The Nerdist Way_ How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life) - Chris Hardwick [87]
The more you can mash your specific interests into what you create the better because the less likely you are to have competition. If you only have one area of interest, there’s a chance that many others have the same interest. Let’s say you’re a yarnsmith. (Everyone altogether, “OK! YOU’RE A YARNSMITH!”) You’ve set up a li’l Etsy shop but are having trouble getting people to notice your generic designs. Does your work have a specific enough point of view? If your designs are abstract your challenge is going to be directing people to your page. What’s your messaging? If you just have a sterile storefront and no real connections, you’re counting on luck and the algorithm of Etsy’s suggestion engine to make someone accidentally trip over your work. This is not impossible by any stretch of the imagination, but statistically it’s a longer road. How could you make this more interesting? For starters, attach a story to your work. Give people an emotional hook to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. As consumers, we love a good story. Don’t lie or embellish, just tell your story and let people know who you are. Given two fake bread companies, which one are you more likely to buy from: (a) the bread manufactured by a large, faceless corporation, or (b) the bread that was made by a woman who was orphaned as a child and raised by a French bread maker in his live-in shop in Toulouse. Chances are, all things physical being equal, you’re going to go for the emotional picture painted by the French lady.
Another question I asked myself when starting the Nerdist site was, “How can a site push through the din of the web?” At the time, Perez Hilton had just exploded and I was fascinated by it. There are TONS of gossip sites! Sure, he draws wieners and semen globs on pics, but SURELY there are other snarky entertainment news sites. Then I had a thought—it’s him. The site is his name (albeit a pseudonym) and it has his face plastered on it. Other sites were just delivering news, something people have access to at all times. Perez’s site read like he was your catty friend, and people naturally gravitated to that point of view, WAY more than the faceless machines of similarly themed sites. This approach was also more enticing for me because it afforded me the opportunity to connect with other Nerds on a personal level, which I have GREATLY enjoyed. As humans, we have a propensity for connection with other humans. (See Twilight Zone, episode 1, season 1, “Where Is Everybody.”)
I had the extreme pleasure of hosting “W00tstock,” the über-show of Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage, and Paul and Storm, one night while Wil was off working on Eureka. Dr. Demento was the special guest (my second favorite doctor), and while off to grab dinner after sound check, Phirm says to Demento, “Hey! You wanna come get noodles with us?” to which he replied, “Sure!” So there we were at a Vietnamese noodle house on La Cienega Boulevard in L.A., sitting across from one of our childhood IDOLS while slurping cold vermicelli noodles and talking about legends of musical comedy (MUCH Tom Lehrer talk). Dr. D was telling us about his early days and how he came to be on the radio every week. It turns out he had an unmatchable knowledge for music. He also had more records than anyone. That’s right, there was a time when possessing the physical content gave you the power. That’s still sort of true today, but now people always have access to everything. It’s not about necessarily just giving people content anymore. You now have to find interesting, point-of-view specific ways to deliver it. People want to relate to other people, not just consume soulless content. Put as much of you into your work as possible. Fortunately for me, Dr. D did both and my youth was filled with Weird Al, “Shaving Cream,” and “Fish Heads.”
YOU ARE NICHE
“Niche” used to be primarily one-dimensional.