how to become a content creator

level: beginner

so i heard you want to start posting on the internet 🤳🏽 in today’s newsletter, i’m sharing my tips on how to become a content creator as well as what i learned from my 2 case studies of going viral. this is a beginner’s guide but i’ll be sharing more in-depth information as time goes on!

1. identify your purpose

what do you want to achieve with your content? i know this is a very general question but truly - what is your content’s purpose? a lot of people say ‘niche down’ or to stick to one niche, but i completely disagree. i like to post what i like to call a variety show. here’s my case study —

the first time i went viral was from a shopping haul that i posted on TikTok. the feeling of going viral is a huge dopamine hit and the comedown can be detrimental (we’ll unpack this in another newsletter) but i was elated that my TikTok hit 100k views. my phone was blowing up every minute and i was like ‘wait am i an influencer?’ lol. i was so excited that i started posting more shopping hauls to maintain engagement without a clear purpose as to what i wanted to achieve with content. i got so caught up in the followers and the views and over the course of just a few months, that dopamine hit wore off and i felt like a sell out. did these people follow me because they actually like me or did they just love the hauls and the shopping?

i already knew the answer to that question and my engagement began to tank when i started posting other niches of content like my routines, home content and ‘get ready with me’s’. why would they care when all i posted was shopping hauls to get views and followers?

my engagement was dead so i decided to start over. i deleted my content from my account and removed majority of my followers except for people that knew me irl or was my mutual on other platforms. i started posting again with the clear purpose of building community and wanting to show multiple niches that i’m interested in.

after posting with little to no engagement from starting over, my apartment TikTok went viral and hit 2.8 million views. it’s still my most viral video yet and that video alone changed the course for my TikTok account. being that i learned my lesson the first time, i started batch filming content for the niches that flow naturally to me:

• wellness

• fashion

• beauty

• home

• travel

• books

with my account blowing up from the video, i had people engaged not just with my apartment tour TikTok but also with grwm’s, outfits of the day videos, home content and wellness content. in just one month i went from 250 followers to 10,000 followers that were engaged in multiple niches - not just my apartment content. i’ve been posting a ‘variety show’ ever since and i now have a community of 46,000 followers on my TikTok.

we can go down the rabbit hole with this case study in another newsletter but the moral of this story is don’t put yourself in a box. i know a lot of social media gurus say to niche down and focus on one thing, and while i agree that you should focus on one thing while starting out - you should definitely expand your content as you go to show your audience more. my favorite influencers and creators post multiple niches of content and i love seeing their personality shine because of it.

take some time to figure out what niches you would like to post and from there, brainstorm some content ideas in each category like this: