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@mattpocock
Last active April 26, 2024 10:25
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Advice for people trying to be helpful on the internet

I get asked a lot about how you 'grow an audience'.

Here's what worked for me.

It might not work for you.

  • Be helpful so often, and so effectively, that people start asking you questions. X is a great platform for this.
  • Provide resources which are high-quality and accurate enough that people share them with their work Slack.
  • Serve one community. If you're just starting out, pick a small community - perhaps based around your favourite library. I started on XState (small) and moved to TypeScript (big).
  • Create content with tips that blow people's minds. Or, teach them something new quickly.
  • When the first person asks you "do you sell a course?", start building a course.
  • Don't start by streaming. Streams are for building a community from your an existing audience, not creating a new one.
  • If you're screencasting, make your font size so large that it can be read on a mobile phone.
  • Developers respect their time. Make your videos shorter. Summarize your articles at the top. Add chapters to your YouTube videos. Optimize for people skimming your content.
  • Don't bet big on a single piece of content. Ship many small things. Monitor the feedback, and adjust your sails accordingly.
  • Build internal processes which make those resources faster to produce without sacrificing quality.
    • Automate as much as possible, including video editing and proofreading with AI. Every second counts.
    • Experiment with different types of media, prioritizing those which are good enough and fast to produce.
@Timmoth
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Timmoth commented Aug 26, 2023

Great points!
I'd love to get some insight into how you address point 3 yourself

Build internal processes which make those resources faster to produce without sacrificing quality.

@Meligy
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Meligy commented Aug 27, 2023

+1 to Timmoth. That's a very interesting point. Thanks a lot for sharing all of them.

@mattpocock
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@Timmoth Added, thanks!

@Balastrong
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What is working for me so far is being passionate about the topics I talk about.

I think just following trends to get more "numbers" is not sustainable long term.
Besides, putting passion in your content actually makes it more enjoyable for your audience, we're not robots after all

@mattpocock
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@Balastrong Yep, passion is table stakes.

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