How Many Baskets Should We Have?
Hi Everyone,
Welcome back to the blog, I hope you’re okay?
Today, I want to talk about us as content creators, we produce content for the masses, and wherever those masses are; tend to be our preferred platform for hosting our work. For video, it’s YouTube. For photography, it’s Instagram. For music, it’s Spotify. But, where is it for writing?
The only answer, I have for small independent writers is Medium. Medium is an excellent platform for writers; you can publish your work as an individual or under a publication. And, in the last few months, they have added monetisation through their partner programme so writers can earn money. But, it’s still not perfect.
So, the next solution is running your own blog, something I believe every writer should have. But, there’s one major problem with having your own blog as a small writer. You have no traffic. And, no traffic means no eyes on your work and no eyes means no income.
So, it raises the question, how many baskets should we put our eggs in?
Time to divserify
Recently, I watched a video by MKBHD talking about the new video platform ‘IGTV’. In this video, he discusses all the previous attempts companies have made at dethroning YouTube. And how, thus far no attempt has been successful.
But YouTube can’t be top forever, can they?
It’s only a matter of time before a new platform comes along with something that beats YouTube and takes its place as the top video platform.
This is the lifecycle of all platforms. So, should we be preparing ourselves for the demise of our current platform by spreading our content onto multiple platforms?
From a traffic perspective, it’s logical, especially as a writer, because the more traffic you have; the more people reading your work you have. But, it’s not all about traffic because, in the case of short-lived platforms, we need to ensure they work with us as creators and don’t prioritise bigger users such as celebrities, as that could do more damage than good.
For example, Snapchat started off as a creator-driven platform, but now the entire discovery area is populated by magazines, popular blogs, and big celebrities. Not ideal when you’re trying to spread the word about your work as a small creator.
The Question
Ultimately, we’re presented with the question. How many platforms do we put our work on?
Unfortunately, the answer differs depending on the type of creator you are. Video creators have more options and therefore have more platforms to spread there work. But, writers only really have the two options I mentioned above. So, what do writers do?
The write solution
As writers, we should be putting our own platforms first. Using our blogs, we should be pushing our content as our primary channel. Therefore, people who want to read our work know where to go.
But, to support and further this, publish your work on other sites such as Medium to act as a gateway to your blog. The end product of this is a funnel to get everyone going to your site directly. To do this we need to start by filtering them through other sites to spread the word and build a following.
The final answer
So, to answer the original question of how many baskets should we have?
I say, use as many as viably possible. Spread your work through all the platforms that meet your needs as a creator. Because naturally, we all have different goals and aspirations.
If you aim to make money and increase your income, prioritise platforms that have better monetisation options. But, if you want to improve your traffic, use sites that promote user sharing and have higher overall traffic.
We want to avoid being exclusive to one platform because what would happen if that platform disappeared? Instead, we need a contingency plan and a way to keep going if that was to happen.
Using multiple platforms in conjunction with our primary platform gives us this freedom.
So, to round this post off, how many platforms do you use currently? And, how will you expand? Tell me over on Twitter.
Thank you for reading.
See you next time.
Coner
