My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Newsletter Economics Deterioration
Timeframe: 2020-2024 ongoing decline, will continue as market matures
What's Changing
Value per newsletter subscriber has significantly declined due to market saturation and increased competition for attention
Driving Forces
Massive increase in newsletter supply
Beehive and Substack making newsletters easier to start
Advertiser budgets spread across more newsletters
Reader attention divided among more sources
Winners
- Ultra-niche newsletters with engaged audiences
- B2B newsletters with direct monetization
- Newsletter platforms taking percentage of creator revenue
- Physical/premium content experiences
Losers
- Generic business newsletters
- Ad-only monetization models
- High subscriber count but low engagement newsletters
- Late entrants copying 2017-2019 playbooks
How to Position Yourself
Focus on ultra-specific niches with high-value audiences
Build direct monetization beyond just advertising
Create premium experiences (physical, community, courses)
Target B2B rather than consumer audiences
Early Signals to Watch
Example Implementation
“Instead of launching generic business newsletter, create quarterly physical magazine for specific industry with premium positioning and high-CPM advertising”
Related Knowledge
Physical Industry Magazine
Digital content lacks prestige and physical presence that creates real industry status and networking opportunities
Alternative Investments Media Company
Alternative investments (real estate, private equity, venture) are growing but remain opaque and hard to understand for
IQ Arbitrage Strategy
Moving talented people from highly competitive, intellectually demanding industries into underoptimized industries where
Content-First Newsletter Economics
Building newsletter businesses by obsessing over content quality first, then layering on growth and monetization rather
Launch and scale a newsletter to 7-figure revenue
100K+ engaged subscribers generating $18+ annual revenue per subscriber through advertising and products
Standard Setting Through Allowance
The quality standard of any business becomes whatever level of work the leadership allows to pass without correction or