Make Scroll-Stopping Content

This week, I want to break down how I transformed my Facebook posting strategy from aimless to intentional. It’s a peek into how I approach content as a business, not just an artist sharing work. What Hasn't Worked I've increasingly dismissed posting on Facebook. However, I've occasionally been pulled back in due to their claim of 3 billion (!!) monthly active users. I have the content, so why not? Even though I've slowly grown my Facebook page to 645k followers, my posting strategy there has...

This is a modified version of an original post from February 22, 2024 The Dinner Table Test In my years of making videos and analyzing which were the most shared, I've found there's pretty much one major factor in determining the shareability of any post: the dinner table test. A cousin to the elevator pitch, it basically asks if a picture/video is simple enough to describe that you'd be inclined to bring it up in discussion at the dinner table. "Hey, did you see that video where the cat...

With AI's sudden rise, there's been a lot of discussion about how important 'narrative' is to artists and businesses online. Simply put, what's the story behind your content? For example, Wendy's has notoriously leaned into sounding like a snarky social media manager gone rogue from corporate headquarters. Given that my content is all about realistic magical effects and tedious stop-motion animation, I've specifically chosen to present a narrative of: a wizard casually filming himself on his...

Today, a great example of how a digital artist can tell a compelling process story while also advertising their work. I attended film school when social media was first appearing. My grad film was printed onto tape and snail-mailed to film festivals. Posting video online was still a bit radical. To this day, I still feel bound to my traditional film background. I have outdated ideas about how to approach visual storytelling. Almost like there are certain ways to film specific shots because...

People have asked me to share more about the business side of being a full-time artist on the internet. So this week, let's take a look at the revenue generated from my 10 Types of Magic video (and my surprising conclusion). Three important factors: This video is an outlier and its success isn't repeatable. I posted these videos in March 2023, so this revenue spans two years. I'm Canadian and don't make ad revenue on platforms like TikTok or Instagram. YouTube Shorts: $9,792 USD Shorts don't...