Consistency is a War
I think consistency is the key, but I can't be consistent long enough to find out.
Anyone else?
My pursuit for Internet gold began in 2006. I’m always about 8 years late for the boom. It’s an unspoken rule. Ava must not know cool things until they are well and truly saturated.
Since then, I have arrived on the shores of SEO, tasted the flavors of Social Media, written millions of words, dove from every new platform I found, launched ships from every new harbor, and lived among the natives of the World Wide Web.
I’ve been educated in many schools of thought. I could rattle off best practices for almost any endeavor online. I could tell you how to do almost anything.
Need a website? Yep.
Need to know about email marketing? Yep.
Need to know about website hosting? Yep.
Need to know which social media sites would be best for your business? Yep.
Need to know what to post on social media? Yep.
I know how to do it all…on multiple platforms.
I used to call myself the “Online Swiss Army Knife”.
Consistency is a war fought over time in daily battles.
If I can’t nail consistency, then how do I know it works?
It works on me.
When I see something over and over again, I notice that, don’t you?
“Good grief, here’s this stupid ad again about the men’s underwear with the separate pocket for, well, you know….”
Why in the blazes I’m seeing it is beside the point because I have no clue about that. When I see it, I know I’ve seen it before.
(That’s kind of a bad example since the subject matter is kind of hard to forget.)
So, if consistency is key, what is the key to consistency?
I think it’s forcing yourself to focus on one platform.
As I was sitting in the quiet this morning jotting notes and thoughts from my fresh morning brain, I was ruminating over a couple of ideas from yesterday:
Serving the audience you already have.
Making money with affiliate marketing.
These two ideas complement and answer each other.
My dilemma with affiliate marketing is always where to find the traffic to show my link to? The audience you already have.
How can I serve the audience I already have? Show them links to relevant products that help them solve their problems.
My largest audience is easily Pinterest. At its highest point, it was 2.8 million monthly views. It’s at about 500K-ish now.
That’s significant. YouTube sends you a fancy plaque for 100K.
But, I’m also trying to do something with X (formerly Twitter) where I have almost 6K followers.
Wait, don’t forget email (you)!
By the way, you’re doing the art thing now, you need to be active on Instagram.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Slow down, Brain, one thing at a time.
Consistency is a one-sided conversation in the beginning and beyond.
Accept this.
There’s no toe in the water, I’m just trying it, mess going on here.
Prepare to have a one-sided conversation with yourself for possibly years…decades even.
I’ve been on X since 2008. I’ve been on Pinterest since 2011 or 2012 maybe.
Consistency is being present over and over again.
But, it’s more than that, too.
If you truly want to create a brand from your online endeavors, and yes, you need a brand in this day and age…more on that later, then you can’t be spouting the same drivel everyone else is talking about.
Say something original. Say it again. Say it until someone hears you.
If “saying” isn’t your thing. Show something.
Eventually, people who resonate with whatever you’re doing will notice your innovative underwear with the pocket for…you know.
Is this making sense? I know this example is kind of cringe, but this is today’s attempt at humor.
The Quick and Dirty Action Steps
Let’s wrap up this scattered mess in a package of clean actionable steps.
Serve the audience you already have. It’s 2024. You most likely have some kind of following somewhere even if it’s mostly friends and family on Facebook. If not, get on either Facebook or X and start adding people. YouTube will show you how.
Share your brand. Your brand is you. Create content every day, multiple times a day centered around you. Whether you write, create art, clean houses, mow lawns, sell shovels, or just ramble about your weird brain…put it out there. You are guaranteed to get ZERO results if you don’t. Create your own possibilities. Share, share, share.
Brainstorm regularly. I start every morning with a pen, a notepad, and a cup of coffee. No computer, no phone, no music…just my fresh morning brain and one simple output. These ideas are your brand. Share, share, share.
Focus, Danielsan! ← I’m old. Keep doing that ^^^ on this ONE platform. I know, I know, you saw a video about posting on LinkedIn and it was compelling, but we are not doing that. We are posting to the audience from Step 1.
Ad nauseum, ad infinitum. Decades. I know. You feel like you might die if you have to post one more thing to these goobers you’ve managed to accrue from Step 1, but this is your tribe. If you’ve said it multiple times and it’s not getting through, next message.
If the first message is really cool and you resonate deeply with it, you can always circle back around from time to time.
There are no rules except: Stick to this one platform. Share your ideas there daily and possibly multiple times per day.Double down on whatever sticks. When you get a response from your tribe, and you will, double down on that message and build off of it. Sure, keep sharing your other ideas and any new ones, but cover the topic that is resonating with your audience thoroughly.
Never give up.
Go, go, go. A gaming friend of mine says this when our team is doing things inside the game, and I just love it.
Final Thoughts
If I had a dollar for every time I felt like giving up, man, I’d be wealthy. I could really make a great living at feeling like giving up.
I just can’t do it though…give up.
We live in an amazing time. Writing is the best skill you can have. It’s better than video. Think about it…the nature of the Internet depends on words, writing, language, and text to serve it’s content to the masses.
That’s not going to change any time soon.
I want to follow you. Where are you creating? Share, share, share in the comments.
Here’s a few of my links:
https://x.com/QuietDLUX
If consistency and self-esteem could be best buds that would be great! I post on all those social media platforms then go back and delete it when it doesn't get engagement. lol