What Kind of Content Creator is Best For You?

Hi there, creator! Welcome to my newsletter! My name is Oren, and this is how I will refer to you here: Creator. Whether you created something is irrelevant—the fact you’re here and learning is what’s important.

I want to start our journey with a story in today’s post.

The First Pillar of Content Creation

The year is 2011. I have just started a website. My first. I called it Alive2Play. Back then, I was big in the forums and loved the now-defunct Blizzforums.com - an online forum for Blizzard Entertainment fans. I was a huge StarCraft fan.

There was something about writing for the forum that felt satisfying to me. It wasn’t the “clout” or “reputation” that came with writing posts. It was about building. I’m not sure what I was building back then, but I wanted to build something.

When I opened Alive2Play, I did it from a place of building again. But it was a skewed vision. I didn’t think about my reader as much back then as I thought about building. Websites could be private or could be bustling with activity. I wanted mine to be active with comments from people, but I didn’t know what drew people to websites in the first place.

From there, I learned the first pillar of content creation and the one shared by all paths of it - Service. You create in service of your reader, viewer, and listener. You create for them.

I can give a more recent example: This very newsletter. I create because I want to help people. I won’t lie to you by saying I don’t want to make money. I do. I’m open about wanting to escape the rat race. And I’m doing so because I have experiences that can help content creators. After all, I did it for so long.

Finding Your Intersection With Service

Creating content you’re not excited about will make you miserable. You might do it for a week, two weeks, a month - but can you sustain something you are not compelled to do, like a day job? For most of us, the answer is no.

My native language is Hebrew. Over the years, I tried to open many websites in that language. However, knowing that the potential audience was much smaller deterred me from being excited about my creation.

I wanted to talk about video games, movies, and more. But most Hebrew speakers turn to American websites to read anyway. The younger generation uses YouTube and TikTok. I wanted to nerd out and tried doing that in Hebrew, but eventually, I quit.

I also tried discussing content creation in Hebrew, but that didn’t succeed either. I was not passionate about creating in it, and I burned out.

Doing these things was worth it. Some would say it’s a waste of time, but I realized what I didn’t want to do by starting those websites and diving into the goal. That narrows the path forward. Now, I only do things in English.

Once I locked in on English, I started trying the different types of content creation in it. I tried an audio podcast, a blog, a YouTube channel, TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram.

Of all those experiments, the only one that became a reality for me was my video podcast. I started it under my name and later renamed it Geek Peek. It has almost 4000 subscribers on YouTube as of the time of writing these words.

It’s the only experiment I feel is effortless to stay consistent, too.

The podcast’s premise is easy: I find nerds, and we peek into their lives. I had just recently crossed 40 interviews on the channel. It’s not 40 different people, but they are varied enough that I have a pretty impressive list of guests on the podcast.

So, how should you find your intersection of service and passion? Experiment, and a lot. But I’m not here to make you repeat the same mistakes I did.

Let’s dive into a short exercise I mentioned in my book to help discover what you’ll enjoy making faster.

Exercise: Discover What Content You Like to Make

The exercise is simple. Answer these three questions on a piece of paper, and then we can interpret your answers:

1. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

2. Are you talkative or pretty quiet?

3. Do you mind being on camera or not?

Simple, right? Let’s dive into interpreting your answers!

If you are:

• An introvert who is talkative and doesn’t like being on camera - start a blog.

• An extrovert who is talkative and doesn’t like being on camera - start a podcast.

• An introvert who is quiet and doesn’t like being on camera - start a newsletter.

• An extrovert who is quiet and doesn’t like being on camera - maybe host Twitter Spaces where you host the space for other people to talk (Or equivalent. Remember Clubhouse?).

• An introvert who is talkative and likes being on camera - Create long-form YouTube videos.

• An introvert who is quiet and likes being on camera - Create Reels, shorts, or TikToks where you don’t need to talk too much.

• An extrovert who is talkative and likes being on camera - Create YouTube live streams.

• An extrovert who is quiet and likes being on camera - Create short YouTube videos (not shorts or TikToks, just short 3-5 minute videos).

To recap, there are a few paths open to you right now:

• Blogging.

• Newsletter-writing.

• Podcasting.

• YouTube creating.

• Short-form creator.

• Twitter spaces or equivalent.

• Live-streaming.

If you know me enough time, you’ll note that I don’t fit this exercise. I consider myself an introvert. I am talkative when passionate about something, and I’m way better on camera when I don’t know it’s there. According to the exercise, I should have started a blog (and I did). But things change, too. My first interviews were horrible. Today I’m much better, much more relaxed, too.

You can also get here, but you need to start somewhere. Preferably with what you’re passionate about doing.

What Next?

Now that you know what you want to do, it’s time to take action. What kind of action? I will talk about that in the next post in the newsletter. Stay tuned!

If you have any questions, let me know by either pinging me on social media or commenting below: