive audience! Lex Roman is a longtime growth designer turned creator who currently writes the excellent newsletter Journalists Pay Themselves. They write about and support independent journalists (and worker-owned publications) trying to strengthen their business and convert more readers to paying subscribers. They're quite good at it, evident in their own work as well. Full Creator Spotlight podcast up on YouTube and all the apps. Can share in the comments. Newsletter out tomorrow!

Repurposing content isn’t just efficient — it builds bridges to entirely new audiences. How? Accessibility. Take Swapna Krishna, a space journalist and YouTuber who started turning her video scripts into newsletters after longtime readers — who preferred not to watch videos — asked her to. Some YouTube viewers ended up thanking her and became newsletter readers; some newsletter readers became YouTube viewers. It’s simple: 1?? Low effort, high return: She tweaks and sends the script the day after publishing a video. 2?? Accessible and versatile: The newsletter caters to?those who prefer reading, while broadening her audience reach. 3?? Credit where credit is due: Swapna’s work is research-heavy, and it’s hard to give full credit in the video. In the newsletter, she can add hyperlinks, crediting her sources and giving readers more depth. This isn’t just repurposing; it’s reconnecting with purpose. How could you adapt your content to expand your audience and connect in new ways?

Constraints stop content from becoming too long, unfocused, or self-indulgent. ? Set limits. Newsletters under 500 words, videos under 3 minutes. Constraints force. ?? Draft first, cut later. Write freely, then slash the fluff with fresh eyes (give it a day!). ?? Kill your darlings. It’s not about you; it’s about the audience. Creative decision-making is always easier the more constraints you have and results in a tighter product for your audience.

?? Riffing, "idiot work," and never dumbing stuff down for your audience — good advice from Alex Dobrenko on making content for the internet. Wrote about Alex and his wonderful Both Are True newsletter for Creator Spotlight last week. Nobody quite doing it like he is. Really enjoyed what he said about idiot work in particular: “What makes an improv show great is when a mistake happens and how the performers react to it. Good improvisers, when something weird or dumb or bad happens that's clearly a mistake, they'll fold it into the show. And that will often be the best part of the show. What they're actually saying to the audience, especially in live shows, is ‘I'm okay with failing,’ which is really saying to the audience, ‘You're safe.’” Wrote at length about his approach to newslettering and how he grew his audience here: https://lnkd.in/e6q4zHH9

Had an absolute time of it with Alex Dobrenko on today's Creator Spotlight pod. This guy can chat. ?? Writing essays his parents would hate ?? Improv techniques to make you a better writer ?? Professionalizing?your creativity without "selling out" ?? Building community with other creators And plenty more. I'll put the YouTube/pod links in the the comments. I implore you, if you've never listened to this podcast, this is the episode you want to start with.

Delete your old posts. Trimming the archive can actually help you get more views. Selectively deleting old content keeps your catalog relevant and bingeable, guiding new viewers toward precisely what you want them to see. Take the John Nellis YouTube channel: with close to 2M subscribers, only 19 long-form videos remain live. Nellis’ strategist Alex Emery explains: “When you have a smaller catalog — say, 10 to 12 videos — it’s easy for viewers to binge them all. With 160 videos, they wouldn’t know where to start." This applies to YouTube, of course, but also newsletters, blogs, Instagram, all of it. You’ve got hits. Don’t bury them. Delete — or even just make private — content that gets in the way.

Gatekeeping is the easiest way to grow an audience for your newsletter. And it’s extremely cost-effective. If you’re sitting on a library of past posts, start gating them. After a week or month of free access, make them pay-to-view (or subscribe-to-view). Turn your most popular pieces into lead magnets without creating anything new. A few, simple ways to do this: ? Gate by Age: Make posts older than a week subscriber-only. Example: Casey Lewis, Creator of After School, gates newsletter issues after a week, and 5% of her readers convert to paying. ?? Use a Soft Gate: Add a mid-article pop-up. It nudges readers to subscribe, letting them keep reading but planting the seed. ?? Target Natural Gates: Check your analytics; if certain posts drive traffic, gate those. They’re proven magnets, so use them to convert more readers. ??? Promote Top Converters: Find your highest-converting gated posts, then go big. Share, tweet, boost — this is where your content can pay off.

I don’t often talk about myself and my career journey on this platform, but when Francis Zierer hit me up to be on Creator Spotlight I had to say yes. If you’re interested give it a read/watch/listen. We discuss topics like: ? My experience in social and branded content - from getting my start at Jerry Media, moving over to Fallen Media, and now being a founding member of Bad Behavior ? How we structure our partnerships with brands, playing the middleman between brand and creator ? The tenets of producing short-form content with an emphasis on branded entertainment ? How creators can set themselves up for success as it pertains to brand partnerships If anyone is interested in diving deeper into these topics or connecting, hit me up!

What is true virality? 25 million impressions. This is what Penn Weinberger was taught in the year he spent working for Jerry Media, the advertising company built around a portfolio of multi-million-follower Instagram accounts in the 2010s. He's since started an agency called Bad Behavior, where he helps brands crack social media, including by developing wildly popular, creator-driven short-form video shows. Had Penn on Creator Spotlight this week to chat: ???Differences between celebrities, creators, and influencers ??Building viral, highly monetizable short-form video shows ???Pricing contracts with brands and creators ???How the creator market has changed in the last five years I'll drop the podcast and newsletter in the comments. Check it out!