Your Creator Business Should Be Boring

Profits beat passion.

Photo by Studio Republic on Unsplash

I started to write online in 2018 and built a 6-figure business by doing the same boring things on repeat: writing content, sending newsletters, selling digital products.

I’ve seen dozens of new platforms and exciting opportunities come and go.

I run a community with over 20,000 writers, and the harsh truth is that most people fail to grow an audience because they’re impatient.

I’ve been writing on the same platform for over half a decade.

I’ve sent over 1,000 newsletters.

And I’ve been selling the same offers for years.

Yes, the platforms you use matter, but not as much as you might think. You can build an audience on any platform.

What matters is that you’re willing to stick to the basics for long enough.

And usually, long enough means much longer than most beginners expect.

New creators often have unrealistic expectations about the time it takes to build an audience because there’s too much noise about how to get there quickly.

Stop looking for a reason to give up

When people tell me they’re giving up on a platform, they usually come up with excuses like “the platform doesn’t work anymore.”

They’re looking for an easy way out, and like with all things in life, blaming external factors is easier than blaming your own actions.

I said it before, but I’ll say it again: Building an audience is not easy.

You’re competing with a lot of other content, including creators who have been in the game for years or even decades.

I don’t want this to sound disheartening, but it’s the truth: Building trust, credibility, and an audience takes time and effort.

The question is, is it worth it to you?

If it is, stop looking for reasons to give up and focus on sticking to the habits that will get you closer to your goals every day.

If it’s not, stop whining about how hard it is and let it go. Spend time with your friends and family instead of being mad at the internet for not giving you the attention you want.

---

---

The beauty of a boring business

Most people fail to build an audience because they get bored too quickly. They want to write about a dozen different topics and constantly try new platforms.

They hate the idea of sticking to a niche because it feels too limiting.

But you don’t get any better if you always change your strategy and approach.

You become better at what you do by doing the same thing over and over and over again.

I became a decent writer by publishing over 600 articles on the same few topics: personal growth, digital entrepreneurship & writing.

I built an audience of over 80,000 readers by consistently showing up with a few clear messages instead of chasing trends and shiny objects.

We all love familiarity and being able to trust our favorite creators by knowing that their work is worth our time.

James Clear, for instance, sold 20 million copies of his book Atomic Habits after writing about habits for years.

Seth Godin has been blogging daily for over a decade.

And Marie Forleo started MarieTV in 2011.

It’s so easy to look at these success stories and think that they’ve just gotten lucky.

But as an entrepreneur, you usually get lucky because opportunities meet years of hard work.

My mind is blown when people tell me they’re afraid of getting bored by doing the same thing for too long.

I’d much rather make a decent income through my work while being good at what I do than constantly doing new, exciting stuff and barely being able to cover my bills.

If you want to create content for a living, you need to shift your perspective and view the boring, repetitive work as the building blocks of your success.

Being good at the boring stuff allows you to have time and energy for exciting opportunities when they arrive.

Doing the same things for years and building authority in my niche helped me to move to a 4-day workweek and only work 25 hours per week.

If I see an exciting opportunity now, I can easily make time for it, but I don’t have to.

I have systems, processes, and funnels set up that allow me to run my business with minimal effort, which gives me the freedom to create and test new ideas.

And to be fair, I find huge satisfaction in knowing that I’m great at what I do, which wouldn’t be possible if I did dozens of different things at the same time.

Final thoughts​

If you’re expecting to become rich overnight, content creation might be the wrong path, and you might be better off at the casino.

But if you’re excited about sharing your ideas, knowledge, and passion with the world, you might fall in love with the journey and make a decent income doing what you love.

Building a content business should allow you to do what you love and build a community of like-minded thinkers.

It’s rarely about doing things perfectly or knowing exactly what every step of the way will look like.

It’s about helping people.

The internet is loud and crowded, and it’s hard to know who to trust and who is making false promises.

There’s an abundance of content, but most of it is useless and repetitive.

If you can focus on genuinely helping people for long enough, you’ll be one of the few to stand out.

And as Derek Sivers beautifully writes:

Please don’t think you need a huge vision. Just stay focused on helping people today.

If I had to start my creator business from scratch, this is what I’d do:

• Commit to one platform to publish your content (Medium, Substack, Linkedin, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram —it doesn’t matter which one you choose as long as it aligns with your strengths, target audience, and goals.)

• Connect with your audience by replying to every comment and reply. These conversations help you better understand why people enjoy your work.

• Put your blinders on and ignore shiny objects for at least a year.

• Build habits that help you create relentlessly, but don’t forget to reflect on what you could do better. Repetition can be worthless if you’re not practicing deliberately.

• And if you want to get paid for your work, think about marketing and sales early on. Great content is worth paying for, but nobody will pay you if you have nothing to sell. As creative minds, we often hate the idea of selling, but luckily, you can sell yourself even if you hate it. And you should.

---

---