JANUARY 30, 2024

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Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

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Do a Free, Low-Tech Content Audit

Google crawls your website every month (at a minimum) to see how your content has changed and if it is worthy of its rankings. But how often do you crawl your website, video channel, podcast episode director, or other content platform?

Do you know what content proved worthy of your audience and your business? Execute your content crawl with an audit. In a 2023 study, Semrush found that 61% of marketers conduct content audits at least twice a year. Half of those who did an audit and updated their content accordingly experienced increased engagement and a boost in rankings/traffic.

As a content entrepreneur, you should follow a similar audit pattern to make more informed decisions on how to improve your content and achieve your business goals. This low-tech, free content audit will take less time once you establish a process and repeat it regularly.

1. Identify your content. Create a spreadsheet or other tracking document. Include columns for title, topic, publication date, and format (i.e., blog, ebook, course, video).

If you’re well organized from the beginning, you can add a line every time you publish content. If you’re like me, you’ll need to work a little harder. With websites, I like to use Google Analytics. (Go to GA4. Select Explore. Click on the plus icon to create a new report. Customize your report. Double-click all dimensions and metrics. The first column contains full-page URLs.)

For a YouTube channel, you can do it manually by going to the Videos tab. But an easier move is to use Google Takeout. (Log into your Google account connected to the channel and scroll down to the YouTube data option. Here’s a video to help.)

Most podcast platforms let you download your episodes into a CSV file. It sometimes includes the title, publication dates, duration, etc. You'll have to do it manually if they don’t download that information.

2. Figure out what content works best and what doesn’t work at all. At this point, you need to pull in the metrics most relevant to the target audience and your business. For example, traffic to a content asset might seem like the best metric for success – and it is if the business goal is to attract an audience. But it’s not the best metric if your business goal is to convert the audience into subscribers. The better metric for that would be the percentage of the audience that signed up for the newsletter (i.e., the traffic number on the thank-you-for-subscribing page). Learn more about which metrics matter in this article.

Tracking the content by the top metrics for your business enables you to sort the spreadsheet to identify the top and bottom-performing content. Pick the 10 best and 10 worst to investigate further.

3. Learn from the best and the worst content. What worked and what didn’t with this content? Do you see patterns? For example, do short videos deliver better than long-form articles? Are some topics and categories consistently popular? What about publication dates? Do punchy subject lines produce better open rates than explanatory ones? What role does the meta or other description play?

While the questions to investigate can seem limitless, ask a manageable number. As you repeat this audit process, you may discover some questions asked in the first audits don’t deliver the answers you really need. Use what you learn to analyze the content qualitatively, noting any commonalities as you review.

You can now update existing content, tweak your editorial strategy, and evaluate your business goals. In this process, set priorities. For example, is it worth improving the worst-performing content, or should you spend that time developing new content that expands on what’s working with the best content?

If you opt to update content, note what you did on the spreadsheet so you can identify the elements that may have contributed to the content asset’s improved performance.

4. Repeat every quarter. Go through this process every quarter to better understand the trends of what’s working for your audience and your business. You can see which content consistently performs better and which sees a drop in interest after a certain time. That additional data can help you adjust your editorial planning and business strategy.
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Helpful Resources:

​The Step-by-Step Guide to Conducting a Content Audit in 2024 [Semrush]

​How To Perform a Content Audit + 6 Free Templates [Wordstream]

​What Creators Should Know About Google Analytics 4 [The Tilt]

​How To Narrow the Metrics That Matter to Your Content Business [The Tilt]

– Ann Gynn

Supported by:

The content creator’s guide to generative AI

The robots are here to help — is how it tends to begin.

If you haven’t tried any generative AI assistants, just know that they’re getting pretty impressive. One even scored a B on the Wharton MBA exam.

Peruse the generative AI ebook we made with the smarties at Jasper.

How to heed and handle generative AI:

• Generative AI use cases and limitations
• Producing useful ideas and content
• Prompt and response examples
• Integrating across your content team

A deep introduction to speaking the language.

Entrepreneur: Lindsey Gamble

Biz: Lindsey Gamble’s Newsletter

Tilt: Creator and brand partnerships, influencer innovation

Primary Channel: Newsletter (4.1K)

Other Channels: LinkedIn (7.7K), X (2K), Instagram (1.9K)

Time to First Dollar: 5 months

Rev Streams: Brand sponsorships, speaking engagements

Our Favorite Actionable Advice:

• Don’t focus on performance results. Early on, resist the desire to focus on the metrics. Growth will happen if the value of your content is evident to the audience.
• Know it’s OK to stay part-time. Lindsey spends 20 to 24 hours a week on his content business while working a full-time job in the creator economy. He has no plans to leave his day job. The two work well together, elevating Lindsey as a thought leader in the creator economy.
• It’s about the audience. Always remember that the content is about the audience. Don’t write for yourself. Ask what you can do to empower and help the audience.

– Marc Maxhimer

​Read Lindsey Gamble’s story.​

• ICYMI: B.J. Novak, renowned writer, actor, comedian, and best-selling author, will be headlining this year’s Content Entrepreneur Expo (CEX) 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio, from May 5-7! Register now to save your spot!
• Content creators aren't creating art. It's commerce. Some entrepreneurs are confused by this. Don't make this huge mistake. (Content Inc.)
• Sports Illustrated is "mostly" dead. It's an opportunity for a big brand to make a content marketing buy. Why isn't this happening more often? (This Old Marketing)
• ​Are print books dead? (Publish & Prosper)
• Let’s chat about the business side of being a content entrepreneur at 12 p.m. US EST Tuesday on LinkedIn for Tilt Your Business: A Weekly Mastermind for Content Entrepreneurs.

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