Every creator, solopreneur, business…hell, everyone should build a library.
And I don’t mean a physical library, although that would be pretty cool.
I mean a digital library.
Something that helps to share their knowledge and experiences while also being a place to help them learn and grow.
In simpler terms, you should be blogging.
WAIT!!!!
Dammit, I don’t want you to go down this crazy rabbit hole of how blogging is a waste of time because you did it in 2013 and nothing happened.
Your approach to blogging was wrong. I know that’s strong of me to say, but I know these things and you were wrong.
So what’s the right way? I’m glad you asked.
And before I answer that I think it’s better if I give you the reasons why you need to build a library if you want to see any type of success in the future.
Why You Should Build a Library
To be famous and make money.
You shouldn’t need more reason than that, but maybe you don’t want those things. That’s fine.
There are two main reasons why you should build a library:
- Growth for your business
- Growth for yourself
Your Business
Think about how your audience consumes content today. They open up their phones and start to scroll.
They see your post, like it, comment, and then move on.
It’s natural.
Building a library doesn’t stop that.
But every once in a while there will be someone that wants to dive deeper. You won’t know why.
Maybe they think you have a solution to their problem. Maybe they just have time to do some more reading.
It doesn’t matter.
The point is they want more right now.
So do they go to your profile and read your archive of tweets? You can do that once or twice, but your tweets are probably surface-level stuff (as they should be) so they don’t get to dig deeper into what the reader wants.
Plus, the reader is still in someone else’s world.
What do I mean?
When you’re on Twitter, you’re still being pulled in different directions because you’re supposed to scroll more.
Same with LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
But when someone is on your site they are in your world. If they want more content then they are going to consume more of YOUR content.
It’s the difference between reading a book in a bookstore in an airport versus one in a library.
Your library allows you to move further with your world-building.
This works well when you apply the right content strategy to everything that you do. A library doesn’t only have books.
They also have comic books, magazines, newspapers, CDs, DVDs, and other media.
But it all ties together under one structure.
Publication vs Library
When starting off with your content creation it’s easy to build a publication.
That’s the stuff that is trendy in your mind right now. You see it in your social media posts and the content on your site.
It’s no different than a magazine.
Every month a brand new theme.
But a library has intention behind it. If you want to succeed in the long run as a Creator you want to have a resource that people get lost in.
They don’t get lost in magazines.
They get lost in libraries.