The opposite of a good idea is a better idea

Hi Reader,

The opposite of a good idea is a better idea.

Social media gurus preach to newbies: “Give away your best ideas!”

That’s fine advice on first listen. Why not leave followers feeling warm and fuzzy about your brand? Perhaps they’ll buy when you’re finally ready to sell?

Here’s a better idea: charge for your best content from the start, and you’ll earn more sooner. Then, use that income to invest in creating even better content.

A social media strategist suggested I invest in short-form content to grow one of my accounts. His advice worked. My views went up. But I spent dozens of hours and hundreds of dollars on this type of content.

I compared my short-form content to my long-form content. I discovered that long-form content attracts and converts more students and clients. So, I switched my strategy.

Create How To content so followers and subscribers can learn from you. They’ll perceive you as an expert. That was a good idea until AI entered the fray. I got millions of pageviews following this content strategy.

Now, anyone can spin up How To content with the right ChatGPT or Claude prompt.

A better idea today? Create How I content using personal stories. AI and your competitors can’t reverse engineer your experiences. And your audience will start to crave that level of authenticity.

Publish timely, trending content. It’ll help you go viral. This strategy still works. It’s helped ME go viral a few times.

My ever-green content never gets the same reach as this type of content, but it does far more for my business. So, I focus on evergreen. I leave going viral to the gurus on X.

Stop using social media if you want to get things done. I follow that piece of advice most days. I write for 90 minutes while disconnected from the net. And yet writing on LinkedIn grows my brand. So I spend 30 minutes a day using it.

Publish on as many social media networks as you can several times a day. I followed this piece of advice for a while. I chased follower counts and vanity metrics. It left me burnt out and disillusioned with writing online.

Today, I prefer growing an email list and selling to a specific type of client.

A common internet marketing aphorism? The riches in the niches. That can work if you’re selling fitness courses to new Moms or productivity coaching for entrepreneurs.

But creating one offer for your audience - whether they’re Moms, entrepreneurs or both - can earn FAR more. You can sell this offer repeatedly to different parts of your audience. And you don’t have to confine yourself to a single niche.

If you want to monetize your expertise with content, reply to this email with “CONTENT”. I’ve two spots open in my coaching program.

Write on,
Bryan Collins