1 way that guarantees you WON’T succeed writing online (time waster)

I’m bad at watching TV.

I don’t do it very often anyway because I think it’s a brutal habit that prevents people from reaching their goals, but every once in a while I’ll flip on Netflix to see what’s up.

This is usually when I’m traveling and there’s nothing else to do.

Anyway, what usually happens is I browse through the menu for a while, add half a dozen shows to my watchlist and then … turn off Netflix.

By the time I’ve sifted through all the options, I’ve lost interest and moved on to something else.

I was thinking about this recently after a back-and-forth with a reader about what does and doesn’t appeal to your audience when creating online (writing, YouTube, etc.).

And we agreed that there was one method that seems like it should work when it comes to building a following and making money, but that usually turns out to be a huge waste of time.

Unfortunately, it’s a water-filled pothole I’ve stepped in before.

Allow me to explain, and then I’ll tell you how to avoid it.

It’s easy to feel down when things aren’t going your way as a creator, but there’s one desperate tactic I think you should avoid. (Licensed by the author under the Unsplash+ License)

The firehose method of writing online

I recently decided to change up my publishing schedule strategy.

My rationale was that I only have so many hours in the day, and the firehose approach to putting out articles and videos wasn’t providing enough value to me or my audience.

I discussed this recently in a piece about my YouTube earnings.

Here’s what I wrote:

“I’ve figured out that if I try to publish more than 4–5 times a week, the returns diminish so quickly that it makes the whole thing totally inefficient.

“It’s best to publish your 4 best articles than to flood people with 14 — most of which will be sub-par.

“People are likely to tune you out, or worse, unsubscribe completely.

“I came around to this harsh truth with YouTube last week.

“Instead of trying to drum up 30 YouTube ideas like I planned to and then getting overwhelmed with how I was going to pull it off, I looked at all those ideas and chose the ONE I thought would have the best chance of performing.

“And, as I mentioned, it did, resulting in my first $10+ day on the platform.”

This prompted the following comment from one of my favorite readers and consistent and enthusiastic creators, Roland Millward. Roland said:

“I have seen many YouTubers who I have subscribed to fall into the quantity trap. As a viewer I might be able to manage and enjoy one or two videos a week. However, as the quantity goes up, I don’t have time to watch and often end up watching nothing.”

I agree with this take 100%.

How my brain feels when there are too many options. (Credit: James Julian/Photoshop)

How to lose your audience

As I noted with the Netflix example above, when there are too many choices, people just get frustrated or bored and tune out.

This applies to YouTube, to blogging, to any kind of content creation.

And ESPECIALLY in 2024.

Attention spans are shorter than ever.

I’ve watched a few videos here and there from legit YouTube creators who’ve done the firehose thing — usually during Vlogmas — and they all say the same thing: people eventually tune out completely.

“Pfff, I’ll show them,” I thought.

Well, with a year and a half of side hustling under my belt, I can personally confirm that they are right.

Eventually, it becomes impossible not to cannibalize your own views and devalue your content and your time.

I think this is why a lot of the top, top YouTubers wind up running 2 or 3 channels.

You can’t continue to step on your own work.

How I’m adjusting my writing and publishing strategy

It doesn’t work. (Credit: James Julian/Photoshop)

Lately, I’ve been trying to drill down more aggressively than ever.

Now, not only do I try to identify the article or video ideas that I think will appeal to my audience the most, I choose from among those the ones I think will be the most profitable.

Those are the ones I develop first, because oftentimes I’ll have a bunch of ideas lying around and I’ll tackle the wrong one (because it’ll be fast or easy or whatever).

And more often than not, the idea you want to do the least or that will take the most effort to complete is the one that your audience wants to see the most.

That applies to my biggest-ever post on this site, which has paid me about $2,600 CAD to this day.

I want to make sure that the work I do is worth my time and yours.

I understand the rationale for wanting to take the firehose approach, but trust me: it doesn’t work.

Think quality over quantity and I believe you’ll be much better off in the end.