What I wish I knew about being a content creator before I became one
I started my journey of creating content over 4 years ago. I was pregnant with my 2nd child & had put my photography business on hold for the year. I almost immediately got so bored with nothing to “work on”, so I decided to start a public Instagram account to share budget tips & meals I was making and already sharing on my private account. At the beginning, it was definitely just a creative outlet for me. I knew there was the possibility to make money from it, but I wasn’t striving for that whatsoever.
Now I’m to almost 100k followers and I’ve learned a thing or two! I hope every one of you reading this that has an inkling of a desire to start sharing your goodness on social media gets some insight and courage from this post to just go for it!
These are the things I wish I knew way back then:
Growth is slow & steady, so you’ve gotta love what you’re sharing
For the longest time, I felt like I was talking to nobody. It was pretty much just people I knew personally and I was shocked if I ever got a random follower that I didn’t know in real life.
I remember posting pretty consistently just for the love of it. I wasn’t making any money & I loved feeling like I was helping other moms.
Growth was mostly slow & steady with the help from a viral piece of content every now and then, but I was sharing with the same intentions I always was. Some people start with the intention to just grow a huge following & make a bunch of money, but if you don’t truly love what you’re sharing and are willing to put in the time & effort for free, you’ll burn out so fast.
Everyday life is the content people relate to, it doesn’t need to be perfect.
Maybe it’s because I’m a photographer or maybe because I’m a perfectionist, but I had a crippling sense that everything needed to be perfect to be posted. Back when I started, Reels weren’t really a thing yet, so it was all photos. I was convinced that I could only post a photo if it was taken on my nice camera, edited and then posted, I wouldn’t share stories unless I had makeup on and my hair was done. It needed to be PERFECT.
Over time, I realized that wasn’t sustainable or realistic for me. I also realized that I wanted to be the person that I needed to see on social media; a mom who doesn’t get ready everyday, has kids that make messes & isn’t ever on top of anything. I also realized that people didn’t relate to perfectly styled photos. They wanted to see the real stuff, messy, complicated real life. I get more positive comments when I share a mountain of laundry on my bed or a messy floor behind me than I do when everything portrays a perfect life. Because that’s not real!
So show up with your bare face, dirty hair up in a bun, and toys littering the floor. That’s real.
I wish I started monetizing sooner & committed to it more.
For the longest time, I refused to try to make any money from affiliates because that felt ingenuine to me for some reason. I finally started with Amazon Affiliates and was making PENNIES. But if someone was going to ask me about something, I felt less weird sharing it with them as opposed to me just dropping a link in stories.
Amazon Affiliates income was okay, but I really wish I knew about ShopMy sooner. It’s a platform that allows me to link to thousands of retailers with higher commission rates, organizes all my links for me, I can create lists of items from different stores, collaborate with brands & get sent free product(such a fun part of this job). It has been amazing & streamlined affiliates so much for me.
If you are a beginner creator, please join ShopMy today!(if you sign up with my referral link, it moves you to the top of the list to get accepted). The smaller creators get sent even more free product than the larger ones because brands know that smaller creators are more likely to share with their audience than bigger ones. I’ve received jewelry, cameras, baby carriers, snacks, hair accessories and more just offered & sent to me with no strings attached! It kind of feels too good to be true sometimes.
Niche down. I know it sounds counterintuitive if you’re wanting to grow, but just do it.
We often think that casting a wider net is the way to gain more followers, but in reality, if we are sharing about every single thing and don’t have a clear focus or direction, very few people are going to follow you. Think of the niche accounts that you already follow! For example, these are all accounts from women who are moms, but they all have a different niche & THAT’S what makes them interesting and an instant follow.
I follow Kelly Stumpe, The Car Mom because she shares all about family cars.
I followed Hailey Pipher, She Likes Milk because of her cute summer farm stand(that I’m totally jealous of).
Chandler Ashcraft, Chan with the Boys shares how to take kids places in a safe and low stress way.
Tara Nearents, Rad and Happy is an amazing illustrator & designer.
All of these women are moms with similar aged kids, but they all bring something different to the table! What is your thing that’s different? What’s the thing that you could talk to someone about for an hour? What do people come to you for advice for? These are the things to think about if you don’t know which direction you want to go!
Some people just won’t understand.
A huge fear of mine & I think most women is that people will make fun of you for putting yourself out there. And guess what, there probably will be. I’ve had what I thought were good friends say negative things about me that I’ve caught wind of through the grapevine, and that hurts! I just remind myself that my content isn’t for everyone, and if it’s not for them, so be it! But it is for someone, and if I can help just one more mom feel seen or helped by what I share, it’s worth it.
There’s probably a million other things I could come up with that I wish I knew, but I hope this helped you if you have that little desire in your heart to start showing up on social media!
We need more positive voices in the world! You have something to say & someone out there to help.
My DMs are always open if you have ANY question about social media, content creation, making money on social media, etc!