Gary Bloomer | SHAKING THE TREE # 250
The most important lesson from publishing 250 articles isn’t about SEO or virality—it’s about the uncomfortable truth I had to learn the hard way.
That uncomfortable truth is that as a content creator, 90 to 95% of your effort will be wasted, and you won’t know which percentage of what’s left will matter until long after the fact.
You’ll pour your best thinking, your time, and your energy into every piece, only for it to wind up falling flat again and again.
I’ve hit “publish” time and again with a mixture of hope, trepidation, and conviction, only to hear little but silence. And oddly enough, I’m OK with that (or at least, I am now … but this wasn’t always the case). The brutal reality is that the ultimate judge in the market—your readers—is a measure that at times is brutally unforgiving.
This isn’t a celebration. Hitting “publish” on 250 articles since May 2023 isn’t a milestone that deserves a medal. It’s a data point.
The commonly shared advice to just get started is a comfort blanket but little more. It’s designed to make you feel good about slow progress. What I’ve learned is raw, uncomfortable, and it’s the only stuff that actually matters if you want to build something that lasts.
Here’s my unfiltered opinion.
Replace the “just start” mantra with “strategic quitting”
Everyone loves to tell you to “just start.” It’s the battle cry for the hesitant. And for the first 50 articles, it’s fine. While you’re writing and publishing your first 50 articles you’re building the strength of your writing muscles. But after that, “just starting” becomes the enemy of excellence.
Here’s the rub though: many people who start out with a newsletter give up after just a few editions. If you can crank out 50 articles that you’re happy with and proud of, your chances of still being an active writer a year later increase dramatically.
For me, the real shift happened when I embraced strategic quitting. I began killing ideas—good ideas—if they didn’t pass one simple test. That test is “Can someone else write this exact same article?”
If your answer to that question is yes, scrap it. Kill the whole idea and move on to the next one. The more attuned you become to this style of ideation, the easier it will become to come up with ideas that only you can write about.
The world doesn’t need another lukewarm take on a mundane or trending topic. The world needs your unique, honest, unapologetic, bred-in-the-bone perspective. Stop just starting and instead, begin editing your ambitions before you even write the first word.
Consistency is the booby prize
We’re told to worship at the altar of consistency. Post every day! (FFS)! The algorithm will reward you! (no, it won’t).
The post every day mantra is the most seductive and dangerous lie in content creation. Posting every day—that is, posting without a content strategy, posting without thought, intention, reason, or vision—is a recipe for burn out and disaster.
Although consistency is the price of admission, it’s not the winning ticket.
Posting 250 times didn’t build my audience; creating a handful of breakthrough articles did.
It was the one piece that articulated a feeling lots of people could relate to but that few people could name. The one take that went against the grain and started a real conversation.
Consistency is just the delivery system. It’s the truck that carries the lightning bolt. Don’t confuse the vehicle for the spark. Focus all your energy on creating sparks; the consistency just ensures you’re there to deliver them.
I’ve also learned two things: 1. that no more than 5% of my articles have gained this sort of attention or momentum. And 2. that I’m OK with this (or at least, I’m OK with it now, which wasn’t the case 150 artciles ago!)
Your niche isn’t what you talk about, it’s how you think.
I write about marketing, content creation, and productivity. So what? So does everyone and their LinkedIn chatbot. My niche isn’t the topic. It’s the lens. It’s the blunt, no-BS, cut-the-crap perspective that refuses to sugarcoat the need for hard, relentless work.
Try as you might, you will never out-volume the content mills.
Nor will you ever out-SEO the SEO giants and those with a dozen or more interlinked websites.
But you can absolutely out-think, out-feel, and out-opinion everyone in your space.
Your only true competitive advantage, the thing no one else can recreate and that no one can take away from your is perspective and your opinion. So, instead of trying to cover the news, start creating the argument.
The only metric that matters is a silent nod.
Chase page views and comments and you’ll end up writing clickbait trash. Chase likes, and you’ll become a tambourine bashing, dancing monkey for the algorithm.
The only metric I care about now is the “I see you” response.
It’s the quite DM at 3:00 a.m. that says, “Dude … loved the recent post about optimism! You put words to a struggle I’ve had for months.”
Or it’s the email from a CEO who forwarded an article to their entire leadership team.
The metric that matters is the silent nod from a reader who feels seen, understood, and validated. Why? Because that moment of connection is the entire game.
Everything else—all the SEO, the posting schedule, the headline tweaks and hacks—all of it’s just scaffolding. It’s the necessary structure that builds something that can create that single, simple moment of genuine connection and resonance. Trust me: you’ll know it when you see it and it’ll be quite unlike anything else you;ve ever come across.
The bottom line
After cranking out 250 articles, my most controversial opinion is this: content creation is the smallest part of the job. It may not seem like it, but it is.
The real work lies in developing a razor-sharp point of view.
It’s having the courage to say what others are only thinking or are too afraid to say.
It’s the discipline to kill good ideas to make room for great ones.
And it’s the patience and wisdom to understand that consistency without breakthrough insight is just noise.
As much as I bang on about content creation, I’ve learned that the goal isn’t to be a content creator. No. The goal is to become a thought leader.
And the path to that goal isn’t paved with popular platitudes, instead, it’s strewn with the rotting corpses of uncomfortable truths, harsh realizations, and tough lessons. All of which are there to thin the herd of the competition and to remind you that you alone will power onward because unlike so many people who quit after a handful of articles, YOU are committed to being the best and truest version of yourself as you possibly can be.
Now you know all of this, the game can begin. And the rest? Well, that’s up to you.
As always, thanks for reading.
—Gary
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P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.
Next time on Shaking the Tree: You’ve got to keep moving
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.