
<Image
  publicId="newsletters/lessons-from-the-creator-track-at-vidcon/cover"
  alt="Nick Cho, aka Your Korean Dad, and some goon who looks a whole lot like me at VidCon 2023"
/>

Last week, I went to VidCon - the annual summit for video creators, which was in in Anaheim, California. It was my first time as a creator at the event. Though most of my published work is in written format rather than video these days, it was an exceptional experience.

As part of the creator track, I attended a number of panels and workshops. I also had the opportunity to meet with a number of creators and industry professionals.

Here are my top takeaways from the conference:

## Everybody's people, and people are amazing

I was _shocked_ at how many YouTubers / TikTok...ers, and other creators I met who were just... hanging out in the convention center in Anaheim and happy to talk shop. In particular, my wife Natalie and I had a wonderful conversation with Nick Cho, who you may know better as [Your Korean Dad](https://www.youtube.com/@yourkoreandad). Not only was he happy to be approached, but he was also incredibly kind and generous with his time.

He gave some great advice about building a fanbase. He starts every video with "I'm your Korean Dad!", which is an unexpected and memorable way to introduce himself. His videos are also very personal, and he's not afraid to be vulnerable.

He also has a very clear mission: to be a father figure to his audience.

Nick was kind enough to spend 5 or so minutes giving Natalie feedback on her channel [Primary Focus](https://youtube.com/@primaryfocus), and bid us farewell with an unexpected "please keep in touch!" -- an absolute class act.

## Stop plastering your logo on everything

I also went to a talk by [John Green](https://www.youtube.com/@vlogbrothers) and his DFTBA colleagues Brandi Jessup, Sierra Schultzzie, Fraize, and Brandi Jessup, where they talked about the intention and strategy they put into designing and selling physical merchandise for their fanbases. The top nugget here: the best things they sell to their fans are high quality products that don't _scream_ "I'm a fan of this thing". They rarely have a brand name or logo on them, and they're often subtle references to the in-jokes or memes that their fans love.

Stop designing t-shirts with your logo on them, and start designing _things_ that your fans will love because they make them feel like they're part of a community.

---

## Tools and feature launches for creators and community builders

Many of the sessions I attended at VidCon were focused on how to build and foster community, both tactically and technically. Here are a few of my notes that I wanted to share:

### Patreon support for digital goods and free membership tiers

[Patreon launched free membership tiers](https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/21/23763815/patreon-free-tier-shopping-digital-goods-subscription) -- which sounds like something that should have _always_ existed. It's a great way to offer your community members an inside look at your process, and to upsell them to a paid tier when they're ready.

They also added support for selling digital goods - like ebooks or exclusive downloads - which makes it even easier to offer your community members something of value.

### An acronym as a tool for marketing

[The AIDA Model](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDA_(marketing)>) is a helpful tool for brainstorming and structuring a marketing strategy. The acronym stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action: these are the steps which people tend to go through when deciding to make a purchase.

### The indexifembedded keyword

Here's a quick and hyper-specific SEO tip for my all my fellow web-building dudes: the [indexifembedded](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots-meta-tag#indexifembedded) keyword can be used to tell Google to index a page if it's embedded in another page in an iframe. This is particularly useful if you want to mark a YouTube video as unlisted on your channel, but still have it show up in search results when embedded on your website.

---

This all has me thinking quite a bit about the role video plays in my life - I would love to find more time to share stories and learnings from my startup journey in video format. I'm not sure what that looks like yet, but I'm excited to explore it.

If you want to follow along, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel [@mikebifulco](https://www.youtube.com/@mikebifulco).

<br />


Takeaways from VidCon's creator track


<Image
  publicId="newsletters/be-intentional-about-building-your-brand/cover"
  alt="Left half: Building your personal brand as a developer. Right half: me, standing on stage giving a talk at a conference"
/>

I have spent _quite_ a few hours over the last few years publishing tutorials, podcasts, newsletters, and videos in an effort to share my knowledge and expertise with the world. I've done my best to be intentional about establishing who I am online and in the working world, and I've tried to do it all in a way that feels natural to me. Fundamentally, my goal has been to build a personal brand that reflects who I am and what I care about, and attracts the kind of people I want to work with.

In doing so, I've learned a lot about what it means to build a personal brand, and it turns out I've developed some strong opinions on the subject.

By sharing your working expertise with the world, you can differentiate yourself from others in tech and gain recognition for your work. One of the best things about this strategy is that you don't need anyone's permission - this is especially helpful if you don't have a fancy college on your resume, or you are moving into a technical career path for the first time.

Boiled down to its absolute core, this is my advice for you:

**Figure out what feels most natural to you, and do that.**

Whether you're writing articles or a newsletter, building demos or tutorials, producing videos, making memes -- the medium doesn't matter. What matters is that you are consistent and authentic in your approach. If you're not sure what that looks like for you, consider this approach:

1. Keep a list of people whose voices you value, whether they're in your field or not. What draws you to them, and not someone else? What do they do that you identify with?
1. Start writing down things that interest you day to day - when you find yourself going on a deep dive in wikipedia or google, make a note. That can be a great seed for something to write about.
1. Set a publish date for yourself (when I started, it was every Friday morning). Smash some words onto the page (or whatever makes sense for your medium of choice), and hit publish. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be out there.

You'll get better with time, and you'll find your voice. You'll also find that you'll start to attract the kind of people you want to work with. That's truly one of the best things about putting yourself out there.

## Resources I use to manage my menagerie

As you might imagine, one consequence of me publishing _stuff_ all over the web is that it gets a little complicated to manage it all. I have done my best to be super intentional about keeping my processes minimal and functional - I don't want to spend a lot of time managing the information I share. I want to spend my time creating it.

Here's some of the things I use to keep an eye on what I'm making:

- [Detailed SEO Extension](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/detailed-seo-extension/pfjdepjjfjjahkjfpkcgfmfhmnakjfba) - this is a Chrome extension that I use to do a quick audit of the SEO metadata for web pages. It's super helpful for checking the SEO of new articles on my site before I publish them.
  cop

- [Sketch](https://www.sketch.com/) - I use Sketch to create all of my the images and illustrations I use on my site. It's a great tool for creating vector graphics and it's super easy to use. If you're not a mac user, or work on a team[Figma](https://figma.com/) is a great alternative.

- [Squoosh](https://squoosh.app) is a utility I use all the time for reducing file size for images. It's a drag-and-drop web interface that can help you shrink big images [by as much as 95%](https://www.tiktok.com/@irreverentmike/video/7173745190220336426)!

## Brand-related thingies from me this week

- 👾 Do you have a README set up on your GitHub account? Do you have a personal website? This week I shared a tutorial on how to [sync your GitHub profile page with your next.js site](https://mikebifulco.com/posts/next-js-github-bio-about-page), so that you can have a single source of truth for your `About me` brand.
- 🎙️ My philosophy on creating a personal brand: I spoke with my Pals CJ Avilla and Colin Loretz on their podcast [Build and Learn](https://buildandlearn.dev/) this week. We talked about how I built my brand, and how I think about building a personal brand. You can [listen to the episode here](https://buildandlearn.dev/11) and subscribe in your podcatcher of choice.


Building your brand in the developer community


<Image
  publicId="newsletters/how-to-know-when-to-publish-your-work/cover"
  alt="How to know when your work is ready to publish"
/>

Hey friend,

Earlier this week, I had a discussion on Polywork with [Brian Green](https://www.polywork.com/brian_green), who is the founder of a learning platform called Curricular. He posed a question that I think we can all identify with:

> How do you know when your work is ready to publish?

I feel like this issue is at the heart of _everything_ I create, but it's particularly spicy when it comes to video. I can publish articles all day long, and go back to update them on a whim if the need ever arises.

Video is much more final - at least on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, because those platforms don't let you edit your videos after they're published.

After some thought, here's my answer to the question:

**Imperfection is part of the brand.**

Showing some scuffs here and there, and the vulnerability it takes to let those things out into the world helps people connect with you. It also gives you wiggle room to improve over time.

If you're constantly aiming for perfection, you'll never publish anything, and because of that, you'll never get any better.

It's a balance, of course - you don't want to be so imperfect that your work is incoherent or unprofessional. But a few scuffs along the way show that you're a real person, trying your best.

In fact, I think that I grow a much deeper personal attachment with creators who let me see into their process a bit. Things like editing, deciding on a voice, and what to deliver all make the brand feel more real, and more relatable to me.

There's also a subconscious element to it - I feel like I'm getting a peek into the creator's brain.

The secret sauce seems to be leaning into the bumps and bruises, and pointing out from time to time "hey, this isn't perfect, but I see that too".

When things feel _super_ polished all the time, it creates a veneer of false authenticity that just feels like... marketing? I think most people don't want to be sold to; they want to feel like they're a part of something genuine.

So, in short… here's what I think: don't be afraid to put something out there that's not perfect. It'll be more relatable, you'll meet more interesting people, and you'll have more fun with it.

To me, that's something people can get behind.

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## What I'm reading

I've had a few connections ask me which newsletters I read regularly, so I thought I'd some of my favorites:

- 🗞️ If you're publishing a newsletter, you have to check out the [Growth Currency newsletter](https://www.growthcurrency.net/?utm_source=MikeBifulcoNewsletter). It's a weekly newsletter by Dylan Redekop providing highly-actionable tips, tactics, and resources to help you grow, improve, and monetize your own newsletter.
- 🏙️ For all my Urbanist / NUMTOT pals - my friend Barry Greene has been sharing his thoughts on Urbanization and public transit in his newsletter [Density Dad](https://cutloose.substack.com/?utm_source=nl_tinyimprovements). His perspective on responsible growth and planning for cities is refreshing, and I always learn something new.
- 🖍️ If you're a parent of an elementary-aged youngster, you should check out [Primary Focus](https://newsletter.primaryfocus.tv/), a newsletter by Miss Natalie, a 10-year veteran of the classroom who also happens to be my best friend and partner. She's been sharing her thoughts on education, parenting, and the future of learning in her newsletter for a while now, and it's a great read.

## Oh and BTW - I've been publishing videos, too

Despite publishing Tiny Improvements weekly, I've taken the last few weeks to recharge my cells a bit. It's a funny time for me - I'd love to be outside enjoying the weather even though it's cold out, but a recurring injury means I really need to take it easy. It's probably a good thing, honestly.

I've been making ~60s tutorials for creators and developers, and publishing them both on [YouTube](https://youtube.com/@mikebifulco) and [TikTok](https://tiktok.com/@irreverentmike).

If you're active on either platform, I'd love it if you checked them out and subscribed.

That's it for now - thanks so much for reading, and if you're in the US, enjoy the holiday.

Until next time,

Mike


#creator: 3 posts tagged

Takeaways from VidCon's creator track

Building your brand in the developer community

Put a fork in it - how to know when your work is ready to publish