Becoming a WordPress content creator

I know I'm spending 15 percent more, but I don't want to be in the store doing it.

and just talking about maybe the way the, the lay of the land and, what's working, what's not, at least from our two perspectives and what we want to see, from, you know, other content creators that are out there, like What are they doing? How are they approaching this stuff? And maybe we have some, particular feedback.

for me at the WP minute, I'll just kick off with one of the things that I've been, pontificating about and really came up with my friend, Corey, when we were talking about, stress as an entrepreneur, and Corey was also in the WordPress still is, I mean, he still is a, an owner stakeholder in, in post status, but now he has a full time gig at a two. this whole WordPress content thing, especially for us old folks who've been doing it now for over a decade.

it's challenging because what I've found is one, Everybody has a newsletter, which is great. Like I love the fact that everyone's publishing content and doing this thing. but everyone has a newsletter, everyone's doing their link sharing, like, like I was doing at the WP minute when it first started. everyone's got a YouTube channel now, or I think everyone's exploring the idea of starting a YouTube channel. I'd love for people to explore more of the audio experience.

And maybe we can talk about that, in a moment, but everyone's doing it. And it's making it harder for those of us who have been in the space to retain the audience.

And especially the audience that I serve, which is I call the fortune 5, 000 of WordPress because I think there's only 5, 000 English speaking people or 10, 000 English speaking people across, the entire world, maybe 5, 000 of them being in the, U. S. or U. K. area, and, it's becoming real challenging because there's just a lot more options for people. And maybe people are burned out at the same time of, like, tuning in to WordPress content.

and you have an interesting perspective because you have your Your thing and your YouTube channel your newsletter, and you're doing it much more from like hey, I'm learning wordpress I'm trying to make a living with this stuff and learning the fun cool stuff with wordpress So it's still kind of exciting to you. I think not to put words in your mouth

I know exactly what he's gonna think next You know, he's gonna run into this because he's learning XYZ and then the next thing is, you know I learned this back when whenever right like I you know in Like in the in the come up days of whatever but I think the landscape has changed You In WordPress, from what I've seen historically, been a little bit personal, like, had personal experience with, and then also, you know, like, things that you've talked about, things that I've heard, things that

I've just, you know, discovering the history of it. I think definitely a lot has changed, and I think we're in a real interesting time now where, again, we talk about it all the time, there's like, other things out there, there's other options. which that's a separate topic in and of itself, but it does play into the idea of like, okay, well, there's a ton more content now. It's always going to be like this too. There's just going to be more and more YouTube content.

There's going to be more and more whatever. And it's important to kind of like, you know, you got to somehow differentiate, which just gets more tough as things get more saturated, as these channels get more saturated and such.

And then the only other thing that I was thinking about just from the, from the initial, you know, Overview you gave there is I think I've said this before In a world that's becoming more and more artificial It's more important than ever to become become like as authentic as possible And that is there's a couple ways that I sliced that but one of the ways is specifically that everything that I've seen in this community and elsewhere is Everybody is like going back to like having the personal

branding aspect of a lot of things And that's one thing that i've leaned into and I think people connect with other people They connect with brands too, you know in communities as well for certain but like it's like There's just something about that that i've that i've taken into consideration So if you are going to start, you know, if you're out there and you're listening you want to start making content I would at first I would just recommend just doing it under yourself Like just say you

don't need to you don't need to over complicate that part. Just like be like hey You I'm so and so, I work with this stuff, here's what I'm doing, here's what I'm interested in, and people will ultimately start to find you, because that's the one good thing about the space we're in now. The algorithms are pretty good. Like, I mean, if you put out, like, half decent stuff about, like, a specific topic, they will recommend that to people. Not overnight, but it will happen.

So the tools are just getting better, easier, faster, you know, and like connecting up to these social networks. There's so much opportunity in like repurposing content where I was looking back at my original YouTube videos that I started from my studio, you know, 11 years ago. And, Like my first video was recording a review of gravity forms, you know, which I work at full time these days. So it's, it's kind of funny how that came full circle.

But back then I was trying to do it full, you know, air quotes, full high quality production. You know, we had a, we had a whole studio. We had, we were a photo studio and a web studio at the same time. So we did a lot of video and photo back then. And, I remember. You're recording it with a Nikon DSLR camera, and I could only get 15 minutes on an SD card, right? Like, that's, that's as long as I could record because that's as big as the SD cards were.

And then I had to, like, import all of that data into a laptop, which could barely handle it, because these things were just not, like, you needed a 10, 000 computer, literally, back then, to edit those videos, where now, You can do it on your iPhone right now. I have like 8, 000 worth of Sony equipment sitting back in my home office and I'm using my iPhone right now as the camera.

It drives me nuts that I've spent so much money, you know, for, you know, an effect that is not dramatically different compared to like what I can do with this, you know, 1, 000 iPhone camera. Also laughable, but, you know, the world has changed in content creation and it's great that. Lots of people can get into it. my biggest criticism, I don't have a direct question here, but I love your thoughts on it.

My biggest criticism has always been, I want people to get started, but I don't want people giving up, right? Like I want people to at least do it for a year, like at least commit yourself to a year because at minimum, Like, that's the only, only timeline that I know of where you actually see traction. I mean, unless you're just a unicorn and you're putting out like ridiculously, you know, ridiculous hit after hit on your content.

but if you're just like, Hey, I'm just trying to get this WordPress YouTube channel thing going. You got to give it like a year, man. Like, I don't, I don't know any other way to do it. unless you're just a savvy SEO or, and what happens is, is when people give up, they it detracts like from like that quality, like the tracks from the rest of us, especially if it's, if you're like being celebrated and you're seeing this stuff come out.

I'm not saying like it's bad if you, if you can't like proceed, but I've seen people just like give it a half ass attempt and then just like ruin it for the rest of us. Right. And it's, it's that it's like the 500 website builder who doesn't care about the customer. Right. I've seen this happen time and time again. yeah.

And that's not of interest to me, but I don't know if you have any perspective on like lack of trying or lack of quality or like what your thoughts are like what what do you think like when you started like did you think you're gonna is gonna take this long or faster like what were your thoughts?

Like if I was, if I'm talking to like a client building a website, like they'll ask me for marketing advice, so to speak. It's like, how do we get more clients? And I'm like, Well, how have I gotten more? I know how you can get more clients. You can do SEO, you can do pay per click, you can do whatever. But how do you actually get more clients? Like, what are some proven ways in my mind?

Well, one of the ways in my mind is literally just start talking on the internet about the things that you're interested in and the things that you are building up expertise in. That is literally all I have done, and that's what so many other people have done. Now, granted, there's There are a lot of variables there.

There are like how experienced you are, how comfortable you are in front of a camera with a microphone in front of you, how, how much experience you have just doing that in the past in any, you know, other facet of your life. just like a litany of things there. And those are the things that start to really trip people up, I feel like.

Uh, but to go back to what you're, you're kind of saying there is, yeah, I would, I think that if I'm telling somebody to get into content, specifically like WordPress content. You're probably gonna make an impact. Like, if I could give the playbook for what I did, like, and I'm not saying I'm, I'm big by any means, but like, I've, I've gained a little bit of track and people know, like, I've know people now, like, and stuff like that.

And like, I make content and people, I guess, appreciate it to some degree. Like, all I've done is just talk about the things that I was doing.

Some of the things that I found out how to do tips and tricks here and there and then I started Exploring and learning wordpress and I was just kind of documenting honestly It's kind of the way that i've always thought about just documenting my kind of my thought processes Asking questions being curious and people really start to appreciate that because a lot of people have the same questions And there's just a lot of people out there that are not ever going to be content creators so to speak

because that's just not what they want to do like There's there's a more meta thing. I don't know how deep you want to go into it here You I think everyone, like, could potentially start making content, but the trouble is, like, I truly believe that not everyone, not everyone is a content creator, necessarily. You know, like, that might just not be the case for some people. And not only that, maybe some people are really good on video.

You know me, I literally hate to read, so it's like, I'm not gonna sit there and write a bunch of stuff, I'd much rather just talk like this. But other people are totally different, and maybe they'd rather, like, write a million words and never want to get in front of a camera. I don't know. So there's just those different types of things.

and I think that all of that kind of plays into, again, back to the main question of, you can start, but sometimes you might not be starting in the thing that's best for you to continue with. And maybe you're just starting because, oh man, YouTube is like the real big thing right now, which is objectively kind of true in certain ways.

But if you're not built for video and you don't want to get better at video and you try to get better at video and it's not working, then maybe it's just not for you. That's not your tool to leverage. Maybe it is blogging, or maybe it is podcasting, or something else, right? I mean, again, I hate video editing. None of my videos, barely any of them get edited, right? So it's like, it's, it's, a lot of it is introspective, though. But at the same time, I do think anyone could be successful.

Just, they gotta find, you know, where they're, where they're kind of at with it, and what, what makes the most sense for them. So,

If you're talking specifically YouTube, there's a lot of stuff there. I would say it's going better than I actually expected because Of the other things that I've done. So if, I mean, again, if we're talking playbook for content creators, you have to be like a type of person that wants to grow and, and is actually curious about what you're talking about before this WordPress, but I was always involved in like WordPress, but before I actually dove into this.

I was very scattered and I didn't really like, I didn't have like a niche or a community whatsoever. And then when I started making content about WordPress, it's like, okay, now they know that Mark Szymanski is WordPress. Or like, you know, like it has, you know, those are, those are assimilated to some sort of like, those are related. Rather than Mark making random videos about like business, finance, home remote, like whatever the, whatever the hell I was doing before, right?

So my, to, to, to like what I've done is, You have to be on, if you want to do it, at least one strategy is like very boots on the ground, so to speak, like you're making content and you're also like on X, like following people and talking to people and getting in a conversation. You're potentially in the make slack group, like doing stuff there. You're in the WP minutes slack, like talking to people there, like you just have to make connections.

My mother used to always tell me, it's all about who you know and you gotta be networking, networking, networking. Okay. That's, it makes total sense now, but it didn't make any sense when like you don't have somewhere to network worth. You can't network with 7 billion people. You got to network with the people that like

are actually going to move you forward and help you and you can help them. So that, I mean, I've just made so many good connections and again, I think that's a skill in and of itself. You've got to be able to build rapport with people. You've got to be an actual genuine, authentic person. You can't be like a slimy, you know, bastard. Like you have to actually want to, to, to help people as well as like have other people help you.

So, I understand that that's like not necessarily directly related to making content, but it is like a huge thing that's a part of it because that's what making content is. Like even connecting with your audience, you know, if you're going to start a community or offer a service or a product to them, you have to understand them. And we're humans. We normally understand stuff by communicating and observing and all that.

So I would say, again, to answer your question with a long winded answer, concisely, I would say that you have to, it's gone a little bit faster because I feel like I've kind of like, made it go faster because of those efforts. And if you don't do any of that, and you're not connecting with anybody, and you're just making videos, you might see yourself being like, why am I not getting more traction? It's like, the people don't, they can't connect with you.

Like, if they connect with you, then they, they, they're going to care more about the stuff you're saying. Like, it's, it's human nature, I feel like.

You know, if you went like full on, just like web design in general, like a general web design is, or a general online e commerce person or drop ship company like this, the, the audience for WordPress is, is so small relative to like other hot topics in the space. Like generally like in the tech and business stuff, not like pop culture, but like in that, in those categories that are like adjacent to us. but.

Interior to WordPress people, there, there is a lot of content being made, for the WordPress crowd. And I think from the audience perspective, like looking for something new, right? So like, and I'm not saying this is what happened to you, but maybe part of it is like, there's this of, Oh, there's a new guy out there, a new gal out there doing a YouTube channel. Let me tune into them. I just want something fresh and new. I'm sick and tired of hearing from like Matt Madaris in the WP minute.

Cause I've been listening to him for 10 years. I need something new. and then there's like, it's a weird formula. It's a weird dynamic because you come in and you're talking bricks and that's popular. So now it's like you have like this, this, Popular like tool that you use and and people are excited for it. And then there's a fresh new guy Demonstrating the stuff and talking about it.

So then you get those like sweet spot of you know a content rush And inside that WordPress world, it's it's pretty Competitive Kind of mean it in the in the literal sense, but also like like people are just like, okay, I've, I've got my fill of Mark for the month. Let me move on, you know, to, you know, something else like, okay, he, I liked it.

He was for me, but just like if you look, zoom out and you look at how you tune into your favorite podcast or your favorite shows produced by, you know, big names or at least, you know, big, industries, you don't listen to every single one. Like I love the bill Burr podcast. Love it. I don't get every, I don't listen to every single one, but it is, it is still like, I still regard it as one of my favorite podcasts to tune into and it's just him talking into his phone.

It literally is what he does. but I don't tune into every single episode. So it's, it's this weird thing that happens inside of WordPress where all of a sudden you can get like this meteoric rise, air quotes, and then all of a sudden it's like, wait, where did everybody go? Like I'm on this plateau. Like, how do I get to the next step? And I think that's where we as content creators have to be cautious of that, because I've, I felt it. I feel it every day.

It's like, man, I, I have this YouTube channel. If I just kept doing YouTube, it would have been like five times, you know, greater than, you Then this podcast and blog that I've been doing, you know, this traditional podcast and blog that I've been doing, you know, so I've seen it sort of like that, that content tilt, or that audience tilt, like what they're tuning into and like where the industry is going. you know, again, I don't have a direct thing there.

It's just a lot of thoughts on like in that space. We're lucky for the WordPress community, but at the same time, it can, it can make us hit a plateau pretty quick. And we're like, where the hell did everybody go and why aren't they paying attention anymore?

Probably a little bit. Out of the ordinary to some degree. Like I said, I mean, I feel like i've I've seen a lot of a lot of a lot of wisdom in this in this community And i'm like one of the younger dudes that are just kind of like Learning and also kind of providing some perspective.

So I do think that probably helped and i've thought about what you're saying here a ton when you're hot you need to capitalize on it Like you can't let you can't let the attention or the views or whatever like kind of You can't miss that opportunity. And i've had this happen in other like sequences of my, of my past, like content creation stuff outside of the WordPress thing. It's just opportunities though, is really what it is.

It's like, it's like hitting like a, a viral video or like a viral topic per say at the current time where it all lines up. And I think if you have enough of those, you know, you continue to kind of like scale, I guess to some degree, but you do have to take advantage of that opportunity.

So I've already thought of like, well, you know, Should I, should I start like more of a community thing or should I offer some sort of a service product or something like that and you know, it's just really, again though, you have to listen to the people but I, but I, but the thing I'll say is about the plateauing, this is partially experience, partially speculation or just a theory here, is the thing that you can't do as you go through that is you can't it.

We as content creators are providing value. There's no doubt about it, but it is very like Intangible so it's like if there's a way that we can provide something that is more tangible and is like more impactful and more valuable that is how the people are gonna have a less likelihood of like forgetting about you so to speak and There's many different ways to do that. The trouble is you just need to like try them or try one and see what sticks or whatever.

And that's kind of really where I'm at right now. But I'm like so observant of all the other people that are in the space, like doing it and like kind of what I see like is working, what I think resonates with me, what resonates with other people.

so again, going back to the playbook thing, like that's, those are the things I would be thinking about as I would be like starting, create content, watching to see how it's growing, seeing what people are saying and then how to kind of leverage some of that and capitalize on some of those opportunities. without being, my personal opinion, like, just like, almost a sellout per se, you know what I mean? Like, you still, you still have to be authentic, because that's the other way.

You could go too far with that. With the opportunity capitalization and you could just be doing things simply for the money and then that could also backfire the money or, you know, the opportunity, whatever, whatever, X, Y, Z. And then you could also backfire because people will just be like, at a certain point, like you could have a million viewers on a YouTube channel but have no community. Like that's, like that's very possible. So it really depends too on what you want.

You know, so the, you know, there's a lot of nuance in this conversation, but that's, that's what I've seen from not just WordPress all over.

And then he started to, you know, broaden, broaden out and start doing more product reviews. And I've fallen off. And then I know he's doing like collabs with Casey Neistat and other YouTubers. And he really went from like sub, you know, I don't know, sub 200, 000 to over 7 million, you know, at this point. but he literally has just become at, for me anyway, in my perspective, he has just become just another, like, influencer brand person.

Lewis Howes is like the same, it has the same effect on me. Like I, I knew him personally. I worked on WordPress websites with him way back in the day. but now it's just like, it's just a brand to either like sell Canon cameras, or his Peter McKinnon specifically sell Canon cameras or, the Peter McKinnon backpack, or I just saw him launch like this new, like film holder thing, like this high end premium, like just traditional film holder case.

And it's just like, all right, man, like I don't even see you do any original content anymore. Like you're not connecting with the audience anymore. Like you used to with through your tutorials. and he used to do like photo reviews. Now it's just like you've grown so big that people just leverage you for that like brand. And I don't think we'll ever see anybody like that in the WordPress space specifically.

you know, the, the closest one in like web design web world that I can think of is, is maybe Chris Doe from, the future, in like his brand, but he's still very much like, you know, leading community and doing all that stuff. So he's still very like, you know, rolling up his sleeves and doing the work. I don't think we'll ever see that in WordPress.

However, I, you know, I don't mind the wordpress creator, it's a bit of a tangent, but I don't mind the wordpress creator that does a brand deal for the money, as long as you're like transparent and you're up front about it, and you actually, and you actually like the product, right?

However, like if they came to me and We would we would love to do a sponsored video for you. I would do it And you know present it to the audience because in my audience there are other content creators out there, so I would find it useful Descriptor you know something like that something tangentially related to the work that we do You know so I don't mind if somebody is going for the money as long as it's honest You know truthful, and you believe in whatever it is that you're promoting

Then, you know, it's, it's a very boom, boom. It's like, Oh, I know Mark. Yeah. I watch them all the time. Like that's like, I watch Casey Neistat. I watch, you know, it's like, it's a very, very connecting thing. The problem or the potential con with that is if you, you only get one name, let's change it, but you only get one name. So you have to be very cognizant of the integrity portion of that.

And certainly people make mistakes and you, you know, certain mistakes you can apologize for or whatever, or fix up.

But. But my thing is regarding this, like, I do agree with what you're saying, I don't have a problem, I have affiliate links, I'm doing sponsorships, I make sure that I'm transparent as possible, I think everybody should have like an affiliate and sponsorship policy, like, on their website or something, because I think that's a really good way to just be like, Hey, if you don't like what I'm doing, I'm telling you every single time, if you're like giving me shit for it, just go over here and

look at this, and this is exactly what I believe, and this is exactly who I take money from, who I don't take money from. and my policy on that. So a lot of things that I've seen, like really good ones that I've kind of compiled and I'm working on one for myself. So like, those types of things I think are really good.

and then to bring it into the money conversation, we, we cannot be, you, you, you gotta, like anybody that criticizes this, you gotta be careful being like, like extremely emotional or holier than thou on any of these arguments because this takes a lot of time, regardless if you like the content, you don't like the content, where you stand on a content creator. Thank you. Most content takes a long time to produce. Like, yeah, you could just put it up and not edit it or whatever.

It's at least taking time, though. Like, it's at least taking half an hour, an hour, whatever. If you edit, you do any post production, pre planning, I mean, that's a, that's a lot of work. Like, it, it is not, if you're thinking about getting into content, it is not, like, an easy thing. It's easier if you like it, if you're interested in it, if you're curious in it. But it's not, it's not, like, easy. It's not like you just snap your fingers and it's done. It is a job. So, what does that mean?

That either means you need to get paid from the content directly somehow, Sponsorships, affiliates, partnerships, whatever, brand deals, which is all fine. Again, as long as those other things are taken care of transparency and all that. But the other thing though, and I'll cite like an Alex Hermosi. Yeah, sure. He like makes money possibly from the content ad room or something like that.

But your other model is like, you're, you're, the content is like, kind of like a lead magnet to a certain degree. But you have to make sure that the people watching the content are the people that are actually going to be your customers. And it is, the reason this goes back to WordPress is because it's kind of like not the case a lot of times. Because the stuff that I'm saying per se, or the stuff like you're saying Matt, is like, Okay, well we're telling people how to use WordPress.

Now certainly some beginners might pick that up, but a lot of developers and like agency owners are going to pick it up. And then it's like, they watched it, that's great, they love us, that's awesome. How are we going to get money from them? You know what I mean? Like just as any, I, that was too, too straight up of a way to say that, but I'm saying like, it's not like they're really our ideal customer unless we have an offer for them.

If you're an agency owner, then you need to be making content. There's people that do this really well, but there's, you need to be making more content for like why you need a website or that type of thing. So you got to be cognizant of that. I am definitely not a poster child for that.

I'm in a different phase right now with some of that stuff, but those are the meta things of like, Making content, actually taking the time to do it properly and everything like that, and then making money from it in one, two, you know, way one, two, or three, or whatever. so there's a lot of, a lot of things to consider there as you continue to go through that.

You can see my body of work over a decade and

if you want this kind of stuff to continue and want your brand to align your like your brand sentiment or synergy to align with the stuff that I'm doing, then this is why you should support me. It's not, it's not your typical, you know, pay per click play. It's not, you know, am I going to make 1. 25 with every dollar that I spend with Matt and the WP minute.

It is not that because the audience isn't that, isn't that large and I do want to talk about, you know, Why that's good and why that's bad is because you do have what's good because you have that sort of editorial control. you know, and it does keep that integrity and that trust really locked in with the audience. the bad is like when you get in front of, you know, a new web host, I won't name names, but a lot of like up and coming, you know, new web hosts or, you know, knock on the door.

They want to do this thing, but they're really in the mode of like growth and how do we just get more customers? So when I talk to them or any product, does it have to be hosting like plugins, themes, services, whatever, like they're in this growth mode. So they immediately just have like this budget and they're like, all right, we got 5, 000 to spend. Like, how are we going to make 5, 500? It's like, well, it's not going to happen here, right?

This is, you know, supporting independent journalism more. Call it independent journalism, public radio, like whatever moniker you want to throw at it. that's what this is. because not many people, you know, do the deep dive stuff, that I do. Which, again, the other edge of that sword is, eh, there's not a huge audience for it. It's a very, impactful audience. It's a very important audience.

they're the decision makers in the, in the community and other business owners and who are also affecting, influencing other, other folks. but they're not like spending their dollars per se. because they're deep rooted or they have their own solutions or, you know, they're just, you know, already there. They're a mature audience.

You're not, you're not giving them or, or, or, or, Influencing them to pick your thing because it's, you know, bright and shiny and it's, it's faster, cheaper, whatever. you know, one of the things that I've, I'm, I put in the footer of my, you know, newsletter today is, which hasn't gone out yet, is the fact, like, every, I feel like every summer, you know, Always adjusting, like every, I feel like summertime for me is, is that adjustment level?

It's probably usually because, you know, taking vacations more, spending more time, you know, with the kids, cause they're not in school. So I start thinking about like, where's this thing going and then ramping up for like that seasonality push, which is heading into whatever fall holidays, yada, yada, yada. And you're like getting yourself into that reset mode of like, how am I going to push when the summer ends before the holidays hit so that I can like make an impact on the business.

And, So anyway, like I'm thinking about like restructuring. And when I started the WP minute, the idea was like, Oh, I just want to do short form because everyone was doing long form. And, you know, I just thought it as a different market opportunity to come out with something short form and also give myself a break with air quotes that a break to not have to do so much heavy lifting of, of content.

and it just parlayed into like this bigger thing, of course, but now just like reevaluating that and be like, you know what, this deep dive into the community stuff. the stress that I put on myself every single week to come up with a five minute monologue, which seems like, Oh, it should be pretty easy. And it is, it's easy when, when there's a lot of stuff happening. Like I joked with you, like where the hell have you been? Mark? It's been a week.

You've been pretty quiet because there's not a lot of stuff happening, right? There's not a lot of things going on. We talked about everything already last week. And this week was kind of slow. and it usually is, in the summertime. So that five minutes of like pressure, to, I put on myself to like, what am I going to talk about? It's going to be super impactful that other people don't talk about.

and then on the, on the flip side of that is like, man, it's like such a small audience that it almost feels like I write all this stuff and I pressure myself every week to do this. Does anyone care? Right. Versus if I put out a WordPress 6. 6 video when WordPress 6. 6 hits and thousands and thousands of people watch it and comments and all the stuff and it made from like the creator, like monkey brain.

I'm just like, Oh, that was, that was way more satisfactory than, you know, sitting there and like, Thinking critical of like how Mullenweg should reshape automatic, you know, and what that means to, open source in the open web when people are like, I don't, I don't even want to think about that. And they just like skip the article.

I was like, man, I've been like, this is years of work that I just put into this like five minutes and you don't, and you don't care about it, but from the business perspective, like I understand that that is my, you know, that's my fault. So anyway, going back to what's in the newsletter today is me just saying, look. It's maybe just like lifting this weight off my shoulders and being like, I'm not going to do that anymore. Like, I'm still going to do it.

Eh, it's just not going to be every week. Right? And I, and I need to say it out loud so that I'm okay with it. And so I can be like, I said I didn't, I'm not going to do it anymore. and then technically it also means like, I don't know what I'm technically going to do with the five minute WP Minute podcast. I might reroute it to the WP Minute Plus. Thanks. And rename, the whole podcast altogether for, for just like branding purposes, because what I really like are these long form discussions.

And ultimately I think that's where folks know me most is, you know, the podcaster who's been here for a while talking to, to people and I, and I'm, I'm want to like lean back into that. I think. you know, cause you see these posts, the best WordPress newsletters, the best WordPress, you know, YouTube channels. You're like, man, I've been, I do all that. Like why am I not on this list? Right. But then you look at the best podcast and it's like, oh, it's Matterport WP minutes.

So it's just like, okay, it's just this brand thing. People just see me as a podcaster, maybe not specifically a newsletter as much as I try, you know, to get that content out there. So summer restructuring, notice myself on that same plateau. and saying to myself, all right, it's time to shift gears because the real money, which we were talking about is in that generalized content for WordPress.

It's in the YouTube tutorials, it's in the helpful content, and maybe the over analytical stuff, should be reserved for, you know, not so often, like I still want to do it. I don't want to give up on it, but I'm just not going to pressure myself to like do that every single time because. Really, if I can make helpful content, it's helping more wordpressers at the end of the day, which is really what I want.

Like, I really want to help people with this stuff, and maybe the over critical stuff is just too much for people to handle.

Like, and then even the people that do care about it. The stuff you're talking about, maybe for whatever reason they don't like you and I'm not picking on you, I'm just saying maybe they don't like you, maybe they don't like the content,

It's important to learn that very quickly that, You have to understand, because I, I literally, I did this, and I still do this kind of in the agency realm, but in the, in the content side of it, I'm like, okay, I want like a million subscribers or whatever. Like people say, oh, we want to be like so and so, we want to have a million subscribers.

Well, it's like, Depending on what you're actually interested in, and you know, somewhat qualified, so to speak, to like talk about, that might not literally be possible. So, like depending on what you're talking about, how deep you're talking about, the nuances, there might just not be a million people that give a shit about what you're saying.

And the sooner you realize that, the sooner you can lean in to actually talking about what those people, and you, you and those other maybe thousand, couple hundred thousand, whatever people care about, and then that's like really kind of interesting.

where that can go because in my mind, one of the things that I've seen is like, if you think about the person, like an individual, we'll just keep it as an individual, like if you think about an individual that's like classified as like an influencer, obviously that term is whatever, but like somebody that speaks a content creator or somebody that speaks online, if they say something, if they're well known enough and they say something, let's say they normally talk about like business and they

say something about like relationships, relationships. Right off the bat now, because you've consumed so much content, even though it's been in the business realm, if they say something about relationships, you're automatically going to have like a higher, you're going to hold their opinion to a higher standard because of all the other stuff that you've listened to over this other category. So what, what I kind of have deduced that is I used to try to be really generalist about the stuff.

Like, I have really good opinions about this topic and this rather, rather random topic and this one. Because I'm interested in I'm a human and I'm like exploring every topic. The trouble is then you can't find anyone So if you niche down kind of to a WordPress type thing, for instance Then you, then you branch back out as you grow, potentially. I think that's a strategy that I've seen have success for people. And you don't even need it, Nick.

I'm not even saying you have to need to branch back out, but I'm just saying, like, that seems, you have to build the rapport in a very siloed way, it seems like, and then from there you can continue to do it. So, and again, I'm not saying this is the only strategy, I'm just saying this is stuff that I've seen. But, But yeah, I mean, it's, but again, going back to all of it, you have to, you have to want to do it. You have to, you have to believe that it's a good idea.

You have to believe that you can do it, and you always have to be ready to like literally fail with every single video or blog post or whatever. Because there are some days where your live stream, like, like a, a live stream. I'm just doesn't get as many people watching it for whatever reason. And sometimes it's not even your fault entirely, you know, it might just be like a busy day or something. So you, you can't be super emotional about it either. It's

Content creation for over a decade what I'm not good at is like the same thing over and over and over again Which you know? Jonathan From the tonic, you know had mentioned something I think it was like when the first time you were on his live stream and you brought it up and he was like Oh, you know, I've been you know, Matt's been doing it for a while, but I've been doing like consistently I have like more episodes and he's right.

He probably has collectively, yeah, a crazy amount of, of episodes, but that's because number one, like I've, I never did the same thing over and over and over again because I just get tired of it. And then I get in my head, I'm like, if I'm tired of it, other people are tired of it. So I was never one to be like, I'm just going to do this same format over and over and over again. Yeah. Yeah. I want to creatively change things, which is how like the Matt report evolved.

Like at beginning it was just like, I'm going to talk to people cause I need to look same thing, same exact thing as you. I need to talk to people to learn what the hell is happening in this WordPress space because I see people getting big clients and I want to get those big clients too. I just don't know how they're doing it. And I did that for like two years to grow the agency. And I was like, Oh, I've figured it out. Like I figured out how to make connections.

I figured out who the players are. I know where the other agencies are. And then it became more of like, you know, when I was starting to create products and, plugins and themes and I was just, okay, now I'm going to leverage it for that. So let's build in public with the, with the podcast. And then after that, it was just like, okay, how do I turn this into a community? And I started the mat report pro, which was, you know, a community like you, like we know communities today.

and you know, still trying to run an agency and like talking about things like that. And then it was like, Oh my God, I'm having kids and now I need a real job. so then it was just like, okay, like I have to get, like, I have to like change things up, you know, and, and do all these different things. So like I'm ever evolving this, this content position that I'm in and I'm okay with it. And, you know, when I see like other people doing well, sure. Do I get, do I get jealous?

Like, you know, our friend, Paul Charlton, 150, 000 subscribers or whatever. And I'm like, yeah, I mean, I would love that too. But then I look at what Paul's doing and he's like, Only doing YouTube, like as far as content, right? I mean, maybe he has his blog and newsletter and stuff like that, but I don't even hear him talk about it. I just see him showing up and doing YouTube and that has worked for him to like grow that audience. And do I get jealous of it? Yeah, of course I do.

As like a content creator, I'm competitive. And I'm like, I could do that too. But would I have been satisfied doing it all these years? Probably not. Cause I did hit a level of burnout when I started my YouTube channel where I didn't even open up my YouTube dashboard for over a year cause I, same thing. I was like, this sucks. I don't want to do this. And you know, let me just go back to the podcast cause I love that more.

So anyway, this is evolution, of like my content and competing with other people. And you know, I'm sure we all go through this. I'm sure you go through it. Like when you look at the landscape to be like, God, I, yeah. If I did this, could I be like them? You know, and you just have to, you know, find your own path. Anything more systematic and I would just, like, hate it, I think.

Like, because, like, depending on when you started making, like, WordPress content, I would say you in general, like, depending on when somebody starts making, like, WordPress content, like, maybe there were more people that were at you know, like, like flocking to YouTube for that specific reason. Maybe YouTube is still kind of trending upward, but maybe there was like a boom before to a certain degree.

There's also again, like you said earlier, there's when there's less saturation, there's less options. And that's just that, that super is a, super impactful there. I mean, this is, this is one of the reasons where like I think about WordPress and I think about how, You know, you try to like predict how it might change or move forward, which is difficult. But like, you know, the ad, the advent of AI and such, those types of things, like are they gonna have any impact?

That's why like, that's why I need to, I need to at least hear about the topics that are in their infancy, so to speak. I don't necessarily wanna be an early adopter of everything, but I need to like have my finger on the pulse of kind of like what's going on there. So hopefully I can kind of like maybe. feel it out as it starts to, you know, take away and take traction and then be like, like, that's, I think that's literally how most, again, regardless of what

your goals are, you might have different goals, but like, I think that's how, like, take a ridiculous example of like Jeff Bezos and Amazon, like they were selling books, like, and he just, it was just timing and it was how it went. And then he was like, all right, well, let's keep doing this. And like, we're selling books and we're selling other stuff. And it's like, It, it just so happened that there was no such thing as Amazon. The internet was pop, was about to pop off. He kind of saw that.

He started selling literally books and he's like, well, we could sell other stuff too. And then you just continue to roll from there. I know that was like a separate example, but it's just, it's kind of the same thing with this content because people make content for a living, surely. But there, there also is other pieces to it. I mean, you run the WP minute, like it's a business. It's not just content.

I mean, the content is a big part of it, but it is, the content is one of the main pieces, but there's a lot more to it. you know, so I, I think it's just, like you said, you have to observe what other people are doing and kind of carve your own, your own way through it too. So,

or if you donate, you can also join, the slack channel. And really it's just like your pledge of 79 is to be like, Hey, You know, really like what you do. It'd be no different if you were a business and you wanted to sponsor a podcast. It's sort of like an individual sponsorship level to be like, yeah, every year I'll give you 79 to support the cause of, you know, this effort that you, that you have. but you can also join the Slack channel for five bucks. and just one time.

you know, the running a membership requires just so much more, focus and energy, which as a full time employee and part time content creator, there's no way I can also run a membership to, at least in my opinion, because the best memberships that I've been a part of are the ones where the person who's running it is also a member. Ultra engaged and there's ultra value on the other end of that membership in the beginning. It's fun It's exciting.

You get to come in and network and see what's behind the closed door but as a consumer you're just like, okay, I after month two you're like I did all of it Like now what video game's over? I beat the game. Like what's the end game? Like what what else can I do after this?

And I think to me at least that's what goes on in my head, which is why running, having been my second go at memberships has been pretty tough because I just don't have the time and the energy to, to focus on what else I can do, you know, for that membership, aside from, you know, we have the Slack channel, a slot aside from, you know, connecting with other folks.

Like, you know, if you're in the Slack channel, there's people I've connected other people to as, as value, you know, and then doing like, you know, I don't know, a couple weeks ago we did like a little side chat, which is actually something I want to do more of for, the WP minute members is just like, Hey, let's, as this group, as this collective group right here who love to talk about WordPress news, and that's the focus, let's just all get on a call and just talk about stuff that's happening

in the space and we can all ask our each other questions and, and get our opinions and whatnot. anyway, all of that is to say is like running a membership, you got to do so much more, like to get that value. yeah. Courses in education, or I should say courses, is something I haven't done yet. Yet. I do want to explore something around that for the WP Minute. I don't think it would be a charged thing, or something I charge for.

It might be on like, the value for value system, which is like, if you value this work, then, you know, give me five bucks or give me fifty bucks. Like, whatever you find valuable for this content, you know, you know. Let's roll that way instead of just saying like this course is a hundred dollars or a thousand dollars like whatever it is. so that is something I have yet to explore though.

I do have some ideas for it for the WP minute, but also still going to do the roll up your sleeve and do the work. Like you still got to make the thing and, and have people enjoy it, right. And, and market it and keep that wheel going. Cause otherwise no one sees it, regardless of your audience size.

So, Definitely some challenges, but I think a lot of folks who are exploring the WordPress content creation space, You know, can get some, can build a healthy business off of multiple revenue streams. Cause you're not going to get it from YouTube ads.

com doing a highly produced series on the Fediverse exploring what the Fediverse is, what it means, how folks can connect up to it, and all this other stuff. There's plenty of opportunity in this space, like WordPress product companies. They need marketers. They need content. Do they have the budget for it is another question, but they, they sorely need it. and I think like you said at the top of the show, the human connection is what's going to win out.

And these brands need to work with folks like you and I and others. So it's a great time for us, but also a competitive time for us.

Talked about sponsorships. We talked about, maybe we brushed on affiliates. So affiliate is like, you know, you say something and you're not getting paid to say it, but you're getting paid when people buy it, so to speak, is generally the way. you get a commission. we talked about courses there. We talked about memberships, which was like a, Community based approach membership to be in a part of a community.

consulting is another one that I've seen, whether it's private like one on one or like group consulting or something like that. I'm just saying like, as you build up, and these are all things that I've considered and I've partially built out some of them. Right. So it's like, and I know you've tried a ton of them. So like those are at least five, they're different ways that whatever one resonates with you, all of them, whatever.

But again, like you said, some of them are way more intense than others. Like a consulting call might just be. More, more or less like an hour of your time. But a membership platform is like a ton of time, you know, sponsorship as, as, as we both know, like that could be a ton of time, just making it happen initially. and then, you know, after that, you gotta, you gotta see what happens on that end. are there any other mechanisms that I'm missing? Oh,

But podcasting is really like audio first medium, distributed on all podcasts, you know, players, because you're, it's two different ways that people can experience that content. so if you have a true like omni channel thing, like now you, you have, did I include newsletter in there? now you have these areas that you can stack, as an offering, right. To other brands.

So. What I'm saying is like, don't shortchange yourself because brands could want to get exposure, on your YouTube channel, but maybe not on your podcast. But maybe there are brands that want to be on your podcast. maybe there are brands that only want newsletter, right? So when you look at it and you zoom out and you say, okay, as a content creator, I have all of these areas of distribution. Now, How do I fill those gaps or how do I offer those as valuable spots to, you know, my audience?

It's a business that wants, you know, eyeballs and those types of things. So it's just kind of creating your offer, but it's for a different type of client this time, basically a different type of customer, which is tough at first cause you don't really know probably like at all, you know, it's, I, I feel like it's a little bit more I don't, it's definitely more foreign for somebody like me that, that hasn't like ever had to pitch anybody on, Hey, I have people that watch my stuff.

You know, like, do you want those people to know about your product? It's, it's just a new frontier I feel like for a lot of, a lot of people.

Like, I don't know how to like do this marketing thing. And then only to see them. I know it's an unfortunate situation. It sounds harsh. where it's just like only to see them like six months to a year later, be like, oh, I can never do this thing. Like I could never figure this thing out. Like I could never make my business work cause I'm not a good salesperson. I'm not a good marketer.

Well, For me, it's like that first, that first step is to observe, like to stop thinking of marketing in like this, in the WordPress space anyway. Stop thinking of it in a numbers game, which a lot of us like lean on. We say, it's just a numbers game. You just got to get out there. Like when you're looking to connect and build relationships, don't look at it in numbers.

As a numbers game, zoom out and see like whatever the 50 content creators that there are in the WordPress space, like who show up every week or every month and do this thing and build your like relationships with each and every one of them in a very unique way. Right. Reach out, talk to me, talk to Mark, figure out what it is that, that, that we can do together to promote your product or business.

If you're not going to do like the whole content marketing thing yourself, like if you can't do it, you have to bring it to somebody like us. I mean, if you're not going to hire like a big agency, cause you probably don't have the budget, but you can work with an independent content creator. Maybe there's opportunity there in different ways, to like to get your product out there.

And it drives me crazy when I see people do that, and say things like, I'm not a good salesperson, this is not working. But I never hear from them. Ever. You know, and on a, pitch me your product. Pitch it well. Don't waste my time. Right? Give me a reason to interview you or showcase your thing. but, but, but reach out and, and have that pitch at least on a one on one scenario. Like you at least work on it that way, if you're afraid to like sell to the masses.

Okay. But one on one email connect and, and make that pitch. I've also seen the inverse of people who think that they've got it all. They've got it all together. And then, you know, think that people are just going to cover their product because. They're a veteran product maker and they've launched products before.

And then of course you should want to, you know, partner with me because I've launched a product before and I, you know, I've had success and you certainly want to cover my product again. No, because now I know that you know what you're doing and you have the money you should be sponsoring. At the very least, you should be buying 79 bucks a year to be, to have an account in the WP minutes slack. So you can network with other people and let them know that you've launched the product.

So I've seen it like both sides, but certainly like, The beginners, if you're really struggling with that sales and marketing thing, reach out to us content creators and build a relationship. You might not get a series of videos from Mark, but maybe he'll talk about you in a segment of his live stream or do some other like creative, but you know, at least try, I think, in my opinion,

I'm empathetic to that because I have always tried to be like the, the, the unicorn, like the one person that does everything. And I have started to realize as I've talked to other people. Made more connections and just tried to do more things that like I am for instance, not a designer I am not really a developer per se even though my mind's slightly more in that camp.

I do think like I have a Reasonable skill level at like creating content talking and critical thinking and like strategizing a lot of the stuff so that is where like I feel like my value is now The key to this is that when somebody says that they're not, they're not, they're a developer and they're not a salesman, they're not a marketing marketer, they have to have that self awareness to be like, okay, well I need to go find that.

And again, it's kind of the pot calling the kettle black because I've done this in the past, but I'm just saying like, I'm echoing what you're saying. Like you need to create that connection, that partnership and go do that because I mean, literally, it's just like, when you look at it really objective, it's like, you're actually spending a ton of time, like, working on the product. You can't really be expected to fully market the thing as well.

You could, but the one thing I will say, though, as a caveat to this, or just like a little asterisk, is that A lot of times what I see, the, the product owners and developers that I've seen, like, with their products, they know their products very well, obviously. They just, they're not, they're too, they're, most of the time they're developing and not creating the content.

But if you bring them onto a show, and you have somebody that's curious, As the content creator or whatever, we've done this many times over on my channel.

And like, you know, we even do it basically over on Maddie Eastwood's channel and in the bridge builder series to a certain degree, like we're just basically asking questions and a lot of times it's harder to create something out of thin air and like create like a big script for a video or whatever, than it is just have a conversation and people love the conversations. So it's like, it's a beautiful mix of all that. And hopefully they get some awareness, people in the audience, like.

the product resonates with them. They learn something, maybe they go try it, right? And you could leverage that a million different ways. You could do affiliate links. You could do a straight up sponsorship for that type of thing. like whatever it is, it's just, there's whatever the arrangement is, whatever the partnership is. I understand empathetic to the budget, especially at first.

if you're trying to get something off the ground, it's difficult, to like deploy funds into, you know, the marketing side of stuff, but you, you gotta be. like indie developers, some of them do it like better. Some of them do like, like some of them do really well. You have to, you have to at least stand behind your product. You know what I mean? Like you have to at least be very confident enough to go on a, like a live stream or a video and just talk about what you built.

You don't have to be an, a crazy good marketer. None of these CEOs of these big companies are like incredibly great, fantastic communicators, but they are there. You know, you have to, somebody's gotta be the face of your thing. So. yeah, I'm, I'm always about that. Definitely hit me or Matt up if you're ever interested in, if you're listening or you know anybody or whatever trying to do that type of stuff, cause, you know, I think it's, I think it's good for everyone.

Tweet out the episode or linkedin post about like a show they're showing up They don't do a blog post about it like number one from a content marketing perspective You're just missing a huge opportunity to repurpose content that somebody else produced for you Like even the most basic of like a blog post would be like hey I appeared on the WP minute or I was on Mark Zmanski's livestream like whatever it is like I mean, you could, it's literally you talking.

You can download that clip or that audio and make audiograms. Like it's plenty of freaking things you can do. So it blows my mind that anybody

So like, I'm not, again, I'm, I'm, I'm playing a little bit of devil's advocate and just defend, you know, you know, defending the other side in a sense, because I do, but I do completely agree with what you're saying. I just think that that is, that's like, that, that is like one Oh one, but you have to know it. You know what I mean? If you're not like a marketing mind, but keep going. Yeah. Sorry

or, you know, sharing it or, or, like, if you have nothing to trade, like, if it's like, ah, I don't have a lot of money to spend on this, then definitely do that, like, lead with that and say, look, I, I would love to do like you to do a video for me, don't have a lot of budget and maybe I can give you a few hundred dollars to do this or a better affiliate link or something. But I will definitely like tweet it out five times for that week.

Every single day I'll make a different tweet or a different reference to it. I'll write a blog post about it, put in my newsletter. maybe I have a press page on my site and I'll definitely link you there so that, you know, try to like at least do some of that, that stuff. Because.

It's a great way, you know, to say thanks and it is valuable, like it's valuable for people who land on your website, that want to learn more about you because my God, I don't know how many times in the WordPress world I go to a website and like, who is behind this, like what company, what the hell, who, I'm not gonna, one, recommend you or two, how would anybody ever buy anything from you?

if they don't even know about like who you are and what you do, maybe I'm just that kind of consumer that needs to do like that background research first. but blows my mind that so many people just don't have, like don't expose themselves to their customer. you know, unless they have just an amazing product and they don't need to, I guess. but a lot of them are, are trying to get this thing off the ground. And it's just the perfect opportunity to use that, to repurpose that content.

You know, to share more about them, but I digress. I get off that soapbox, right? As a content creator. Oh boy. Great conversation today, Mark. As always, where can folks find you on the web?

Thanks for listening. Thanks for reading. Thanks for being there.