096- Stop Creating Content!

I'm a big dreamer and an ideas person. But today I'm going to tell you to stop creating content! Yes. I said it. Stop. Keep reading (or listen to the podcast) to learn why AND what you should do instead. A big thanks to our sponsor, Ambition Ally, the makers of PopUpAlly Pro! Stop Creating Content I'm the kind of person who loves to START. If I could hire a team of finishers, I would be the most productive person on the planet. I have half-finished books everywhere-- both books I'm reading and books I'm WRITING. I like to paint and I have half-finished paintings stacked up against the wall in one room. I even have a half-finished hallway. So creating content is my jam. I DO finish blog posts (though I have a ton of drafts in my lifestyle blog, waiting for an image or a few more paragraphs) because they are shorter. As a lover of starts, I can just keep on churning out blog posts. I used to post every day of the week, multiple times a DAY. Then I moved down to once a day, seven days a week. Then five days. Then three days. Then one day a week. And you know what? My pageviews didn't drop. (Not until I became a blogging derelict and stopped posting weekly at all...) There are two main problems with creating so much content: You get stuck on a hamster wheel of creation and feel like you can't stop. You don't give each piece of content the attention it deserves. The Hamster Wheel of Content Creation When you create content over a period of weeks, months, or years, sometimes you get to a point where it's like the schedule owns YOU instead of the other way around. If you've ever ruined a vacation because of your blog, you know what I mean. (Yep. I've done it.) It's time to stop creating content when the content owns YOU.  If there is guilt when you don't post every day. Or every week. Maybe you should STOP. Take a breath. Take a break. Remind your content who is boss. (Spoiler alert: it's YOU.) If you feel constantly behind and stressed and rushing for a deadline or to get that Instagram post up at just the right time, then maybe you should stop creating content. I don't mean forever, by the way. I'll get to that later. Being a Good Steward of Gondor...and Your Content One other way you may know you need to stop creating content is if you are not giving each piece of content the love it deservers. If you are rushing to post. Not proofing. Not creating awesome content because you don't have time and just want that post up. Or if you don't have time to promote the content. Because let's be honest: this isn't 2007. If you create content and write a blog post, people DON'T just come. (Unless you rock your SEO and Fred-- the new Google update-- doesn't hate you.) You must promote posts for people to find them. If you aren't promoting your content well, then you are just tossing it into the abyss. Don't waste your content. Share your content well so that it gets the attention it deserves. This means that you need to set up some kind of system by which you are constantly sharing your content and promoting it. (More on that in a minute.) If you aren't being a good steward and sharing your already existing content, maybe it's time to stop creating content. Stop Creating Content and Do THIS Instead If it's time to stop creating content (even for a bit), here are two big things you can do instead. Repurpose existing content Set up an evergreen sharing system for your content I love, love love repurposing content. It can be a fine art. I'm going to share a few really helpful posts on that here instead of going into detail in this post. Repurpose existing content into a paid product. Read my post, listen to episode 90, and download the free case study on how I took a few live trainings that were free and turned them into over $1500 worth of income. Update old content to increase traffic. This post from Becky and Paula goes into great detail about how you can update old posts to see more results. It's super detailed from your title to the amount of whitespace in your post! The point of repurposing existing content is to take something that is already working and make it work better. Do more with it. Change and tweak rather than starting from scratch. It saves you time and it makes better use of your old posts. Which brings me to the second thing you can do instead of creating new content. In order to be a good steward of your content, you should set up an evergreen sharing system. This is not simply scheduling every week in something like Hootsuite or Buffer. This is setting up automation that means your posts will keep on sharing after you set it up ONCE. (Read more about the difference between automation and scheduling.) You can use tools like Social Jukebox (which I use), Recurpost, or Meet Edgar to create sort of content libraries with your links and images and even how you want to word the post itself. Set a schedule of how often you want it to post and where, and then YOU'RE DONE. For Pinterest, you can use something like Tailwind or Board Booster. These aren't quite automation, but close. You can set things up for a long time and even loop things in Board Booster. You are not being a good steward of your content if you aren't sharing it well. Unless you want your blog to be a diary that only you read, you need to get it in front of people. This should happen with the double-edged sword of SEO and social promotions. If you aren't doing these things for your current content, maybe you should stop creating content until you have a system in place. So...what do you think? Are you on board with this movement to stop creating content? Are you treating your current content well?