JULY 8, 2022

Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

In Friday 5s: Our new Friday format hits your inbox with five things to do for SEO, five Tilt resources, five things to know, and five reads that will pique your interest.

5 things to do for SEO

Making sure your content gets found is the most frequently cited challenge of content creators in 2022. Here’s some help to get over it.

1. Help visitors find the content quickly: Use a clear and simple site structure. Allow visitors to reach your most important pages with no more than three clicks from the home page.

2. Promote your other content with internal links: Let visitors easily access content related to what they’re viewing. Add hyperlinks to anchor word text. List next step or more advanced related content in a sidebar.

3. Send a site map to Google: Use an XML plugin to create a site map. Go to Google Search Console and add the URL for the newly created site map. It helps Google understand which pages are important on your site.

4. Prompt SEO conversions with powerful calls to action: Don’t settle for generic calls to action, such as sign up or download now. Instead, identify the value for the visitor: “Sign up and get my SEO guide for free,” or “Download this ebook and grow traffic by 35%.”

5. Set up conversion metric in Google Analytics: To know how well your content converts, you must measure. Create at least one conversion goal, such as how many visitors convert to newsletter subscribers.

Long version with plugin and set up instructions: SEO for Content Creators Who Want To Build an Audience by Sk Rafiqul Islam.

5 things at the tilt

Looking for another revenue stream to add to your content business? Check out our latest mini-course in partnership with Lulu.com, Book Publishing for the Content Entrepreneur.
It’s risky not working for yourself. [Content Inc. Podcast]
Pulizzi and Rose break down platforms banning content, and what you should do about it. [This Old Marketing Podcast]
ICYMI: Creator Economy Expo (CEX) sessions are still available to access and watch.
Ever wonder what The Tilt Tech Stack looks like?

5 things to know

Money

Dying like Vine: Some say TikTok’s scaling back of adding livestream commerce features could be its downfall. It’s what killed the short video app Vine. Creators didn’t get a bigger share of its revenue and switched to Instagram and YouTube. (Social Media Today)
Tilt Take: We’re not ready to predict the downfall of TikTok, but it is troubling to see a promoted revenue stream for creators get pushed to the side.
Upswing: Creators are seeing rates for their brand deals rise – 44% between 2020 and 2021, and another 45% on average in the first six months of 2022, according to The Motherhood agency. (tubefilter)
Tilt Take: Never underestimate the worth of your audience. Be willing to ask for higher rates and be ready to negotiate aggressively.

Audiences

No youngsters: TikTok’s testing a new setting that lets users restrict viewers who are younger than 18. It’s not to allow them to broadcast “adult content,” but to allow them to aim content at their older audiences without concern of younger eyes watching. (Tech Crunch)
Tilt Take: Have to chuckle that they say the move isn’t about “adult content.”

Tech and Tools

Now Facebook’s take: With limited initial availability, Facebook lets creators display their PFP (picture for proof) NFTs as if they were a photo gallery. A click on the image reveals all its details. (Crypto Potato)
Tilt Take: Facebook’s move indicates (1) it’s targeting a younger audience given the age of many NFT creators or (2) it thinks Gen X and Baby Boomer audiences are ready for NFTs.

And Finally

They like you: Venture capitalists doubled their funding of creator-related startups to $939M in 2021 to already invested $637M this year. (Crunchbase)
Tilt Take: While most VCs are looking for startups that serve creators, it’s a huge indicator that demand is high from creators looking to monetize their audiences and run full-fledged businesses.

5 things to read, watch, or hear

Stop waiting until the last minute to figure out what to post on social. Do the batch thing instead.
Do content creators really have a short shelf life? Get this interesting, in-depth take from Mint. Our view? Survive and thrive by adopting an entrepreneurial approach.
Test your thumbnail with this cool tool. We heard about it from Tanya Moushi, who heard Matt Davella on Jay Clouse’s podcast. How’s that for a fun game of telephone (by creators)?
Anne Janzer waxes poetically in her piece about noticing your muse. Then she dives into some fun, self-discovery questions to help understand your creating habits.
On Twitter, Jon Brosio gives a wink on what it takes to succeed in the creator economy, and genius isn’t an ingredient.

the tilt team

Your team for this issue: Joe Pulizzi, Pam Pulizzi, Ann Gynn, Laura Kozak, Marc Maxhimer, and Dave Anthony, with an assist from Heath Dingwell and Marc Angelos.

Summer Switch Up