Content is a dirty word for a lot of people. It’s earned its infamy as far as I’m concerned. I’ve seen too many people burn themselves out creating content or feel bad because they don’t create enough content. That feeling is exacerbated further by the modern AI content farms that have become the norm on the internet. I was managing the San Diego Summer Game Jam a couple of weeks ago as part of my duties as a board member of the IGDA (International Game Developers Association) local chapter. There is not much to do once the jam starts, so the attending board members usually chat and work on personal projects. While chatting one of my colleagues shared that his business advisor told him that using AI to post blogs 3-4 times a day was the only way to stand out in the content game. Everyone at the table had to pause for a moment to process what was just said.
I completely reject that idea. I believe that the whole point of content is to provide value and connection. While I can’t deny that there is a business advantage to producing more products at a faster rate than your competitors I don’t think that should be everyone’s goal. If everyone else is trying to be fast food then I would rather be a steak house.
Fast food and fast content has its place. I eat fast food when I need something cheap and quick but that’s not always what I need. Sometimes I need the meat sweats and at high quality. That’s what you should strive to give your readers. So much meat that they sweat after.
How do you do that? Well for starters you need to be genuine. The internet is starved of people just being real. It’s harder than you think. There is something inherent to being human that makes us put on a mask in social/parasocial situations. That’s okay and normal. It just takes practice, like any other skill. The other aspect you have to master is stewardship. Remember, people are reading your content for their own reasons. They are in need of something so help them out.
I recommend two books if you want to get a hand on ethical content. One is Epic Content Marketing, Second Edition by Joe Pulizzi and Brian W. Piper. It does a great job of breaking down content marketing and how to fit it into your business. There is a brilliant part in it that breaks down the difference between content marketing vs regular blogging. The other book is Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon. You can probably tell this by the title but it’s all about killing two birds with one stone and making capturing content during your work.
To be honest you can probably get everything you need to know from the last one in a blog post or YouTube video. The first would probably take a few videos. It’s more like a textbook.
