A Better Lemonade Stand #322

💛 Sponsor

Omnisend analyzed 23+ billion emails to uncover:

• Top 10 most-used emojis (Time for a refresh?)

• Most-mentioned artists (Taylor, Drake, or Beyoncé?)

• Cats vs. dogs vs. chickens: inbox animal showdown

• Pop culture: TV, movies, and sports in emails

• Overused phrases and “oops” moments

Discover 2024’s trends and what’s next for 2025!

📈 Trends

👤 Audience Ownership in the Age of Platform Uncertainty

2025 is the year we stop renting and start owning.

Social platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and X are evolving faster than ever. If I had to guess, 2025 will bring even more changes than we’ve seen in previous years.

Algorithms shift constantly, redefining what content gets visibility; policies change overnight, often with little warning or transparency; governments around the world are considering bans or implementing restrictions on platforms; and creators are left scrambling to adapt, often at the expense of their growth, stability and mental sanity.

Building on rented land means you are one “oh sh*t, I didn’t see that coming” from losing everything.

Audience ownership isn’t just a trend—going without it has always been a gamble, but now, it’s more crucial than ever to make it a priority.

📉 The Problem with Platform Dependency

Relying solely on social platforms to connect with your audience leaves your business vulnerable:

1. Algorithmic Gatekeeping: Platforms decide who sees your content—and it’s less than you think. Average organic reach on a platform like Instagram can drop to 5–10% of your followers, forcing you to pay ads for visibility.

2. Volatility: TikTok’s potential US ban is the latest reminder of how fragile platform reliance can be. When your followers could vanish with one government decision, owning your audience becomes critical.

3. Revenue Cuts: Monetization tools often come with platform fees, slashing your earnings. The TikTok Creator Fund is frequently criticized for low payouts, creators report earning as little as $20–50 per million views, and YouTube takes 45% of ad revenue generated by creators through its YouTube Partner Program.

📬 How You Should Own Your Audience

Owning your audience means building direct, unbreakable connections via email lists, private communities, and SMS. It’s about taking control of your data, communication, and revenue streams.

1/ Newsletter:

Newsletters remain the most safe and reliable way to connect with an audience while giving you many creative capabilities.

If you don’t feel like using a platform, you can simply export your email list and import it into other email service providers.

Newsletters on Beehiiv have collectively generated $4 million in revenue in 2024, leveraging ads, subscriptions, and sponsorships.

All you need to do is offer lead magnets like free guides, discounts, or exclusive content to incentivize your followers to sign up.

Why Newsletters Will Thrive in 2025:

• Direct Access: No algorithms. No platform mediation. Just you and your email list.

• High ROI: Email delivers an average return of $36 for every $1 spent.

• Monetization Potential: Newsletters with 5,000–10,000 subscribers have earned upwards of $50,000 annually, while larger ones bring in $250,000–$1 million annually.

• AI-Powered Engagement: Tools like segmentation, polls, and automation make newsletters more dynamic and personalized than ever before.

How to Create Newsletter Content:

• Repurpose Video Transcripts: Use tools like ChatGPT to transform your YouTube, TikTok, or podcast transcripts into engaging newsletters. One video can generate multiple newsletters.

• Curate Weekly Highlights: Summarize key takeaways from your content across platforms, adding unique insights for your readers.

• Connect the Dots: Use your email list to tie together the growth of all your rented platforms.

2/ Create Self-hosted Communities

Owning your audience means creating spaces where they feel valued, connected, and part of something bigger than themselves.

A self-hosted community allows creators to build niche communities with premium and free tiers without the constraints of social media algorithms.

Here, you control what your audience sees and how you monetize it—without losing chunks of your revenue to platform fees:

• Monetize with Value: To attract your existing audience, offer free access and add premium perks such as exclusive content, live sessions, or niche forums. Communities with tiered memberships not only drive inclusivity but also sustain monetization.

• Foster Engagement: Engagement isn’t just about fighting for clicks like on social media. It’s about creating real experiences:

  • Q&A Sessions: Build trust by answering real-time questions from your community.

  • Challenges and Gamification: Use badges, leaderboards, and rewards to drive participation. Engagement jumps by 48% with gamification.

  • Tailored Sub-Communities: You can segment your audience into interest groups. Smaller, focused spaces drive deeper interactions and loyalty while letting your members feel truly seen.

• Turn Content into Growth: Your private community is a content goldmine. Repurpose its best moments:

  • Transform top Q&A highlights into Instagram posts or YouTube Shorts.

  • Share powerful snippets from exclusive webinars on LinkedIn or Twitter to spark curiosity.

  • Highlight your community’s success stories or testimonials to showcase the tangible benefits of joining.

This strategy deepens the value of your private community and newsletter list while growing it across rented platforms.

3/ Build a Phone Number List

Email provides depth, but SMS marketing offers speed and immediacy as an owned media with open rates as high as 98%.

It is especially powerful for local boring businesses or course creators.

Here’s how to grow it:

1. Leverage Your Existing Newsletter List

   • Include a simple CTA in your newsletters: “Want VIP updates? Text [Keyword] to [Shortcode] to join our SMS list!”

   • Offer exclusive perks like early access, discounts, or freebies for subscribers who add their phone numbers.

2. Incentivize Sign-Ups on Social Media

   • Use Instagram Stories, TikTok videos, or pinned tweets to promote your SMS program.

   • Example: “Text ‘DEALS’ to [Shortcode] and get 10% off your next purchase!”

3. Use Surveys and Registration Forms

   • Usually, you’d convert more phone numbers by adding fields to your newsletter sign-ups, online event RSVPs, or community registrations.

   • Keep it optional, but highlight the benefits: “Get real-time updates on new content, events, or offers.”

The question isn’t if you’ll lose access to your audience but when. Owning the relationship outright is the only way to future-proof your business.

💡 Insights

🚀 How Cora Was Built in a Day (and Why It Matters)

Kieran Klaassen didn’t just build an app—he redefined what’s possible with AI by solving an email painkiller. Here are fresh insights from his process of growing Cora a new type of email app:

• Experimentation over Perfection: Instead of starting with the perfect idea, he treated the first version as a playground: “Let’s see how far I can push this model.” Building fast wasn’t just about speed; it was about discovering boundaries.

• AI as a Collaborator: “AI did 90% of the coding, but 100% of the thinking came from me.” This human-machine partnership highlights that taste and intuition remain irreplaceable.

• Feeling Is the Feature: Cora's brilliance isn’t just its functionality. It’s how it turns email dread into relief. As Kieran puts it, “If a product excites you as a user, that’s positive energy that will resonate.”

👉 Analyze Kieran’s Full Story Here

🌊 Prepare for the Intelligence Flood

AI labs are ringing alarm bells: A flood of intelligence is coming sooner than anyone thought. But what does this mean for the rest of us?

1. The Predictions Are Bold—But Not Baseless: AI systems like OpenAI’s o3 are smashing benchmarks we thought were untouchable, from beating PhDs at knowledge tests to solving impossible math problems.

2. Narrow Agents Are Already Here: Google’s Deep Research can analyze hundreds of websites and produce comprehensive reports in minutes, an economic game-changer for research-heavy jobs. 

3. A World Beyond Benchmarks: Advances in multimodal capabilities (think: AIs that can see, speak, and remember better) are transforming creative workflows. What used to take hours now takes minutes, with stunning results.

👉 Analyze the Intelligence Flood Here

💣 Replit CEO Drops Some Bombshells

Replit’s tool Agent reframes how we approach coding. Here are some standout thoughts recently mentioned by the CEO for those already aware of AI’s power in coding:

• Human Context Is Irreplaceable (For Now): Despite Agent’s capabilities, the CEO stressed that “100% of the thinking still comes from the human user.”

• Creativity Over Complexity: He compared software design to music composition, where the focus shifts from technical precision to crafting “experiences that make you feel something.”

• Learning as the Ultimate ROI: “Every six months, the return on learning basic coding doubles.” The agent makes learning a bit of coding incredibly valuable for unlocking its full potential.

👉 Get the CEO's Thoughts Here

🧰 Apps & Tools

🍟 Blotato: Create viral posts and faceless videos you can remix and cross-post everywhere.

🎙️ Wonderpod AI: Convert your newsletter archive into a podcast series.

📚 Learning Studio: Use AI to create online courses on any topic quickly and easily.

✍️ VentureKit: Build a complete business plan with the help of AI.

🌌 Jumper: AI-powered search engine to find the perfect footage for video editing projects.

📝 Deepwriter: Generate complex eBooks with this AI writing tool. See real-world results here.

🤖 Product Updates

📝 Use ChatGPT Tasks to Automate Your Life

What if you didn’t have to think about recurring tasks and finding motivation? What if they just happened? ChatGPT’s new tasks feature is an excellent start to agentic AI around autonomous productivity.

How You Can Start

1. Pick “Go with Scheduled Tasks” in the model options.

2. Decide what ChatGPT should do daily or weekly, detailed or broad.

3. Let it work in the background, giving you mental clarity and focus for your next big move.

Examples Of Using ChatGPT Tasks

• Automate Content Repurposing: Schedule it to create daily X posts based on scraping your top-performing content.

• Personal Motivation Coach: Receive a custom pep talk every morning at 9 AM to kickstart your workout or project goals.

👉 Get More Task Examples Here

🗣️ Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat: AI for Every Employee

Microsoft’s new Copilot Chat transforms your workflows by combining GPT-4o AI chat and pay-as-you-go agents in every corner of your business.

Key Features

1. AI-Powered Chat: Research, strategize, and collaborate securely with GPT-4o.

2. Custom Agents: Automate repetitive tasks like customer support or sales updates, all built seamlessly in chat.

3. Enterprise Control: Manage agents and data with robust IT governance tools.

👉 Learn More About Copilot Here

🎥 Luma Labs Ray 2: AI Video Creation Reimagined

Luma Labs’ new Ray 2 pushes the boundaries of AI video generation, offering cinematic visuals and unprecedented precision.

Why It Stands Out

• Cinematic Mastery: Delivers dynamic, visually rich videos with smooth motion tracking.

• Prompt Precision: Handles creative ideas like origami birds and collapsing buildings accurately.

• Close-Up Brilliance: Excels in facial detail and environmental textures.

What’s the Catch?

• Instability at Scale: Long videos (10+ seconds) can lose coherence.

• 720p Resolution: Limits visual sharpness compared to competitors.

👉 Get a Luma Ray 2 Review Here

🖇️ Everything Else

💰 AI Pricing Shift: AI tools move from seat-based pricing to models tied to results and expertise. (🔗 Rethink AI Pricing Models)

🕒 Best Time to Post on IG: With a potential TikTok ban in the US, check out the best times to repurpose your content effectively to maximize your Instagram reach. (🔗 Get Data Based From 2M+ Posts)

🌐 Google AI Essentials: Try out Google’s free course on how to use generative AI tools to speed up tasks. (🔗 Try Out Google AI's Course)