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.”