The Content Creator Life with Dillion Megida ============================================ by kirupa | Interviews with Creative People: https://www.kirupa.com/podcast/index.htm Dillion Megida (https://dillionmegida.com) makes content creation feel less mysterious and more methodical. He talks about using a developer's mindset to choose topics, keep a pipeline of ideas, adapt one concept across platforms, and build an owned home for the work, all while treating teaching as one of the best ways to sharpen his own understanding. Watch the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo A conversation with Dillion Megida | 41m ABOUT THIS CONVERSATION This is a strong episode for anyone who has ever wondered how technical creators keep publishing without running out of things to say. Dillion starts from a developer identity rather than a pure creator identity, and that matters. His content grows out of coding, debugging, and learning in public, so the work feels rooted in practice instead of performance. That foundation carries into how he chooses topics. Sometimes a piece starts with a bug he just fixed or a tool he just learned. Other times it comes from a deeper topic he already understands well enough to simplify. The result is a content strategy that stays close to real experience. Instead of chasing novelty for its own sake, he looks for useful explanations that can meet developers where they are. The operational side of the conversation is especially good. Dillion talks about routine, creative energy, and keeping a large idea backlog so inspiration never has to do all the work alone. He also gets into note taking, repurposing, and cross-platform publishing in a very practical way. A YouTube idea does not have to stay a YouTube idea, but it also cannot simply be pasted everywhere unchanged. Different platforms need different packaging. One of the best threads in the interview is the tension between rented platforms and your own home base. Dillion acknowledges the reality of algorithms, but he also makes the case for building on a platform you control. Add in a refreshingly normal conversation about gear and a closing reminder that teaching deepens your own learning, and the episode becomes a smart blueprint for sustainable developer education. WHAT YOU'LL HEAR ABOUT - Developer content works best when it stays close to real problem solving. - A strong idea backlog reduces the pressure to create only when inspiration strikes. - Repurposing content means adapting it, not blindly reposting it. - Owned platforms matter even when social networks drive discovery. - Teaching a topic is one of the fastest ways to understand it better. JUMP TO A TOPIC - 0:39 - Setting up the creator conversation: Kirupa introduces the many moving parts behind making technical content consistently. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=39s) - 1:18 - A developer first: Dillion explains why coding remains the foundation of the content he makes. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=78s) - 2:50 - How the creator journey started: He looks back at the early articles and motivations that turned learning into public teaching. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=170s) - 8:48 - Choosing what to publish: The discussion covers how fresh discoveries and deeper expertise both feed his topic selection. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=528s) - 11:20 - Routine, energy, and consistency: Dillion talks through how schedule, momentum, and available time shape his output. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=680s) - 18:26 - Managing a growing idea backlog: This section explores note taking, idea capture, and why the pipeline never really stops growing. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1106s) - 21:44 - Repurposing across platforms: They dig into the work of translating one core idea into formats that suit different channels. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1304s) - 28:25 - Why your own platform matters: Dillion explains the appeal of moving beyond community platforms toward a site he controls. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1705s) - 31:05 - The recording setup: The conversation shifts into the practical gear and software behind his audio and video workflow. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1865s) - 36:50 - Advice for getting started: He closes with a reminder that making content can be one of the best ways to keep learning. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=2210s) TO LEARN MORE - Dillion's Website: https://dillionmegida.com - Dillion's Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamdillion - Dillion's YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/deeecode - Dillion's Instagram: https://instagram.com/deeecode TRANSCRIPT The automatically generated captions have been organized by speaker, lightly edited for clarity, and broken into paragraphs for readability. Names and wording may still contain errors. 0:00 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=0s) A lot of you like to create content and share it with others. I certainly do. There's a lot more to content creation than just creating the content itself. How do you get an audience? What topics do you create content about? Which social networks do you focus on? And how do you deal with the algorithms that often seem to be working against us? To learn all about this and more, I talked with content creator extraordinaire Dillion Megida, who I've been following for several years. It's going to be a really fun chat about how he got started and how he stays motivated to create all the great developer content he puts out on a regular basis. Hope you enjoy it. All right, hi Dillion, how's it going? 0:41 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=41s) Hi, Kirupa. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, by the way. 0:45 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=45s) Yeah, you're pronouncing it perfectly. Okay, awesome. 0:46 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=46s) Yeah, it's going fine. It's going great, actually. It's our first day today at the office, so that was nice. 0:55 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=55s) Oh, congratulations. That's awesome. 0:57 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=57s) Yeah, thank you. 0:57 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=57s) And so, what do you do? 0:58 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=58s) At the office, or like in general? My full-time job is developer advocacy, and besides my full-time job I'm also a content creator, creating different forms of content, from articles to videos to Instagram posts, as many forms of content as I can lay my hands on. 1:17 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=77s) So would you consider yourself more of a developer? 1:20 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=80s) Yes. I still write code, I still build stuff, I still build demos, so yeah, developer. Being a developer is the foundation of the content I create, because most of it is still around code, so I think I can call myself a developer. 1:36 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=96s) Yes, okay. The reason I like to ask that is whenever I meet developers, I like to ask: what's the first program you've ever written? 1:45 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=105s) I think it was in school. I think I first wrote Java. Yeah, I think that's the first language. It's not like we built anything serious, but I think the first programming language that was introduced to us was Java. Then after that we went to Visual Basic and Dreamweaver and started doing HTML stuff. I hope I'm correct. I really can't remember perfectly. 2:12 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=132s) That's always fun, because our memories have a weird way of rearranging things. But Java is what I hear from a lot of people, and even for me, Java was the first language I learned at school. It was the usual Hello World, really basic things, and then `main`, `void`, things like that. After that, Visual Basic was a natural progression because you can only do so many things in the Java console before wanting to get into more visual UI work. So that's a consistent story I've seen personally and from others as well. But I want to talk about content creation, because I've been following you for quite some time on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, and I've also worked with you on articles and things like that. How did you get started with content creation? What took you from doing programming and learning things to saying, I want to create content? 3:11 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=191s) The first form of content I created was an article. I actually started with writing articles, and this was in 2019. I was introduced to HTML in 2017, but from 2017 up until 2019 it was mostly just watching tutorials. I wasn't really building anything. In 2019 I decided to take my tech journey seriously, do more practicing, do more learning, and because I was trying to do more than just watch videos, I also wanted to read articles. Personally, I prefer videos, but at that moment I also wanted to explore learning through articles. I was reading a couple of articles, and there was one person who posted regularly. It got to a point where I was looking forward to what he would write next. The same was true for a few other people writing articles too. After some point I felt like, if I'm learning from other people, other people can also learn from me. I can write something that somebody somewhere might look forward to and learn from. So I decided, okay, I'm going to put out my first article today. I was already reading articles on Dev. To, and I already had a profile there, so I thought I could just start there. That's why I published my first article there. I felt so enthusiastic. There was just so much energy in me that whenever I learned something, I wanted to write about it. After some point I wanted my own personal website, where people would know, okay, this is my website and they can find my articles there. I did technical writing up until 2021, and then I realized that for somebody like me, I prefer videos to articles. If I can find a video version of a topic, I'd rather use that to learn than read an article. So I thought, people also probably prefer video versions of stuff, and I could add that form of content to my technical writing. That was when I started creating videos. I started with just my laptop and a very small ring light. I'm glad to see how far I've come with gadgets and all that. I was doing YouTube up until this year, and then this year I was like, okay, Instagram is another platform I can maximize to create content in the form of pictures. I was already on Instagram, and I saw people doing it there. I also didn't expect that kind of thing to work on Instagram. I thought Instagram was more about lifestyle, nature, and beautiful images. But I saw some people doing it there, and one thing about me is that I love maximizing as many platforms as I can lay my hands on to create my content. So when I saw that Instagram could be a platform for that, I jumped on there. When I saw that TikTok could also be a space for that, I jumped on there. For me, I just like maximizing the spaces where I can teach what I know, because I believe there will always be one or two people out there who would love to hear what I have to share. So that's how my journey has been so far. 6:33 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=393s) There's a lot I want to dive deep into there, but before we go all the way down that path, you mentioned that you like to teach. Is it partly motivated by just wanting to share knowledge, or do you also find that by teaching you learn the material better and retain it much better as well? A lot of content creators I run into say they enjoy the teaching part and interacting with learners, but that it also helps them become more effective. 7:02 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=422s) When I started, it was mostly just that I wanted to teach. I wanted to share what I already knew. But as time went by, I realized that even the things I thought I understood well needed more research, because I don't want to teach something false. So I do more research to validate what I already know, and in the process I learn new things I didn't know before. That gives the content more context. Over time I realized I also learn better by teaching. There are topics where, if I want to understand something in React and I feel lazy about learning it, all I need to tell myself is, okay, I want to write an article about this. Then that inspires me to go learn it, watch videos, and read articles. So with time I realized it improves my knowledge too. The first reason is still to share, but the second big reason is that I learn more effectively by teaching. 8:09 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=489s) That makes a lot of sense, because when you're teaching, there's always that voice in the back of your mind asking, why did I just write this? What questions will somebody reading this have? What are the other ways of doing it? So you're second-guessing yourself, and in the process of answering those second guesses, you're learning along the way. I often compare it to code reviews in a formal job, where developers have to justify why they made a decision the way they did. This feels like a much lower-pressure, more fun version of that same activity. So it sounds like some of your content is about things you're learning in the moment, and some is about things you already understand more deeply and are simplifying for an audience. How do you pick which one to write about at a given time? 9:04 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=544s) Just like you've said, sometimes it's something I just learned recently. Maybe I just fixed a bug, or it's a new fancy technology or topic that I got a better idea of. I also get my ideas when people ask questions. Some people will be like, oh, can you explain this in JavaScript? Can you explain this? Then I already have that idea. I put my ideas on a Notion page, so I have a bunch of them there. Let's say I have an article version of a topic, and then I feel like, oh, I could also make a video version to complement it for readers who may prefer this mode. I don't have a specific way of selecting these things. I just go through my Notion page, and whatever excites me the most, that's how I make my selection sometimes. It might be something that would be nice as a video version, article version, or Instagram version. Other times, it's when people ask questions. So, you know, they say they're trying to learn this or that, and then they ask a particular question. That helps me pick the topic for that moment because I already have a guarantee that somebody is going to need this immediately. At least one person is going to need it immediately. With other forms of content, there is no solid guarantee. I just feel like, okay, maybe my audience would need this, but with those question approaches, I know one person will. So I don't have a fixed way; I select what to write in the moment. Sometimes it's also based on what I'm focusing on. For example, recently I started a series on my YouTube channel about JavaScript interview questions. Whenever I get questions from people now, I group them as different parts in that series. So sometimes it depends on what I'm focusing on at the moment. Aside from that, it's different factors at different moments. Sometimes it's emotional, or just something where I feel, oh, I like this better and want to make a video version. That's it. 11:17 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=677s) Nice. And when you're doing some of this, do you have a fixed schedule, or are you more like, I have an idea, I'm going to write it today, or I'm going to go a few weeks without writing because I'm doing other things? What does a routine look like? 11:33 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=693s) Well, for the last four months, when I didn't have a full-time job, I think on some days I'm very inspired, and I just feel so good about content creation. Maybe the previous day I got a very nice comment on one of my videos, and I'm like, oh, now I have to create more videos. Sometimes I'm so encouraged that, in a day, I could make videos every day for two or three consecutive days on my YouTube channel, or I could write an article. On some other days, because I'm trying to avoid being burned out and want to have some rest for myself, I might take one day or two days off and come back the next day. Also, because I'm focusing on multiple platforms at once—TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and writing articles—it has been a bit difficult to manage. Some days I'm like, okay, today I'm going to prioritize TikTok over YouTube. On some other days, I'm going to prioritize my article over the rest. I don't have a fixed routine. Before, I tried to do things every day, but I was gradually approaching burnout, so I took it as whatever I feel inspired to do in a day. Inspiration can come in different ways, like I mentioned before: a comment, waking up on the right side of the bed, or just having a good day and feeling like creating content. I don't have anything fixed. It's also different factors, and I think you would have noticed that this is a theme with me. Most of the personal things I do have no exact routine, I think also because I get bored of routines sometimes. So it's usually flexible, and what I feel inspired to do in the moment, I do. 13:39 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=819s) When you create those videos, say back to back over a period of three days, do you just post them once you've created them, or do you time them to go out at specific times? There's always advice that says these are the best times to post on these networks. Do you follow any of that, or are you more in the camp of, I created it's good, I'm going to send it out and people will find it? 14:05 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=845s) Yeah, I'm the second kind of person. I've heard a lot about posting at specific times, using specific durations, and all that, but I don't want to be held down by these things. Yes, I love when the numbers add up and the views increase, but I don't want to focus on all that and use it to delay myself. I make a wonderful video, and then I have to wait three or four days before people can see it. Maybe somebody asks a question. Would I say, oh, I've already made a video about this; just wait for four days? What if it's urgent? What if it's something they immediately want to know? As much as I love when the numbers add up and increase, and of course it's nice to see that growth, I don't love being held down by it. If I have a video idea, I record it, and once I'm done editing and everything else, I publish it. Sometimes, when I make two videos in a day, I post the other video the next day. But now that I have a full-time job, I think I'll have to start scheduling my content. Maybe on the weekend I make two or three videos, then space them out during the week: one comes out on Monday, another on Tuesday, and the other on Friday. Before my full-time job, it wasn't something I prioritized; I was just sharing them as I made them. 15:35 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=935s) That's exactly my process as well. You know, the way I look at it is that once you create content over a period of time, the long tail of content will eventually add up, and people will go to Google, search for it, and find it. Unless it's anything that isn't timeless, like live-tweeting a conference that's going on, I try to create most of my content so it's relevant for at least a few years, so people will be able to use it. I see all the metrics. I agree it's nice to see the metrics going up and so on, but the immediate aspect of helping somebody is also the motivator for creating that content. Someone asked a question, and I'm like, I could explain this, or I could record a video and make it much easier to understand, and have that person benefit from it. Most of my videos are often posted on a Thursday evening, Friday, or even a weekend, which is the worst time to post anything. People say, post it Monday morning at 8am, when someone is starting work and getting coffee. They're going to be reading this; that's when you want to get to them. I'm like, no, I'm not doing that. Maybe I would, but just like you, I have a full-time job. Content creation isn't the thing I'm optimizing for. It's not like MrBeast, whose entire career and life revolve around creating great content; optimizing thumbnails and everything else is critical for maintaining his success. In this case, I'm helping people. You seem to have a similar mindset: we're helping people, so it's okay to get this stuff out when it's ready. 17:03 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1023s) No, that's relevant in so many ways, I think, for me too. I don't really focus on the immediate traction; I just put it out there. One thing I also do with my videos is do well to make references. If I mention something I know I've made a video about, I can give a summary of that in the current video and say, if you want to watch more, I've done a video about this before. So I don't really focus on the immediate traction. What I know, just as you said, is that a video that doesn't have value today may have value next year. With some of my videos, I create them and see very low views for one month, and then all of a sudden they get some number of views a couple of months later. That's why I'm not focused on all those things. Eventually they add up and come together, so why should I be held back by that now? 18:00 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1080s) Yeah, no, I hear you. I'm sure people watching are probably like, you guys are just doing it wrong here. I'm like, that's okay; it's cool. This is not advice on how to build a very viral kind of video that takes the algorithms' knowledge and makes the best thing out of it. So I think that's a caveat I'll put out there in terms of it. You mentioned that you use Notion and take notes on ideas and topics you have. I'm going to make a guess, and tell me if I'm right or wrong. Your list of items in Notion is so large that there's probably no way you'll get through all of them in a lifetime. Is that a fair way of summarizing it, or are you actually very meticulous about having good input-output on it? 18:44 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1124s) Well, the thing is, I'm not done. I could get some ideas from this video, go back to my Notion, and put them there. If I don't add anything to my Notion from today, I could finish the things there in the next, say, four or five months. But in reality, I'm going to keep adding, so I don't think I'll ever finish the ideas in my Notion. I think that also helps, because whenever I want to create a topic or video and don't know what to create, I can just go there. I don't have to think, what do people really need right now? At the moment, I can just go there and pick something. But I don't think I'm ever going to finish that list. 19:29 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1169s) Yeah, no, I think that's a consistent theme I've seen with content creators. If you enjoy the art of content creation, ideas just keep coming. There are some people who create content purely because it's their job or because they have a fixed schedule, but if you enjoy the craft, you're always noticing things and thinking, this would be a good topic to write about. You'll barely open your eyes in the morning, go to Notion, dump something in there, forget about it, and then do the same thing the next day. 20:02 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1202s) Yeah, true. That means sometimes I'm in bed and maybe I can't fall asleep immediately, and then something just clicks and I think, wait, if I had an article on this, that would be nice. Then I just bring my laptop onto the bed and make some rough notes. Sometimes I can even finish it right there. Other times it's just rough notes that I come back to the following day. 20:23 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1223s) Yep, I have the same problem. We might be watching a TV show or sitting in a movie theater and suddenly I'm like, that's something I'd totally write about in a simplified way for JavaScript or CSS. Then you pull your phone up, make sure nobody is seeing it, turn the brightness all the way down, and write the note down as well. 20:42 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1242s) I mean, I may not turn the brightness down, but I do things like that a lot. Sometimes I come across something on Twitter. Sometimes I'm just walking on the road and, for some reason, I think about JavaScript and I'm like, hmm, this could be a good article or a good video. The good thing is that Notion is accessible on different platforms, including my phone, so I can quickly write it there, put my phone back, and continue my day. 21:09 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1269s) Yeah, that is great to hear, you know, because you're one among a lot of content creators who share a similar view. When I first started out with this, content creators weren't really a big network. It's not like a forum where you could be like, hey, you're a content creator; let me know how your day-to-day goes, and so on. When I first started doing this, I wondered, am I the only one doing this? Is this normal? But over a period of time, with the democratization of social media and so on, you're like, okay, this is actually a very common thing. It's great to see that people who are doing this also didn't have much better context as well. They're passionate about what they create and do all this work. You mentioned that you post on multiple platforms. How difficult is it to take a video and go from, okay, I have a video for YouTube? Do you re-record it again for TikTok, or record it once and somehow squash everything down vertically to make it work in the TikTok form factor? What is your process like for making this work on all of these various platforms? At least let's focus on video specifically for now. 22:10 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1330s) Well, this is one pattern that I use for some of my content, not all of it. Usually, the first point is Instagram. This is for some of them, not all my content. I have an Instagram version of this, so I already have the pictures with the notes. Then I can record a YouTube version. From the Instagram one I've made, I've also gotten feedback from some people about things that weren't very clear for them, or maybe corrections. Recently, I actually got a correction where somebody said, no, actually this is wrong. I had to make a follow-up post to say, thanks for the correction; this was actually wrong. Posting on Instagram helps me. Then, on YouTube, I use the notes from Instagram, the things I've already written, and expand on them. I also turn the Instagram pictures into PDFs and post them on LinkedIn. I noticed that, when you post many images, people on LinkedIn prefer to swipe through the pictures as PDFs rather than go through them as images. So I transform them into PDFs for LinkedIn. Then I have the YouTube version. For the TikTok version, I'm still trying to think of a way that I can do my YouTubes in such a way that they're easily transformable to TikTok, but at the moment I usually have to record them again. That's also what makes it really hard for me to be consistent with code content on TikTok, because it's like I've said all these things again. Even getting the YouTube version right, I probably had to say it three or four times, and now I have to go through that again just to get it right for TikTok. What I'm thinking of doing—I haven't really planned it out—is recording my screen so that, for the YouTube version, I can zoom in on my editor so people can see everything well, because I'm trying to capture everything. Then, for the TikTok version, I can use a resolution that's okay for TikTok and still captures the necessary things. I'm thinking of taking that approach so that I could be more encouraged to share code content on TikTok. But it usually starts from Instagram, then LinkedIn, then YouTube. Even for my articles, I use what I already have on Instagram, but for TikTok, I usually have to record again. 24:44 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1484s) I've been looking at YouTube Shorts because I keep seeing notifications and prompts to upload there. I don't do much TikTok. I did one video last week just to understand the mechanics of the form factor. Is that something you're looking into as well? 25:00 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1500s) Yeah, when I do YouTube Shorts, because it's the same resolution, I post that on TikTok. I don't have to make a second version, so I try to maximize YouTube Shorts sometimes. But the challenge is that there's only so much you can do in one minute. Sometimes I have to think about it: do I make a YouTube Short, knowing it has more potential of gaining traction because of the whole algorithm or whatever, then maybe make a full version and say at the end of the short, watch the full version here? Or do I try to make the short version concise enough? Sometimes I have those conversations, but I think what I've settled on is that, for content I can cover well enough in one minute without telling people to go somewhere else to watch more, I try to make a Short. If there's so much information that one minute won't be enough, I make a complete video. But whatever I make as a Short, I take directly to TikTok. I don't have to do much or re-record it. 26:05 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1565s) Nice. Content reuse is like the greatest gift if we can somehow pull it off and make it look high-quality. One thing I also learned was that users generally don't like being directed to another platform to learn something. You make something on Twitter and, of course, with Twitter, it's almost because you have to create threads and write. In some cases there are exceptions, but I learned that, for example, whenever I tell people on LinkedIn to read PDFs—sorry, when I tell them, okay, I made this video about this topic, go to YouTube from LinkedIn—I get less traction. Only the very interested ones go there. That's why I really maximize the whole content reuse thing for the audience. If I'm going on LinkedIn, I try to give them their own version. In cases where I cannot, I tell them, okay, you have to go to YouTube for this one. But I'll try my best to give them their version on TikTok and other platforms. In cases where I cannot, I have to redirect them to another platform. That's why I actually reuse content a lot. I think the algorithms also detect when you're trying to send people away from their platform and do their own shady things to make your content invisible. It's possible, I think. Another thing I do too, for example, for my videos, is try to create teasers. Instead of just telling people, leave this platform and go to YouTube, I try to show them a short video just to let them know it would be worth going to YouTube. Doing that in a few cases on LinkedIn was actually better than just putting the link and saying, go here. That short teaser says, okay, this is what I'm explaining in this video. I already have people's attention on LinkedIn, and now at least a few of them will be like, okay, now I want to learn more about this, and click the link. That's a great way of being able to get people interested. Uploading the video also gives these platforms an extra signal that this is content they need to get in front of people, which is always a big challenge. You mentioned earlier that you started off on Dev. To and then moved to your own platform. Walk me through that. What made you decide to go from a platform that's part of a larger community to having your own brand? 28:43 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1723s) I think it was just because I wanted to have my own website. Also, because of the people I was watching during the time, seeing how they were doing in the technical-writing space, I noticed they had their own websites. For me, it felt fancy to have dillionmegida. Com rather than dev. To/dillionmegida. That's somebody else's platform. That was why I created my own platform. But I'll be honest: I actually struggled at some point because I don't have much of an audience on my platform. Even when I post articles here, yes, they may have value years from now, but when I post on Dev. To, my content has more potential to reach out to its existing audience. When I post on my platform, then I have to really do some content promotion myself, probably on my WhatsApp status, Instagram, and Twitter: hey, I just published a new article. So I struggled with that. What I settled on was posting more on those platforms than on my own, and usually including links. If you want to learn more about this, or if there's a reference to a different article, that different article will be on my platform. The main article is on their platform, so hopefully I get some traction through that. I know that the more consistent I am with posting on my platform, the more it should grow at some point. But I don't have that patience, and I want to reach as much of an audience as I can with my articles, so that's why I do it. With videos, though, I don't know; there's this assurance that comes with videos, like, oh, I know you're going to have value tomorrow. I can be patient and wait. But with articles, I want to maximize platforms with already established audiences. I think the article space is crowded. A lot more people write articles. The number of people creating videos is large, but not quite as large, especially with high-quality content. It's a luxury to post a video and be more confident that people will view it because there aren't too many things like it. For articles, there are way too many things. You have to make sure you're ranking higher for the keyword and that it's linked appropriately. All those things add a lot of unknown variables. Yeah, true. 31:08 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1868s) Let's switch to the technical side a little bit. What tools do you use for recording video? What's your software choice, what kind of webcam do you use, and what's your microphone? 31:18 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=1878s) So, for my microphone—this one—I have the Shure MV7X. There's a Shure MV7 and there's the MV7X. The MV7 has a USB that allows me to record. I could plug the USB directly into my laptop and record, but that is more expensive. The Shure MV7X has XLR, which means I also need to get an amplifier that receives the XLR and then goes to my laptop. When you combine the amplifier and the Shure MV7X, it's almost the same price as a Shure MV7. I think the reason why I love this separation was that I also thought about other things I could use the amplifier for, and that was why I got it. So that's the microphone. For my camera, I have a Canon DC—I've forgotten exactly the version, but I have a camera. I usually enjoy using my iPhone 13 Pro, my phone, to record my videos because it's usually sharper in quality. Sometimes it makes me sad, because I got this camera so I could use my phone less, but my phone is still giving more value than the camera. Recently, I've been using my phone's camera. I record the visuals, the video itself, with my phone, and the sound with my microphone. Then in Final Cut Pro, the editor I use for my videos, I bring the audio and video together and sync them. Final Cut Pro has this amazing feature where you can sync both clips and specify that the microphone sound should be the sound, and the camera visuals should be the visuals, so they come together to make the video. I also have some key lights. I have a softbox and a Godox light that I got recently, and I think they improved my setup. I got them because so much light was spilling onto my background from the previous key light, and I wanted some darkness in my background and more of the light focused on me. That's why I got them, and I think that's pretty much it. I used to have a standing ring light, but now I just use the ring light's phone holder to hold my phone, because I don't have a different phone holder. I have a MacBook Pro, and I have these colorful things here—the Philips Hue lights, correct? I use them to add some stuff in the background. I still feel like I haven't really mastered this practical background-light setup, but this is what I use at the moment for a little flavor in the back. 34:07 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=2047s) Nice. A lot of your setup is very similar too. I started with Philips Hue lights as well, so I have those little bars in the back, and on my phone I occasionally change the colors to make it look different. You can actually animate them as well, as it turns out. While you're recording, you can have them animate and do all these things, which is pretty neat in its own way. What do you use now? Right now, I have the Philips Hue lights reflecting off a white wall just behind my monitor. I have a Blue Yeti microphone, mainly for the USB connection. For the webcam, I've actually been using my iPhone. I never got the whole Elgato Cam Link setup where I'm physically tethering my iPhone to my laptop. But with Continuity Camera, introduced as part of the new macOS version, it's trivial. I just put my iPhone up on the stand, then go to any video app. Under the camera, it asks if I want to connect my iPhone. I say sure, and it works really well. I switch between that and the Opal C1, which is the pre-release phone camera that's been getting a lot of popularity. I think it's built by some ex-phone designer, so it uses a phone sensor and gives you better quality than a traditional webcam. But I think the iPhone so far has been my favorite go-to because the quality is so nice and it's nicely integrated. You can click on elements like Spotlight mode, just as you would when taking a video of somebody. That gives you highlights and all these things on the phone itself, which means maybe this lighting isn't even necessary. The phone can take care of all these things for me. I always go back to it. It's a little sad because I feel like I'm using the battery, and the battery may lose its strength with time, but it just gives the best solution for that. I have a USB Lightning cable right here. I usually plug it into my phone, and it charges while it's recording. That doesn't affect it? I should try that. It's surprising. One would have assumed that during the pandemic, when everyone was working from home, a lot of great innovation would come in terms of webcams, audio setups, and things that anybody could use with no fuss for a great-quality setup. It's ironic that what ended up becoming, in my view, the best solution is our phones' integration with macOS, which always had the capability. Why did it take so long to do all of this? That's really cool. Well, I think we covered a lot of ground in these areas. Is there anything else you'd like to touch upon, or that you think people would benefit from learning from you? 36:54 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=2214s) The only thing that comes to mind, as we mentioned in our conversation, is how content creation, or just wanting to teach somebody something, also helps you learn that thing or at least improve your knowledge of it. I've had a few times where I was going to teach a theme in React. I already had an idea and just wanted to put that idea down. But because I was doing some research, I realized that I only knew 70 percent of it. There was still 30 percent that I didn't know. Because I wanted to teach somebody and was already writing it, I had questions like, "Wait, this thing has always been like this. Why exactly is that the case?" Then I did some research and thought, "Ah, so that is why." Now I had more context to put in my article for the end reader. As much as the end reader gets value from my research, I started the article with just 70 percent. By the time I finished, I had 90 percent of that knowledge. This is something I usually tell people: there are different ways you can improve your knowledge in tech. You can do it by watching tutorials, by practicing, and by teaching others. People think you need to know something 100 percent before you write about it, as though only professionals should come and share their knowledge. But from the way it has happened for me, I let people know it's a journey. With videos, it's hard to come back after you've made the video. But with an article, all you have to do is go back. If you want to add something, you could write, "This is an edit from five years later. This is the way it's done now." Or, if you don't want to add that information, you can simply update it. You can always come back to update things. Not everybody may want to be on screen or be able to talk as they would like, but I think articles are easier for most people to jump into. If anybody watching would love to create content, or wants to understand why they should create content in the first place, there are so many ways it could improve your knowledge. In some ways, you also build recognition. If not for the recognition I was able to build, I probably wouldn't have met you, started collaborating on articles, or even gone beyond that to this video today. I'm not saying that people who don't create content or write articles are doing the wrong thing. I'm saying this is one way, among other ways, that you can grow in your career, improve your knowledge, share value with others, and be recognized for what you do. Regardless of whatever point you're starting from—maybe you're still a beginner or maybe you're already in the middle—you can share your learnings. When I started, it was more, "This is what I learned today." I didn't claim to know something perfectly well. My approach was, "I just learned this new thing in CSS today. This is how to do this or that." A few people may feel they already knew that. Some people may think, "Oh, so that's possible in CSS." Even up until now, most things I share are things I just learned. If anybody is scared of coming across as though they know more than every other person, they can change their approach to, "This is what I learned." With time, you build confidence. With time, you can begin to say, "This is how to do it, and that is how to do it," without being scared that you may be wrong. For anybody interested, content creation or article writing is a really nice way to grow in your career, so I recommend it to everyone. 40:55 - Kirupa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=2455s) That's probably the best conclusion to this episode we could come up with. Thank you so much for taking the time and sharing all your knowledge about how you create content. Keep doing all the great work you've been doing. 41:09 - Dillion Megida (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ns8hAyQZo&t=2469s) Yeah, awesome. Thanks for having me on this platform. It was nice having a conversation and seeing you face to face and talking a bit. Browse all Interviews with Creative People: https://www.kirupa.com/podcast/index.htm