Just as a baker doesn't have to sell their cakes, you could create content purely for the sake of it.

It doesn't have to be with a business intent.

But I'm assuming that's what you want.

You don't just want to make stuff.

You want to build an audience and make money from what you love so you can enjoy all the benefits I mentioned earlier.

With that in mind, here's a rough overview of the process:

1. Create content/provide value

• See previous chapter.
• Write. Draw. Take photos. Record videos. Record yourself talking.
• Edit for impact.

2. Distribute content

• Post what you've made wherever possible.
• A personal website, social media platforms, YouTube, Reddit, Spotify (and other podcast platforms), Medium/Substack, Discord, etcetera…

3. Repeat #1 and #2

• Building anything worthwhile takes time. The "secret" is consistency.
• Content is a game of attrition. Most people quit. Those who succeed aren't just better than everyone else. They just persevered longer.

Important:

Those first three stages are the foundation of content creation.

Master them, and you can make serious money from things like ads, brand deals, and affiliate marketing (more on monetization later).

Many creators stop there.

Don't be one of them.

These three steps only get you a rented audience.

Your entire business is 100% dependent on the platforms, which means you’re vulnerable.

Imagine if they kick you off, your account gets hacked, or the platform changes its algorithm.

All your hard work will be for nothing. You might have to start from scratch.

That was the mistake I made in relying on Google (see my story, above).

You need an owned audience.

The following steps help you build it.

4. Drive traffic to landing pages

• These are webpages you “land” on after clicking a link.
• By promoting/including links to them in your content, captions, bio, LinkTree etc, a percentage of people who see your content will click those links and visit your landing page(s).