My $1,211 Content Stack: The Systems Behind My Content
Creating content might be one of the hardest, most rewarding pieces of my day-to-day life. It is hard at times; it can feel impossible and overwhelming. Mainly because when you think about it, you are usually talking to a camera by yourself. Lol, unless you are always streaming with someone, most of the time you are recording, coming up with ideas, editing, and doing everything on your own. THEN you share your thoughts with the world. There are moments where my passion keeps me going and other moments where the learning keeps me going. To the core of everything, the reason why I stick with just Football is that each and every day, I know for a fact I will get out of bed for Football! It moves me in a way no other sport can, except volleyball (though I keep that for my spare time).
Something that is missing not just in the content space but also in the world is that people see talking about money and details as a bad thing. Because of this, there are times when people don’t have a full picture of how much you are putting into pay for the things you have when it comes to content AND how everything comes together.
Two things I realized immediately when I started creating content:
You need to spend money on the tools & systems you need.
Do not overspend on tools & systems you don’t need
I decided to create a list of everything I spend money on for my content just to see the out-of-pocket expenses for systems. This isn’t about microphones, tripods, and items. This is just the systems that help me and that I use often. If you are thinking about starting, or if you are wondering what you might need, this would be my “starter pack” because the truth is it isn’t about the system you use per se; it is about how you make the system work for what you need.
The biggest expense I have is my time! And quantifying my time is SO HARD… I am learning how to do this better; right now I am not good at it. But better believe I am learning… (more on this later).
Yearly expenses, and we all know every year these Prices will continue to rise:
InShot: $19.99 - I do a TON of editing on my phone always; in fact, it is my favorite place to edit, and this app comes in handy!
Canva: $119.99 - Use for editing bigger videos & ALL of my thumbnails. It is also nice for planning certain things and having templates.
Twitter: $84.00 - This helps me when I need to get responses from people to collaborate with. BEFORE I started paying, I couldn’t get responses back, but it adds to the level of trustworthiness.
Opus Clips: $185.14 (this is usually times 2 for good reason). - Clips ALL of my videos you see on my socials, and when I post shorts, I couldn’t live without the scheduler tool! Worth every single PENNY!
StreamYard: $431.88 - Collaboration tool, go-live tool, and StreamYard is also good for recording videos from YouTube that I need sometimes for introductions.
Grammarly: $144.00 - I HATEEEEE grammar, so this is self-explanatory for the amount of descriptions and captions I use.
Cloud Storage: $119.88 - Needed for my phone since I edit there; it helps too during the season, and when I travel, so I never worry about not having enough space.
Google Storage: $106.59 - ONE of the backups to all of my content. I have this and a 2TB thumb drive. Just in case, because you never know!
Total Yearly Cost: $1,211.47
Each of these systems I have had since I started my channel; they were the first investments I made EVEN BEFORE I got a mic! I need ALL of them! They keep my engine going, and they make me extremely effective!
There are two more tools I am studying now to see if I need them; they will help make sure I can post when and where I need to and that it is formatted correctly. But for right now I don’t “need them,” and if I don’t use tools, I don’t get them!
At any rate, if you have asked me about my systems, here they are. I don’t believe in gatekeeping information like this, so I hope it helps someone.
~ Until Next Time
✨📌I just soft-launched my Patreon account, gearing up for the new season. If you are interested in following along with me, the link to my profile is here.
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