All JEE cleared students know how their life was like:
- How Content Creation Came into This World
- Day 1 – The Content Creation Reality That No One Talks About
- The Zero-Miss Rule That Built His Content Creation Career
- When People Started Noticing
- The 100K Night
- What He Actually Earned – The True Figures
- The Role that Engineering Played in His Overall Success
- The Real Deal About Being Consistent When Creating Content
- Are You Able to Accomplish This? Truthfully, Yes
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
Waking up super early, sleeping super late and doing 47 variations of the same type of problem so that if the 48th variation shows up on exam day you’ve seen each of those variations before.
No weekends to yourself. No sleep. Eating your dinner while trying the solve 25 different ways of thermodynamics and not asking yourself “why” any more but “how many more questions do I have?”
This boy did all those things and he didn’t live in a big city with a fancy coaching institute. He was the type of person that worked hard, but not the type to take lots of pictures out for Instagram and he worked very hard so that when he was done he could show everyone he got results. He did get results. DTU — Delhi Technological University. One of the best engineering colleges in the country!! His family was so incredibly proud, his entire colony was proud.
Life as a student started very smoothly. He made friends with kids in his room, went to class with them etc. Everything was going exactly how he had planned until the day when everything started to shift from what he expected to what nobody saw coming — into content creation.
How Content Creation Came into This World
No one starts being a content creator because one day they said, “I’ll become an internet superstar.” This is not how content creation started. It’s never gone this way. As a student in engineering school; I had a cell phone for watching videos on social media late at night because I was connected to the Internet with wi-fi, along with the rest of my fellow students who scroll through their feeds while laying in their beds watching videos online late at night.
Somewhere between my feed and my thoughts — an idea came to mind that was very simple, small, and embarrassing to admit to oneself. “I can make this type of content”. I had ideas, I led a life worth documenting, and I had a smart phone. And that was a very simple realization for me as an exhausted engineering student sitting in my bed in the student housing unit. Many other students from previous generations probably had the same thoughts; however, none of them ever actually tried content creation.
Day 1 – The Content Creation Reality That No One Talks About
The first reel was bad. When you first start content creation it’s generally not pretty to look at. This reel was created in his room (in a hostel); the lighting was provided by a normal lightbulb (functional versus cinematacular); the edit was basic. After he uploaded this reel he received a small amount of views and responses from people who knew him (they liked it out of loyalty).
By every standard measure, the beginning of his content creation journey was a failure (there were no other successes to build off of). He made a second video the next day. This part of every content creator’s “story” is generally skipped because it isn’t “exciting”. There will be no montage. No random person posts something about him and goes viral 7 days later. Just a student making videos every day; uploading them; checking views; making another and uploading again. However, this is the entire story.
The Zero-Miss Rule That Built His Content Creation Career
His content creation journey was defined by a zero-miss rule. This means creating content every single day without exception or excuse. That means NO days off, not most days, not if you feel like it or only on good days but EVERY SINGLE DAY regardless. As an engineering student at DTU you’ve been through a hell of a lot with semester exams designed to crush you before ever producing anything worthy of presentation, and lab submissions due at times you could never have imagined.
As you continue, there will be days where you have no idea what to make content on — there’ll also be times when you’ve produced three terrible pieces of content and deleted them before being okay with posting the fourth and last awful product because, again, the zero-miss rule means you just need to create content so your emotions do not factor into the outcome of success or failure based on timeline.
He created content through it all; zero-reference document every day regardless of anything else. The decision of “I will create something and post it to my social media account every day” logically follows from the zero-miss principle and that was what helped provide his level of success in content creation versus many other students who gave up within weeks.
When People Started Noticing
At some point, people will start to take note of that content creator on their own, even if they have never met them. It was clear at about the point when they reached about 10,000 fans that there was a noticeable difference in the types of responses they were receiving to their content, and then they would go flat again until reaching a jump at around 50,000.
Prior to that, it was only people who had come in contact with his material through the explore page and from other videos he posted and DMs were received; however, after hitting 50k followers brands began to reach out wanting to partner. Initially small brands were reaching out first; while none of those partnerships provided any major life-changing amount of money, they were still enough to make content creation seem like a job rather than just some kind of hobby he was doing in parallel with engineering work. After making the transition from hobby to career he continued to put out content.
The 100K Night
A benchmark has been reached by the content creation industry; it is 100,000 followers on social media. The first 10,000 can largely be attributed to luck or chance. The second 50,000 may have just been random. However, 100,000 individuals opted to follow this individual because they wish to see more of what they produce. This represents a marked change in his career as a content creator and makes his career as a content creator indisputable. He achieved this milestone after hitting 100,000 followers; and his friends from the hostel celebrated in an unashamed and loud manner.
His family was proud of him for a different reason than they were proud when he passed the JEE. When he passed the JEE, they felt an overwhelming sense of relief. When he achieved the status of a content creator with 100,000 followers, they had no prior experience to relate to his achievement; so, they excitedly reported this accomplishment to every relative they could think of. As per usual, he posted again the following day.
What He Actually Earned – The True Figures
Content creation within the 653K+ follower’s range within the Student & Career niche in India also has substantial income attached! His greatest source of income comes from collaboration with brands. At his level, a creator typically charges between ₹40K – ₹1.5L for each sponsored post. Due to being upfront and candid about his entire content creation journey, he has built a loyal following that trusts him which translates into higher rates and longer-term deals with brands.
He has also earned between ₹50K – ₹2L per campaign doing affiliate marketing with Ed-Tech companies! His workshops and his paid sessions are also becoming an important part of his overall revenue generated from content creation! He earns better than most of his classmates will earn in their first jobs, and he has been making that type of income even before graduating!
The Role that Engineering Played in His Overall Success
Engineering was key to supporting his content creation; he had great problem solving capabilities (problem-based thinking), he knew how to take a big concept and break it down into small pieces; he also had the perseverance to try something until it would work — these are all engineering skills that are the exact skills necessary when building a content creation career from scratch. He never left engineering; he brought engineering principles into his content creation, creating something much more structured than many creators do. He used content creation as a process with “input of information/outputs of creation/feedback into creation” instead of viewing it as a “lottery.”
DTU was also an equity piece in his profile branding. He did not quit on his college because of failure, it became the basis of his content creation brand.
The Real Deal About Being Consistent When Creating Content
People are always discussing how IMPORTANT it is to create content with consistency; however many people begin making content only to stop within two months. Why? Because of how many people think that consistency means being very motivated on a daily basis. This is definitely not true.
Consistency when creating content means doing the work regardless of whether or not you feel motivated. Your audience doesn’t require you to produce great content each and every time, only that you produce something (your audience only becomes connected with you after seeing your work). Therefore, your average days will give you more information than your best days – each video you produce will give you data (over 600 different data points). After producing enough data, you become proficient in producing content.
Are You Able to Accomplish This? Truthfully, Yes
You may be able to accomplish this – as long as you meet certain expectations. You must be willing to produce content, even if you believe that no one is viewing it. You must also understand that it will take many months for you to generate an audience from your content, since audiences do not develop until after they view your content. If you are able to create great content, you will be able to develop a career as a creator, providing the subject matter you choose to create content about is something you know and/or experience firsthand. You don’t need to live a glamorous life in order to produce great content, rather, just provide your honest, everyday life experiences.
The biggest challenge in building a career as a creator will be sustaining your motivation in the long run, when others don’t validate your hard work. It may take a long time, but eventually you will generate an audience, and eventually obtain brand partnerships. On the other hand, if you are looking for confirmation from others in order to continue creating content, you will not receive confirmation until sometime after you’ve created the value you will create.
The DTU creator had advantages that made it easier for him to accomplish his digital creator goal; however, the real advantage he had was that he took action and did not stop creating. You too, can experience success as a creator, if you just take the action to start creating content today, and never stop creating.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long did it take this DTU student to achieve 653,000 followers?
There was no single moment where he suddenly had tons of followers overnight; building that audience took consistent daily content for twelve to eighteen months. It took the longest for this creator to gain their first 10,000 followers because of how difficult it was for them and their account to be discovered. After the first 10,000 followers were created, all future milestones were achieved exponentially quicker due to the fact that the algorithm of social media prefers people who post consistently, and the creators’ audiences would begin to help share their new content. There is a very real effect in building up an audience based on the amount of daily content you produce; it just takes time and patience until you can see this effect begin to occur.
What type of equipment do you need to start creating content?
Nothing more than a phone, which you already have. This student started using nothing more than a tubelight, a stack of books for a tripod and a free editing application. CapCut and VN Editor are currently the most popular editing programs used by student creators in India because they are both relatively inexpensive and they both produce great quality content. You do not need expensive equipment as a starting block. You do need to show up every day as a content creator.
How do student content creators make revenue in India?
There are three main revenue streams. Their largest stream of revenue is through collaborations with brands. Companies that provide edtech services, student-focused apps and lifestyle brands want to partner with creators who have engaged audiences to help promote their products to these audiences. The second revenue stream is affiliate marketing, where a creator receives a commission on every sale for which they provide a referral link to a product or course. The third revenue stream would be the creator’s offerings such as: paid workshops, mentorship sessions and guides. A creator can leverage the trust they have built with content creation to create paid products/services to help their audience build their skill set. With 653,000 followers, those three revenue streams combined create a greater income for a creator than the majority of starting salaries.
How can I find ideas to create content when I cannot come up with anything?
Think back to what took place in your day. What new knowledge did you gain in class? Were you frustrated with the system? Did you have a conversation where something in it made you stop and think? Remember, content creation does not come out of a void or nowhere, content creation is an expression of a life being lived and being aware of it. The skill of noticing the small events in our lives and knowing the audience that will connect with the same type of event. Engineering students, hostel life, career confusion, family pressure, there are a million people in India that are currently living these stories and wanting to see their lives reflected back to them.
What’s the number one reason why so many people fail at creating content?
They quit. Not because they did not have the talent, skills or the right equipment. They quit because they feel their early stage of content creation with low viewership, low engagement, and no brand deals is meaningless. Those that are successful, are simply those that keep posting through that phase anyway. Consistency is not an inherent trait, consistency is a predetermined decision prior to losing the motivation to keep creating.
Conclusion
When he was a student, he worked hard to get into DTU and then came to a key moment in his life where he had two options: the one that was expected and the other one that was calling him to take a different path. He chose both options. He worked at both paths every day with the content he created, through the exams he took and had few views and through that long time when he was doing content creation only with his hard work and no returns.
Now 653,000 people choose to watch him; this is not about luck, but rather what can happen when someone puts in consistent effort to create content without taking a break and without waiting for a return on their effort.
The phone you have in your hand today is the same phone that he had when he started; your only job is to follow his example by starting your content creation journey today, but also not stop.
