Picture this: You wake up to discover your competitor just landed a $20,000 brand deal with only half your audience size. How? They've mastered the art of consideration-stage content while you're still stuck in the awareness trap.
Most creators focus all their energy on growing their audience (awareness content) or pushing sales (conversion content), but completely overlook the most profitable middle stage of the buyer's journey.
This critical blind spot is costing creators thousands in lost revenue each month.
The content funnel has three stages: awareness (introducing people to problems), consideration (evaluating specific solutions), and decision (making the final purchase choice).
What many creators don't realize is that brands typically pay premium rates for consideration-stage content compared to awareness content. Why? Because consideration-stage content directly influences purchasing decisions.
When consumers reach consideration, they're actively seeking trusted advice on:
Product comparisons and alternatives
In-depth reviews and demonstrations
Buying guides and decision frameworks
Feature analyses and use cases
Real-world testing in specific scenarios
This is exactly when brands need credible voices to guide potential customers, and they're willing to pay significantly more for creators who can deliver.
Most creators completely miss this opportunity. They either focus exclusively on awareness content (general information that builds audience but doesn't drive decisions) or jump straight to conversion content (which often feels too pushy and damages trust).
The smartest creators are positioning themselves as trusted advisors during this critical middle stage. They're creating systematic comparison frameworks, documenting real-world usage, and solving specific decision-making problems that their audience faces.
The results speak for themselves: higher engagement, premium sponsorship rates, and a dramatic boost in conversion for both affiliate content and brand partnerships.
Don't make the mistake of chasing audience size at the expense of influence. A smaller, highly-engaged audience at the consideration stage can be worth substantially more than a massive audience that's just casually aware of your content.
Ministers used a parliamentary procedure on May 14 to strip an amendment requiring AI companies to disclose their use of copyrighted content for model training. Creative industry leaders including Paul McCartney and Dua Lipa had urged protection against their work being used without permission.
YouTube has reduced monetization requirements to just 500 subscribers (down from 1,000), 3,000 watch hours (down from 4,000), and 3 million Shorts views (down from 10 million), allowing creators to begin earning revenue much earlier in their development.
Generation Lab's new venture pays young people up to $50+ monthly to let an app track their digital activity, creating "digital twins" for market research. This represents a fundamental shift where consumers directly monetize their own data rather than platforms harvesting it for free.
At Google I/O 2025, the tech giant unveiled Imagen 4 for better AI images, "Flow" for effortless video creation, and enhanced Gemini models. These tools significantly lower technical barriers for content production while potentially commoditizing basic creation skills.
67% of content creators now sell products or merchandise as a key revenue stream alongside their content.
This represents a dramatic shift from just two years ago when only 41% of creators had product offerings. The trend is clear: creators are recognizing that owned products provide more stable income than platform-dependent monetization, which can change without warning.
Most creators are playing checkers. The smart ones are playing chess. Position yourself at the consideration stage, protect your valuable content, and build assets you actually own. The difference could be a sustainable business versus a hobby that pays peanuts.
WP Folio gives you the protection tools to transform your content from exposed digital assets into a secure, profitable business foundation.
Until next week,
Michael
Operator @ WP Folio