The 4 ways to monetize content

I’ve been talking to myself a lot.

Okay. It seems I’ve been talking to myself a lot.

(If you really have to be pedantic about it.)

Technically, I have ChatGPT listening and answering but does it look weird to everyone around!

And I found a cool usecase…

Using ChatGPT to check if your idea is any good

Perspective is hard. (Just try drawing the shadows on a face… darn.)

And getting a second view on your thoughts and ideas can save you a lot of headaches. A lot.

So, I’ve been asking ChatGPT to challenge me.

I have no more than 50 ideas at the base of how I think. 50 core beliefs.

So I go through them and ask ChatGPT to attack everyone. Give me counter-arguments.

It’s infuriating.

… but also one of the most useful exercises I’ve done.

Now.

I still have a lot to think and a lot of beliefs to go through. Not only that but 1 conversation with an AI might not be enough to change it.

But there was one belief that didn’t change AT ALL. There were no challenges. No shortcuts. No nothing.

And getting that one single belief the right way took me 5 years of retraining my brain. (People call that NLP; I just call it “telling my brain what’s up”.)

Most people I know have that belief the other way around.

You probably do too.

Not sure?

It’s about sales.

If you cringe at the idea of sales – you’re just like I was a few years back.

I hated sales.

I hated the idea of selling. I hated the idea of being sold to. Ironically I loved buying things, but it had to be my decision.

So…

Selling stuff online was hard.

I flat-out rejected money the first 6 months.

Just think about that:

People were offering to give me money… and I said “no, thank you”.

This had to be some brain damage or something.

But my belief that sales were bad was that strong.

Now… fast-forward a few years and I’m thinking the exact opposite of what I used to.

Sales are great!

Why?

Because I saw what happens when you don’t sell.

People take stuff for free.

Then they don’t take action.

And they stay exactly the same.

That was the opposite of what I wanted…

I’m in this game to help people.

But “helping someone” basically means “letting them help themselves” – you show them the way, help give them clarity, do some of the work with or for them…

… and then the other person takes consistent action and changes their life.

It’s not you changing their life. They are.

One time I entered a $500 community…

… and then a $1,500 one … and then a $10,000 one …

… to find people taking action. Massive action. Changing their lives.

People were vouching with their money that what they came to the community for was important to them.

Next, they were taking action to show how much.

And – of course – they were getting results.

So, I had to sell.

But the question is where.

There are 3 stages at which you can sell with content:

Attention → Transaction of Attention → Delivery of Value

They respond to the 3 typical ways of monetizing:

Ads → Sponsors → Affiliates

You let all 3 sell to the attention you already generated.

With ads you have no control over the transaction of attention or delivery of value.

With sponsors you have control over the transaction (how people find out about them) but not delivery.

With affiliates you have control over all 3 components.

Also, those 3 opportunities are in ascending order – ads are the least profitable while good affiliate programs can be the most profitable.
(Many people make more from sponsors because they can’t play the affiliate game well… and just throw untargeted traffic to Amazon.)

But…

There’s another level.

What if you were in control of all 3 levels…

And got all the money for every one of them?

Well… There’s a way to do that.

It’s by building your own product.

You generate your attention → You control the transaction → You control the delivery of value → You get all the money from all stages

It is – mathematically and practically – the best possible way to monetize content.

And the sooner you start, the easier the game will be.

So…

Go build a product.

(or don’t – I’m not your dad… I hope 👀)

PS: If you need help figuring out what product you can build – we created a free guide that will help you get there. Just reply to this email with “product guide” and I’ll send it to you!