10 Things I Wish I Knew About Content Creation Before I Started
Hi, I’m Katie – I was a full-time travel blogger before AI kinda messed up the online articles space, and now I’m trying my hand at creating short-form videos. Here are 10 things I wish I had known before I started:
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Repurpose Your Content: But Know How Different Platforms Try to Prevent that
Repurposing your content is a great strategy because you can publish the same video on TikTok, IG Reels, Pinterest, and YouTube shorts, and it will perform wildly differently depending on the platform. Platforms don’t like it when you repurpose your content and share it, so here’s how I’ve gotten around that:
Limitations on Repurposing Content on Different Platforms
- No platforms push out videos with watermarks. I’ve had TikTok flag my OWN content I downloaded from IG before as breaking copyright with a watermark.
- You can download videos without watermarks from TikTok but only when the video is a draft, but sometimes it glitches and won’t include text.
- TikTok throttles their videos when you do this. This. Is. So. Frustrating. They’ve messed with the frame rate so if you try to re-share videos edited on TikTok to Instagram you will have an odd ugly lag for the first few seconds.
- TikTok lets you download sounds with their videos, but IG doesn’t. If you’re using a copyrighted song vs. an original sound I recommend not downloading the songs with your videos to avoid Youtube Copyright Strikes.
- TikTok lets you sync sounds to videos, but Instagram doesn’t – this makes TikTok the “best” video editing platform, but since they ruin the beginning of the videos you download from them it’s kinda useless.
- YouTube Shorts doesn’t let you download videos but it also has the worst editor out of all platforms, so you probably won’t want to!
Know the IMPORTANT Differences Between Platforms
While it’s good to repurpose content, there are different audiences on different platforms. IG and Pinterest are more aesthetic, TikTok is more personal talking-head style videos, and YouTube shorts are only 60 seconds max (which gets annoying because TikTok videos can only be monetized if they’re over 60 seconds long).
Katie’s Tips ✶
Geographical Limitations: I traveled to India and saw my content do much better on YouTube Shorts than TikTok, probably because TikTok is banned in India.
Know When It’s Just a Vanity Metric
I just hit my first 100 subscribers on YouTube after uploading some shorts – great right? Not exactly. The YouTubers Reddit community explained to me that subscribers off of shorts almost never translate to long-form video watchers, which is where YouTubers actually earn their ad revenue (AKA Money). I had a similar issue on IG when I allowed the platform to “share my reels on Facebook”. I was getting tens of thousands of views, but this wasn’t translating to IG growth because all the viewers were on another platform. So, while some metrics feel good, they might not necessarily be helping you earn money.
The Algorithm Changes. Now TikTok is Harder to Grown on Than Instagram
I have around 5,000 followers on TikTok from when I made a handful of videos in 2021 that all blew up to get hundreds of thousands of views. The algo is totally different now, and I get a couple hundred views on videos I work way harder on (if I’m lucky). It’s not all bad, the same videos I’m posting on TikTok to get practically no views are performing pretty well on YouTube Shorts. All this to say – the algo changes and preferences change – you do have to keep pivoting and adapting to current trends because what would earn someone a following two years ago no longer is cutting it.
Monetization Thresholds
The threshold to get monetized (for ad revenue) varies across platforms. Some people make absurd amounts of money, but that’s usually only with huge followings or lots of viral videos. Right now to join TikTok Creator Fund you need 10,000 followers and have 100,000 video views in the last 30 days. For YouTube, you need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. Lots of creators have one video that goes mega-viral that they don’t get $1 off of because they don’t meet requirements.
Technicalities
I started a new TikTok while I was traveling for a fresh start and had to delete it and re-activate my old one because I learned that you can never join the TikTok Creator Fund if your TikTok account was created outside the USA. That’s right – even if you’re an American Citizen. It will never ever be allowed to earn ad revenue unless the rules change. I want to start a horror movie review on TikTok and now I have to wait until I go home for a friend’s wedding to establish the channel due to bizarre technicalities like this.
Katie’s Tips ✶
TikTok videos under 1 minute aren’t eligible for ad revenue, so it’s in your best interest to push all videos to 1 minute and 1 second, just in case!
USA Audience is the Most Valuable
This is true for any type of content creation you want to pursue – the ad spend and basically, all metrics of value emphasize the importance of a US Audience. This is because Americans spend the most money on nonsense. I was actually rejected by some advertising partners on my website because my US readers percentage wasn’t high enough – so if you’re trying to choose what type of content you want to create, a SE Asia travel blog like what I do won’t be nearly as valuable as a Florida or USA National Parks one.
You Don’t Need Any Fancy Camera Gear
Trust me – as someone who bought the drone and $3,000 camera when they started out, all you need is a phone. Unless you want to create content around videography and photography, your success depends on your ability to relate to people, not spectacular images. I recommend trying for 6 months to a year with just your phone to see how far you get before investing in anything like a drone, because probably by the time you get a bit of traction, you’d want whatever newer model had just come out anyway. My drone from 2020 feels a bit clunky and ancient compared to the newer models, but I never did anything important with it.
Just Post.
I find it so much easier to post on TikTok or YouTube, versus my main IG where all my friends from high school and college can see (and judge). This is something I still struggle with and am trying to overcome, but the truth is, if someone thinks you’re lame they are going to think that whether you post on IG or not.
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