The “old way” VS the “new way” to monetize your audience and content

An ebook and a cohort can teach the exact same information.

The difference is how the product is delivered and fulfilled.

Right now, there are four forces are devaluing content products like ebooks, courses, and more — while making other offers more valuable than ever.

Let me explain:

The monetization playbook that worked from 2020 to 2024 is broken.

Advertising, courses, digital products, subscriptions, and other content-focused monetization models are getting crushed.

If you sell or monetize content in any form at scale, you're feeling this.

Here's what happened:

1) AI commoditized knowledge. LLMs now answer questions better than most courses. Even when AI gives wrong answers, people still choose it over buying your product.

2) The macro economy squeezed your customers. The 2020 to 2022 boom is gone. Less disposable income. Higher interest rates. No stimulus checks. People are not stuck at home spending money on content and education anymore.

3) GLP-1 drugs killed the impulse buyer. 23% of US households now have someone on a GLP-1. These drugs don't just suppress food cravings. Cornell research shows they reduce spending across 100+ consumer categories. For a lot of your customers, buying more courses and digital products an addiction. That impulse buyer is gone now. And this trend will only keep growing.

4) Content saturation destroyed attention. There are 10x more newsletters, podcasts, and YouTube channels fighting for attention than five years ago. Open rates are falling. There are more newsletter publishers than advertisers willing to sponsor them. YouTube raised the bar for free content so high that your paid content has to compete with the best free stuff ever made.

These four forces are hitting every business that monetizes content.

But some companies are growing faster than ever despite this.

Why?

They don't sell single-category products.

See, every media product falls into one of four categories:

Most founders build products that sit in only one category.

Single-category products are the easiest to create. They're also the easiest to kill.

The companies that are thriving stack two, three, or all four categories into one product.

I call this…

The Overlap Effect is what happens when your product combines two, three, or all four categories.

The more categories your product touches, the more valuable it becomes.

Each additional layer of overlap compounds the value. It doesn't just add to it.

Why does this matter?

Because while AI can generate content — it cannot build a trusted community, create a live experience, and hold someone accountable to finish the work. All at the same time.

Take what you're already selling and transform it.

Some examples:

Pure Content → Content + Implementation

Stop selling ad spots. Start solving marketing problems for brands.

The largest media companies in the world like Industry Dive and Morning Brew don't just sell impressions and clicks.

They run full-funnel campaigns that combine brands awareness ads with custom content, online events, and lead generation.

When you sell partnerships, you operate more like a marketing agency than a publisher with ad space to sell. You're implementing a full marketing and sales campaigns for your clients. Not just selling ads and hoping the client does the work to convert those visitors into revenue.

Plus, full funnel campaign like this create evergreen assets partners can use. Increasing the value and the price.

Examples — Media brands that do partnerships well:

My full guide on how to transform ads into partnerships.

Pure Content → Content + Implementation

A $29 ebook is pure content your audience could get for free from AI or YouTube.

But templates style products that actually help your customer do the work? That's implementation.

Templates are recipes for execution, i.e. doing the work.

Offers like:

Yes, you'll still need content to help your customers utilize template products.

The point is, a template offer is a much more valuable than a low-ticket pure content product.

Example:

Pure Content → Content + Implementation + Community

Traditional courses have a <5% completion rate. People buy them and never log in.

Coaching programs combine content with community, live calls, and implementation support. This stack drives real results. Plus, allows you to price them 5-20X higher than just a course.

Pure Community → Community + Experience + Content

Online-only communities are a hard business model.

You're begging people to engage, competing against social media, reddit, FB groups, and spending multiple hours a day keeping the community active.

People don't need another Slack group. But when you transform that community from online only to in-person (and online), something magical happens.

You can sell tickets, get sponsors, and upsell attendees to premium offers at your events.

Examples:

Any offer → Content + Experience + Community + Implementation

If you have no offer or any offer that's not working…

A cohort is the fastest path to build a durable media business.

A cohort is a live, time-bound group program where students learn, implement, and get results together over a set number of weeks.

Ship 30 for 30, Write of Passage, and Cut30 all prove that live, time-bound group experiences outperform passive content every time.

My own cohort (Write, Grow, Sell) gets 26% to 49% completion rates versus the industry average of <5%.

My full guide on cohort-based programs.

To sum this up: Because AI and market forces, the old best practices for monetizing your content don't work anymore.

Old way: Single-category products like — Advertising, Digital products, courses, content subscriptions, paid online communities, and more.

New way: Multi-category products like — Cohorts, partnerships, templates, coaching programs, events, peer groups, and more.

The fix is not to abandon what you have. It's to add overlap to it.

Pick one product. Add one category. That single overlap will increase the value, the price you can charge, and how hard it is to compete with you.

Most people will start with content…

Then add Community → Implementation → Experience.

But what matters most is that the fulfillment category you add solves a problem for your customer. Any order can work.

Last thing: If you want help building, selling, and marketing a media product that AI can't kill — apply for GrowLetter Flagship.

We work 1on1 with founders to build a durable monetization system using the Overlap Effect.

Apply and book a call here »