Congratulations.
You’re a content creator.
You make videos.
You write articles.
You post things.
You build a website.
You put up a contact form because maybe somebody wants to hire you for DJ work, sound engineering, production work, consulting, or whatever other gig you happen to be doing this week.
And then you discover the other part of content creation:
the unpaid work behind it.
Because apparently having a website also means becoming the person who has to clean up after everybody who wants to use your website for something you never asked for.
Spam comments.
Spam contact forms.
Random people trying to advertise gambling apps.
Somebody trying to sell you a new app.
Somebody trying to sell you a dog harness.
Somebody trying to sell you something for the dog you do not currently own.
Yes, I had dogs.
No, I am not currently a fur-baby daddy.
Thank you for your concern.
And this is one of those things that small creators have to remember: if you own the platform, even partially, you also own the maintenance.
You have to check the comments.
You have to mark spam as spam.
You have to look at WordPress updates.
You have to check plugins.
You have to check themes.
You have to make sure the site still works.
You have to make sure the contact form still works.
You have to make sure the contact form is not being used as a dumping ground for somebody else’s marketing campaign.
You have to check backups.
You have to check security.
You have to make sure something did not quietly break three weeks ago while you were busy making videos, driving, working, or disappearing down some ridiculous Raspberry Pi rabbit hole.
That is the part people do not usually show.
They show the video.
They show the article.
They show the final website.
They do not show the morning where you log into WordPress and go:
“Well, what the hell is this?”
Then you find two completely unrelated comments in two different languages linking to gambling sites and APK downloads.
Mark as spam.
Next.
And that is actually important.
Do not always just hit delete.
If something is clearly spam, mark it as spam.
That helps the filtering system understand what you do not want showing up in the future.
The same principle applies to your contact forms.
If you are using your website to generate business, then the real messages matter.
Somebody asking whether you are available for an event matters.
Somebody asking about sound engineering matters.
Somebody asking about production work matters.
Somebody trying to sell you a miracle marketing platform through the same form?
Not quite as much.
And that means part of the job is separating useful communication from noise.
That is content creation too.
The glamorous side is making the thing.
The less glamorous side is maintaining the place where the thing lives.
So every once in a while, stop making content for a few minutes and check the machinery behind it.
Check the website.
Check the comments.
Check the contact forms.
Check the updates.
Check the security.
Check the backups.
Because if you are trying to build something that lasts, somebody has to maintain it.
And when you are a small creator?
Congratulations.
That somebody is you.
The Gigman’s Life
TheGigmansLife.com