I’m normally just browsing the Facebook groups and not engaging too much – but last night I saw a post from Dan Norris in the 7 Day Startup group about the 10x Challenge. Here’s what he said:
Dan Norris
Sunday Feb 26, 2017THE 10X CONTENT CHALLENGE
In my first 5 years of doing content marketing, out of half a million words in blog posts, countless audio interviews, videos, illustrations, ebooks and more, I didn’t create a single piece of content that got more than 10 likes or shares.
My latest business, BOREDaf, has created 5 videos that have had over 150,000 views on Facebook and YouTube channels created completely from scratch. Of course my platform and my audience has played a part in it but to me, the videos have gone well because they are different and interesting and quite frankly my other content wasn’t good enough, wasn’t different enough, didn’t stretch me enough, was too comfortable.
I think the biggest mistake with Content Marketing is that people spend too much time creating content that isn’t interesting enough to other people to get traction. Entrepreneurs are blasted with the message that if it’s not working, just work harder. There’s merit to that, but with content sometimes you don’t know what’s going to work, so you have to experiment.
So with that in mind, I have a challenge for you (and for me).
This week, let’s create 10 completely different pieces of content and put our assumptions to the side. You’ll have to create things that you don’t think will work. You might be right. You might be wrong.
Here’s how (I think) it will work:
* If you want to join in, reply below “I’m in”,
* Do your best to brainstorm 10 unique pieces of content you can produce this week. I’ll do the same in a new thread I’ll post tomorrow and you can add yours
* Whenever you produce some content, post it in the group for feedback
* At the end of the week I’ll post in here and we can report back on how we went and if there was anything unexpected.
If you are keen to have a crack, let me know in the comments.
Dan
So I am taking him up on the offer “I’m in” and I will be working on 10 pieces of content this week. Actually there are a few that I already have ready in the pipeline, but will be pushing harder to get a few more pieces out – here’s the lineup:
Mike’s Vlog 75 – Baby Swimming and Vlog Change Announcement
Mike’s Vlog 76 – Tell Me What You Want To Know, Content Challenge
Mike’s Vlog 77 – Do You Have Yellow Fever?
Global From Asia Podcast 164 – One Year After Starting Amazon FBA with Chris Davey
Global From Asia Blog:
Global From Asia Newsletter
Mike’s Vlog 78 – Differences Between Hong Kong and China
Mike’s Vlog 79 – Do What’s Right For Your Kids
GFA Marketplace Listing: Start a Chinese Website
GFA Marketplace Listing: Get Chinese Translation on 5 E-Commerce Product Listings
GFA Marketplace Listing: Legal Contract Help For Your Manufacturing Order in China
That is actually 11 – so I have a buffer of 1 – the hard ones are those video blogs – but all of them take time to get out into the world. Think the biggest weakness I have is that I am not PUSHING / PROMOTING them enough – people who do read the blogs, watch the videos, listen to the podcasts say that it is amazing content.
But I will be working on getting them out to the world more in the coming weeks and months. There is actually something exciting coming with the GFA marketplace, this is he first time I have even mentioned it in a blog post.
Update on the Content Challenge
Update on the 10x Content Challenge – Saturday March 4, 2017
So, even though it was a hectic week with Cross Border Summit coming up and other developments – I managed to keep on track with the content.
Here’s what I ended up making
Do You Have Yellow Fever – this got some positive reactions on Google + and Youtube – didn’t post in Facebook (kind of shy)
Where Will You Live The Rest Of Your Life ? A video response to a question about if I will live in China for the rest of my life
Global From Asia Newsletter – tried to keep it engaging and interactive by giving updates on the color changes in the background.
Virtual Reality in Hong Kong – did this for Barron Asia, a VR agency -got huge positive response inside the team but yet to be listed. They said I make them look famous
Hong Kong vs China – this was an experiment on a more “business blog video” on my personal channel and Facebook page. People really liked it – my Youtube viewers said this was their favorite video yet – PLUS the funny thing is I spent the LEAST amount of time making this one out of any other video. Trying to figure out what people liked, but they seem to like the business and education video over my personal life and updates one. One watcher said I should post a ration of 2:1, business:personal/family video content.
GFA blog – actually finally let a guest blogger post on my behalf – trying to leverage guest writers to save some time from content and follow Dan’s book on a true content machine. Been blogging there for over 3 years and getting more and more guest post email requests. Working on systematizing it.
GFA Marketplace listings – jeez, this was a huge part of my time, working on a new platform for help in the Asia market, and writing up the services myself for now. It is ike 10 listings with over 1,000 words each – rocking it out this week. BUT on the system requirement sides, we are building a whole new backend based on feedback from service providers.
Not sure if I can keep up this pace of content creation each week, but these spurts do get cool feedback and it lets me get a bit creative and try new things. Thanks Dan for pushing me to do it.