Thread by @nathanbarry

Can you start a billion dollar blog?

In 2010 Emily Weiss, a fashion assistant at Vogue, started her own fashion blog. She bought a camera, domain, & 2 months later the site was live.

Into the Gloss showcased the real-world beauty routines of fashion influencers & celebrities.

10 years later, what do you think the site is worth? Millions? 10s of millions?

While that would be an insane success for a blog, it’s not even close to the correct answer of $1.2 billion. She turned it into the beauty brand Glossier.

Billion dollar blogs aren't rare. A thread:

I'm on that journey with @ConvertKit. I started with earning a living from a blog on marketing & design. Then I used that audience to launch a SaaS company now earning $29M/yr.

It will take years, but we're on a path to create $1B in company value.

There are 4 key principles:

RULE #1: Build more than a personal brand

Mark Sisson started Mark’s Daily Apple in 2006 and built a great business selling books & sponsorships. But his real success was from Primal Kitchen, a paleo sauce and dressing company. Sold 2 years after launch to Kraft for $200 million

Personal brands are great for getting started, but in my research I couldn't find a single example of a billion dollar company that was still the founders name.

Bloggers and influencers should take note and build a brand that can stand on its own.

RULE #2: Sell products, not attention

Kylie Jenner was one of the least famous Kardashians, but now she’s the wealthiest. Rather than chasing more fame and influencer status she channeled what she had into Kylie Cosmetics.

Creators are better than anyone at capturing attention.

Attention has value. Brands pay the creators to redirect that attention towards their own products through advertising and sponsorships.

Creators like Ryan Reynolds understand this and instead channel attention into their own brands (Aviation Gin sold for $610 million).

RULE #3: Drive higher customer value through recurring or repeat purchases

@mijustin made the switch from selling books & courses (sold once per customer) to selling Transistor, SaaS for hosting podcasts. Customers pay every month for access to the product.

@WellnessMama built one of the most successful blogs in the world through content, sponsorships, digital products, & affiliates.

Then they used that platform to launch @MyWellnesse a personal care product line where each product is purchased many times.

RULE #4: Choose a better business model

Vani Hari pivoted from her site Food Babe to launch Truvani, her own health food brand.

Dr. Dre was wildly successful with his music career, but it's Beats by Dre that was able to have a $3 billion exit.

Better business models and higher quality revenue matter. @awilkinson understands this better than anyone as he uses profits from Metalab, his highly profitable design agency, to buy software & product companies.

Trading average quality revenue for high quality revenue.

Those are the 4 rules for becoming a billion dollar creator, but there's so much more to think about.

Read the full article for stories on who made the pivot and a deep dive into 5 examples of creators who weren't able to pull it off:

nathanbarry.com/billion/