5 Mistakes I Made When First Starting My Maker Content
In early 2017, I started an Instagram page for Southern Style DIY that was dedicated to posting my build projects online, but it didn't go as well as I thought.
I had watched tons of YouTube videos and thought I knew everything. After all, how hard could it be to post some pictures of my projects online and create a massive audience? In short, I didn't know what I was getting into, but I still think it was a great decision.
Failing at creating content taught me some valuable lessons about the biggest mistakes I made that I can remedy with The Maker Edge.
Mistake 1: I Hadn't Identified My Niche
Initially, I wanted to post content for anyone who was interested in Making things on their own.
What I didn't understand was that making content for "anyone" meant I was making content for no one. The more narrow a niche you target, the more likely someone in it is to say, "this is exactly what I've been looking for!"
Mistake 2: I Was Treating My Business Like A Hobby
Making things was a hobby of mine, so creating content around it would be a hobby too, right?
When something came up that I didn't want to do or was boring, I would avoid it. Any successful business has some boring parts, but boring comes with success and it cannot be avoided (no matter why you started).
Mistake 3: I Didn't Consistently Focus On Consistency
I posted once per day consistently for a year, then almost immediately stopped because it was boring (see Mistake 2).
Content creation is an infinite game where the object is to keep playing (not meet a short-term goal like post every day for a year). Instead of putting a cap on the consistency, I should have expanded it to posting consistently on one platform, but add another as well.
Mistake 4: I Focused On Monetization Too Early
Once I got an entire 1,000 subscribers (massive, I know), I started trying to monetize.
I went to a Maker conference called Workbench Con and heard talk after talk about working with brands and only taking what I thought I was worth. The honest answer is I wasn't worth a fraction of what I thought and I should have worked on building relationships with brands without thinking about monetizing yet.
Mistake 5: I Didn't Have A "Real" Business Plan
My "plan" was to keep posting content and hope something happened.
Hoping for an external result is a terrible plan. Instead, I should have focused on what I could do and control and make it be best I possibly could, look at the data to see what was resonating, and adjust accordingly.
