Beware Of Writers Who Publish The Same Stuff Over and Over Again

They may just be using you for something else..

I know the kind of article that can get me 10,000+ views.

I know the headline I need to write.

I know what story I need to tell.

So.. why not just replicate that over and over again so I can milk every dollar from people that I can?

Good question. Some people do just that.

I’m not talking about people who GENERALLY write about the same 3–4 topics over time.

I’m talking about the person who decides to write what seems like the same exact article back to back to back to back to back without shame or remorse.

To me this is wrong for a few reasons..

They Don’t Care About Their Existing Audience

The reason I don’t publish the “How to make a billion dollars with writing” articles every single time is because I respect my existing audience.

That would burn them out.

Imagine having a conversation with someone who only talked about Bitcoin. Not only that, but they kept saying the same thing about Bitcoin over and over and over again.

Is that a conversation you want to have with someone?

To me, that’s what these writers are like. Writers who do this don’t care about their existing audience.

They Only Care About Reaching As Many People As Possible

Sure, creators create content and publish it on the internet to get VIEWS.

That’s certainly part of the equation, but for some creators, it’s the whole damn equation.

And when a creator’s motivations are that singular, they’re likely just trying to use you to make as much money as possible.

It’s fine to make money as a creator. It’s fine to want to make a lot of money as a creator. However to me there’s a line there somewhere that needs to be respected.

And when a creator isn’t respecting that line, the audience shouldn’t respect them in return.

I See It Happen On Youtube, Too

In the Philippines there’s a ton of vloggers who use the Philippines to get views on their videos. Filipinos are extremely active on social media — in fact, many people call the Philippines the social media capital of the world.

I did it for a while, but I rationalized it in my head by saying “Tom, you’re different, you actually care about the Philippines and are making a difference here.”

The truth was, I also wasn’t respecting “the line.” Some creators make the same types of videos every single day here with titles like “CRAZY ADVENTURE IN THE PHILIPPINES (WE COULDN’T BELIEVE THIS)” or “WE WEREN’T EXPECTING THIS IN PHILIPPINES”

My gosh. It’s crazy to me how people can’t see these creators are just feeding them bullshit to get as many views as possible.

All the while these vloggers don’t donate to charity. They don’t assimilate into the culture. They don’t try to learn the language. They’re just here to get as many views as possible.

There’s something very slimy about that to me, and we need to discourage that behavior.

It’s Bad For Social Media Platforms In General

When something works — especially when something makes money — people will copy.

I think I played a part in ruining this platform by writing so much about making money with writing. Everybody saw that got me a lot of views and wrote the same stuff.

Some vloggers here in the Philippines figured out that if they sit down and react to other videos about the Philippines, that will get them a ton of views with little to no effort.

After other vloggers saw they were having success, they too created their own reaction channels.

Now there’s an endless dump of reaction videos onto Youtube that bathe in likes and views just because they’re baiting Pinoys into watching them.

To me, it’s contributing to the ruining of creativity on Youtube.

There’s nothing creative about reacting to somebody else’s video.

This Isn’t A Good Thing In My Opinion

Creators who milk all the views they can from people with little disregard for what they’re doing to the platform at large or creativity in general are not doing a good thing.

Some people might argue “but if it’s popular, it means people want to read it.”

Sure, the audience gets to decide.

However if you gave most people the choice between ordering McDonalds or cooking a healthy meal at home, most would choose the McDonalds.

Let’s not act like what people choose is always the best option.

And when we’re the creators, we’re also the “chef.” We’re the ones putting options onto the menu. And if we keep putting shite on the menu, we may be giving our audience what they want, but it may not always be good for them.

Both creators AND audiences need to think about that more in my opinion.