I am facing a conundrum. I have called it ‘The Content Creator Conundrum’. If you are a content creator, perhaps you have faced it as well. It is the ever present tension between writing content that you are passionate about, and writing content that boosts your analytics and engagement. This is the content creator conundrum.
An illustration
Let me illustrate from my own experience. I write about productivity. This is my broad area of interest. My passion within that is to look at deeper issues that affect it. To help people consider what is important and to consider some of the systemic issues that can impact all of this. These are things that often take a lot longer to unpick and are much harder to address. Within that, I am a Christian and I love to examine the relationship between our theology and desire to live as a Christian, and how that impacts our approach to getting things done. This is my passion.
My most successful posts are ones like ‘How to turn your phone into a productivity powerhouse’ and ‘How I use my tablet to boost my productivity’. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed writing these posts and I do believe that these kind of top tips or quick hacks content can be very helpful. But, it’s not my passion and it’s small fry compared to some of the bigger issues.
It’s not just The Content Creator Conundrum
The truth is that this phenomenon is not limited to content creation. It is true in Christian Books as well. I could say a lot more about this but I will be brief. The vast majority of Christian Books being written at the moment are the short, accessible introductions to the whatever hot topic of Christian living might interest the target audience. This is not a bad thing. However, it is engaging with theology that is the only thing that can bring about deep and lasting change.
So this is the conundrum. Do I write about what I am passionate about? What I genuinely believe will be the most helpful for the people that read? Or do I shift to writing more of the content that boosts the analytics?
The only answer to the conundrum
I am thankful to others for this answer. The answer is to write about the things that you are passionate about. To write with authenticity and honesty. And then, to not worry about the analytics. Of course, this is easier said than done, but this is the path we must choose.
