Guest what? I'm starting a media company. I'll show you my plan and how you can follow along.
Starting a Media Company in the 21st Century: Can It Be Done?
Starting a media company in the 21st century? Sounds like a competitive force that can't be done in a scalable manner.
There's content everywhere. How can you outcompete people that are doing it daily?
The good news is there are plenty of variations of content in today's age.
First, the type of content that's out there is:
- Original content,
- Repurposed content, and
- Breaking news or date-based content.
Secondly, there are plenty of people competing for different mediums to share content:
- Printed content, both in magazine and newspaper format
- Video, hello YouTube!
- Gifs, yes people make gifs for a living
- Online content
- Voice-related content, like podcasts
- Images
- Art
- Social media
- Live streaming
The list keeps going. With all these formats of producing content in a variety of ways means one thing.
Content is king. People are obsessed with it both in live, real-time formats and in a variety of mediums.
In today's age, content is king. It just comes in a variety of formats. Click To Tweet
After growing and selling my first website, I'll send you the exact tips and tricks to help you build an audience and grow your earnings online.
The benefits of growing my email list were tremendous. This resulted in the following:
- More pageviews,
- More engagement and
- Overall more growth.
- Leads to… more profit.
Those items above mean more results for you and your website.
Table of Contents
What does a media company look like?
A media company usually owns and operates one or multiple content creation sites that provide industry insights, news, informative guides and other forms of content to help people digest information.
A media company usually is a top-level company that owns a number of other operating companies that produce the actual content. The media company usually just owns the lower content creation sites and makes strategic decisions about growth, branding and at times the editorial guidelines.
At the same time, a media company doesn't necessarily need to own a handful of content creation mediums. It can just be one platform with a variety of content mediums.
For example, before ESPN was acquired by Disney it was solely a media content creation company through live games, highlights, articles, statistics, real-time data, etc.
Now, Disney owns ESPN. Disney is a very diversified media company that owns significant movie content. Acquiring a brand that was predominately driven off of real-time and live entertainment was a logical move.
Making money online doesn't really need to be like Disney or ESPN, you can start on a micro-scale and find success.
The structure of a media company, should you use LLCs?
Like I mentioned, a media company has a top-level holding company that owns individual content entities.
No matter if you are a part-time blogger or a full-time media company you should without a doubt put your assets within a Limited Liability Company (LLC). For me, it's all about having a top LLC with sub-LLC's for the individual content creation platforms.
Why starting a media company is attractive
Starting a media company, like a number of blogs, has a number of pros and cons. After weighing them hand and hand on each other, I concluded that starting a media company is a lot more attractive than not trying it at all.
I started a blog a couple of years ago and scaled it to an eventual sale. Like starting a media company, the pros are attractive for blogging as well. Review my full pros and cons of blogging analysis.
Pros of starting a media company
Here are some advantages that I weighed in my analysis.
- Low barriers to entry (if any)
- Low startup costs required (I can start a blog with Bluehost for only $3.95/month… Name an industry that you can start a full-blown business for less than $100 for the entire year)
- Limited operating costs (ability to flex up your costs for growth when you need to)
- A huge market opportunity that is highly fragmented (take some market share!)
- Complementary to own more than one content creation site (you can cross-promote each other's brands and services)
- Cost synergies (when you have multiple sites, you can accomplish the same things with 1 centralized mail service like Leadpages, keyword research with Keysearch or Ahrefs, or even using social media schedulers)
You can read more about how I use Leadpages in our review of the platform.
Cons of starting a media company
Here are some disadvantages I weighed in my analysis.
- Time-consuming
- Some legal liabilities and initial structuring hurdles to get over
- Usually involves labor intensive processes
5 reasons why I'm starting a media company
I mentioned some of the pros and cons of starting a media above, but now I want to intertwine that into why I'm actually starting a media company in the 21st century out of all things!
1. It's perfect for young entrepreneurs
The fact that there are low startup costs, no barriers to entry and a huge market opportunity makes it very compelling for young professionals to unlock their entrepreneurial spirit.
A lot of startup businesses fail. You really only hear about the good ones because of confirmation bias.
With low startup costs, a media company give a chance for young professionals to take a bet on themselves and just work hard.
If you try it and stick with it, give 100% and it doesn't work out. You are not going to go bankrupt or broke. You can simply step away and say “I tried this once and it didn't work out.”
You never know if you don't try.
2. A micro media company gives you flexibility… and freedom
Recently this year I wrote down a number of things that are most important to me. These are my core philosophies of what I want to achieve to become truly happy.
These philosophies ending up being:
- Freedom, not just financially but decision making, action and goals
- Autonomy
- Spend time each day to become better at something I knew nothing about
- Lead and act, not follow and react
- Flexibility
With my goal of creating a media company, I'm looking to start living a better life.
I'm not trying to become the next Complex or ESPN. If I can take 0.001% out of a $10 billion market, I'm going to be very happy.
A micro media company is the goal and we take it from there.
I want the freedom to create jobs and empower others to create great content. Also, I want the flexibility to work when I want and wherever I want.
The concept of working a 9-5 desk job for 40+ years doesn't sound too appealing to me. There's a lot to see and do in this world.
We only get so many trips around the sun in our lifetimes.
3. You don't have to reinvest the wheel for success
Blogging, video and podcasting are pretty straightforward. You work hard to solve a problem and people listen. Provide value and people listen.
I love blogging and media because you simply don't have to do anything crazy different to find success. You should always have your own angle and voice.
Think of the legendary bloggers like Mr. Money Mustache or BudgetsAreSexy in the personal finance space.
These are some of the top personal finance blogs out there.
They have a brand and a persona. It helped both of them achieve immense success. They definitely did something different.
But what I'm talking about is that you don't need to become the next Facebook or Google. Just find your voice.
See Related: How to Start a Niche Blog
4. It can be done as a solo entrepreneur
I like free cash flow. Free cash flow makes it much easier to scale your business and grow.
I know I said that media companies and content creation is labor-intensive. Because it is.
However, building a digital media company is a play on freelancing and other contractor type work. You can work with freelancers across the globe to work on the things you want to accomplish. When you want to accomplish them.
It's pretty easy to outsource tasks through Fiverr or Freelancer. Fiverr is a good site for hiring small gigs and tasks. I wouldn't focus on using it for your core objectives, however.
I've seen so many bloggers reluctant to reinvest their profits back into growth. That is where far too many bloggers go wrong and end up dying a slow death.
Generating cash flow is an opportunity to create a sustainable business for the long-term.
If my blog or digital media site starts earning $500 in cash flow, what is that going to do if I put it in my pocket? It's not going to change my life. Yeah, it might help me invest and build my net worth over time.
But, what if I can take that $500 that I earn today and it will earn me an additional $1,000 in the future.
I'll take that chance every time.
Why???
Because people will always pay a multiple based off of your business earnings. Never your personal cash flow.
Some blogs and lower value content creation sites are usually bought at 30x monthly cash flow. If you reinvest $500 for $1,000 of additional future cash flow, you are creating $30,000 of value for your media company.
Consider using a blog planner to schedule out your publishing calendar and stay organized.
See Related: How to Choose the Best Blogging Platform
5. I will focus on digital media… Digital real estate is yours for the taking
I like to think of digital content as real estate. It's a bit of a land grab at times. People will always be searching for answers. It's what those questions are and how those answers are generated over time that will change.
According to Internet World Stats, there are only 4.4 billion people that use the internet daily. That represents only 57% of the world's population.
Clicks are continuing to rise.
Clicks are also a zero-sum game in certain instances. If you don't get a click on your site, someone on that same topic will.
Think of the various platforms to share your content as highways the bridge people/consumers and content creators.
Think of the various platforms to share your content as highways the bridge people/consumers and content creators. Click To Tweet
There's a lot of highways out there!!! Here are some guides on these different social media platforms:
- List of Free Traffic Sources to Use
- How to Share a Tweet on Facebook
- Does Following & Unfollowing on Instagram Build an Audience?
- How to Make Money on Snapchat
- Ultimate Guide to Instagram Blogging
Consider using these blogging tools that help me become more efficient with blogging and making money online.
Conclusion on Starting a Media Company
While this will be an uphill battle from here, I've done it before. I'll end up being busier than ever before.
That's okay. I know that it will pay off because when I've tried it previously it worked out and was all worth the while.
After growing and selling my first website, I'll send you the exact tips and tricks to help you build an audience and grow your earnings online.
Join my email course now to get started.
Ready to start and follow along? Let me know if you have any questions. I'm here to help.
Related Resources
- 9 Best Ad Networks for Bloggers
- List of 35+ Niche Blog Ideas
- Best Books About Affiliate Marketing
- How to Come Up With a Blog Name
Financial Wolves is blog focused on helping you make money to achieve financial freedom.
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