SaaSFactory Update: The Content Factory
Applying the same principles to content that I do to code
I’ve been a bit busy for the past week. Not only have I been working full-time, I’ve also started pushing out quite a bit of content for Build In Public University. I’ve been holding back publishing things until I had fully outlined the vision, but I realized I was procrastinating.
It’s easy to put things off because you aren’t sure if they will work. I’ve had several false starts with it. I had big ideas and plans and watched them fall to the side without the attention I was hoping they would get.
As I reflected on this pattern, I realized I was doing the same thing I’ve made a habit of over the years: focusing on the launch instead of the iterations.
I wanted to launch to at least a little bit of fanfare, to be recognized for the work I was putting in. That’s the creator’s trap. We put our hearts and souls into our work and if that work flops, we flop, right?
And so I was trying to figure out how I could package things together in a product and launch it. Launches are a great way to grab attention for the purpose of making sales or driving traffic.
When I ran the launch for Who Should I Unfollow?, that was a great data point for me. I was able to get traffic to the site and see how well it converted.
With creative content, it’s a little different. It’s easy to see the effects of software and how well it works. Do people pay to use it?
With content, it’s a little harder, especially if you don’t quite have an established product yet. I wanted to launch a community, but we’ve got a lot of communities. I was planning on doing a number of different things and trying to make it as sustainable as possible for me, but I didn’t quite feel like things were quite up to where I wanted them.
So I kept putting it off, pushing it back.
I want to feel ready for it.
Think about how different that is from the way I describe the launch of a SaaS. The launch of the SaaS is to collect conversion data, but the launch of a creator product has to feel ready.
There’s a reason I came up with the SaaS Factory idea. I wanted to get away from the idea of a launch being the primary motivator. Launch before you are ready, right?
Think about a factory opening. Maybe it gets a little bit of fanfare if it brings in some new jobs to an area that needs them, but the main purpose of a factory isn’t to open, it’s to produce.
So I did that for SaaS products. I started pumping out code with the idea that I need to get things launched, and I’ve done an OK job of that at least. Could always do better, and I’ve certainly had my fair share of struggles, but I’m fairly happy with where I’ve gotten to so far.
But now, it’s time to do that for content as well. I need to become a content factory, pumping out content around Build In Public University so I can get to a point where I’ve got enough to start putting together in various ways.
I developed a model that I could use to make that work and I got to work.
I’ve decided to put out 5-minute courses on the Build In Public University YouTube Channel. That way, I can share knowledge with the world, and not limit that to closed communities. There’s been a lot of tension in me about opening up access to knowledge vs making it sustainable, but I think this is a good start. Was hoping to put out a new course each day last week, and actually had a 2-hour live stream last weekend to record a few courses and just work on being comfortable on camera. Had a couple of people show up and that drove some content creation.
Didn’t quite make it to where I wanted it, but I did manage to get 3 published.
Here’s the first:
In addition to the YouTube channel, I also started a podcast, again targeting daily episodes, which I didn’t quite reach, but fairly close. I published 4 episodes for the podcast:
Build In Public University - The Podcast
Instead of focusing on high-pressure content, I’m focusing on quantity of content for now. I’m getting ideas out into the world and seeing what happens. It’s mostly stuff I’ve been thinking about anyway, so I wanted to just start publishing and practicing.
In addition, I’ve been intentionally not sharing much about it on Twitter, simply a post when episodes drop. I’ve varied the times and methods of posting (scheduled vs manual, for example) because I wanted to validate how I’ve been seeing external links perform.
This means the content factory portion of things provides several key benefits:
skill development - I get better by practicing being on camera and on mic
data collection - I get to test how certain types of content perform in relation to others
library creation - It’s really important to build a content library. When you do so, you can then create multiple paths through your content to leave users ways to discover your various creations.
time pressure - Because I want to get things out quickly, I’m letting go of certain quality standards, which allows me to publish with more freedom. While it’s good to have quality constraints in some cases, I want to minimize my barriers to publishing, so I’m optimizing on that vector.
Other than that, anything that happens is just icing on the cake.
Now, let’s get into the updates for Social Media Gardens.
An Admin-First Approach
I decided to go a different route with Social Media Gardens. A lot of times, I like to build the user interface first and then I get to a certain point where I need to add admin functionality that I can use to handle problems. This has a couple of issues:
When I go to solve an issue, there’s a lot of work to go through to add an admin interface. There are pieces of it that need to be put in place to be able to use it as an admin, so depending on needs, I might have to focus on just solving the problem.
It takes longer to get the product to get in front of the user. If I need to build in all the functionality that the user needs to operate things themselves, I end up spending a lot of time on the UI to go with the functionality. With the admin-first approach, I essentially add the same basic functionality without worrying about polishing the UI to be user-facing.
To prove point 2, here’s my current Social Media Gardens admin UI:
It’s not pretty, but it’s enough. Now I can create user accounts, add RSS feeds that end up getting parsed by the backend, and create gardens for the selected user. So now, I’m going to be looking to onboard a few users in the coming week or two just to see how it works for them and get their feedback.
I streamed a user feedback session with Nick Torba, who is building Tweetscape. I got a chance to play with an early version and had a lot of fun with it. We’ve been chatting a lot about prioritization and what to build and when.
This is my attempt to get that user feedback as early as possible, so we’ll see how it goes, but I’m hopeful. I’m planning on getting volunteers to try it out, but if I can’t, that’s cool. I’ll just start building pages for creators that I like and gardens featuring content I enjoy and find inspirational.
That’s the biggest benefit of building admin first. I don’t need users to be the ones to use it, I can just build pages for myself. Eventually, I’ll get to a point that users will start coming on board (I hope, if not, I’ve missed something vital). And the backend is getting built out, so I’ll be able to add more features in the future pretty easily.
Let me know what you think of the factory mindset. Are you being held back by sticking to a launch mindset?