After a year of trial and error, I was able to come up with a content creation system that is proven to be efficient and effective.
I’ve been a blogger since 2017
I wrote my very first blog post in August 2017. I was doing this at the side of my desk, pumping out one post a week and that was it. I was working full-time during the day and juggling the parenting duties at night. I’d fit in a few sentences here and there on my blog.
Then in January 2019, I started listening to Gary Vaynerchuk’s podcast and it changed my whole perspective on blogging. I perused his 88-slide deck presentation on content strategy and I was intrigued, excited and inspired. It made so much sense to take one piece of long-form content, break it down into smaller pieces of content.
I told myself,
“I need to start exploring other methods of creating content.”
People want their content delivered in different mediums because everyone’s attention is different. Some consume by reading, some by listening and others by watching.
I needed to get outside my comfort zone and start experimenting with audio and video.
I started with just one video
To be honest, I was scared but after a couple of weeks of procrastination, I took the plunge and did it. I published a 31-second video on January 24, 2019, and called it “ “Do something that scares you every day.”
It was awkward at first, getting in front of the camera, listening to my voice, and watching my face. But it became easier as I recorded more. Like with many “scary’ things in life, it gets a lot less scary doing them the second, third, fourth time around. And seeing myself on the screen actually made me more self-confident and self-aware.
Then in early April 2019, I started recording myself reading my old blog posts. It was quite the self-reflection exercise to go through, reading what I wrote a couple of years ago. Boy, have I changed. It was validating to see how much I’ve grown and learned.
I was disorganized and unmotivated
For a year, I created whenever I had the time and I felt like it. I’d make a video when I was in the mood to sit down and film. I’d often come up with excuses not to do it because I wanted everything to be “perfect” (my makeup, my skin, my hair, my clothes, the lighting etc.) before shouting “Action!”.
Then when I’d take that video and convert it into a blog post, it was the most arduous task. I hated it because I could either meticulously format and edit the extracted subtitles or I could transcribe like an empty brained robot. Both tasks were equally mind-numbing. No, thank you!
When I didn’t feel like writing, I’d record myself reading a blog post. My voice became dry after each episode and my tone would get more condescending and irritated with each breath.
It was haphazard and disorganized because I didn’t know which type of content was getting me the most traction. There would be some videos that would get hundreds of views on Facebook but would fall flat on IgTV. And my podcasts were trudging along with minimal plays and then one would spike with tons of listeners.
I was unmotivated to keep going as I was all over the place. Instead of seeking opportunities to be creative, I was letting opportunities dictate when I could be creative.
I didn’t like doing things without a system. I needed something with a rigour that I could follow, streamlined to optimize the limited time I had. I like creating habits, routines, and processes that I could follow.
Writing is my foundation
So I sat down and I started writing. Writing is my safe space, my outlet, the most comfortable way for me to create content.
I leaned into writing and I kept writing. It made the irrational way I was approaching content creation rational. I realized I should start all my content with writing.
Since then, every piece of content that I create is based on my writing. It sets the foundation for how I want my story to be told visually and verbally. I write first before creating anything else.
I only have 6 hours a week to create content
I’m at home with my kids 24/7 so I get about 6 hours a week to create content. My parents watch my daughter a few times a week while I’m at home with my son. I work while he naps.
I am incredibly efficient when it comes to making those minutes worth their weight in gold. There is no time to procrastinate because my son will nap for at most 2 hours and that is when I’m able to create without distractions.
The 3-week cycle (writing, filming, extracting)
It takes me about 3 hours to write, edit and format one long-form blog post (at least 1000 words). Therefore, it takes me 2 weeks to write 4 long-form blog posts. After those are written and published, it’s time to convert them into videos.
It takes me one week (6 hours) to film, edit and publish on my channels (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram) and extract the audio for the podcast episodes.
The 4 articles would churn out 6–10 videos and podcast episodes depending on how long each article was.
Benefits of filming after writing
I usually structure the blog post into 2 parts. I introduce the topic, explaining why I am writing about this, my challenges and my past with the issue. That would often be one video in itself.
Then it’s the part where I give my tips and pieces of advice that’s worked for me thus far. The next video(s) would be about my lessons learned.
For instance, in my article “How I Lost Weight And Became Healthier By Exercising Less”, I wrote and talked about my past eating disorder and overexercise abuse. Then, in the second half of the article and in the video, I go through my tips for how I recovered and what I learned.
I would sometimes go off-script when I filmed. I’d incorporate side stories and comments that I could remember in real-time when I was talking about the topic I wrote just a couple of weeks ago.
It was like the ultimate self-reflection exercise because it made me revisit things I had learned about but forgot I had researched.
In addition, because I had already shared the blog post a couple of weeks ago, I could embed the feedback and questions I received from the written content into my video.
Extracting audio from video to create a podcast
When I first started filming, I used the mic on my phone. It would capture every noise inside and outside of the house. If a firetruck was driving by with its sirens on, it would take over the audio and I would have to re-record.
So I invested in a relatively affordable lapel mic that recorded my voice clearly. The benefit of using a good mic when filming is that it’s easy to convert the video into a podcast. There are multiple sites that let you extract the audio from a video which you can then upload onto your podcast site.
Then it’s a matter of publishing them all and creating the pretty content to share on social media channels.
The takeaway
Start with what you’re good at and what you enjoy doing.
It seems pretty intuitive but it wasn’t for me. I was lost, figuring out what I needed to do and being pulled in different directions because I kept thinking one way of content creation was ‘better’ than another. I don’t like to think of my frustrations as time wasted; rather, I was testing out the most efficient and effective way to create content.
And after many trials and tribulations, I finally came up with a process that worked for me. I hope sharing this will help you cut through the noise and get straight to creating.
So Readers, when it comes to content creation, which method do you prefer to use first?
