There are only two types of content, and it's not entertaining and educational.
👋 Welcome back to Content to Commas. If you have less time to make content than you had a month ago, I need you to read this one before you plan another week.
Lately I've had a lot less time to make content.
New dad, lack of sleep, feeding times, and no day is the same. I'm trying to get back to work, keep my partnerships and obligations moving, and keep some sanity, so I cut my whole content strategy down to two things … timely content and timeless content.
Timely content is rocket fuel. Timeless content is the bulk of what I make.
📍 In this issue:
the window on timely content, and why I give it a week at most
what the LinkedIn HQ visit and the Apple HomeView reviews have in common
the kind of content I'd bet on against AI
There's also a prompt at the bottom that sorts your next 10 ideas for you, but you have to scroll for it 😉
a message from our friends @ Relay
Every Dollar I Make Gets Split 4 Ways … before I touch it.
You already know you should pay yourself first. (🙋)
You also know why you don't.
It means moving money by hand every time an invoice clears, and a good month always has other plans for that money.
So I took myself out of it. Relay is the official banking platform of Profit First, and the rule is built in.
When money lands in my main account, it splits on its own:
operating expenses
savings
taxes
profit (I get paid first).
The business runs on what's left. The rule is the discipline.
[Relay is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC.]
⏱️ Timely content has a window
Timely content is for hyper-account-growth.
It rides a moment everyone is already talking about, so the platform hands you people who were never going to find you on a normal day.
Three examples:
Brand HQ visits. This past Wednesday, LinkedIn invited me in for the unveiling of several new products. Features that help you monetize and connect better, plus updates that just make sense for how people use the platform. I posted about what they unveiled, and I had to shift my posting to get it out while everyone was still talking about it.
A new product. I’m seeing it right with the Apple product line up (Duo & Homeview). I see YouTubers reviewing it right now because people already know what it is. posting this a month from now is going to underperform, but there's a small window of time where this video will rank in views and engagement.
A brand campaign. When a brand has a new campaign that's buzzing (or think of Superbowl ads), all of that chatter is only relevant for the next 1-5 days really.
Honestly, trends fall in this bucket too.
The first 24 hours is where the conversation peaks. After 5 to 7 days, the window is silent.
If it takes you ten days to get from idea to post, you will miss every single one, and I promise you, a take on a product launch that lands on day nine reads like a diary entry.
Timeless is steady growth.
Timely is the one that can go exponential on you.
One post can do extremely well just because people are searching for that thing on that platform that week. That's the rocket fuel: a boost in impressions, a boost in views, a boost in followers, and then it trickles down to all your other content and videos.
Which one are you making more of right now?
⌛ Timeless content is the majority
Timeless content is what the bulk of your content should be.
It has a longer shelf life and it doesn't rely on hype or the news cycle.
You can record it now, 3 months from now, or 6 months from now, and I promise you, people will still engage with it.
It's also the content I'd bet on against AI. Hype posts die when the hype does. A post that solves a problem is still getting found in six months, and that's the stuff I'm making right now.
I don't have a percentage for you. For different people it's going to be different things. Me personally, it's definitely more timeless than timely, and I'll move things around when a moment is worth it.
Now let me be fair…
Timely content can hit so much bigger than anything timeless, and I'll definitely move things around for the right moment.
But if every post you made this month expires by the weekend, you're running a news desk by yourself, and you don't have the staff for that.
⏱️ THE T SCALE
Sort it. Does this idea expire? Yes means timely. No means timeless.
Timely gets a deadline. The first 24 hours is the peak and 7 days is the max. Post the fastest version you can make, then move on.
Timeless gets a slot. Create it when you have the time, bank it, and schedule it. It works whether it goes out now or in 6 months.
Let the fuel do its job. A timely post that hits sends new people to everything else you've made, so make sure the timeless bank is there to catch them.
I want you to have Claude or ChatGPT sort your next 10 ideas before you make any of them. Fill in the brackets and paste the whole thing:
STEAL THIS 👇
You're my content editor. I make content for [who you serve] about [your topic], and right now I have about [hours per week] a week to make it.
Here are my next 10 ideas: [paste them].
Sort every idea into timely or timeless. Timely means it rides a moment people are talking about right now and expires within 7 days. Timeless means it would still help someone 6 months from now.
For each timely idea, give me the deadline (the date the window closes), the fastest version I could post in under an hour, and a yes or no on whether it's worth the rush for my audience.
For each timeless idea, give me the problem it solves in one sentence and the best format for it (post, carousel, short video, long video, newsletter).
End with the order I should make them in, given my hours. Timeless ideas should be most of the list. If the timely ones outnumber what my hours can handle, tell me which ones to drop.
Your homework this week is one thing. I want you to pull your next 10 ideas, sort them, and put a date next to every timely one. Then put the timeless ones on the calendar in the order you'd make them.
See you next Saturday,
Brandon
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📌 ICYMI…
Each week, I share content on social, branding, and growth strategies. Catch up in case you missed anything.
Posts You Missed…
🌱 I’m Sprout Social’s first Creator in Residence: a huge partnership, and a creator role inside the company. Think creator advocate, with a seat at the table → Read the announcement
🎤 I’m speaking at the Social Intelligence Summit on October 29: Sprout Social’s free, two-hour virtual summit. My panel, Borrowed Trust, Real Impact, goes at 12:30 PM ET with Lia Haberman, Ari Berkowitz, and Cory Weaver → Save your seat
💼 Everything LinkedIn just unveiled: a creator marketplace, paid advice sessions, business cards, better dashboards, and LinkedIn’s version of YouTube AdSense. I was in the building for it → See what’s coming
🤖 How I run my creator business with a Grok Bot: 19 AI agents now do a crazy amount of work for me, and I wrote up the whole org chart, department by department. Not sponsored → Read the org chart
💸 The Profit First money rule: if you’re a founder or you make your own money, this is how you secure your pay up front instead of hoping something is left at the end → Steal the rule
Keep Reading…
🏗️ How to build before you feel ready: "document don't debut," one platform for 30 to 60 days, and start ugly, stay consistent → Plan your scrappy start
📬 The First 1,000 Subscriber Playbook: email is owned, social is rented. The 5 steps from 0 to 1,000 subscribers, including the lead magnet → Start your first 1,000
🧭 What Every Creatorpreneur Needs to Know Before Launching: the 7 steps to futureproof a personal content brand, starting with "Build Your Day Ones" so the audience is there from day one → Check the 7 steps
📏 Attention is Cute. Impact Pays. The "Real Flex" Playbook, 3 things to track instead of applause, including the post-campaign form that asks a brand for results and a quote → See what to track
🧱 My 5 Personal Branding Principles: 5 tactics, starting with "Stop trying to appeal to everyone," plus the Private-to-Public Strategy → Get the 5 tactics
Worth every penny…
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🧠 Granola: No bot joins the call. The notes are just waiting when it ends. I stopped taking notes entirely → Start with a free month
📥 Fyxer: AI that clears my inbox and drafts replies that actually sound like me → Take 20% off 2 months
💾 Notion: The hub. Every list, calendar, and system I run lives in here, including the Season Map → Try Plus free for 30 days
📅 Cal.com: Booking links without the Calendly price tag. Open source, and it just works → Lock in 20% off for a year
💬 Manychat: The "comment a word and I'll DM you the link" machine. Builds your list while you sleep → Build the flow, 30% off
🎛️ AI Fiesta: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Grok side by side on one $12 subscription instead of paying for five → Try all five for $12
⌨ Lovable: Describe the app or landing page you want, and it builds it. No code. Build with Lovable →
🗺 Poppy AI: My content whiteboard. It knows my brand and can help me brainstorm with a visual template. → Try Poppy AI
📊 Gamma: AI presentations and one-pagers. Elite. Elite. Elite. → Try Gamma
Resources Built For You:
🗓️ The 2027 Content Calendar (free): 52 weeks pre-mapped by pillar, monthly themes, and a repurposing column so one idea becomes five posts. Plan the year in one sitting → Grab the calendar
🎯 The 2027 Goals Planner (free): quarterly goals, a revenue-goal section, and a review cadence built in. The whole year on one page → Get the planner
💼 The Brand Deal Tracker (free): the exact Notion CRM I use to log every brand deal, from first DM to paid invoice → Steal the tracker
✍️ The Ultimate LinkedIn Post Writer : a Claude skill that writes LinkedIn posts in your voice, with nine hook formats and a pre-flight check so AI-sounding filler never hits your feed → Get the skill
Brandon Smithwrick, Creator of Content to Commas
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