Peter says…

In his latest video, photographer, cinematographer, vlogger and all round nice chap Peter McKinnon (Youtube, IG) tells us why he chose to drop his popular Two Minute Tuesday tutorial uploads:

I created two minute Tuesday because I just wanted a video that I could make every week that was only two minutes and I could make it about anything I wanted: an easy way to make content, a consistent way to get content.

But then:

It started to become this assumed… that every Tuesday it would be something that you would learn… something that I would teach. And the problem with that is that there’s a limit to everything that I know!
I ran out of ideas. There’s times when I’m sitting there thinking to myself “what could I possibly teach today? I feel like I’ve done everything. I’ve got nothing else to give.”

What follows is an introspective session debating whether it is better to make content merely to stick to a schedule or whether the real aim is to make what you want, when you want to. And for Peter, that was an easy question to answer, and that’s why he dropped Two Minute Tuesday.

That clearly makes sense for someone in Peter’s position. It’s his job; it’s how he makes his living, and so yes, he has to produce high quality results in order to maintain standards and so keep earning money from it.

I have to do the same thing with my job. And I do.

But this blog isn’t my job.  And besides which, there’s more to this whole “forced” versus “organic” content debate – a very important more:

You want to put out a constant stream of content so that your fans, people that enjoy consuming that content get used to coming back every week and seeing the stuff that you’re making.

Yep – audience expectancy. Because there will always be some percentage of the people who watch your videos or read your posts who want a continual stream of content, rather than one or two (perceived) high quality pieces here or there. And because I can’t ever guarantee time, inclination, effort or ability to be able to produce those one or two gems every week (or whenever), you get saddled with “something” every day.

Sorry for you.

But I have to say, people keep coming back. They might come back and be regularly disappointed, but they do keep coming back. (I’m not sure what sort of people these are when I look at it this way, but still…)

And guess what? Peter has given up on giving up of his Two Minute Tuesdays and is now following my lead:

I’ve decided to start doing them again; it’s just not going to be tutorials every week. It could be pretty random… It could be just anything and everything.

Which, considering he’s never even seen it, sums up this blog pretty well.

Welcome back, Two Minute Tuesday. We’ve missed you.

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