How to 2x Your Content Quality For Less Than $10

Your Shopping List For the Grocery Store

• Crayola Markers (or similar)
• Sticky Notes
• White Board (if cheap one is available - mine was $1)
• Sharpie (King Size)
• Tablecloth (1-2, your choice of color)

Simple Methods For Easy Quality Boost

While I was watching a lot of Casey Neistat videos over the last few days, I realized how much untapped potential there is to create better content on Steem.

The average blogger on Steem writes some decent words, slaps a few public source images on it, and calls it a day. I’m guilty of this at times. More ambitious people will create their own videos or images, although even the best Steemians tend to include no more than 1-2 original images per post.

Watching any of Casey’s content shows what is possible. The level of intricate detail and creativity in his vlogs is stunning, it surprised me.

Sometimes you have to see an example of something to realize how obvious it is. In this case, it was a video where he demonstrates all of his video studio stuff, which is mostly homemade. It’s a lot of basic shit - curtains and drawers and light switches arranged in the right way.

Maybe 50% of the technology and gear is completely out of reach for me, but the other 50% is basic dollar store and hardware store kinds of stuff.

That’s what inspired me to go to the dollar store and pick up some basic supplies.

The Key to Original Blog Content Including Images

You have to keep it simple if you want to have all of your content be original. In the past, this eluded me. I was stuck in the “Quality OR Quantity” mindset where I’d figure out ways to do awesome things, but it would take 20 hours for one post.

Now it seems like the key is to build up an awesome home studio where you can do everything you need as efficiently as possible. For me that means being able to use my cell phone / GoPro / laptop camera, take quick photos of things, and draw images IRL. Digital work takes a lot longer for me than it does to write with my hand and snap a photo, as long as I have the right materials.

Going forward, it is no longer acceptable for me to use stock photography. I don’t want that kind of vibe on my blog.

Instead I hope to expand on the kinds of content I can make in my own home so I can churn out creative and interesting content every day for my Steem blog, from music to visuals to words.

On Rushing Towards Better Content

There is a rush and there isn’t a rush.

On There Being No Rush:

Learning and getting better at anything takes time. Sometimes there are long plateaus that lead to tremendous, unpredictable breakthroughs.

The study of “meta-learning” is cool but it has its limits. You can learn to do things efficiently when they have been done before, like learning to cook better or memorize a deck of cards. But if you’re trying to do something new, something based on your own personal passions and unique blend of interests, there is no hope of efficiency.

Creative success doesn’t have a schedule. You can write and create all day every day and have nothing good at the end of the week, or the month, or maybe even the season. Emotionally it is important to not be too results-oriented in the short term.

On There Being a Rush

The potential for social media is immense. There have been so many creative movements in the past based on the search for creative control and the ability to do what the artist wants. Now, it’s possible for artists to do exactly what they want.

You can be yourself, do your own style, and build it up on social media. It’s an incredible opportunity. It might not last forever.

If I do good work 40 out of 52 weeks for each of the next three years, I have 100 productive weeks until I am 30. If I want to reach my goals for that timeframe, each work week between now and then is 1% of my total work.

In that sense there is a huge rush. One percent is a lot when you have big goals and there is a sense of urgency to do something awesome every time.

This motivates me. I like the pressure. Every week is a new battle.

Anybody Can Play The Game

I feel lucky that I’m able to “play the game” of social media creation / influence / popularity. It’s much better to be in a game with rules and points to be earned - even if the rules are dictated by societal forces out of any one person’s control, and are always shifting around - than to be sitting around hoping to get picked by the powers that be.

Making a meaningful 1% step forward in life can be made possible by going to the store with $10 in hand. It’s cool to live in the time of human history where that is true.

If you were going to spend $10 to improve your blog, what would you do?