Exploriter

Explo(r|it)ing Knowledge for Wisdom

Making Exploriter

This business changelog is updated regularly. It tracks progress and records milestones for Exploriter. The good, the bad, and the ugly. If you have ever been interested in what goes on, day-to-day, while growing a business and brand of this sort, this may provide some insight.

Log #58

  • Exactly 70 days later and I have hit 1000 followers on Twitter. Next goal, 5000.
  • Here are some free-associative thoughts on growing a Twitter following:
    • I find much more joy in replying to others than I do posting into the proverbial void. This may change when I have a following that regularly engages me. This also tends to be the best way to increase my followers short of going viral (which I have yet to experience).
    • My bio and profile photo has changed several hundred times and will likely continue to until the rest of my “funnel” (I prefer to think of it as a choose your own adventure) is in place and my experiments in content and execution reveal themselves to a finer and finer point.
    • I still don’t like the term “followers.”
    • Participating in content challenges (micro-essays, 100-tweet threads, The Wall of Unread) is a great way to refine your purpose, message, and make friends.
    • There are a lot of different (noun) Twitters. Marketing Twitter, Money Twitter, Second Brain Twitter, Game B Twitter, Culture War Twitter. You can get stuck in one and forget others exist. Curate your feed with followers from each.
    • You don’t have to keep tweets that don’t perform well. I’m constantly deleting old tweets and rephrasing them to hone the message I’m attempting to impart or to ask better questions.
    • I continue to experiment with different daily cadences. 20 tweets a day, 10 a day, etc. I’ve settled on 5 scheduled and allow myself to add spontaneously throughout the day.
    • If you put out a lot of content, something will resonate and stick but I find I’d rather play a longer game as my quality and enthusiasm wanes when trying to overwhelm the algorithm.
    • The lead tweet is great for punch and engagement. Use replies to add nuance. Tweets are only a map and the map is not the territory. If you don’t understand a tweet, ask for the legend.
    • I haven’t yet experimented much with threads. Most of them are genuinely bad but they perform well in the like department because they have the illusion of providing a lot of value. Most people just save them and never return. I’m not convinced it’s a good ROI to do regularly.
    • I like the Two For One strategy when posting platitudes: find the idea that is seemingly opposite from what you just said but is complementary. Together they’re closer to the truth.
    • I can’t bring myself to care very much about “the best time to tweet.” It’s too restricting.
    • I love aesthetics and it forces me to routinely delete gif responses and other imagery so my Media tab (and 3×2) looks nice.
    • Your niche is revealed through action. Even if you don’t want to niche down, you will eventually just based on your interest or how you approach topics.
    • At around 500 followers I noticed a few people regularly showing up to engage my tweets. That has more or less doubled at 1000 followers.
    • Most of my content is generated from IRL conversations, reading, and showering. You’d do well to notice when you’re the most mentally active a build in some time to record those notes to repurpose as tweets.
    • Humor is far more valuable than truth.
    • Real or simulated dialogs perform very well. Lists are boring but we’re addicted to them. Rhyming is fun and sticky.

Log #56

  • Spent the last few days drafting a masterplan document outlining how everything eventually connects. Websites, Blogs, Guides, Courses, Newsletters, Consultancy, Social Media, Funnels.
  • Joined the Ness Labs community and will likely take part in the “Collector to Creator” course launching November 16, 2020.

Expenses:
$50

Log #54

  • I want to start sharing “daily practices” under the Daily EXP moniker.
    • Daily Movement (like Crossfit WODs except for normal people who don’t like to vomit after a workout), Daily Meditation (written and visual prompts), and Daily Writing (prompt).
    • I repurposed my original Twitter account (now @expdaily).
    • The IG account also works well for this, especially since I’m already posting visual meditations there.
    • I set up the custom post types and taxonomies to house these under exploriter.com/daily.
Daily EXP.
October Twitter statistics for @exploriter.

Log #53

  • Primarily focused on building a Twitter audience.
    • Settled for now around 10-15 Tweets per day.
    • Test: sent out a Tweet offering to buy 5 copies of someone’s Gumroad product to give them away for free.
      • Nice boost and felt great to support a quality person offering a quality product.
      • The offer went almost immediately after a retweet from the person.
      • Need to throttle Gumroad gift purchases (about 2-3 minutes between purchases) otherwise, they throw an “already purchased” error.

Expenses:
$104

Log #51

  • Drafted a week’s worth of social media posts.
  • Started outlining the next article.
  • Brainstormed a product idea in the fitness space.

Log #50

  • Wrote and published the next two IG posts in the ‘experience’ series.
  • The final draft of post #2 about learning slowly. Will publish tomorrow.

Log #49

  • Wrote and published the next two IG posts in the ‘experience’ series.
  • Finished the rough draft of post #2 about learning slowly.
  • Purchased Panic’s Nova app.
Expenses:
$79