Why self-promotion is so uncomfortable — and why it shouldn’t be
If you want to earn money from your creative work, you’ll need to find ways to promote it. Why there’s no need to be uncomfortable about promoting your work.
Anyone who regularly publishes writing online, or produces YouTube videos or podcasts, wants to be read, seen or heard. Nevertheless, many of these people shudder at the thought of advertising their work.
You might be feeling the same way: you do good work, but you don’t shout about it. At Steady we hear the same reasoning time and again in conversations with journalists, podcasters and other creative people — some of them may sound familiar:
- “My work should speak for itself.”
- “I don’t have time for promotion.”
- “I don’t want to spam my community.”
- “I don’t know anything about marketing.”
Behind these explanations there is usually another truth: a lot of people are just uncomfortable with self-promotion. After all, it’s often less about promoting the work and more about promoting the person behind it. And a lot of people who want to be visible also desperately hope they won’t be perceived as wanting to be visible.
And this subtlety is one of the main reasons why it is so difficult for media makers and creative professionals to get the attention they want and deserve.
Georg Franck writes in the Economy of Attention that there is a “rift between the desire for attention and the concern for self-esteem”: your self-esteem can go straight down the drain if you ask for attention in the wrong way.
So how do you promote yourself?
Traditional book authors have it a little easier: If they already have an audience, the publisher just takes over the promotional tasks. But this luxury is only available to a select few. Most independent media makers and creative people working online need to work hard to get their work out there. But how?
There are many effective ways to draw attention to yourself and your work and sending out a newsletter is one of the most effective tools at your disposal. When you ask media makers and creative professionals whether they would like to send newsletters to their community on a regular basis, most of them shake their heads. But if you ask them if they would like to promote their latest article by email, they often say yes.
So what’s the difference? Aren’t they both newsletters? Technically, yes. The difference lies in the effect on the self-esteem of those who advertise. The first option feels like a cheap hunt for attention, while the second is more like a useful hint, where the focus is less on the author, and more on relevant information (ie. that there is something new to read).
But often the failure occurs much earlier: Many media makers and creative professionals don’t have the email addresses of their community members. This means having to ask for their email addresses which, for some, feels like marketing and could risk leaving a bad impression.
It’s important to find a method that you feel comfortable with. At the same time, you should throw off the idea that self-promotion is a bad thing.
Why you need to get comfortable with self-promotion
Even if it takes some time to overcome it, don’t be afraid to promote yourself. Your work deserves attention and it’s perfectly okay, and even important, to get it out there — your new-found fans will thank you for it. Once you’ve taken that first step, any concerns about making a bad impression will quickly slip away.
And perhaps more importantly, not promoting yourself and your work makes it much harder to earn any money from it. The longer you leave it, the more stressful it becomes and the less able you are to access your creativity.
At Steady we always say: Creative work deserves more than a like. Loyal fans know that, too. That’s why the most sustainable funding comes from your community. And promoting yourself is the first step on that path.
Curious about starting your own membership program? We are happy to help. Get in touch with Katie, one of our Membership Consultants.
