How to Grow An Audience in 2024
According to Ali Abdaal (5M subs on YouTube) “Creating content is not so much a ‘creativity thing’, it’s more a ‘systems, processes and SOPs’ thing.” - Ali Abdaal “I only write when creativity strikes. Fortunately it strikes at nine every morning” - William Faulkner Ali Abdaal, among many other creatives, don’t seem to have struggles to come up with ideas. They have systems and frameworks in place to make sure they never go blank. This is how Ali Abdaal does it. # Generating Content Ideas Before coming up with content ideas you need to define your niche. You can do this by defining your: - Target (who am I creating content for?) - Value (what do I teach/give them?) For example, if you’re a marketing agency owner you could: teach other marketing agency owners how to grow their business. Or target DTC brand managers and teach them how to use TikTok ads to level up their DTC campaigns. So even with the same business you can explore very different niches. After defining your niche you can generate ideas by answering the following questions: - What are all the different content buckets of ideas? - What’s popular on blogs that are targeting that audience? - What are the other YouTube channels in the space? Check their videos that have gone viral (Viral Replication) *Viral Replication* How to apply “Viral Replication” on YouTube: 1. Search similar channels in the same niche 2. Look for videos that went viral by sorting videos by views 3. Copy the title and thumbnail of another piece of content that worked and replicate that in your own way # Finding Your Unfair Advantage Go very niche down. Ask yourself the question: “How do I add value to people that I’m comfortable I can add value to?”. Use the “10% Edge” of Amy Porterfield: Who is the audience that you’re 10% ahead of that you can show the path forward to, and be a guide rather than a guru. When Ali started out he used the “Gary V” style, document not create. He just documented his journey and taught what he learned. Ali transformed into different niches from time to time. He started teaching how to get into med school for specific universities, then he slowly focussed on how to study for exams, and after he received tons of questions about how he manages his time doing all this, he transitioned to productivity where he’s known for today. Notice that he started very niched down, and slowly moved to more broader topics.