In an era of fast speed internet, rising unicorns and digital rags to riches stories, the content economy is thriving in most parts of Africa and developing countries. A number of creators are earning from this economy, and seeing their successes, many others are exploring ways to become a content creator so they can also cash in on the opportunities in this sector.
Like, some of us, a number of new content creators have evolved planforms, gained recognition, build recognized brands while making a living off the creator economy but even more creators have also fallen off the radar because they couldn’t find their way around.
As an aspiring content creator competing against an estimated 200+ million other creators, if you want to stand out and make a name for yourself in this industry you have to learn and master the strategies that will get you to become a content creator successfully regardless of your location or experience.
In this guide, I’ll be sharing with you the strategies that’s worked for me and many other creators and how you can use these strategies to navigate your content creation journey to build a brand that stands out as your favorite creators.
Find your Why
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As you plan to become a content creator, one of the first steps you must take is to figure out your why. Try to understand the purpose or the main reason you want to become a content creator in the first place.
You see, people engage in the creator economy for different reasons. For example there are people that want to create content because they plan to use that as an avenue to earn an income.
There are those who are joining the digital economy to create a platform they can use to push their existing business. And of course there are those other people joining it just for the fun side of it.
Although the strategies do get very similar in some instances your main goal of becoming a content creator is one of the major factors that will define the strategy you’re going to use to successfully build and grow your brand.
If you’re trying to become a creator so that you can get popular for example, there are certain strategies that will get you to achieve that goal much faster than if you’re trying to make money from it.
So, your first step is to find out, why exactly do I want to become a content creator? The moment this has been sorted out, you can then move onto the next step on this guide.
Identify your Audience
Content creation is not something you wake up and do, based on your own feelings and interests. It is a very intentional creative process aimed at creating specific results for a specified audience.
So, to successfully become a content creator from scratch, you have to identify the kind of people that will help you to achieve the goal you have in mind to achieve with your content.
If your goal is to make money for example, your question should be, who are the people that can actually get me to make money from my content either directly or indirectly?
This segment is very important but most aspiring creators have zero clues about it. Like the vast majority, I didn’t also have a clue about who I needed to attract when I started as a content creator. I didn’t even realize I needed to create for any specific audience in the first place. This ignorance caused me a lot of delay in achieving my goals.
Understanding your audience will give you ideas on how to create content that aligns with their needs and also resonates with them. And when you’re able to do this, more of them will get over to your platforms for your content.
And then the more they get to interact with your content, the better your chances of achieving your goals as set out in step one above.
Before you start creating content, you need to know who you’re creating for. So right now, head over to identify the people that will most likely be interested in your content based on your goals above. Find out: who are they? What are their needs and interests? What are their pain points?
Use tools like Google Trends, Analytics, Social Media Insights etc. to find out information about your audience like the kind of content they prefer etc.
This is the data you’ll need to use while creating your content. This is the data that’ll shape your content.
Choose a Niche & Topic
Choosing a niche can be dicey. I failed at my first attempt at choosing one when I first started. And the consequences was far reaching. Outside the other limitations, it affected my ability to build the first platform as I should have.
As a creator you have to keep in mind that your audience is one of your most important priority. And that content creation is never about creating content that matters to you alone. It is more about what matters to your audience and also aligns with your goals.
I want to emphasize the fact that your content creation activities must align with your content marketing goals. This is crucial if you plan to achieve the goals as set out in step one above.
That said, it’s now time to choose a topic and a niche that will actually get you to achieve your goals. And the best way to do is to choose a niche that aligns with your interest, goals, experiences and of course, your audience needs etc.
What this does for you is that it can make content creation easier and more effective. For example if you create content about a subject matter you’re passionate about, it gets easier to find more content ideas and even create content more often, compared to creating content from a niche you don’t really care about.
Also, depending on your niche; if you create content about a subject matter you have a wealth of experience in, it becomes easier for you to come off as a reputable creator, thought leader or someone that is worth listening to by your audience.
Now the tricky part is that outside your niche being aligned with your interests, experiences and goals, it must also align with the interests of the largest number of your target audience.
So let’s say you are a versatile chef and you want to create content around cooking and your goal is to make money as a content creator. Supposing you’re more interested in creating content around how to prepare African continental dishes but you also have experience in other dishes like European and Asian continental dishes etc.
Let’s say you found out during your research that only a few people are interested in learning about how to prepare European and African continental Dishes, compared to Asian cuisines, your best bet is to opt for creating content about how to make Asian dishes instead, if you plan to build an audience fast. As this is the cuisine that has the largest number of your target audience.
PS: This preference can change if your goal is not just to become a content creator but evolve to become a thought leader in your niche, get very popular in a specific region or achieve other aims.
After finding out your niche, the next thing is to find the key creators in that niche and find out what they are doing. Then go ahead and find the major keywords, hash tags etc. that will get you a better traffic from that niche.
Plan your Content
Since you already know your audience, its time to plan your content and build a content plan based on the strategies you’ve learned from the previous steps above.
That said, before getting started you want to brain storm to find out content ideas that aligns with your goals, that of your audience and also matches your preferred niche and interest gradually.
Create a Content Plan: Find out how many times you want to create content in a day, depending on your preferred platform? For social media platform you can focus on creating more than one content a day. For longer form content platforms like blogs, YouTube etc., starting with one content a day is not a bad idea.
Choose a Posting Schedule: Choose a posting schedule that will work for you based on your personal schedules. But also keep in mind that in some niches, the number of time you post is very important in getting you the necessary visibility. And there are also some niches and platforms where the quality of your post is preferred over the quantity. Find what works for you.
Choose a Platform
After you become a content creator, where do you plan to create and publish your content? This section is not something you’ll find out from guess work. Your choice will have to be based on your audience preferences.
There are a number of platforms you can create and publish your content. You don’t have to use all of them but you can mix them up, depending on your goals and capacity. I’ll discuss some of them below:
Blogs: This will be a good option if you plan to become a content creator that creates long form text based content. While this might not be a great option for all beginners, eventually as you keep growing as a creator, you’ll still have to create and post on a blog, to boost your online presence.
Social Media: This is usually a great option for most beginners without any platform. But the thing is, even if your audience are mostly on social media platforms, you don’t have to be on all social media platforms out there. Find the ones with the most number of your target audience and stick to these ones.
YouTube: This is a great option for video focused content. If your goal is to create video or audiovisual content, you can focus on using this particular platform for that option.
Website: After all is said and done, you need a website to cement your presence as a content creator. Of course there are some kind of content creators that need to start out with a website but even if you’re not one of those, you’ll still need a website in the long run. So, you can keep this as part of your long term goal.
There are many other content platforms you can use. But always keep in mind that your preferred platforms must reflect your goals and audience availability, not your personal preferences.
Also, do well to integrate certain platforms like social media, websites, blogs etc. regardless of your platform preferences, so that you can boost your results.
Create & Share
You’re competing with over 200 million other creators. To become a content creator that stands, you don’t only have to create, you must also find ways to share your content with your audience.
Now that you’ve found out all the details you need for your content creation in the other steps above, it’s time to go ahead and create content that will deliver your goals, based on these.
While trying to create content, one of the things you want to pay attention to is the interest of your audience. This is very crucial.
Pay attention to not just create content but create content that matters to your audience. Beyond that, create exceptional value with your content.
If you’re in an informative or educational niche, go way and beyond what your competitors are doing. Where you’re in the entertainment niche, find ways to make your content better than the others out there.
This is very important as it’ll help you to stand out much more easily.
Also, add the right kind of visuals to create better engagement. Edit as necessary and make all important edits before publishing.
Remember that creating content might be a bit difficult in the early days but be willing to learn, practice and improve because it is also a journey.
And of course be open to embrace your learning journey by allowing yourself to make mistakes, grow and become better. But in spite of whatever it is, do not forget the importance of giving out your best at where you are.
Optimize & Promote
Content creation is more than creating and sharing posts. This is the mistake made by most beginners. As much as it is about creating, it is also about getting visibility. And to get maximum visibility, you have to optimize your content for visibility.
Optimize: Whether you’re creating on a social media, YouTube, or a blog, use the relevant optimization strategies available for your platform to get your content to reach a wider audience.
Use SEO optimization for websites, hash tags for social media platforms and other optimization strategies that is relevant to your kind of content and audience platform.
Promote: Outside optimization, promote and share your content across other platforms using other promotional strategies like cross posting, content Curation, reposting and sharing on relevant sub groups etc.
Engage with your audience: Reply to their comments, opinion etc. this will help in building a community and fan base that care about your work.
Remember that content promotion is nearly as important as content creation and sharing. It is the one big strategy that can get you in front of your audience much easier, after you become a content creator.
Monitor, Evaluate & Improve
As you get on to become a content creator from scratch, you want to learn from others but above all, you also want to learn from your own mistakes and create better solutions that will work for you.
So, don’t just create and post content, monitor and evaluate your outcomes. Learn from the data generated from your existing content and find ways to use that data to improve.
With your data, find ways to create a better strategy, better content and more visibility options.
More importantly, use the insights generated from your current promotional effort to create content that is better appreciated by your audience and better positioned to deliver on your expected outcomes more easily.
And finally, do not forget evaluate your performance from time to time.
Final Words
As you can see, the content creation economy is not just attractive to many other aspiring creators like you but it’s actually possible to become a content creator with or without experience, regardless of your location.
And using these proven strategies listed here, you can get started on your content creation journey without breaking a sweat.
That said, to become even more poised at getting better results as a content creator, sign up for our content creation school here, learn, get mentorship and become a certified content creator here.
It’s your turn now. What are your challenges when it comes to becoming a content creator? Share them here in the comments section.
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