Erwan Heussaff's Advice For Beginner Content Creators: 'You have to do it for yourself first'

In April 2021, Erwan Heussaff announced a big shift for his team: What was previously known as "Erwan Heussaff" is now a channel called "FEATR" which stands for "Food, Encounter, And Travel." ICYDK, Erwan has been making videos for 10 years now, but it wasn't until 2016 when he really considered himself a "content creator."

Speaking to Bianca Gonzalez in an episode of Paano Ba 'To, Erwan answered a few questions from aspiring content creators. "You have to do it for yourself first, not for your audience. If you don't have an audience, why are you catering to that audience? Think of the reason of why you're doing it. There must be an idea in your head of why you want to share a particular style of content or why you wanted to share a particular story," he said. "In the beginning, it should be the most selfish endeavor. It should be about what you want to talk about." 

INSTAGRAM/ERWAN

When it comes to planning their topics, they focus on hero, hub, and help content. Let's break it down:

• Hero - Content you know will go viral (According to Erwan, this is something his team does every 45 days.)
• Hub - Content that they've established over the years (what their core following looks forward to)
• Help - Content that's more of an experiment and something you're doing mostly for yourself

The Youtuber emphasized that planning their topics is largely based on the availability of resources, which can sometimes be a source of stress for creatives. There's content you want to do and content you can do.  Once they establish that framework, they research keywords and check out what people are looking for. Erwan advised reviewing previous trends and when things come in and out of favor to determine how you can create future content. 

He said that they don't put a lot of weight in views: "In terms of numbers, in terms of views, and stuff like that—not so much. That's never been my focus. We do three styles of videos: one for them, one for us, and one for nobody."

If you're set on becoming a content creator, Erwan has some advice: "Do not do it for money. Do not do it as a job...If someone intentionally says, 'I wanna become a content creator', then that person should take themselves very seriously. Another way to frame it is, 'I wanna create an online business'. You need to ask yourself why. Is it to become a popular? Then go somewhere else, don't do it, because that is the worst reason to become a content creator. Formalize it as you would a business...Figure out if you can make it financially viable. What is your 10-year plan? What are you gonna talk about? How are you gonna grow this business? How are you gonna evolve online?"

Hear more tips from Erwan Heussaff below:

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Source: Cosmo PH