The Laziest Content

// What?

Time was against me and I knew I had got in over my head - everything was taking longer than anticipated.

Last night when I was starting to write the blog, I decided to make the cardinal sin - I was going to ‘defer’ to next week and I came up with some lame excuse in my own defence that I was going to relaunch my website and therefore, I’d make a big song and dance about all of that and say that it was for design reasons that I wasn’t going to put out a blog.

I even went so far as to write the email - even writing it, I was feeling lazy.

As I was typing those words onto my screen.. watching them form and seeing a pointless update being written, it didn’t stop me.

“This is the last version of The Clique in the current guise - not as dramatic as it sounds but this week, for the first time in 18 months - there is no article. More details below..”

Then it hit me - no-one cares.

No-one actually cares about my website, the new colour scheme or the work I’m putting into it all.

So why will they care if I haven’t written an article, why will they care when I’ve broken my streak of posting every week?

They won'‘t. I’m just letting myself down.

No one cares that I’m planning a website redesign. No one’s waiting breathlessly for my next blog post update. Because, here’s the hard truth: content that does nothing is content no one needs.

// The Problem

When you go down this path, it’s a difficult one to get off because you begin to rely on the content you’re putting being about the next piece of content you’re writing. When you’re giving your audience updates or hints about what’s coming next, you’re never delivering any substance or value.

The worst thing - it’s completely ineffective.

You’re not inspiring action - you’re proving to those reading that you’re not really doing anything and it all becomes filler.

There is one phrase that stands out to me when I think of the filler content - ‘no-one cares what you do, they only care what you can do for them’ and when you begin writing about what you’re going to do, you become completely self-centred and it’s not audience focused at all.

All this does is to delay meaningful creation and it’s probably just an excuse for you to not create or put in the deeper, harder work of thinking about what you need to do and when you need to do it.

I know that’s what I was going to do - I was going to avoid putting in the work, avoid getting up early to write the next edition of The Clique just so I can have a little bit more sleep and defer till next week.

But I stopped myself and in a meta kind of way, I want to highlight that I was going to do the very thing I’m now writing about.

// The Examples

It’s easy to see the common culprits of ‘lazy content’ out there and I see it quite often with freelance ‘social media marketers’ - they are avoiding doing the hard work for their clients and so they defer - they post about what’s coming next instead of focusing on what’s happening now.

"I’m rebranding—stay tuned!"

"Working on something exciting—can’t share details yet!"

"Here's a sneak peek of my website’s color scheme."

Seriously, I’ve fallen into the trap over the last few weeks with some of my updates in the newsletter - sharing the lovely ‘screenshots’ of the website I’m building and honestly, until people can actually click through, see the website and take a look at what you’ve done, they probably won’t care about the static screenshots of the half finished product.

Let’s face it: update content is the fast food of the content world. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it leaves everyone unsatisfied. Saying, “I’m working on something exciting, stay tuned!” is the digital equivalent of inviting someone over for dinner and then serving them a picture of your shopping list.

I’m one of the first people to make bold statements about what I’m going to do - especially in the fitness world! Looking back over some of the blogs I’ve written (especially some of the early ones before I began to actually write about some stuff which was important to me) - I’ve made some bold statements and never really followed through.

I think it’s ok to get your audience feedback on your ideas and showing off something for a specific reason of getting feedback is fine but showing off for the sake of showing off is pointless.

(and I’m sorry)

// The Real Work

I get it, falling into the ‘update trap’ is easy.

There is a huge desire for instant gratification - You’ve been putting in the work behind the scenes, you’re excited to show off your work and you want that quick fix but in my own case, it’s 100% procrastination disguised as productivity.

There is a fear of imperfection and by getting a small update, you think you’re heading off any criticism before it’s delivered.

Honestly - I the more I talk about this, the more I realise that I have been lazy over the last few weeks - there was a fear of execution in doing the actual work and by sharing little updates on what I’ve been doing, it stopped me from thinking about the work I still had to do - I was trying to deliver results before I’d done the actual work.

And the more you look for those types of updates, the more you see.

I’ve proven to myself and my audience that I can be consistent - I’ve shown up repeatedly and I’ve been able to build a small yet loyal audience - I shouldn’t need to prove anything but I still fall into that trap and especially when I’m actually building something, I want people to know about it.

The real work is giving your audience content that sparks ideas, teaches them something, solves a problem or even better entertains them - they need to have something to takeaway from reading your content - what are they going to gain?

There is a sure fire way to delivering the content that matters - show, don’t tell.

Instead of saying you’re designing a website, share lessons learned from building your website (or previous website launches) - if you’ve done it then talk about it and what your audience can learn from it.

That’s the stuff that builds trust, grows audiences and ultimately, allows your audience to achieve results.

The important thing to remember is that whilst doing the real work is more rewarding and memorable, sharing how you’ve done it, what you learned or why you would/wouldn’t do the same thing again is going to be more important than the pointless update or a little photo of how you’re getting on.

// The Challenge

So, here’s the challenge - Stop hiding behind updates and start creating something that actually matters. Your audience doesn’t need another vague post about what you might do - they need to see the proof that you’ve done it.

The next time you’re tempted to write, “Big things are coming!” ask yourself this: What could I share right now that adds value, sparks curiosity, or starts a conversation?

Then do that instead.

So, what’s it going to be?

Another filler post about your plans - or something that shows you’re already making them happen?

The choice is yours