Content Creator Incentives

Martin: You and I are talking often about what it means to be a “content creator” today. We produce almost every week new content for our communities and we share it on social media or newsletters. The platforms we use have created incentives that force us to keep up the publication frequency, if we want to maintain or even grow the number of patrons.¹ Which is all great if we have the time and energy, but isn’t it also problematic if we are sick, uninspired, or just busy with life? Isn’t the high frequency a hindrance for taking the time to go deep on a subject, read books, research, talk to people, make experiments, … and at the end changing the content to something we might not want? What influence have the platforms we are using on our content and how should they be redesigned?

The platforms we use have created incentives that force us to keep up the publication frequency, if we want to maintain or even grow the number of patrons.

Tim: Great question. Being a Content Creator is now my full time job, but it was a slow transient process. There was a time when I did too many things simultaneously: Developing my course-platform, studying, teaching at universities, giving talks at conferences, working as a WordPress-developer for agencies. I was a few times close to the edge of burning out. And to be honest, I did not think that I would ever be making money with online courses, tutorials or the blog posts I wrote. It was a slow process and I needed endurance for it. But also: A deep passion for what I wanted to teach and the belief that I can offer something of value for others. Without this resonance for the theme. I’d have stopped. 

Finding my own rhythm that really matches into the individual schedule is key.

Today I believe, even though I still struggle from translating this theory into practice: Finding my own rhythm that really matches into the individual schedule is key. I can now create weekly newsletters on Patreon² because I do this full time now. I am not in the risk of burning out. But I definitely need the time to regenerate my energies, to have inspiring conversations, to keep the flame burning on a healthy level. Finding that individual balance is a hard, but also a valuable challenge. 

If you feel overwhelmed by delivering something every week, you could switch the rhythm to bi-weekly or monthly I think. It could have the opposite effect of what you expect: Your content gets more value and your own resonance with your heart-project starts to oscillate again. 

Martin: This is an answer that gives hope. Not just to content creators, but everyone feeling they need to participate in the rat race of social media to make a career. Let’s give it a try and slow down. Slowing down will do us all good.³ 

Slowing down will do us all good.

Tim: I agree! 

1. How Social Media Warps Creators, Tristan Harris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EbPIdyd3I0 ↩︎
2. https://www.patreon.com/c/timrodenbroeker ↩︎
3. https://www.patreon.com/c/martinlorenz ↩︎