AUGUST 5, 2022

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

In Friday 5s: Get your brand-related revenue stream going. Read about paying podcast guests. And go deeper in an interview with Patreon’s CEO.

5 things to do

Serious content creators don’t sit back waiting for advertising revenue to sustain their business. Instead, they go after more profitable revenue streams that they can build and grow, minimizing their reliance on third-party platforms.

Brand deals, often in the form of sponsorships, are one of the best choices.

1. Treat brand deals as partnerships: Justin Moore, founder of Creator Wizard, says sponsorships are more closely connected to the creator. As such, creators should build a connection with the brand instead of treating the arrangement as a transaction – a one-time exchange where they fill the “order” and the brand pays the invoice.

2. Grow a vibrant content business: Brands are interested in your audience. Emma Cortes, who creates Emma’s Edition and co-hosts Content Creatives Podcast, says engagement rates are helpful indicators of how well your audience interacts with you and your content. She also says to have a clear brand identity and consistent publishing.

3. Set up a tracking system: Create a worksheet for research and outreach. Include company name, description, website, social channels, related media coverage, etc. Search for brands that would be most interested in reaching your audience. After identifying potential deal partners, observe and interact with them online before you send a pitch.

4. Make a media kit: Make a persuasive case as to why the brand wants to work with you. Tell the story of your content business and explain why working with you would be good for the brand. Think about it as an “about” page, explaining who you are, the topics of your content, formats, frequencies, platforms, etc.

It also should include lots of data insights into your audience and content performance. Elements might be demographics, popular content topics, days and times of the best activity, engagement rates, testimonials, etc. (Amber created a free media kit template for Instagram content creators.)

5. Ask the brand this question: When you’ve landed a conversation with the brand, ask: What would success look like for you? “You’ll make so much more money if you truly understand what the brand is trying to accomplish,” says Justin, who writes a newsletter devoted to sponsorships and creators.

Long versions: How To Make Sponsorships a Good Revenue Stream for Your Business and Brand Partnerships: What Creators Need To Know To Do the Deals

5 things at the tilt

Talk on Tilt Discord community about Substack Alternatives: 11 Newsletter Platforms & How They Work.
A Better Podcast Strategy? [Content Inc. podcast]
Is Twitter setting up for a new kind of acquisition? Joe and Robert discuss on this week’s This Old Marketing.
Thought about publishing a book? Take The Tilt’s free mini-course, Book Publishing for the Content Entrepreneur.
ICYMI: This content entrepreneur stopped her content tilt even though she was earning good money.

5 things to know

Money

Payola guests: Charging guests to be on a podcast is a thing for some. One podcaster charges $50K, but one expert says the average is $100 to $150 per 1K listeners. The critics say this practice isn’t right unless the podcaster is transparent. (Bloomberg)
Tilt Take: Any pay-to-play content should be disclosed to the audience. It’s all about the trust factor.
Small nets profits: Oxygen’s State of the Creator Economy Report found 29% of respondents had 1K to 9.9K followers across social channels and reported significant monetization opportunities. (FinTech Futures)
Tilt Take: Size doesn’t matter more than the value of the audience.

Audiences

Web3 digging: “Consumers have barely scratched the surface of how they can use tools to build their followings.” Vatom’s CEO points to smart NFTs and first-party data connections as top options. (Vatom)
Tilt Take: The choices to control access to your own revenue streams and audiences have never been greater – and they’re only going to grow.

Tech and Tools

No time: Searchers don’t care about how long your content will take to read. A study found posting estimated read time in meta descriptions did not affect click numbers. (Search Pilot; tl;drMarketing)
Tilt Take: Don’t just dismiss estimated read times. They may not help with search traffic, but they can be helpful to set expectations among your other audience members.

And Finally

Bye to the buy: In another move to focus on Instagram Reels, Facebook will shut down its live shopping feature Oct. 1. Users still can use Facebook Live to broadcast events, but not tagging products or creating product play lists. (Tech Crunch)
Tilt Take: Meta giveth and Meta can taketh away.

5 things to read, watch, or hear

“Dr. Glaucomflecken,” aka the funny ophthalmologist Will Flanary, shares the type of videos that get the biggest reaction from his over 1.6M followers on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter in this interview.
YouTube “automation” businesses aren’t really automated and usually not profitable. The New York Times talks with a wannabe entrepreneur who spend over $15K to learn, only to find shortcuts usually don’t work (h/t to Ashley Stryker for sharing.)
Dylan Redekop shares 12 lessons he’s learned in adding 2K subscribers to build his Growth Currency content business in the past 18 months.
The Washington Post’s Dave Jorgensen (yes, their cool TikTok guy) interviewed Patreon CEO Jack Conte. It runs the gamut on the independent creator model and future plans for the publishing platform.
YouTube guru and CEX presenter Roberto Blake releases a new book this month: Create Something Awesome: How Creators Are Profiting From Their Passion in the Creator Economy. The Kindle version debuts Aug. 22.

the tilt team

Your team for this issue: Joe Pulizzi, Pam Pulizzi, Ann Gynn, Laura Kozak, Marc Maxhimer, and Dave Anthony.

Done Deals – August 5, 2022