AUGUST 19, 2022

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

In Friday 5s: Some help to stay out of trouble (and get paid.) Audience research through TikTok leads to six-figure deal. And a newsletter creator explains how he developed and sold his newsletter for five figures in less than two years.

5 things to do

Too often, attorney Ruth Carter sees content creators who find themselves in trouble that they could have absolutely avoided.

In The Tilt course What Content Creators Need to Know NOW to Stay Out of Trouble, Ruth explains many creators contact them saying they have a contract dispute. In truth, it’s more often a dispute because they didn’t have a contract. And it’s often more expensive to have a lawyer figure out what the parties agreed to by cobbling together emails, texts, and verbal conversations than it is to have an attorney write a contract in the first place.

Among Ruth’s advice:

1. View a contract as a relationship management document. This written master document should detail the obligations of each party, including deliverables and payment terms, and how to deal with problems if they arise.

2. Have a template contract ready to go: A standard contract written on your behalf can be customized with your client’s project details. If the client wants you to sign their contract, you review it using your template to see how well it incorporates your provisions.

3. Have start and finish terms: Don’t start work until the contract is signed. Don’t send the final work until the final payment has been received (as long as that’s detailed in your contract.) Ruth says they have seen too many creators fulfill their obligations and never receive payment.

4. Detail who owns the intellectual property rights: Some clients think because they pay you for your creation services, they own the content. They don’t. They’re licensing the content from you. If they want to own the rights, you should charge them more and give them ownership in the contract.

5. Never sign a contract you don’t understand: You are obligated under the contract terms, so don’t be embarrassed if you don’t comprehend all the language. Ask for clarifications or revisions to put it into language you do understand.

Take less than 25 minutes to learn more from Ruth in their free class, What Content Creators Need to Know NOW to Stay Out of Trouble.

Another free class from The Tilt: The Content Creator’s Essential Guide to Contracts

5 things at the tilt

How to increase the value of your content business. [Content Inc. podcast]
Joe and Robert explain why Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse is full out embarrassing. [This Old Marketing podcast]
Looking for tech solutions? Check out what The Tilt team uses.
Have you received your $TILT coin reward? Please be sure that we have your Rally Network ID so we can send rewards your way!
ICYMI: 5 Burnout Triggers for Creators and How To Get Support

5 things to know

Money

Get together: Creators can connect with merchants in the new Shopify Collabs. The tool lets creators find and do affiliate marketing partnerships with individual businesses. (Tech Crunch)
Tilt Take: Given the diverse businesses on Shopify, this revenue stream could be a nice addition for many content entrepreneurs.

Audiences

Go to the source: Publishers turned down Alex Aster’s new book, so she wanted to know what her potential audience thought. She shared the concept in a TikTok video. Within a week, she had a six-figure deal. (The Guardian)
Tilt Take: Social media platforms can be excellent sources for audience research and proof of concept.

Tech and Tools

Seek average: Find the topics that funnel the most invested audience to your YouTube videos. In YT Analytics advanced mode, go to traffic source, pick suggested videos, then pick a second metric – average percentage viewed. (Roberto Blake)
Tilt Take: Metrics around audience behavior should inform your future content decisions.
More Reeling: New from Meta – a button tap now cross-posts Reels from Instagram to Facebook. Transform Stories into Reels automatically. (Engadget)
Tilt Take: Easy is good, but don’t spend too much time on your social media activities.

And Finally

Rolling on: Among the creator economy predictions from Rolling Stone’s Culture Council, niche is the new scale. Seemingly small areas of interest will thrive and engage passionate and loyal audiences. (Rolling Stone)
Tilt Take: We agree. This is why we advocate drilling down your content tilt.

5 things to read, watch, or hear

What community, business, and marketing strategies of Web 2.0 don’t work in Web 3.0. (Brian Fanzo/NFT 365 podcast video)
Dive into intent and more to discover how James Clear built a newsletter with over 1.5M subscribers.
Jackson Kelly tells how he built and sold a newsletter for five figures in just two years. (h/t Inbox Reads)
Would you take a day job and bring along your audience?
Is your content indispensable in this ABC creator economy model? (h/t Ange Michael)

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the tilt team

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

Hot Water – August 19, 2022