Quantity Will Get You to Quality

Regardless of industry and occupation, the debate “Quantity vs Quality” was, is and will always be one of the main topics of conversation. 

What’s more important? Where should creators invest more? 

What I really believe is that this discussion should always start with a simple question: Why are you creating content? 

The “WHY” behind every one of our actions is the most significant simple question we should all ask ourselves. Why do I want to create more content? Why do I want to create just one good piece of content? Why do I create content in the first place? Why do I need content? 

These are the types of questions we should ask before we can finally engage in the “Quantity vs Quality” topic. 

Only after we discuss this dilemma and find the truth behind the “WHY”, we can finally talk about the Quantity vs Quality topic. 

At this point, we need to set up some boundaries. The choice between Quality and Quantity depends on (most of the time) where we are at a specific point in time, as content creators.

If, for instance, you are at the beginning of your journey as a content creator, you should invest more in quantity, but always keep in mind to improve while creating the next content. However, if you already have a few years of content creation experience, you need to focus more on content quality. 

Now let’s discuss these 2 important elements:

Quantity at the beginning of your journey

If you want to be the next Joe Rogan in podcasting, the next Casey Neistat on Youtube, the next Sam Kolder on Instagram, or the next Seth Godin in blogging, you need to invest more in content. You need to keep creating and thinking about how to improve your content creation process, your content results, your content distribution. 

The quality of your content will never depend on your creation process. 

You have to understand that with every new piece of content you write, you should always invest resources in gaining more experience, in getting more ideas and inspiration. And, how you do that?

You can do it by:

• creating from your own experience
• consuming more content.

The best is to do both of them.

In this case, you will also have a personal point of view (if you get more experience) but you can also connect the dots from others’ experiences and expertise (while you are consuming content). 

Improvements come with one content at a time.

Take one of your content pieces which you believe to be driving in the best results. Now make something similar but improve it a little bit. Don’t make big changes. If you improve yourself with only 1% at a time and write on a daily basis, after a month you’ll notice a 30% improvement in your creative process.

This is huge. 

For example, just take a quick look at Matt D’Avella. He is a well-known YouTuber who started his success story by just creating, editing, and filming video content. After he learned how to create great videos he filmed and edited the Minimalist project that now is a movie on Netflix. He moved forward and started creating his own videos on Youtube based on his own experience. He documented his life while he took cold showers for 30 days or while he quit sugar for 30 days. In the meantime, he started his own podcast, “Ground Up” (video and audio), where he invited people like Lewis Howes, Gary Vaynerchuk, Caroline Lee, and many many others. And now he has over 2.85 Million subscribers and 330 videos uploaded on his Youtube channel. 

What should be the take on from this example:

1. At the beginning, you need to invest more in quantity – learn how to create the kind of content that suits you the best. If you want to be a video producer, start creating video content, publish your edits on every channel and learn from the reaction your community has.
2. Invest into talking more about your interests and start creating a community based on their interests. If you are interested in a certain topic (like Matt was in minimalism) start digging deeper into that topic. Read about it, learn about it, and talk about it.
3. Test and experiment with new things – document all your successes and failures and talk about the lessons you have learned during this personal journey. People love to see how people react to specific things at specific times and what they have learned from these experiences.
4. It’s ok to start small – everybody stared with 0 followers, 0 pieces of content published, and 0 likes.
5. Don’t forget to improve every piece of content you create. It’s very important that your next edit be something different (maybe try a new approach, maybe try a new idea, maybe try a new strategy, or just learn how to make it better). Improve every piece of content you publish out there.

Sometimes quality doesn’t mean better

I love analyzing and following the big content creators. I learn so much from them but at the same time, they help me get new perspectives and learn new techniques on creating and publishing content. 

During the time I started my own podcast, I used to consume every piece of content Gary Vaynerchuk was publishing, I listened to every Tim Ferriss episodes, I watched every video Noah Kagan published, and read every article Ryan Holiday wrote on his blog. 

I consumed everything from articles, to Instagram posts, and uo to Twitter statuses. Everything. And what I learned is that sometimes quality doesn’t mean that that type of content is better than mine. 

It’s good content for their followers. It’s great content for their community. But this doesn’t mean that it’s better than mine or yours. 

That piece of content is not for everybody. 

When you create for everybody, it means that you actually do it for nobody at all. 

In time, I observed that all these popular content creators have a well-targeted audience in their minds, they understand their audience and create the right content for them. 

They are answering their audience’s questions. 

When we talk about “quality content” we always have a comparison in our mind. “Content X is better than Content Y”. 

So every time I hear someone discussing this topic, I ask themselves: Who said that? Who is the one who can judge content from a qualitative perspective? 

Reading James Clear’s article about professionals and amateurs made me look to this topic with a different perspective.

Here, we can also talk and debate the difference between amateur content creators and professionals. 

And this will always stay on point: what’s the real goal behind the content creation? 

Just think about how a pro athlete is training for the Olympics and how an amateur is training for a local marathon. 

Quality can be questionable (from one point of view)

Quality is a subjective topic. What I love doesn’t mean that you should love it too. The kind of content I like to consume, may not be the same type of content you are enjoying as well.

So why are we still talking about quality then? 

Because quality it’s not for everybody. And quality can be questionable. This is why we love to talk about quality. 

However, I only have one simple question regarding quality – Did the content achieved its goal? If yes, why are we still talking about quality then? 

If that TikTok influencer is still doing the stupid dance and after 30 videos they now signed a big contract with a big brand, and at the end of the day, that was their goal, why are we still talking about “quality”? 

If that writer published a mediocre (you see, quality) book and he or she made it to the New York Time bestseller list and they have 30 speeches every year and can work as a consultant for some big brands, that’s great, if that was the goal. I don’t care if the book was mediocre or if the Instagram post he or she published is lacking in creativity. If the goal was to be a consultant for a big brand than everything is great. 

Ok, I don’t want to be a ignorant person and say that everything we see on the internet is great content. I don’t believe that. There are still poor and stupid pieces of content, but this is not my war.

I don’t want to be dragged in that discussion on how ugly is that photo, how low-quality editing had that video, or how people can upload those kinds of photos and videos. 

How to have a Quality vs Quantity Talk

• Start the talk by defining what’s “quality” and what’s “quantity” from your own perspective, without getting into the discussion of the examples.
• Figure out what you want to achieve with this talk. If you want to make your discussion partner agree with you, then you should also bear in mind that at times, you might need to have to agree with him/her.
• Understand who the creators are. Maybe, try to see everything they have accomplished lately. This will make you understand where they were a few years ago and where they are now after they published their content. This will help you (maybe) understand their goals as well.
• Do you have the right competence to have this talk? Because if you talk with a content creator and you are more a content consumer, you won’t get to any results. However, if you are a content creator, just like your partner in discussion, you may both speak the same language, if you know what I mean.
• If this talk won’t get you to any conclusion, be smart and agree to disagree.

On one hand, there are people who create content because that’s what they love to do, and they are doing it very well. While on the other hand there are people who have the opportunity to upload a photo on Facebook, even if it shows their cup of morning coffee or their breakfast and that’s all. I don’t believe that the second type of person can engage in the “content creator” discussion. 

I hope this article helped you understand this never-ending debate about quality vs quantity.