My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Media as Top-of-Funnel Commerce Model
Building a media business (blog, YouTube, social) primarily to create audience and trust, then monetizing through higher-margin product sales rather than traditional advertising.
How It Works
Media creates audience and trust, products capture value. Media costs become marketing costs, but they generate profit through content monetization while driving product sales.
Components
Build audience through valuable content first
Identify product opportunities from audience behavior
Start with affiliate or simple product sales
Graduate to private label products
Use media as continuous market research and marketing
When to Use
When you can create consistent, valuable content in a niche where people buy physical products. Works best with passionate hobby or lifestyle audiences.
When Not to Use
In niches with no product opportunities, for B2B software, or when you can't consistently create content.
Anti-Patterns to Avoid
Example
“Epic Gardening built millions of followers through gardening content, then launched private label gardening products, making more from products than traditional media monetization.”
Related Knowledge
Transform a personal hobby into a scalable business
A sustainable business generating significant revenue from serving others in your hobby niche, with potential for acquis
Launch a physical product using existing content audience
Product sells out initial inventory within days/weeks and creates sustainable revenue stream from existing audience
diy-fulfillment-disaster
media-only-monetization
First Principles Manufacturing
Building manufacturing operations from fundamental principles rather than copying industry norms, focusing on materials cost as baseline and automating everything possible.
Content-First Market Validation
Using content creation to validate demand for products before manufacturing or sourcing them, by showcasing products in content and measuring audience response.