Chapter 7 Exercises

Exercise 7.1 — The Content Type Audit

Type: Analysis and categorization Time: 45–60 minutes Difficulty: Beginner

Part A: Select a creator you follow who has been publishing for at least two years and has at least 50 pieces of published content. Visit their channel or profile and select a random sample of 20 pieces of content from throughout their publication history (not just recent content — aim for a spread across time).

For each piece, assign it to one of the four content types: - P = Pillar (long-form, evergreen, authority-building) - D = Distribution (short-form, shareable, discovery-driving) - C = Community (interactive, relationship-building, audience-serving) - Cv = Conversion (explicitly tied to an offer, product, or affiliate)

Create a simple table: content title, approximate date, content type, your rationale for the classification.

Part B: Calculate the approximate balance: What percentage of the 20 pieces falls into each category?

Part C: Write a 200-word analysis addressing: - Does the balance appear intentional or accidental? - What does the creator's content type balance tell you about their current stage and business model? - What, if anything, appears to be missing from their content mix? - If you could recommend one change to their content type balance, what would it be and why?

Exercise 7.2 — Design Your First Content Series

Type: Creative strategy planning Time: 60–90 minutes Difficulty: Beginner–Intermediate

Using the TFCE model (Theme, Format, Cadence, Endpoint), design a content series for yourself or for a hypothetical creator profile of your choosing.

Step 1: Choose your niche and audience. Be specific. "Cooking" is not a niche. "Quick weeknight meals for college students with no kitchen equipment" is a niche.

Step 2: Identify a series-worthy topic. The topic should: (a) be something your target audience consistently wants but is underserved by existing content, (b) be broad enough to sustain 6–12 episodes, (c) reflect your specific perspective or experience.

Step 3: Apply the TFCE model.

Theme: Write a single clear sentence describing what the series is about and who it is for. Example: "A six-episode guide to understanding your first paycheck as a new nurse, covering taxes, benefits, debt, and saving — for new nursing graduates who were never taught how money works."

Format: Describe what each episode looks like. How long is it? What is the consistent structure (intro, body sections, conclusion, call to action)? What makes it visually or aurally distinctive? What platform will it live on?

Cadence: How often will a new episode publish? What day and time? Why did you choose this cadence given your production capacity?

Endpoint: How many episodes will the series have? What does "complete" look like? Will there be a Season 2? What event or signal would trigger it?

Step 4: Write an episode list. Plan all episodes in the series — title, main topic, and one thing that makes each episode valuable on its own (standalone value) and one thing that connects it to the series arc (series value).

Step 5: Pilot assessment. Write a brief (150-word) assessment of the risk in this series concept: What could make it not work? What would you watch for in the first three episodes that would tell you the concept is resonating or not?

Type: Research and comparative analysis Time: 45 minutes Difficulty: Intermediate

Part A: For a YouTube creator of your choice with at least 100 videos and at least two years of history, find their top-10 most-viewed videos (sorted by view count, all-time). Note the publication date of each video.

Create a table: video title, view count, publication date, months since publication, classification (evergreen or trending), your rationale for the classification.

Part B: Calculate what percentage of the top-10 most-viewed videos are: (a) evergreen content, (b) trending content, (c) more than 12 months old.

Part C: Compare their top-10 most-viewed list with their 10 most recently published videos. What is the view count difference between old and new content? What does this tell you about the 80/20 evergreen rule in this creator's specific case?

Part D: Identify one of the creator's trending videos in their top-10 list (if any). Visit that video now. Is the trending content still relevant? Are there comments from recent viewers indicating they found it valuable despite it being dated? What does this tell you about how to design trending content with longer shelf life?

Exercise 7.4 — Build a 30-Day Content Calendar

Type: Production planning Time: 60 minutes Difficulty: Intermediate

Setup: You are a creator in the following scenario. Adapt it if you prefer to use your own situation.

Scenario: Jordan Osei is a 26-year-old physical therapist who wants to create content about injury prevention and recovery for amateur runners. Primary platform: YouTube. Secondary platform: Instagram (Reels, cross-posted from YouTube). Available time: 10 hours per week for content, primarily on evenings and weekends. Equipment: iPhone 13 Pro, no external microphone yet (planned purchase in month 2), good natural light in home gym space.

Part A: Define Jordan's content mix for month 1. Using the four content types, what is the realistic balance for a first-month creator? How many pillar videos, distribution clips, community posts, and conversion pieces should Jordan produce in month 1? Justify your choices.

Part B: Create a 30-day content calendar. For each piece of content, include: date, content type (P/D/C/Cv), platform, topic/title, estimated production time.

Part C: Total the production time and compare to Jordan's available 10 hours per week (approximately 40 hours for the month). If the total exceeds 40 hours, identify what to cut. If it is well under 40 hours, consider whether you have left growth opportunity on the table or whether the buffer is appropriate for a first month.

Part D: Identify the three most important pieces of content on the calendar — the ones where Jordan's effort will have the highest long-term return. Explain why you selected those three.

Part E: Write a brief risk assessment (150 words): What is most likely to cause this calendar to fail? What contingency plans would you build in?

Exercise 7.5 — The Back Catalog Architecture Project

Type: Analysis and strategic planning Time: 60–90 minutes Difficulty: Advanced

This exercise works best with an existing back catalog, but can be completed with a hypothetical 50-video catalog designed for a creator profile.

Option A (if you have an existing back catalog): Select a real content creator or yourself. The creator should have at least 30 pieces of content published.

Option B (hypothetical): Choose a creator profile and imagine they have 50 videos published over the past 18 months in their niche. Create a rough summary of what those 50 videos cover.

Task 1: Curriculum Mapping Review the content catalog and identify: (a) 5–8 foundational pieces that would form a "Start Here" guide for a new viewer, (b) 3–5 natural series groupings (existing content that shares a theme or format, even if the creator never labeled it as a series), (c) 3–5 pieces that are dated, off-brand, or genuinely weak and might be better left unpromotable.

Task 2: Architecture Redesign Design the back catalog's future structure: Name and describe the 2–3 content series that would organize the creator's ongoing output. Design a "Start Here" playlist with 5–8 videos in watching order. Identify 2–3 "cornerstone" pieces that should be prominently featured and actively linked from new content.

Task 3: Maintenance Plan Create a quarterly back-catalog maintenance checklist: What should a creator review, update, or prune each quarter to keep their back catalog working as an asset rather than becoming outdated noise?

Exercise 7.6 — Content Debt Audit and Recovery Plan

Type: Reflective planning Time: 30–45 minutes Difficulty: Beginner–Intermediate

Part A: Scenario Analysis For each of the following creator scenarios, diagnose the type of content debt problem and recommend a specific recovery plan.

Scenario 1: Alex promised weekly YouTube videos eight months ago. They posted consistently for five weeks, then missed a week, apologized in a community post, posted the next week, missed two more weeks, and has not posted in six weeks. They have 890 subscribers and feel paralyzed every time they think about making a video.

Scenario 2: Simone runs a cooking Instagram and promised a "30 Days of Recipes" series in her bio. She completed 14 days and then stopped. The series banner is still pinned to her profile. This was four months ago. She is still posting other cooking content 3x per week and growing, but the incomplete series makes her feel like she has failed every time she sees her own profile.

Scenario 3: The Meridian Collective committed to weekly "Tuesday Breakdown" YouTube videos in January. It is now June and they have published 19 of the 24 planned Tuesday Breakdowns. Five were missed due to scheduling conflicts during a heavy tournament season. They have never acknowledged the missed weeks. Their audience has not complained, but Priya is worried about the inconsistency signal.

Part B: Personal Audit In any consistent practice you currently maintain (studying, exercise, a creative project, or even social commitments), identify one current instance of "practice debt" — a gap between what you committed to and what you have delivered, that is now weighing on you psychologically. Without judgment, write out: What is the debt? Why did it accumulate? What would an honest, forward-looking reset look like? You do not have to share this with anyone — the value is in the analysis.

Exercise 7.7 — The Equity-Adjusted Content Strategy

Type: Written analysis and alternative planning Time: 45–60 minutes Difficulty: Intermediate–Advanced

Part A: The chapter's "ideal" content calendar template assumes 8–12 hours per week for content creation, reliable broadband, private filming space, and a device capable of reasonable video quality. For each of these four assumptions, describe: (a) what creator demographics are most likely to lack this resource, (b) what the practical impact on content production would be, and (c) one specific adaptation strategy that would allow a creator to maintain a viable content practice despite this constraint.

Part B: Design an alternative "Minimum Viable Content Architecture" for a creator with the following real constraints: works 50 hours per week (including commute), cares for a younger sibling three evenings per week, lives in a shared apartment with no private space for filming, has a reliable smartphone but slow home internet. Your alternative architecture should: specify a realistic cadence, identify which content type(s) are most achievable given the constraints, recommend a platform that fits the constraints, and set a six-month milestone that is genuinely achievable — not just an aspirational goal.

Part C: Write a brief (300-word) reflection on this question: The creator economy has democratized the tools of content creation but not the time to use them. What structural changes — in technology, in platform design, in policy, or in culture — would meaningfully reduce the time barrier for constrained creators?