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if you have 100,000 Subs especially B2B at the worst case it's worth call it a dollar at the best case it's worth $10 if it's worth $10 that's a million dollar asset that you're sitting on.

💨 tl;dr

Explore 5 startup ideas that require no initial investment, like launching a YouTube channel for Canva tutorials, leveraging affiliate marketing, and creating engaging newsletters. Focus on digital assets, SEO, and community building for sustainable growth.

💡 Key Ideas

• Launch a YouTube channel focused on Canva tutorials to generate leads for an agency; monetize through ads and newsletters.
• Daily video publishing can lead to high-margin agency income; affiliate marketing is a key revenue source, especially from SaaS products.
• Transition from creator to agency to software development by identifying gaps in existing tools like Canva, e.g., captioning software.
• "Tip beats" are a lucrative niche; AI allows rapid production of quality music, with significant income potential on platforms like YouTube.
• Digital influencers are becoming essential assets for brands, with potential narratives and communities developing around them.
• SEO is preferred over ads for driving business; digital personas can represent brands, enhancing relatability and impact.
• Young creators are underutilized for in-house content creation, presenting an opportunity for brands to leverage their viral engagement.
• Email template startups can scale significantly; newsletters serve as passive income streams, with potential high valuations.
• Building newsletters for existing creators can be a strategic business move, with the possibility of partnering or selling them.

🎓 Lessons Learnt

• Start with your existing skills: Use your expertise to create content, like YouTube tutorials, that attracts potential clients.

• Leverage YouTube for lead generation: Long-format tutorial videos can build relationships and serve as a top-of-funnel strategy for client acquisition.

• Diversify your income streams: Combine ad revenue, newsletters, and client services to create multiple revenue sources from the same business.

• Identify and address market needs: Look for limitations in existing tools (like Canva) and develop solutions that cater to underserved markets.

• Use AI tools for efficiency: In music production, AI can help quickly generate type beats and streamline the creative process.

• Invest in digital assets over real estate: Digital assets often yield better returns with fewer management headaches compared to traditional real estate.

• Create engaging narratives: Develop rich backstories for brand characters to foster community and enhance audience connection.

• Focus on SEO for sustainable traffic: Prioritize SEO strategies for stable visibility over reliance on ads, which can be unstable.

• Utilize newsletters for growth: Build newsletters to self-fund your business and leverage existing audiences for ad sales, maximizing revenue potential.

• Engage and interact with your audience: Encourage feedback to build community and keep your audience involved in your content journey.

🌚 Conclusion

By tapping into your skills and the digital landscape, you can create multiple income streams and address market gaps. Embrace AI tools, prioritize SEO, and engage your audience to build a thriving business without upfront costs.

In-Depth

All Key Ideas

Business Idea from Podcast Episode

• The episode promises listeners a business idea they can implement regardless of their career stage.
• A suggested business model is creating a YouTube channel focused on Canva tutorials as a lead generation funnel for an agency.
• The YouTube channel can generate revenue through ad revenue and building a newsletter for further monetization.
• There are multiple phases to scale this business, from being a creator to managing numerous clients with a team.

Business Opportunities and Revenue Streams

• Publishing a video a day on how to use Canva can lead to an agency with high margins and significant monthly income.
• Affiliate marketing is a strong revenue stream, with SaaS products offering 10-50% recurring revenue.
• Successful entrepreneurs in the print-on-demand space are making substantial income from courses, affiliate marketing, and YouTube ad revenue, with affiliate income being the largest portion.
• Adobe has a lucrative affiliate program, contrary to the perception that affiliate marketing is spammy.
• There are validated startup ideas available that require no investment to start and have been derived from conversations with successful entrepreneurs.
• There is a natural progression from creator to agency to software development, identifying gaps in existing tools like Canva.
• Building a captioning software for videos could address significant limitations in Canva's current offerings.

Trends in Video and Music Production

• Long-form video content is making a comeback and can effectively sell products, similar to traditional VSLs (Video Sales Letters) used in early 2000s affiliate marketing.
• "Tip beats" are a growing niche in the music industry where producers create beats resembling popular artists’ styles, generating significant search volume and revenue.
• AI technology enables producers to create a large volume of high-quality beats quickly, disrupting traditional production methods.
• Producers can monetize their beats through platforms like YouTube, generating ad revenue while linking back to their marketplaces for sales and licensing.

Type Beat Production Insights

• The process of creating and selling type beats involves a funnel where ads lead to YouTube videos, allowing listeners to purchase the beats.
• Successful type beat producers can make significant income, with some making around $60,000 a month from leases, which typically range from $15 to $150.
• YouTube ranks instrumentals higher in search results, leading to increased views and potential sales for producers.
• Producers often license beats for a year at a low cost, but purchasing full rights comes at a higher price.
• The music industry, especially in hip-hop, has evolved into a numbers game where producers buy multiple beats to create tracks.
• Jay-Z popularized the trend of not writing lyrics down, influencing a generation of artists to adopt a similar approach.
• Real estate investing can be risky, with many investors losing substantial amounts, suggesting a preference for creating beats over traditional investments.

Insights on Real Estate and Digital Influencers

• The speaker questions the value of investing in real estate, contrasting it with digital asset investments that require less management and offer better returns.
• There's a perception that real estate attracts 'the dumbest rich people' and that it's a grind type business, which the speaker finds uninteresting.
• The idea that DTC (Direct-To-Consumer) brands will start owning digital influencers to avoid the risks associated with partnering with real celebrities.
• Brands may create drama and gossip around owned digital influencers to generate conversation and deeper engagement with their audience.
• Owning digital influencers could become a valuable asset for brands, comparable to owning a YouTube channel or email list, contributing to their overall impressions and brand equity.

Digital Personas and Brand Narratives

• Digital assets are seen as a form of digital real estate that companies can own and utilize.
• Agencies will initially provide services to create digital personas, evolving into internal teams managing these assets.
• Creating consistent, always-on brand personas is cheaper and more effective than traditional influencer marketing.
• Brands can craft narratives and lore around their digital personas, similar to fandoms in entertainment.
• The development of communities around these brand narratives is anticipated, akin to fandom discussions on platforms like Reddit.

Insights on Digital Marketing and Influencers

• Greg prefers SEO over reliance on ads and social media platforms like Facebook for driving customers to his business.
• Boring Marketing offers a 30-day Sprint with a 100% money-back guarantee, showcasing confidence in their approach.
• The evolution of digital influencers, like Lil Michaela, involves moving from flat images to realistic avatars and short-form videos.
• Advanced AI tools can create digital avatars and maintain consistency across different poses and styles.
• Digital influencers can personify brands, making them more relatable and impactful compared to abstract brand identities.
• There's a disconnect between tech-savvy individuals and the average person's engagement with digital brands.
• Young people increasingly aspire to be YouTubers, reflecting the demand for creators and entertainment in branding.

Insights on AI and Young Creators

• The potential of hiring young creators, like YouTubers, for in-house content creation is being overlooked despite their ability to drive viral engagement.
• The blurring lines between real and virtual influencers, exemplified by the AI-created influencer 'AI TINA,' highlight how digital personas can generate significant revenue.
• Young individuals today face unique challenges in dating and social interaction due to remote work culture and the emergence of AI-driven relationship tools.
• Corporations may eventually adopt AI influencers as long-term brand representatives, benefiting from their consistency and lack of scandals.
• There’s a huge opportunity for an AI-powered email HTML generator to simplify the tedious process of coding HTML emails, capitalizing on existing demand.

Email Template Startup Ideas

• Building email templates for specific industries can be a low-cost startup idea, potentially scalable to $20K MRR and sellable for over a million.
• A simple tool for generating email templates can be created with a budget of about $3-5K, utilizing a straightforward UI and API calls.
• Marketing strategies include submitting to AI directories for initial domain authority and leveraging platforms like Hacker News for virality.
• There’s an opportunity to create newsletters for short form creators targeting their specific audience, enhancing their revenue potential in B2B spaces.

Newsletter Business Opportunities

• Using a beehive boost can generate initial revenue to self-fund growth and sell ads.
• Having multiple newsletters across different spaces allows for targeted ad buys in related industries.
• Short-form creators struggle with producing long-form content, making unique newsletter creation challenging.
• Newsletters can serve as a passive income stream for creators, requiring minimal effort once established.
• A newsletter with 100,000 subscribers can be a valuable asset worth between $100,000 and $1 million.
• There’s potential for creators to exit their newsletter business after establishing a subscriber base with a revenue share model.
• The model involves minimal ongoing work for creators, making it an attractive business opportunity.

Insights on Email Newsletters and Business Growth

• You can build an email newsletter for an existing creator using their public content, grow the list, and potentially partner with them or sell it without their knowledge.
• There’s a new company called Landing C that focuses on AI-powered programmatic SEO, building thousands of collection pages for e-commerce clients.
• The importance of sharing knowledge and experiences in building cash-flowing businesses, as emphasized by the hosts.
• Greg’s newsletter is highlighted as a valuable resource for learning about cash-flowing businesses.

All Lessons Learnt

Business Growth Strategies

• You can start a business with your existing skills. If you have expertise in a specific area, like Canva design, you can create content around it (like YouTube tutorials) to attract clients.
• Leverage YouTube for lead generation. Creating long-format tutorial videos can serve as a top-of-funnel strategy to build relationships with potential clients who may want to hire you for your services.
• Diversify your revenue streams. By combining ad revenue from your YouTube channel with a newsletter and client services, you can generate multiple income sources from the same business model.
• Start small and scale up. Begin as a solo creator and gradually expand by managing more clients and building a team to handle the workload, allowing for scalable growth.

Monetization Strategies for Canva

• Publish daily videos on platforms like Canva: If you just for the next six months if you just published a video a day on how to do XYZ on Canva like you will have an agency that is making you know an 80% margin and doing 80 grand a month.
• Monetize through affiliate marketing: Another way you can monetize is affiliate so not many people know that this but SAS products will give you anywhere between like 10 and 50% of monthly Revenue like recurring.
• Combine affiliate links in workflows: Just include them in your workflows it's a natural progression and then in the description you're like yo here's my link below they click that it turns into a recurring Revenue stream.
• Look for underserved market needs: You're gonna find limitations within Canva and you're gonna be like oh well I'll just go build this Canva app that solves this problem and you immediately have an audience.
• Identify specific problems to address: A great example is we identified this right is captions within Canva are terrible so you go make a captioning software for videos.

Music Production Strategies

• Long-form content is winning right now. Creating extensive, unfiltered videos can effectively engage viewers and guide them toward your offerings.
• Capitalize on AI for music production. Use AI tools to produce a large volume of type beats quickly, allowing you to stand out in a competitive market.
• Leverage YouTube for distribution. Post your beats on YouTube to gain ad revenue and direct traffic to your marketplace for licensing or purchasing beats.
• Identify niche markets. Explore specific music genres or styles (like Kendrick type beats) where there's high search volume and demand to maximize your opportunity.

Music Production Strategies

• Build a funnel for type beats: Create a YouTube ad for your type beat that directs potential customers to listen and purchase the beat from your video.
• Utilize YouTube for visibility: Since YouTube ranks instrumentals higher in search results, leverage this to gain more views and sales for your beats.
• Recurring revenue through licensing: License your beats for a year at a lower price to ensure no one else can use them during that time, creating a steady income stream.
• Batch purchasing beats: Producers often buy multiple beats to create tracks, increasing their chances of success in the music industry through volume.
• Evolving recording techniques: Understand that modern music production often involves 'punching in' rather than traditional writing, influenced by artists like Jay-Z.
• Digital real estate concept: Consider the music industry and beat production as a form of digital real estate, which can be less risky than traditional real estate investments.

Digital Marketing Strategies

• Digital Assets Over Real Estate: If you're looking to minimize headaches and management issues, consider investing in digital assets instead of real estate. They can often yield better returns without the complications of tenant management.
• Brands Owning Influencers: Brands might start owning digital influencers to control narratives and avoid risks associated with partnering with real celebrities. This approach can generate marketing buzz and provide a safer investment.
• Creating Gossip for Engagement: Generating drama or gossip around owned digital influencers can enhance brand engagement and dialogue. This tactic can deepen audience connection to the brand.
• Valuing Digital Influencer Assets: Owning a portfolio of digital influencers can be treated as an asset, much like a YouTube channel or email list, contributing to a brand’s overall value and impressions in financial assessments.

Key Insights on Digital Marketing Strategies

• Digital assets are valuable: Investing in digital representations or characters for brands can create long-term assets that are cheaper and more effective than traditional influencer marketing.
• Consistency is key: Using AI-generated characters provides brands with a consistent representation that aligns with their messaging, which is harder to achieve with human influencers who change over time.
• Creating narratives builds community: Developing a rich backstory or lore around a brand character can engage audiences similarly to fandoms in entertainment, fostering community and dialogue.
• Leverage technology for brand storytelling: Utilizing generative AI and other tech in crafting brand characters allows for innovative storytelling and outreach strategies at a lower cost.
• Expect evolution in marketing strategies: As technology advances, brands should be prepared to adapt their marketing approaches, especially in creating owned media assets that resonate with audiences.

Marketing Strategies

• Invest in SEO for Business Success: Relying on ads and platforms like Facebook can be risky; focusing on SEO can provide more stable traffic and visibility for your business.
• Use Digital Influencers for Branding: Digital avatars can effectively represent a brand, making it more relatable and memorable to consumers, similar to how Steve Jobs personified Apple.
• Embrace Entertainment in Marketing: People engage with entertainment content; brands should leverage this by hiring creators to consistently produce engaging content for platforms like YouTube.
• Understand Consumer Behavior: Many people are open to digital brands and influencers, so dismissing them as irrelevant is a misunderstanding of current trends and consumer interactions.

Marketing Insights

• Leverage Creators for Content: Hire young creators who understand viral content; they can create engaging in-house marketing material and bring fresh perspectives.
• AI Influence is Growing: The rise of AI-generated personas (like fake influencers) shows that the line between real and artificial is blurring, indicating a new marketing landscape.
• Demand for AI Tools in Email Marketing: There's a significant opportunity to create AI-powered tools for generating HTML emails, as many still find it tedious and complex.
• Market Trends Start in Art: Innovations often begin in creative fields and trickle down to business models, so keep an eye on artistic trends for future business opportunities.
• Endless Branding Potential: Companies will likely adopt AI personalities as long-term brand ambassadors, which can help maintain a consistent voice and image without the risk of scandals.

Lessons Learnt

• Build simple tools like email templates for specific industries.
• Outsource development to affordable agencies.
• Use a pay-to-play model with a one-time payment for premium features.
• Leverage platforms like Hacker News for visibility.
• Create newsletters for short-form content creators.

Newsletter Strategies

• Use newsletters to self-fund growth: Start with beehive boost to generate initial revenue, allowing the business to grow without external funding.
• Leverage existing audiences for ad sales: Build multiple newsletters in different niches, then sell ad slots to related industries, maximizing revenue potential.
• Repurpose content efficiently: Short-form creators can easily convert their discussions into newsletter content, reducing the burden of consistent content creation.
• Newsletter lists are valuable assets: A newsletter with 100,000 subscribers can be worth anywhere from $100,000 to $1 million, representing a significant asset for creators.
• Consider exit strategies: Creators can sell their newsletter lists for a profit after a year, providing a clear path to monetization and potential exit.
• Minimize workload for creators: By structuring a revenue share, creators can maintain minimal involvement while still earning from their newsletters.

Strategies for Engaging Creators and Audience

• Build an email newsletter for existing creators: You can create a newsletter using publicly available content from creators and pitch it to them to partner up or grow your list for future sale.
• Use AI for SEO at scale: If you're in e-commerce with many SKUs, consider leveraging AI to create thousands of collection pages for better SEO results.
• Engage with your audience: Encourage feedback and comments on your content to foster community and keep your audience involved.
• Share knowledge to give back: Sharing valuable insights and experiences can help educate the next generation and contribute positively to the online community.