OCTOBER 5, 2021

Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs. Each edition is packed with the latest news, strategies, and tactics, plus inspiring creator stories and exclusive education, all to help you create, grow, and monetize better.

Features in this issue (view online):


full tilt

How to Create a Content Plan That Works for You and Your Audience

You don’t just sit down and create content. At least, you shouldn’t.

A successful content entrepreneur first creates a content plan. Based on your content tilt and mission statement, the content plan is the detailed map for developing and publishing your creations.

It encompasses your time, resources, topics, formats, frequencies, deadlines, and more. It will result in an editorial and production calendar, an easy-to-use template that helps your content creation and distribution stay on course.

Tilt Advice

The first step is to figure out how many hours per week you will commit to the content business. Be realistic. It’s better to underestimate than overestimate your time. You can always do more, but it’s far more problematic to do less if you overestimate your time.

Don’t forget to allow time for promoting your content and marketing your business. The Tilt founder Joe Pulizzi recommends spending about 30% of your content time on promotion and distribution when you’re starting.

You also should plan to spend some time on business operations.

Next, detail your content topics and primary format.

Before you create your editorial calendar, track the time you take to create to come up with an average estimate. That way you can determine your publishing frequency and schedule accordingly.

Now, you have all the necessary information – topics, format, frequency, deadlines – to create a content calendar. You can use one of the tools mentioned in our essential content and project management tools guide. Or you could simply create a spreadsheet using Google Sheets or Excel.

For a basic starting point, create columns for publication date, format, featured content title, topic, and production status.

Now that you have a documented content plan, you should find you’re better able to create and publish content consistently that your audience wants to consume. But it’s not a one-and-done task. Carve out time at least monthly to review how well the previous month’s content performed and update your content plan accordingly.

– Ann Gynn

To get more details on how to do each step, examples, and an editorial calendar template, check out the longer story.


content entrepreneur spotlight

Host of YouTube’s How to Be a Great GM Shares How to Be a Great Content Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur: Guy Sclanders

Biz: Geeks Table (How to Be a Great GM and Tabletop Wizard)

Tilt: Storytelling advice for role-playing games

Primary Channel: YouTube (211K)

Other Channels: Patreon (312), Twitter (8.3K), Discord (6.8K), Facebook (4.3K)

Time to First Dollar: One year (didn’t publish consistently in first six months)

Rev Streams: YouTube, Patreon, books, ebooks, Kickstarter

Our Favorite Actionable Advice:

  • Assess your strengths: Guy and his business partner took Enneagram personality tests to help determine each person’s role in the business.
  • Don’t see dollar signs: When they launched the business, they took the lowest salary possible for their basic needs. In the beginning, pull the minimum amount from that business that you need to live.
  • Acquire social media handles ASAP: They learned the hard way, but you don’t have to. When you have a business brand, ensure the same name is available across social media and domains (and acquire them).

– Leo Bonacci

All the Story: To learn about how Guy shifted from creator to entrepreneur and his advice for content businesses, check this out.


quick talk

Caught on … Twitter

Rule No. 1 of Email Marketing: ALWAYS send yourself a test email and click to make sure your CTAs & links work.” – Chase Dimond


things to know

Money
  • Patreon adds patronage: The subscriber platform for newsletter creators and others will, for the first time, invest in original content, including podcasters, gamers, YouTubers, and celebrities. (Bloomberg)
    Tilt Take: The once DIY-only platform’s new play may attract bigger audiences and that may give creators on Patreon new opportunities to get their content discovered.
  • Square Tik: TikTok creators can connect their viewers with their Square Online stores in a newly announced deal. (Forbes)
    Tilt Take: Square’s deal lets creators set up those online stores to reflect their personal brands. It’s a smart tool to integrate commerce into TikTok creations.
Audiences
  • Spotify to beat Apple: Spotify is predicted to have 28.2M monthly listeners by the end of 2021, while Apple is expected to have 28M. And Spotify’s lead will widen in years to come. (eMarketer)
    Tilt Take: Know where your listeners are listening. Then, maximize your podcast marketing for that platform.
  • Follower inflation: Growing your Twitter followers takes time. Here’s how: Post content to your account. Contribute to the Twitter community. Throw multimedia into the mix. Pay attention to what’s happening. Don’t do automated replies or DMs. (Mashable)
    Tilt Take: It’s all about being real and publishing consistently.
Tech and Tools
  • Viewing elsewhere: Framasoft developed PeerTube as a free and decentralized alternative to video platforms. It’s a network of interconnected small video hosters with 60K users. (PeerTube; h/t Ozy Kokol)
    Tilt Take: We haven’t used it, but we’re interested in any open-source platform’s potential for content creators.
  • More for the Club: This month, Clubhouse adds the probably most in-demand feature – recording a room. “Replays” can be recorded by creators and moderators. Users also can create 30-second shareable clips in rooms that allow them. (The Verge)
    Tilt Take: We’re glad creators and moderators can record and download the content. Another great new feature? A search tool for keywords, names, etc.
And Finally
  • Quality counts: CreativeX’s analysis of 1M ads representing $1B in media spend and 1T impressions found high-quality editorial content is more memorable and helps brands stand out. (Revmade)
    Tilt Take: Yep, quality matters to audiences.
  • Dude at White House: The Biden administration is having a first-of-its-kind team to work with influencers (including Dude With Sign) to spread their messages, from vaccines to the kind of people who spend more time watching YouTube than Wolf Blitzer. (Washingtonian)
    Tilt Take: You need to use content (and content distributors) that resonate with your target audience to be most effective.


we’re a stan for Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins

 

Bona-fide superstar gamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins always put studying before playing video games. In college, the gamer would treat himself to video games if he completed his required school work. After earning prize money, Tyler’s mindset began to shift, opening the door to make a living solely from gaming. Now, he brings in an estimated $1M a month.

Why we’re a Stan: Tyler didn’t leap into full-time streaming right away. He made the move after seeing he could earn money gaming using the Twitch platform and at well-known events.

– Shameyka McCalman

Discover how Ninja operates today and how many millions are following him here.


the business of content


the tilt team

Your team for this issue: Joe Pulizzi, Ann Gynn, Laura Kozak, Marc Maxhimer, and Dave Anthony, with an assist from Leo Bonacci, Shameyka McCalman, and Don Borger.