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Everyone tells you the same thing when you start a YouTube channel. Go niche. Pick a tiny topic. Build a small, loyal audience. And to be fair, that advice isnât totally wrong. But YouTube just came out with a culture report and it complicates things a bit. They surveyed 939 people between 14 and 44, and 63% said they watch content or follow creators that everyone they know is also watching. Same as five years ago. The niche explosion happened, sure, but people still want to feel like theyâre part of something bigger. The mainstream didnât die. It just moved online. And when they asked people what feels big and known right now, YouTube creators (77%) and memes (78%) came in at nearly the same level as Hollywood celebrities (79%) and the Super Bowl (83%). Online culture isnât competing with mainstream anymore. It is mainstream. So what actually makes some creators blow up and others stay stuck at 200 views? According to YouTube, itâs participation. Whether people clip it, react to it, share it, or build on it. The âBackroomsâ video, look it up if you havenât, started as a single YouTube upload, turned into a whole fandom through community clips and remixes, and ended up as a Hollywood movie. Nobody engineered that. It just made people feel something they couldnât stop thinking about. The clips followed from that. Thing is, most beginners donât think about that when theyâre making content. They think about the next video. Not whether the video they just made can travel. If your content doesnât clip well, it probably wonât reach anyone outside of who already follows you. And that's the part nobody tells you when they say go niche. Talk soon, Minosh If you want to start turning your long videos into short clips that actually travel on Shorts, Reels, and TikTok, Klap does it automatically and saves you a few hours every week. Affiliate link above. Costs you nothing extra, helps keep this newsletter free. |
Online business and marketing insights from what's working out there, researched and handed to you every Thursday.
Thereâs a salt works in Malden, West Virginia. Population about 3,000 and surrounded by the Appalachian Mountains, sitting on top of an ancient ocean buried underground for hundreds of millions of years. A sister and brother revived their familyâs salt business there in 2013. Everything is done by hand, brine pumped up from 350 feet below, dried in sun houses, raked, packaged, shipped right from the farm. A staff of fewer than a dozen people. Their salt ships to high-end restaurants in Tokyo...
You know how everyone starting an online business tries to appeal to everyone? Their about page says they help teens, parents, office workers, and retirees. Their product does five things. Their content covers whatever felt interesting that week. And I get it. Saying no to a type of customer feels like leaving money on the table. Thing is, Coca-Cola just proved the opposite. Mr. Pibb, a soda that has existed since 1972, became the fastest-growing brand of 2026. Not a new product, not a viral...
Everyone says their thing saves you time. Or saves you money. Or cuts your costs in half. And yeah, it sounds good. It feels like a responsible thing to say, especially when youâre just starting out and donât want to come off as pushy. Thing is, âsaves moneyâ is actually one of the weakest ways to describe what you offer. And I donât mean weak like unclear. I mean weak like it physically limits how much people are willing to pay you. Hereâs why. When someone hears âthis saves you money,â...