I believe one of the best ways to figure out how to grow your career is to experiment with different kinds of content and promotional activities – inevitably, when you try new things you’ll wind up stumbling across some things that work for you. Not every thing you try will work of course, but even your failures can be educational and inspire other ideas in you.

With that in mind, I’d like to suggest five simple experiments for you to try. I encourage you to think through what would happen if you tried to implement any (or all) of these ideas.

And if you do decide to give them a shot, I hope you’ll come back and post a comment to let me know what you got out of the experiment – maybe your actions will further inspire others.

1. What Would Happen If You Posted A New Video On Your YouTube Channel Every Day This Week?

If you committed to posting a new video every day this week on your YouTube channel, what do you think would happen? Would you get more views? Probably. Would you get more subscribers? Possibly. Would you discover that it’s actually easier to produce videos than you thought? Would forcing yourself to put up a new video each day help you stumble across a new video format or concept that could lead to something bigger? Would it be a good writing exercise? Would it give you an excuse to interview another comic, booker, fan, or other person who you’ve been looking to have an excuse to talk to?

I’m guessing that committing to releasing a video a day for a week would likely lead to a lot of these things, but there’s only one way for you to find out.

2. What Would Happen If You Only @Replied To People On Twitter For A Week?

What would happen if you decided to only use Twitter as a conversational tool for a week as opposed to using it as a way to blast out jokes, promotional tweets, and other observations at people? Instead, what if you spent a week only tweeting in reply to other people who are asking questions or talking about things they care about.

Do you think more people on Twitter would talk back to you? Do you think you’d get more new followers than you currently do? Do you think it would change your perception about how Twitter works? Do you think it would change how you use Twitter moving forward? Do you think it would make Twitter more fun? I do.

3. What Would Happen If You Messaged All Your Facebook Fans Privately And Asked Them To Join Your Email List?

If you personally messaged your Facebook fans, thanked them for being a fan/friend, and sent them a link to join your email list, what do you think would happen? Do you think your email list would grow? Do you think it would start conversations with your fans? Do you think it would inspire you to actually launch an email list or use yours more frequently? Do you think it would help you the next time you had something important to promote? How many of your Facebook fans do you think even realize you have a mailing list?

4. What Would Happen If You Teamed Up With Three Other Comedians For A One Week Project?

What would happen if you reached out to three other comedians that you know and came up with a simple project to do together for a week. Maybe it’s a group blog, maybe it’s a series of videos, maybe it’s a podcast, maybe it’s a live show. Whatever it is, it would be something that you would all work to create and that you would use to cross-promote each other. Maybe it’s even just a straight cross-promotion where you each tell each other’s fans why they should check out the other comics involved.

Do you think you would all be introduced to new potential fans and opportunities? Do you think your one-week project could develop into something much bigger? Do you think you’d find that there’s strength in numbers?

5. What Would Happen If You Offered To Write A Free Column For 10 Different Websites?

What if you found 10 different blogs, websites, or publications that cover topics you’re interested in (here’s a great way to find them) and volunteered to write a column for them for free? Do you think that one of them would take you up on your offer and publish it? How many new potential fans would that introduce you to? Do you think it could lead to something bigger, like a paid gig? Do you think it could give you another credit to add to your resume? Even if you didn’t get paid for your contribution, do you think it would be worth the time investment to reach a new audience?

There you have it – five simple “experiments” you can conduct in a week to see what kind of impact they have on your career. You don’t have to do all of them, and for that matter you don’t have to do any of them. There’s no guarantee they’ll have any impact on your career or fanbase at all.

But…

It’s also possible that one of these experiments will open up new opportunities for you, change the way you see your career, and inspire you to pursue a new course. And even if that’s a long shot, isn’t it worth a week’s worth of your time to find out?