This one might be counterintuitive. You’d think more content on more platforms would equal faster growth, but it usually doesn’t.
There are two versions of this mistake:
Version one: You’re producing so much content that quality suffers. You don’t have enough time, ideas, or energy to make each piece genuinely good — so you end up publishing a lot of mediocre content instead of a smaller amount of excellent content.
Version two: You’re spreading yourself across too many platforms. YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, a podcast, maybe some paid ads, all at once. You’re essentially dividing your effort into dozens of small pieces rather than putting real momentum behind any one thing.
There’s a diagram in the book Essentialism that captures this perfectly. When you try to do everything, you end up barely moving the needle on any of it. When you focus your energy on one thing, you can actually build momentum — and momentum is what eventually creates the snowball effect that makes audience growth feel almost automatic.
I learned this the hard way. When I was first trying to grow my audience, I was everywhere. And my audience wasn’t really growing anywhere. The thing that changed everything was committing to YouTube — just YouTube — for at least three months. It worked so well that I stuck with it for years before branching out.
Pick one platform. Go deep. Get traction. Then expand.
Mistake #4: Content That’s Too Vague
This one is harder to define, which is fitting, since vagueness is kind of the whole problem.
Some creators consistently produce content that’s broad, general, and high-level. Topics like “how to improve your mindset” or “why success takes time” or “the secret to fulfillment.” Big ideas, loosely explored. Not much that connects to specific, real-world problems people are trying to solve.
This type of content tends to underperform for a few reasons. First, it’s harder to click on. The title doesn’t make a clear promise, so there’s less reason to care. Second, even if someone clicks, the content often doesn’t hold their attention because it doesn’t feel directly relevant to their life. And third, it doesn’t give them a strong reason to subscribe, because they’re not sure what you’re actually going to help them do.
The fix isn’t to never be philosophical or big-picture. It’s to make sure that even your bigger ideas are grounded in specifics. Real examples, real challenges, and real experiences your audience is actually going through.
Ask yourself: would someone who’s dealing with a concrete problem feel like this content was made for them? If the answer is no, get more specific.
