JUNE 15, 2021

Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-a-week newsletter for content creators who want to be or already are content entrepreneurs. We talk aspiration, inspiration, revenue, audiences, tech, trends, and more to help your content business thrive.

Major airlines took a wrecking ball to the entire in-flight magazine industry in the past year. They are moving the majority of their communication to be accessed through an internet device of some kind.

I get the reasons. American Airlines said they could not make the magazine financially feasible. They also cited paper savings and the environmental impact.

Of course, this all makes sense.

But why not take the other direction? What if an airline went all-in with print. Why not zig when everyone else is zagging?

Killing off the print publication is the sensible move. It’s the move everyone else is making. It’s the easy move.

Tilt Advice

Most content entrepreneurs who find long-term success, though, are the ones who zig. They create a unique business (i.e., content). And they know how to attract attention and that they can’t do it like everybody else.

Your zig might be putting additional resources into something every other content creator is dismissing. What if you rethought how you drive revenue for that initiative? What if you look at the real data?

Find your zig, double down, and create something truly remarkable.

– Joe Pulizzi

To read all that Joe has to say about the airlines’ mistake, the wrong “zag” from 10 years ago, and more advice for content entrepreneurs, read the longer story.

Entrepreneur: David Cherry

Biz: DataDave​

Tilt: Genuineness as he plays and chats

Channel: Twitch (61.7K)

Other channels: Twitter (11.8K) YouTube (5.7K) Instagram (4.4K) Voice Actor Site​

Time to Twitch partner status: 6 months

Rev Streams: Twitch partner program, sponsorships, merch

Our Favorite Actionable Advice

• Make your stream schedule manageable: Streaming in long stretches won’t necessarily get you more viewers. Pick a schedule that’s healthy for you, and your audience will show up.
• Treat viewers like a new friend: Ask questions to get to know your audience. If they stay silent, talk about what’s going on in the game.
• Use incentives: Promise something special if you attain a target number of subscribers in a week.

Some of the Story:

Five years ago, Twitch streamer David Cherry was setting the stage for a doctorate in human-centered computing.

But David has always been a gamer. And after learning about Twitch through a friend’s co-worker, he decided to give the platform a try. In June 2016, during his first stream, one person joined as David played Undertale, a role-playing game. But it wasn’t the gameplay that he remembers as much as the discussion with that single viewer.

“We just started talking about comics, movies, the game. He’d help me out. It was just a very interesting conversation,” David says. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is a lot of fun.’ So, I then streamed the next day. And the next day just for a couple of hours. And the next day, and I met some more people.”

David was hooked, buoyed by the interactions with the people who tuned in. Soon he was streaming every day from about 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., after finishing his schoolwork.

Within six months, David had earned Twitch partner status, bolstering his opportunities to monetize the stream. He eventually cut his studies short, getting a master’s degree in computer science instead. In 2018, Twitch named him to its first batch of ambassadors.

Today, DataDave has amassed 61.7K followers, playing a variety of video games full-time. And he’s added voice acting to his repertoire, bringing in streamer ThatCMonster to act out scenes.

People keep coming back, David says, because his reactions are natural – his response to jump scares while playing a horror game or the fact he didn’t know who sang the hit Lady Marmalade.

“I just bring myself, as I am, to the front,” he says. “And I think a lot of people vibe with that genuineness.”

He teaches computer science part-time at Morehouse College in Atlanta. The gig gives him a consistent income in case he has a slow month on Twitch, though that hasn’t happened yet. Revenue earned through Twitch, sponsors, and merchandise sales provides his main source of income.​
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– Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

All the Story: To learn more about David and the four pieces of great advice for budding content entrepreneurs, check out the longer story.

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Caught on … Nieman Lab​

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At first, Aja Dang’s YouTube channel (479K) was solely a homage to fitness tips and expected styling tricks. After the former TV host spoke candidly about accruing $200K in credit card and student loan debt, the channel pivoted.

In the following weeks, Aja embarked on a budget series, offering viewers glimpses of how she balanced her expenses. That first bi-monthly budget video garnered 304K views. The following year, she earned close to $40K in four months from Google AdSense, brand deals, and affiliate and commission links as she explains in this video.

Eventually, she cultivated an online support group for those looking to free themselves from Sallie Mae and other past dues. “If it wasn’t for my YouTube community, I would’ve given up,” she told CNBC.

The channel has become a hub for debt payment strategy novices. Even though the YouTuber became debt-free two years ago, she continues to talk about finances, from terms such as avalanche and snowball methods to ways to save, invest, or pay off debt.

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​Why we’re a Stan: Aja was a social media influencer before she talked about her money troubles. But that fresh transparency led her to tap into a new audience, where she found even bigger success. We also like that she sees her channel as both an opportunity to educate her audience and to offer them helpful advice on their everyday finances.

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​Hear what Joe Pulizzi, founder of The Tilt, has to say in his weekly podcast, Content Inc. (It’s worth the seven minutes). Recently he talked about 10 different strategies and tactics that will keep the content marketing ideas flowing.

In the latest This Old Marketing, Robert and Joe discuss how Apple’s new privacy update could hinder the growth of email newsletters. Or maybe not. In other news, Facebook launches a Substack while Twitter’s new subscription program sings the blues.

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Your team for this issue: Joe Pulizzi, Ann Gynn, Laura Kozak, and Dave Anthony, with an assist from Sarah Lindenfeld Hall, Shameyka McCalman, and Don Borger.