Ryan McLean : Slightly Unconventional

Did I Make A Big Mistake Doing Video?

iniartworksmallI’m starting to think that maybe I made a big mistake trying to do so much video. Should I just have been doing audio instead?

I’ve just driven home after listening to the StartUp Podcast on the way home as well as some Invisibilia which is a pretty cool podcast and it got me thinking as to the medium in which I present the information that I give.

The way that I like to learn is I love listening to things. I love listening to podcasts in the car. I love listening to podcasts while I work.

If you look at my habits on YouTube a lot of the stuff that I like to consume are talks where you can watch the people talking but you don’t really need to in order to get the information across. It got me started to thinking.

I decided to invest more in video because I know that largely that is a big way that the internet is going to go and that’s a big way that people are going to be consuming information in the future.

However, on questioning myself as to whether that is the right decision because I’m not as good at video and I feel like I could potentially be a lot better with audio only than I could be with video and audio.

Therefore I’m actually exploring the idea of doing a lot less video and instead focusing on audio but making it better, making it more engaging because when I’m doing video I’ve got to think about so much more. It’s definitely not as natural to me. My editing skills are not there.

I don’t really have the passion to edit things in a good way like someone like Casey Neistat who is a famous YouTube vlogger. He does these amazing edits of his daily vlog and that’s something that I’m just not interested in. But when I listen to the StartUp podcast, when I listen to well-produced audio content it really gets my juices flowing, it really gets me inspired.

Therefore I’m not sure whether I’ve made a big mistake. Say that I made a mistake obviously it’s going to be good to create video content and good to get that sort of exposure. It’s good to try that.  And it also created audio content for me as well so I haven’t lost anything in doing it.

However, if I want to put pursue some sort of passion project that is not just to make money but something that I could do to try and have an impact, try and push my skills to the next level then I feel like maybe it’s going to be an audio. Maybe audio is going to be my thing maybe it’s not going to be video after all.

It’s kind of annoying I guess to just go through this process and to say well actually I’m pretty passionate about audio. And even though there may not be as big an audience in audio as there is in video if I can do audio well then chances are I am going to reach more people through audio that I am through doing videos that just aren’t that good.

So this is something I’ll continue to think about, something I’ll continue to explore moving forward because there are some video things I still want to do. I tried streaming for the first time today so I play a game called super smash brothers melee I want to become top eight in Queensland within the next six months. Currently I’ll kind of top 20 and so that means I probably need to do about an hour practice a day – the goal that I set for myself. And I thought you know what I might just stream while I do that practice.

That’s a video that I’d probably still like to keep doing. There are a lot of great reasons to do video in different scenarios. However I’m just thinking if there’s something that I wanted to do that will really push my skills and that would really force me to create something high quality then audio would probably be it. So I’ll keep thinking about that.

I’ll keep you guys updated and if I ever release anything that is audio content that is going to be top quality I’ll be sure to let you guys know.

It is quarter past eleven and I’ve just pulled in home from being out playing Melee all night. Sometimes inspiration and insights just hit you at the weirdest times.

That’s it from me guys. Until next time if you want instructions go and buy some furniture.


See all posts »

Multiple Websites Makes Ryan’s Head Go Crazy

[youtube id=”2ZxZUSA5LTg” align=”left” mode=”lazyload” maxwidth=”500″]

iniartworksmallI’ve started building out mutliple niche sites, but the tangle of decisions is becoming increasingly difficult for me

Hi guys, Ryan here from Instructions Not Included. Just a quick video to talk about the problems that I’m having with having multiple different websites.

The best thing that I can equate it to is actually my box of spare cords. So these are the cords that I don’t use all the time. Sometimes I need them, most of the time I don’t but when I do need something as you can imagine it’s pretty hard to find the right thing.

I got so many different things in here from like inverters that go from your car power to a power point to this drawing pad to calboards, to stuff for playing super smash brothers to a whole bunch of camera cords and everything like that.

So there’s a whole bunch of stuff mixed in there and it’s really confusing and really hard to try and find a cord when you’re looking for it and you just hope that it’s in there.

I kind of feel the same with a lot of my websites at the moment because I run so many websites. And part of my goal to generate more passive income is to actually have more niche websites that are kind of spread across the board rather than having all my eggs in one basket just in On Property.

Therefore, I’ve got all these new niche websites. A bunch of them make money but it does get very hard to know what to work on. They are not that hard to manage.

I can leave them there and they’ll just keep generating money. I need to update the plugins every now and then. I need to pay the bills and so on but they’re not that hard to do.

 

But what to work on next, that’s hard because you’re not just thinking okay I’ve got one business which is On Property what do I need to work on next what episode am I going to create next? No, I’ve got like 10 or more different websites that I could be working on and now I’ve got to think about for each website what is the next article or video or whatever that I could be working on.

You got to actually think of that and then you got to think about what actually is going to deliver the best return on investment for me and so which of those 10 different things should I be working on. Adding to that the fact that I’ve got emails coming in everyday, things that need to be dealt with, finances that I’ve got to do for my business, a bunch of other tasks that I’m doing as well as converting the van at the moment.

Also, there are just so many different things on my plate and I’m not good with focus generally anyway. I’m not a very focused person. I jump around the board a lot and so to have all of these different things and not have a system that helps me make decisions I’m actually finding it really difficult.

I don’t know what I’m going to do but that is one of my struggles at the moment – actually not being able to know what to work on because there are so many different things that I could be doing and not necessarily choosing the right thing.

I think I probably need to create a system to help me make decisions – maybe some sort of to do tasks. I’ve got this great spreadsheet for all my episodes and so when I create a new video or a new article or something like that it goes into the spreadsheet and is tracked. I can therefore look at that spreadsheet and know where I’m at and what needs to be done at any point in time.

That’s really great but I kind of need it for my whole business. So that’s something I’ll think about over the next week or so and try and come up with some sort of system to help me structure my life and make decisions because I’m not good at focusing or necessarily choosing the right things to work on anyway. Hopefully that will help.

It’s not easy running this. It’s not easy making these decisions and therefore I need some help. There are no instructions included guys. That’s it from me, just a quick little update.

Until next time if you want instructions go and buy some furniture.


See all posts »

Subscribe: rss | email | twitter | +