Are most creators pivoting towards top of funnel content?
Cuz watching Alex Hormozi's content, he always mentions how important it is to be really specific with your content because the algorithm knows who to feed it to, and then funnels that into monetized things. There's a difference between what people say and what they do: he'll say you need to be highly specific, but then he makes videos all about how to be motivated. One is very top of funnel and at odds with the latter. However, he can lead with a concept like how to be motivated and then be really specific with the content, and that's great—I think he does so later on. But that's what top of funnel really means here: is your packaging created for a very wide audience? If so, your content tends to be pretty top of funnel, pretty general. He gets super deep on a lot of stuff, but reserves some of that for his coaching content, which is more exclusive. How to be motivated is definitely something we would call top of funnel. I would say I do kind of mid funnel nowadays. I used to do really bottom of funnel, which is like, you know, how to use stuff like this to make money. There's also really bottom of funnel highly technical content that's like, 'Hey, let me walk you through the exact step‑by‑step XYZ thing.' People like all of them. It's just a question of how many pieces of the world you can actually cater a high‑quality specific piece of content to. It's very difficult to cover a very wide surface area if you're making highly in‑depth 4‑hour tutorials on tools that have five searches a year. So, it's just about strategizing that way.
I really appreciate that feedback and I think you're right. All roads eventually lead to the top of the funnel — when you're an info product creator, you usually start with very bottom-of-funnel content that serves a specific need, then over the lifetime of the channel you ramp up to more mid-funnel tactics content, and eventually top-of-funnel strategy content. That's why someone like Alex Hormozi's videos end up being mostly motivation, or why big creators drift into vague generalisms — it's not because they're dumb, it's incentives; it's what's most profitable to make at that stage. But I'm in this for the long haul, so I don't want to just optimize for top-of-funnel content right away. I'll probably be doing more mid-funnel and bottom-funnel stuff going forward instead of leaning so hard into the agency-model content.
Your school data consulting model is solid, but the main lever is getting more eyes on your outreach. With cold DM, only about 20% of recipients actually see your message, and only a tiny fraction respond or convert. To dramatically improve results, you should multiply your touchpoints—send the same prospect a DM on LinkedIn, Instagram, X (Twitter), and email, for example. Because each platform gives roughly an independent 20% chance of being seen, using four channels raises the overall visibility to about 60%, effectively tripling your potential revenue without changing your offer. Beyond that, the real bottleneck is top‑of‑funnel visibility, so invest in content that attracts a broad audience (e.g., YouTube videos that aren’t just ‘how to be motivated’ but showcase specific processes like AI agent workflows or $20k/month side‑hustles). Continuously test different angles and formats to see what drives the most views, then double down on the winners. Remember, for most small‑to‑mid‑sized businesses, sales and marketing—the ability to get seen and start conversations—are the biggest constraints, so treat lead generation as your primary focus.
When you're just starting, begin with bottom‑of‑funnel content—things you’re highly skilled at that only you know how to do. As you build an audience, move to middle‑of‑funnel content, where you talk more generally about how to do, sell, or apply the thing. Finally, progress to top‑of‑funnel content, discussing broader ideas and positioning yourself as someone who can win. This progression mirrors what experts like Hormozi did: he started with very specific gym marketing (bottom of funnel), then generalized to marketing in general (middle), and eventually talked about becoming a winner (top).
My content creation process begins with recognizing that my videos haven’t been performing well recently, which serves as a reminder not to pause content creation. I believe it’s better to focus on producing one truly excellent video rather than many mediocre ones. My average performance is boosted by strong search‑based results, but when I look at raw numbers, the performance has been lackluster. I therefore share my current, imperfect process: I start by considering two or three different approaches, aiming to shift toward making videos I genuinely care about, even if short‑term metrics suffer, because long‑term performance improves when I’m more aligned with my interests. I make a good living, so I don’t need to chase short‑term views, but I acknowledge that beginners must prioritize metrics. My recommendation is to base decisions on search trends—using tools like Google Trends to identify high‑performing search terms in your niche over the past two weeks, since platforms and strategies emerge and fade quickly (e.g., the recent Fable trend). Once you have a sense of what people are searching for, see how you can fit your existing activities into those topics. For example, if part of your workflow involves a token‑optimization technique you tested for a couple of days, make a video about it. The challenging part is packaging—crafting a title and thumbnail that work well together. I haven’t fully mastered this yet, but you can try outlier matching or rely on developing intuition about what works; most of my attempts don’t succeed, perhaps around 70% of the time, so I focus on high volume and accept that only about 30% of my videos will be remembered positively. My top‑performing recent video, which gained 77,000 views in 9 hours and 53 minutes, covered topical subjects like Claude manage agents, Claude Opus 4.7, and Claude routines—these do well in the short term, which is how I’m currently judged. However, the video that has generated the most revenue for me is not on that list; it’s my Claude code course. That video was 100% search‑based: I searched for a full Claude code course, found none, recognized the opportunity, and created the course at the right time, earning roughly $30,000 and continuing to grow. Regarding other ideas, a viewer suggested uploading the content to Spotify for morning listening; I think that’s a great idea and plan to explore adding a Spotify upload to my workflow. In terms of growth, my subscriber count is currently 464,288, with a modest 0.16% increase recently, while my Instagram engagement has risen from an average of 0.05‑0.11% to 0.37% after consistent posting. If I had continued growing at 0.11% I’d reach about 609,000 followers by year‑end, but with the current 3.7% growth rate I’m on track for roughly one million followers. My X (Twitter) account has 2,701 followers, which jumped by 70 in the last 24 hours—a 2.58% increase that feels significant, though I’m still figuring out how X works. Maker Zero, my community, now has 1,345 members, a 44% increase, placing us in second position, with the Maker Zero ranking itself having risen dramatically. Overall, I see the recent surge in content posting as having reversed prior declines, essentially recouping losses from three weeks of inactivity with just a modest amount of new content. I’m eager to keep this momentum going, try new formats, and possibly record an extra video before my upcoming trip to Vancouver to avoid slipping back into old habits. Imagine if I had published one video a day from February 1, 2024, through today—that would exceed 700 videos. Even if they weren’t polished, simply speaking openly about what I care about would have built a core audience that appreciates my daily updates and received substantial value from them. I believe my content is genuinely more helpful than most, and I want as many people as possible to benefit from it because understanding AI and automation will be crucial for future economic success. By spreading this knowledge, I hope to accelerate the transition to a more effective economy. I’ve been硬on