538: What We’d Do Differently If We Restarted Our Content Business Today With Toni Herrbach

Podcast: Download (Duration: 42:52 — 49.3MB)

If we had to start a content business from scratch today, here is the exact plan: pick a niche you can monetize, put up a one-page website with an email opt-in, publish 5 pillar blog posts, turn each one into a long-form video, then chop each video into 10 to 15 short-form clips. My co-host Toni Herrbach and I built this restart plan on the podcast because every one of our content-creator friends is starting over right now thanks to Google’s volatility.

The tactical difference between our two versions is small but revealing. Steve would start with short-form video and add long-form and blog posts later.

Toni would start with the 5 pillar blog posts and use them as the source material for everything else. Both plans end in the same place, which is why we walked through both.

This is a straight decision guide for anyone starting a content business in 2024, including the specific first 5 pieces of content, the medium order, and the timeline to expect before you see results.

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Key takeaways

• Pick a niche you can monetize, but do not overthink it. The delivery matters more than the topic, especially in video.
• A website is non-negotiable, even if it is a single landing page with an email opt-in and a lead magnet. Social alone is a rented audience.
• Toni’s plan: 5 pillar blog posts of 2,000 to 3,000 words each become the source material for 5 long-form videos and 75 to 100 short-form clips.
• Steve’s plan: start with short-form for the quick wins and the psychological momentum, then add long-form once you are comfortable on camera.
• Commit to at least 12 months of consistency. Steve committed to 5 years when he started his YouTube channel.
• Choose education over entertainment. Educators monetize through courses, consulting, and products. Entertainers depend on brand deals that can dry up.

Why we would restart a content business today

We would restart a content business today because Google has become volatile enough that most of our content-creator friends are already starting over, and short-form video plus AI-assisted repurposing has made the mechanics dramatically easier than they were 15 years ago. The information you need to succeed is free and searchable, where it used to be locked behind private mastermind groups.

Steve’s blog traffic has been on a roller coaster since Google’s recent updates, and the ride is not close to over. AI overviews, algorithm shifts, and volatile SERPs mean the “rock solid” model of blog-plus-SEO from 2010 to 2020 no longer works standalone. A modern content business needs multiple owned channels.

The upside is that the barrier to entry has never been lower. A blog can go live for $3 a month, video costs the price of a phone you already own, and AI tools flatten the learning curve on scripting, ideation, and repurposing.

Step 1: How to pick a niche you can actually monetize

Pick a niche you can monetize by combining something you can talk about repeatedly with a proven audience of buyers, then narrow to a demographic or angle that is not already saturated. Do enough research to confirm real demand exists, but stop before you spend a month “researching” instead of starting.

Everyone has a niche they can monetize. If you can talk for 10 minutes about the NBA with a friend, that is a niche.

Pilar in our Profitable Audience course was a flight attendant who now sells travel brochures globally to travel agencies. She never would have found that opportunity without starting.

The best positioning is a well-known niche with a specific angle. “Personal finance” is oversaturated, but “frugal finance for Asian families” is not.

“Travel” is oversaturated, but “solo travel for women in the US” is not. Find the niche inside the niche.

Step 2: Why you still need a website (even if it is one page)

You still need a website in 2024, even if it is a single landing page with an email opt-in, because everything else you build is on rented land. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube can shut your account down at any time, and platform algorithms can throttle your reach without notice.

Our friend Leslie lost his YouTube channel (he got it back, but the loss was real). If your only asset is 2 million TikTok followers and TikTok bans your account, you have nothing. If you had those 2 million people plus even a fraction on an email list, you still have a business.

WordPress on cheap hosting costs about $3 per month. You do not need a designer, a logo, or a custom theme.

Steve’s original home page was ugly for years, and Toni’s early blog looked bad. Neither mattered. What mattered was capturing emails and hosting the pillar content.

Step 3: Write your first 5 pillar blog posts

Write 5 in-depth pillar blog posts of 2,000 to 3,000 words each, each covering a different subtopic inside your niche. These become the source material for every other content format you produce, and they reinforce your own expertise on the topic before you record video.

For a gardening niche, that might be: how to start seeds in spring, natural pest control for vegetable gardens, summer garden maintenance, fall garden prep, and a beginner’s first-garden guide. Each one supports the others. Each one covers a distinct search intent.

The reason to write first, even if writing is not your strength, is that most people learned how to write in school and never learned scripting. Writing 2,000 words on a topic reinforces the knowledge in your head, produces something concrete you can look at with pride, and makes recording the video feel easy because you have already done the thinking.

Step 4: Turn each pillar post into a long-form video

Turn each pillar blog post into a long-form video by feeding the post into ChatGPT and asking for a conversational video script, then editing the script into your own voice and filming it. The blog post has already done the research and outlining; the script is just a delivery translation.

For the natural-pest-control pillar post, the corresponding video is a long-form YouTube on “how to keep pests out of your garden without pesticides.” Same information, different medium. If the blog post is well-structured with clear headers, the script practically writes itself.

Long-form video is where most new creators get stuck because of editing dread. The fix is a minimum-viable-edits approach: hard cuts only, no B-roll, no motion graphics.

Publish 5 to 10 videos at that minimum before deciding what editing is actually worth adding. Most of it will not be.

Step 5: Chop each video into 10 to 15 short-form clips

Chop each long-form video into 10 to 15 short-form clips by filming a separate short for each header/point in the source blog post, not by editing chunks out of the long-form. Editing chunks out requires skilled editing; filming separate shorts requires only your phone.

If a pillar post has 10 headers, that is 10 short-form videos. Five pillar posts times 10 headers each equals 50 to 75 shorts, enough for 3 to 4 months of daily posting on TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts. Two shorts per header takes you to 100+ pieces.

ChatGPT can help draft short-form scripts, but for shorts the hooks need to be sharp enough that AI usually falls flat. Steve now writes his own short-form directly off the long-form script instead of using ChatGPT for it.

If you can riff, riff. If you cannot, write it out.

Should you start with short-form or long-form video?

Start with short-form if you have never been on camera, because the psychological wins from a short-form video hitting 500 to 1,000 views are what fuel the discipline to keep going. Start with long-form if you already write well and can commit to a longer time horizon before you see traction.

Steve’s version of the restart starts with short-form for exactly this reason. Long-form asks you to write a 2,000-word article, film for 20 minutes, and then edit for hours before seeing a single view. Short-form is a 15-second video that you can post before lunch and get feedback on by dinner.

Toni’s version starts with the pillar blog posts because writing reinforces the expertise and produces a concrete artifact. Both plans converge on the same repurposing engine within the first 3 months. Pick the on-ramp that matches how you learn.

Set a realistic timeline: at least 12 months of consistency

Set your expectation at a minimum of 12 months of consistent content before you judge results. Steve committed to 5 years when he started his YouTube channel. Anything less than a year is not a fair test of the business model, and setting a 3-month horizon is the fastest way to talk yourself into quitting.

Toni’s ongoing cadence goal is realistic and worth stealing: 2 pillar blog posts per month, 1 long-form video per week, and as many shorts as you can film. That volume is achievable while working a full-time job, and it compounds because every blog post feeds a video which feeds 10 shorts.

If a 12-month commitment feels heavy, that is your signal to pick a niche you actually care about talking about. You will not sustain the cadence on a topic that bores you.

Why education content beats entertainment content for monetization

Education content beats entertainment content for monetization because educators can sell courses, consulting, digital products, and physical products tied to their expertise. Entertainers monetize through brand deals and merch, both of which are volatile and often require huge audiences to earn a living.

The bar for “entertaining enough to build a career” is astronomically high. Most successful entertainers we watch are outliers in some way (11 kids in NYC at Juilliard, a family openly logging their obscene NYC spend). You are competing with those outliers and with professional TV.

The bar for education content is much lower. If you can teach someone how to fold a fitted sheet, clean a paintbrush, or organize a drawer, you have a wedge.

Melissa (a laundry-tutorial TikToker) now teaches on TV. The niche was folding.

Why the “quick win” of short-form can become a trap

Short-form quick wins become a trap when creators keep chasing the next viral clip and never build the email list, long-form catalog, or product line that lets them own the audience. We see it constantly: 200,000 Instagram followers, no email list, no course, no product, entirely dependent on brand deals.

The fix is discipline. Even while you are riding a short-form quick-win high, keep the pillar blog posts and long-form videos on schedule, and always link viewers to something you own. A landing page with a lead magnet and an email opt-in is the minimum viable “you own the audience” asset.

Brand deals feel great until they aren’t. Steve just took a brand deal where the company doubled the required video length after the script was written, and the negotiation drained more time than the deal was worth. Owning your own course lets you fire the customer.

Steve’s restart plan vs Toni’s restart plan (side by side)

Here is how Steve’s and Toni’s restart plans differ step by step. Both work. Pick the one that matches your default learning style.

Steve’s restart plan (video-first)

1. Set up a WordPress landing page with an email opt-in and lead magnet.
2. Start filming short-form video daily on your phone to build camera comfort.
3. Once comfortable, add one long-form video per week.
4. Repurpose each long-form video into a blog post.

Toni’s restart plan (writing-first)

1. Set up the same WordPress landing page with email opt-in.
2. Write 5 pillar blog posts of 2,000 to 3,000 words each.
3. Turn each pillar post into one long-form video via ChatGPT script + your edits.
4. Chop each long-form into 10 to 15 short-form clips (one per header).
5. Ongoing: 2 pillar posts per month, 1 long-form per week, daily shorts.

Steve starts with quick wins to build momentum. Toni starts with reinforced expertise and a repurposing pipeline. Both plans converge at the same 3-month mark.

Frequently asked questions

How much money do I need to start a content business?

You need roughly $3 to $30 per month to start a content business today. That covers WordPress hosting ($3 to $15/month), an email tool with a free tier (ConvertKit, Beehiiv, MailerLite), and optional editing software. Cameras, mics, and paid tools are optional upgrades, not entry costs.

Do I need a website if I have a big TikTok or Instagram following?

Yes, you need a website even with a large social following, because social platforms can suspend or shadow-ban your account at any time and you have no way to contact your audience if that happens. A one-page site with an email opt-in is enough to protect the audience you have built.

Should I write blog posts first or make videos first?

If you already write comfortably, write 5 pillar blog posts first and use them as the source for video. If you dread writing but can talk on camera, start with short-form video and add long-form and blog posts later. Both paths converge on the same repurposing pipeline within 3 months.

How long is a pillar blog post?

A pillar blog post is typically 2,000 to 3,000 words and covers a distinct subtopic inside your niche in depth. It should be structured with clear H2 headers so each header can later become an independent short-form video.

Should I use ChatGPT to write my video scripts?

ChatGPT is useful for turning a blog post into a first-draft long-form script that you then edit into your voice, but it is not reliable for short-form scripts because the hooks are hard for AI to nail. Write short-form hooks yourself and use AI for long-form structure.

How long does it take to make money from a content business?

Plan for at least 12 months of consistent publishing before meaningful revenue. Some creators monetize faster with existing audiences or paid ads, but most take 12 to 24 months. Steve committed to 5 years when he started his YouTube channel and monetization arrived earlier than expected because he did not quit early.

Should I focus on education or entertainment content?

Focus on education content. Educators can monetize through courses, consulting, digital products, and their own product lines. Entertainers depend on brand deals and merch, both of which require huge audiences and are volatile. The percentage of educators who make a full-time income is meaningfully higher than the percentage of entertainers who do.

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