How content overload holds you back
As someone who has just started the entrepreneur journey, I spent countless months before I launched my blog soaking in everything I could. I remember stalking facebook groups, waiting for people to drop their latest blog posts and subscribing to as many blogs as I could.
I spent the day printing out content upgrades and filling them out at night. Before I started my blog, I got 200 emails daily and tried my best to reach inbox 0 every day, I signed up for every webinar even before I knew what it was about – I kept thinking to myself, the more information I know, the better.
Now, as someone who has launched their blog just a month ago, my outlook on how I soak up content has changed drastically. I make sure to be careful about who I subscribe to, what courses I buy, and what I spend my time reading. Why? Because I’ve seen the consequences of content overload firsthand.
Think about how many newsletters you’re subscribed to right now, how many of them do you actually open and read? How many unfinished e-books do you have?
And lastly, how many of you actually put the tips that you’ve learned into practice? Content overload is a huge problem, and it’s affecting the way you run your blog or business. Here are some tips to help combat it.
Unsubscribe from newsletters that you don’t read.
One of the first things I did before I launched my blog was subscribe to every single newsletter. For some reason, I thought this would help me because I would get daily tips set to my inbox – I would spend most of my day trying to read all the emails I got and let’s face it, that was nearly impossible. The truth is, your email is an important place for you to gather ideas from people that you trust and people who have amazing content. By cleaning up your email and subscribing only to people who send you amazing things, then you’ll feel more motivated to put what you learn into action.
Action tip: Use unroll.me to unsubscribe to unwanted emails. Want an easy tutorial? Melissa of blog clarity has a great one here.
Spend one-hour learning and 2 hours doing.
This is the biggest advice I can give you when it comes to learning what do with all the new information that you’re reading. Even if you were to buy the most expensive e-course in the world or read a marketing book every day, it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t apply what you learned to your blog or business. I spent so many hours reading about how to start a blog when I didn’t even create one yet. Many people want everything to be “perfect” before they launch, but the best way to learn something is just to do it. Put down those marketing books, stop spending hours reading about the perfect way to start a blog and just take action. If you’re learning all about Pinterest ads, then go out and create a Pinterest ad and see what results you get. If you bought a course on how to create webinars, then host a webinar instead of waiting until that “perfect moment.”
Learning things and not implementing them is like watching Photoshop YouTube tutorials without ever using pPhotoshop
Spend more time being picky about who you learn from.
There is plenty of good content out there, but amazing content is hard to come by. What makes content amazing? Regina over at ByRegina always says that you never want your content to underwhelm your reader, you don’t want to give them things that they already know or that they can easily find online.
If you read a blog post and find yourself taking notes and thinking to yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?” then you know you should subscribe and follow this blog. Be ruthless about what you spend your time on and who you learn from. After all, your time and education is priceless.
Real life example: When you spend most of your time reading and not doing, you can’t put into effect what you’ve learned. I spent hours reading about how to use MailChimp's automation feature but when I finally launched my blog and had to use it, it took me twice as long to implement what I learned.
Don’t go overboard with courses. Choose the ones that you need NOW.
I’m telling you, everyone is releasing courses here and there and as someone who is just starting my journey… I’m literally going into a buying frenzy. I actually bought 4 courses already AND I just bought the Teachable Bundle (that’s like 10 courses). Since it’s almost Christmas time, I asked my boyfriend for another course… but after debating – I realized that I’m doing it all wrong.
Buy courses that you can use NOW, not for the future. If you’re a newbie designer who wants to learn how to seriously design amazing graphics then buy a course on design, not on social media. If you’re a blogger who wants to up their social media game, Nora has a course on that here. But, the main point is that people spend time buying courses that they think they need for the future, buy courses that you need NOW.
Overall, Content Overload is something that we have all felt, one point or another. Hopefully, these tips will help you deal with them in a more productive manner.
How are you going to de-clutter for the new year? Let us know in the comments below!
By Diana Trinh
Diana is a social media marketer, designer and writer. She owns the blog, The Coffee Date. The Coffee Date is a blog for women entrepreneurs who want to grow their blog, get more traffic, and design gorgeous things.
