How To Care For Content Creators

In this short episode, I share tips for content creators and content consumers. So much content is available for free. But, it takes time and effort to create it. What do content consumers owe to content creators? How can content creators make it easy for consumers to support them?

In this episode, I give simple tips for both and it doesn't always involve an exchange of money.

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Transcript

Brian Smith: 0:55

Close your eyes and imagine what if the things in life to cause us the greatest pain, the things that bring us grief, or challenges, challenges designed to help us grow to ultimately become what we were always meant to be. We feel like we've been buried. But what if, like a seed we've been planted, and having been planted, who grow to become a mighty tree. Now, open your eyes, open your eyes to this way of viewing life. Come with me as we explore your true, infinite, eternal nature. This is brief to growth. And I am your host, Brian Smith. Hey there today I want to talk to you about the care and feeding of content creators. Now you may be asking yourself, what's a content creator? And why should I care about how they're fed or cared for? While content creators, anyone who produces a podcast writes a blog, creates YouTube videos, right books, etc. And if you're not a content creator, you are a content consumer. You're listening to this content right now, this is content that I put out for you. And this is for YouTube. This is for both content creators and consumers. Now we live in a time of abundance when it comes to information that we can consume. We live in a time where everything you want to know is at your fingertips, most of its offered free of charge. Being able to upload a video from your phone to YouTube. The ease of creating a website, self publishing a books has made it possible for anyone become a content creator, to take our ideas and to share them with the world. Yet not all content creators are created equal. And this can create tension between content consumers and creators. And again, this is for both. If you're a consumer, I'm going to tell you how you can support your favorite content creator. If you're a creator, I will tell you how to help your audience help you and make sure you stay to the end because in this case, I'm saving the best for last. Now on one extreme, you have content creators with sponsors or paid advertising, or they work for a company. Those people are provided for financially by their sponsors or by their employers. On the other end of the spectrum, some people blog just for fun. Some people might drop a YouTube video every once in a while for friends and family. People have Instagram accounts just for social reasons. But in the very, very broad middle, you have content creators who do it for a passion, similar to the people who do it just for fun. However, they would like to create more content spent more time creating content, but they have day jobs. Therefore, they've got to find a way to monetize their content. And the word monetize should be a four letter word. Nobody likes it. Consumers don't like feel like they're being manipulated into spending money. They don't like watching advertisements. And content creators don't want to feel like they're constantly selling, are begging for support. Craters can actually end up resenting their audiences who they feel just take and take and take. Or they may feel no one's even listening, because they aren't getting any feedback. I'm going to let you in on the secret. No content creators creating content for free. Some sort of exchange is expected I would say it's even needed. It doesn't have to be monitored. Often. It's not. Several years ago, my daughter Shayna asked me if she could make a blog. She knew that I blog and she knew I loved it. And she had a passion for writing. So I set up a blog for a few weeks later, she asked me to shut it down. I asked her why. Well, the reason was, there was no interaction, there was no exchange, she was pouring your energy into her blog and not getting anything exchanged for it. So she shut it down. Now recently, I listened to a podcast that told content creators that we need to tell our audiences how they can help us. Many, if not most, content creators are hesitant to accept ads, to ask for money, or to ask questions to support them in any way anyway, yes, some viewers don't care about supporting the creators, but many do, and they want to provide that support and they don't know how to do it. I'll give you a recent example of this, I recently found that I can make it easier for my listeners to review my podcast. So I made a post on Facebook and I tell people exactly how to make a review on my podcast. And it was an easy way to do it. And the interesting thing is one of my longest supporters, someone who listens to all my podcast, she's actually a client of mine from my coaching business, said, this is a great idea. I'd never thought of leaving your review. And it made me realize that was my fault that I had never told people how important it was to leave reviews for me, or how to do it. So that's on me. So let's talk about ways that you can support content creators and the ways content creators can help you support them. So the first thing I'm going to talk about is financial contributions. Now nobody likes likes paying out money for content. But this is the most obvious way to support a content creator. And I realize our site has become accustomed to information being free. Television radios are supported by commercials, but they still kind of considered free. As far as broadcast TV goes, the internet has what's an almost infinite amount of information for free. And Who among us has not clicked in an article, hit a paywall, and search for a free version of the article I know I have. I don't want to pay for articles. We don't want to pay for podcasts. We don't want to pay to watch a YouTube video. But we complain when YouTube forces us to watch ads. Now, as a content consumer, consider making small financial contributions to your favorite creators. It doesn't have to be for every podcast you ever listen to, of course, and it doesn't have to be large amounts of money. It doesn't have to be ongoing, it could be one time. For many content creators, it's not even the amount that counts. Let me repeat that. It's not so much the amount that counts. It's just the fact that you take the time, and you feel it's worth it to make a contribution. That's what really lights us up. Now creators make it easy for you consumers to send money to you. There's nothing wrong with asking for money, you're spending your time creating content, you have to eat, you have expenses, I'm on my third microphone for my podcast, there are hosting fees, etc. Podcasting isn't free. So I recently set up a tip jar that I'm promoting in my emails and my YouTube videos going forward. It's an easy way for an audience member to contribute one time, and a smaller larger than Madison one. So I've included that link and a button at the footer of my webpage, and I call it by me a coffee. So it's a very easy way to do it. It's at the bottom of every page of my website, and I'm including it in all my emails go out. Now, you might also want to consider a premium service like Patreon. And this is for supporters who want to feel like they're really part of what you're doing. You can provide exclusive content for people that support your show in this way. They're called patrons. Now I do post exclusive content for the for my patrons monthly, they are charged monthly until they cancel. But I'll tell you this creators don't get your hopes really high on Patreon. Don't think you're gonna make a living and a few people do but not many. The vast majority of your audience will not be interested in supporting in this way, but make it available for those who are. Just to give you an example for me, I've been doing Patreon. For about two years, I think I have about 20 sponsors, I bring in a little bit over 100 bucks a month, every little bit helps. But it's a way to get people really involved in your show, or what you're putting out. Now let's talk about non financial support. This is something everybody can do. You might say I can't afford to pay for podcasts or for YouTube videos. But what about non financial support? While you're watching that YouTube video, take a few extra seconds and some extra time don't while you're watching it and hit the hit the like or the thumbs up. Now in addition to the thrill you'll give to the content creator because we love seeing those likes. Liking a video helps in tangible ways as well. YouTube recommends videos that people like so just liking the video in your head isn't enough watching the video and saying this is great. Hit that button that helps to create a reach a wider audience. Make sure that you subscribe to your favorite YouTube channels and your podcasts. And once you subscribe, you have to hit the bell on YouTube to get notifications when new content is there. So remember, like the video, subscribe to the channel and hit notified. Now on the other side, that was about YouTube. On the other side looking at reviews, reviews are the lifeblood of podcasts. Getting reviews on podcasts is one most difficult thing that content creators have to try to do. I have about 85,000 downloads on my podcast. And as of a couple of weeks ago, I had fewer than 40 reviews on Apple podcasts. If you listen to more than a few episodes of a podcast, please take the time to write a review. Just as important as liking and subscribing is sharing your favorite podcasts and YouTube channels with your circle of friends. We all take something much more seriously when it comes from a trusted source like a friend. Craters can spend hundreds or 1000s of dollars on advertising. But the best and most effective advertising is when one listener tells another potential listener, check this out. I like this guy, check them out. So that's why you can support somebody without even any financial aspect at all. Now for creators, I encourage you to have a prompt somewhere in your video or your podcast telling people how to like and subscribe. I encourage you to include this at the beginning as I said or in the middle. Don't put it at the end because at the end people probably gonna tune it out. Now I've recently purchased a service called rate this podcast. It provides an easy and memorable link for listeners to rate my podcast. Apple doesn't provide you with a deep link to get consumers to this point easily and it's kind of difficult, frankly to write an apple pie But right this concept podcast provides you with that include this link in every email you send out, and on your social media pages. Now mine is rate this podcast.com/grief to growth. So it's right this podcast.com/grief The number two growth just like my website. And going back to the tip jar thing I mentioned earlier, I want to let you know what I'm doing with for tip jars, I'm using a service called ConvertKit, which I use for my email. And with ConvertKit, I could set up a tip jar to page that people can go to, and they can donate through that page. So that's how I do tip jar. There are other ways to do it as well. Now, remember, at the beginning, when I said I was saving the best for last, well, this is it. When Shayna started that blog, she gave up because she didn't feel as if anyone was listening, or she was having any impact. Now most of us content creators are not doing this to get rich, we might not want to have some financial income from but we know we're not going to get rich. But we can spend hours a week creating content, I typically spend probably at least five or six hours a week between working on my podcast and creating other content. And most of that goes out for free. It's more than just a hobby though. And it's more than just creating the content. We create this content because we want someone to consume it. And we want to know we're making a difference. Recently, I was in a Zoom meeting with a group of people from England. I had never met any of them. But several of them told me that they listened to every episode of my podcast, some stuff, they were having a rough time deal with the grief, they turn on my podcast, and it helped them tremendously. And this was fantastic. I love getting this feedback. But the thing I was thinking is, I never heard from a single one of them. Not a comment, not an email. And these are people who are regular listeners. And I have 150 podcasts out. So I was a little disappointed. I hadn't heard from many of them. Many of my videos get hundreds of views, but they often won't get a single comment. I tell you this, even a negative comment is better than none at all. All ACOs provide positive reinforcement for your favorite creator is to take a few moments to drop a comment or write a quick email. These are like golf for us. I tell you if I had to make a choice, I'd take more comments or emails over more financial support. Of course, I like to have both. But what really gets me charged up is the comments and the emails. Just a couple days ago, I received this and I have permission to share it. But I'm going to keep the person anonymous. She said Hi Brian. Sometimes we're unaware of how we help others. I just felt compelled to tell you this morning, how often you have helped me even at times saved my life. I still wake up often wishing I wasn't on this earth to face another day without my son. I immediately go to your podcasts and I listen to my favorites. I often listen to the one where you answered my question about our loved ones being given a chance to stay or leave. And I want to interject here I should ask a question about when our children pass away? Are they given a chance to stay or come back? And your question I thought was so interesting actually created an episode about it. Continuing on, she said I also liked your interviews with other shining light parents, there are more but those are especially endearing. As we approach Thanksgiving, I am thankful for you. And for your the gift of your book and the podcast. Also for all the times I reached out to you, and you quickly responded, please know you make a huge difference in so many lives. And especially in my many thanks, name withheld. Now, I have to say this also, you might feel like you're bugging somebody, if you reach out to someone who's creating a podcast or you've read their book or something. I can tell you 99.9% of cases you're not bugging that person they really want to hear from you. The other day I was having an interaction with a guy on my blog, and he was making a comment, I would make a comment back and he finally said, I'm going to let you go now because I know that you're busy, you got other things to do. This is the thing I like to do. I like interacting with people that are getting something from what I put out, this is the stuff that really keeps me going. I tell you there are times when I feel like I'm wasting my time producing content. And I think about doing something else with my time, the times when I feel like I'll create something and I put a lot of time into it. And I get no feedback whatsoever. It just kind of goes out into the ether. But I create because I feel the need to share I'm going to create because I just feel like I have to. But it's really really nice when someone lets me know that it makes a difference to them. I'm going to ask you if you're if you're consuming content, please take care of your content creators. So whether you're a content creator, or your content consumer, I hope you found this useful. If so, leave me a comment or drop me a line. And if you'd like to leave a review for me for the podcast, visit www rate this podcast.com/grief The number two growth. If you'd like to throw a few bucks in my tip jar, visit me grief to growth.com Grief the number two growth com scroll to the bottom of the page and look for Buy me a coffee button or it's grape to growth.com/tip jar all one word Have a wonderful day and I'll see you next time