If you are a small creator (less than 5k followers), it’s super difficult to get noticed in a sea of noise. Plus it’s frustrating because not only you are trying your best, but you also see other big creators posting stuff like ‘Culture is Everything’ and getting 50,000 likes.

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And then you think to yourself: ‘Is it even worth it?’
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Believe me, it’s worth it.

But you need a concrete strategy to cut through the noise.
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By the end of today’s issue, you will have learned 3 powerful ways to get noticed as a small creator, regardless of your niche.

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Let’s get started.

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1. Go Deeper: If you have been actively consuming content for a while, you know there’s an abundance of creators who post content like Motivational stuff (Success comes to those who work for it), Tips everyone knows (Want to lose weight? Start exercising) and News copied pasted from a New York Times article.

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These types of posts get engagement but will be forgotten in the next few hours or so.

Just ask yourself, how much of the content pieces you consumed yesterday, still remember now?

Now you know.

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Here’s a quote from Brian Chesky that deeply resonated with me as a creator:

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But Areeb, people don’t have time and attention spans are decreasing.

Everyone’s focused on short-form content, not the long form.

Going deeper takes effort. And you shouldn’t feel entitled to have the attention of everyone just by creating short-form surface-level content.

Don’t get me wrong, short-form is important, but long-form is where audiences turn into super fans.

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3 formats for long-form: Podcast, YouTube video, and Articles on Medium/LinkedIn.

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Advantage: Short-form can be trimmed from long-form easily. And you don’t have to think of putting out content daily as well.

1 long-form in-depth piece of content can be repurposed into 7 short-form pieces.

​Dan Koe is a great example who goes deeper in his newsletter.

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2. Curate Content: I never thought about curation until last year, when Ankur Warikoo recommended this format, while I was a student of Graphy Select Cohort.

The idea is simple. You go out and collect ideas you like, make them relevant and present them to your audience.

But Areeb, isn’t that copying?

Nope, that’s not copying and neither do I encourage you to copy.

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As I mentioned earlier, there’s a lot of content being pumped on any platform.

People want to consume content not only that’s valuable, but also from someone who has social proof.

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Initially, as a small creator, you won’t have much social proof, and that’s where you can leverage the brand (and audience) of other bigger creators on the platform.

• You could collect ideas from a book and make a summary.
• You could synthesize learnings from someone’s blog, and present them visually as Sachin Ramje did.
• Or you could also make a list of top 10 books/podcasts/videos on a specific topic like Evan Carmichael.

The iterations are literally endless!

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Remember to tag the creator on your post/tweet.

That way, you will have a chance to get noticed by the creator and their audience too.

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3. Pick a micro-niche:

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I know, picking a micro-niche is super scary.

‘What if this doesn’t work out?’

‘What is I start liking something else?’

Don’t worry, I have been there.

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There’s a difference between the content you are going to create and the services you are going to provide.

I believe you are creating content with a goal in mind to earn money.

(If it’s just a hobby, please unsubscribe. I won’t have any hard feelings. Just want to serve the people who deeply care about content creation)

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The content you create could be around video, but services could be ultra-specific.

Still, there needs to be cohesiveness in your content.

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One day even if you want to talk about fitness that’s fine. But think of creative ways you could connect fitness with video.

Example: 'Video editing is daunting because you’re sitting on a chair editing for 12+ hrs. It’s important to take care of your fitness, otherwise, you’d end up gaining weight, and feeling unproductive and it will get more difficult to focus as well'.

See what I did there? Now you can do this too!

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You might also argue that creators like MKBHD and Ali Abdaal are talking about everything under the sun.

But, if you take a look at their earliest videos, both of them were making specific videos. Ali on medical exams and Marques on remotes, tutorials, software, screens etc.

My recommendation is: Go specific first and once you have amassed a decent following, you can feel free to go broad.

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So, to summarize, these are the 3 powerful ways to get noticed as a small creator:
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1. Go Deeper (explain in depth)
2. Curate Content (from bigger creators)
3. Pick a Micro-Niche (Become a master of one rather than a jack of all trades)​
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You can check my YouTube channel where you will get videos on content creation: https://www.youtube.com/c/areebirshad
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Have a great weekend!

Areeb

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