I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
Optimize for the content binge
|
Hey Reader, Have you ever discovered a new TV show, got instantly addicted, and then saw it already had several seasons out? Remember how happy you were? Wondering how you hadn’t heard about it sooner, but also thrilled because now you have a bunch of episodes to binge watch. This happens on YouTube too: you come across an amazing video and fall in love with the creator. Next thing you know, you’re watching all of their previous videos. Netflix releases shows intended for viewers to binge watch and YouTube’s algorithm feeds you an endless stream of videos they think you’ll like. But podcasts, newsletters, and blogs all have the same problem: they don't have a recommendation engine for suggesting what you should consume next. That’s why you need to optimize for the content binge. It’s easy to get caught up in just releasing the next piece of content for your existing audience. You assume they’ve seen last week’s episode, or read last month’s issue, but what about the people who just discovered you? What about the people who won’t discover you for 2 or 3 more years? Your back catalog of content likely has a lot of gems, but because podcasts, newsletters, and blogs don’t have a built-in discovery engine, you need to do the work of curating. Most of your content may not be binge worthy. But for the 20% that is, create a pathway that makes it simple for new people to follow and discover some of your best work. Make it easy for them to get addicted to your content. “Enjoyed this? Here’s what I recommend next…” For example, if I’m writing about personal finance or wealth building, a good piece for me to recommend next would be my Ladders of Wealth Creation essay. It’s one of the most popular pieces I’ve written, but every day, someone new joins my list who hasn’t read it. You might already do something similar by recommending your top pieces of content, but what should people consume after that? And after that? The best way to increase someone’s session from consuming one piece of content to two (or more) is to recommend something relevant to check out next. By optimizing for the content binge, and giving people rabbit holes to go down, you’ll quickly turn them into fans—and likely customers down the line. PODCASTThe risks of ConvertKit’s rebrandIf you enjoyed today’s newsletter topic, it’s actually one of many I discussed about with Jay Clouse on episode 200 of his Creator Science podcast. Among other things, we talk about:
VIDEOHow to do more in 12 weeks than others do in 12 monthsThis video summarizes The 12 Week Year, which is a great book if you haven’t read it. The main concept is the idea of replacing annualization with periodization. But even if you have read the book, Ali’s video is still worth watching as he shares a lot of his own insights and interpretation that will likely spark some ideas for you. BOOKConspiracyRyan Holiday is best known for spreading stoic philosophy, but one of my favorite books of his is about the dark side of Silicon Valley. Conspiracy tells the story of Peter Thiel's takedown of Gawker and explores the themes of power, revenge, and privacy in the digital age. If you’re looking for a compelling read, add this book to your list. Have a great week! —Nathan P.S. If you happen to find yourself in Boise, Idaho next week, we’re hosting a Happy Hour at our new Kit Studios. I’d love to see you there. |
Nathan Barry
I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
Hey Reader, If I could solve only one thing in my business, that would have the biggest impact, what would that be? This is the question every great entrepreneur obsesses over. Rather than trying to do everything at once, you look for the bottleneck and focus on solving that. There’s a book called The Goal by an Israeli physicist named Eliyahu Goldratt. It’s a 1984 business novel that business systems nerds love. However if you’re not a business systems nerd you probably… won’t love it. It’s...
Hey Reader, Have you ever spent money on something and immediately felt guilty afterward? Will Guidara spends his money foolishly on purpose. And he thinks you should too. He once bought an entire barrel of whiskey and put it in his basement. He also put a skee-ball machine in the office. Is he going to get a monetary return on either of these things? No. But that’s kind of the point. He calls it the 95/5 rule: Manage your money and time like a maniac 95% of the time (no expense is too...
Hey Reader, Have you ever spent a whole day on something almost nobody saw? It's painful when the whole reason you worked hard was because you wanted to reach people. If you teach a workshop in person, you reach the 20 people in that room. But if you record that same workshop once, you can keep teaching for years on autopilot. This is the concept of leverage, and it's something I talk about in my upcoming book, The Ladders of Wealth (you can pre-order it now). A lot of people will look back...