Scaling Original Content: Inside the Nuts & Bolts of Vanlife Voices
Explore the revamped Nuts & Bolts newsletter and explore how Productize Your Content principles fueled the launch of Vanlife Voices.
Welcome to a new year and a revamp of my weekly newsletter, Nuts & Bolts—formally Distributed Content Strategy.
Why the change?
Experienced marketers learn that marketing is a scrappy, iterative process. We know where we're heading, but the path is never straight. You must try different tools, tactics, and ideas, taking you down windy diversions to find the best route.
The Nuts & Bolts newsletter still discusses the Distributed Content Strategy as a marketing framework, but I'm going to explore more topics around content and strategy. Plus, the Distributed Content Strategy wasn't descriptive and exciting enough.
The core concept is creating a valuable content product rather than a distribution mechanism.
Productize Your Content
The third edition of this newsletter series was titled How to Productize Your Content. After writing this article in August, I realized Productize Your Content was a better name for the Distributed Content Strategy.
It better describes the strategy and how I approach original content.
Our knowledge and expertise are valuable—even more so in the AI age. In December 2024, several publications reported that AI companies are buying YouTubers' unused video content.
Why?
Because AI models have already consumed almost everything on the open internet, and these hungry digital beasts want more. And, most importantly, they want more original, high-quality content.
AI models aren't the only ones hungry for original content. Human content consumption is adapting, too. SEO-driven content is mostly valueless in an age where an AI chatbot can deliver a personalized answer to almost any question in seconds—and you can ask follow-up questions, ask for references, and analyze research data in a fraction of the time it takes to comb through search results.
SEO-based content strategies are uncertain, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai predicts a wave of change for 2025:
"AI overviews Gemini is being used by over a billion users in search alone, and I just feel like we are getting started. Search itself will continue to change profoundly in 25."
My Productize Your Content strategy aligns with this change—a framework to approach content creation differently. I've spent the last few months testing various ideas around creating content products—and Vanlife Voices is the first I'd like to share with you.
Introducing Vanlife Voices
In November 2024, Vunked and I piloted Vanlife Voices, a content series that tells vanlifers' stories in their own words.
In case you're unsure of what a vanlifer is, here is the ever-amusing Urban Dictionary definition:
"The continuous and everlasting voyage of living in a van, either traveling, down by a river, or partying at every bonfire you can find. Off-roading is key and animals living in the van only adds to the overall van life. Goals include having a convoy of vanlifers."
Now that we're on the same page...
The Vanlife Voices interview process is similar to a podcast. I ask questions and give interviewees space to talk without interruption. The aim is to guide the story and help them create something valuable and meaningful for their community.
From Pilot to Launch
While Vunked loved the content, Vanlife Voices didn't align with the company's priorities for 2025, which include an SEO and social media focus.
Having worked with vanlifers on previous projects, I knew how energized and engaged the community is. I also loved creating this content and speaking to vanlifers from around the world.
So, I asked Vunked if I could run Vanlife Voices independently, and they sponsor the project instead. Vunked agreed, and Vanlife Voices is now an independent publication—producing some awesome content.
Leveraging Collaborations for Growth
On January 9, 2025, I published the first Vanlife Voices as an independent publication on vanlifevoices.com. I also launched several social channels, including Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Medium.
These are new accounts, so it will take a few months before they grow and flourish, but I've already had some fantastic early successes—primarily on Instagram.
Generating content using interviews gives me high-quality, original video, audio, and copy—in under an hour. The video content is excellent for Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok.
One of the best-performing videos is an Instagram Reel collaboration with Luci (@vanlifewithluci) about the vanlife community. In just a few days, the video has over 3,000 views. The Vanlife Voices account had around 20 followers at the time of publishing, with most of those views coming from Luci's followers, creating valuable exposure for @vanlifevoices.
So, what's in it for Luci and the collaborators?
While Vanlife Voices is still in its infancy, with a small following, these interviews give vanlifers a different way to express themselves to their audiences.
Vanlifers love sharing their stories, and Vanlife Voices facilitates that by giving them a vehicle to share their experiences.
The Future of Vanlife Voices
Vanlife Voices has some positive momentum. I've already got a full content calendar until mid-February and will potentially complete Q1 2025's line-up by the end of January.
Each interview gives me enough drip copy and video content for a week, perfectly blending into the next one, and so on. I should see excellent compounding organic growth since 90% of my posts are Instagram Reels—which get the most views and engagement.
Instagram growth estimates
I used ChatGPT to help analyze the first week's data, and I should expect the following growth for the @vanlifevoices Instagram account:
| Quarter | Conservative Estimates ("Low") |
|---|---|
| End of Q1 | ~300–400 followers (~10–20 monthly clicks) |
| End of Q2 | ~700–900 followers (~20–45 monthly clicks) |
| End of Q3 | ~1,200–1,500 followers (~40–75 monthly clicks) |
| End of Q4 | ~2,000–2,500 followers (~60–125 monthly clicks) |
| Quarter | Aggressive Estimates ("High") |
|---|---|
| End of Q1 | ~600–800 (~50–80 monthly clicks) |
| End of Q2 | ~1,500–2,000 (~120–200 monthly clicks) |
| End of Q3 | ~3,000–4,000 (~240–400 monthly clicks) |
| End of Q4 | ~6,000–8,000 (~480–800 monthly clicks) |
The "conservative estimates" assume steady growth based on my current strategy of posting once daily, while the "aggressive estimates" present a picture of accelerated growth through increasing daily posts and active promotion (more collaborations, Q&As, polls, etc.).
Throwing paid ads into the mix would accelerate this growth even more. I have no desire to go that route, but it could be a highly effective, holistic marketing strategy if you wanted to combine all available tools and resources.
Over the next few months, I'll share growth across other platforms, including LinkedIn, Medium, X, YouTube, and blog/newsletter subscribers.
More projects launching 2025
Beyond Vanlife Voices, I have several other side and client projects launching in 2025. I'm using a similar content production and distribution strategy for all of these, and I plan to share the wins and fails with you all here on the Nuts & Bolts.