Publisher Model vs Online Business – Who’s Winning in 2025?

Last year, I predicted that in 2024 content creators would move beyond the “publisher model” (aka publishing a lot of content to earn money from display ads)…

… and start focusing on building brands, selling products, and cultivating a truly engaged audience.

Why did I make this prediction?

The reason I made this prediction is…

• If long-form written content is getting less organic reach via Google…
• AI is curating and rephrasing our words for users…
• And AI agents are soon visiting websites instead of humans…

That likely means much less traffic to our websites over time.

This also means if your entire business model is:

• Creating content that ranks → traffic → ad revenue

That’s an increasingly risky place to be.

So, did creators make this shift?

Yes and no…

Generally, there were two pathways digital content creators took last year:

1. They pivoted to brand building and growing an audience to sell offers to. (I call this the “online business model.”)
2. They continued the publisher model but pivoted to other platforms to drive traffic.

Both of these choices are viable, but I strongly prefer option #1 since you are far more in control of your revenue and less reliant on algorithms.

For creators that chose option #2, the most popular places to pivot were:

• Pinterest
• Facebook
• Email

And many have been able to completely replace any income lost from the recent Google algorithm changes by making these diversifications.

Just know the risks!

Sticking with the publisher model is still inherently risky since you never know when the rug might get pulled out from underneath you by an algorithm or platform change.

It takes a particular type of entrepreneur, one who is scrappy and comfortable with making huge business pivots on a dime without a clear roadmap to follow, to succeed on this path.

Most of us, especially if we have a specialized degree/certification/formal skills to help people, are probably better suited to following the online business model.

Plus, AI has been impacting a lot more than just Google search.

Facebook has been doing some wild things with AI, like displaying full recipes directly on their platform so people don’t even have to click to your website, which will obviously impact traffic for food bloggers.

Pinterest is also being overrun with low-quality AI pins and posts, so no platform is without its problems.

No one can predict the future, so I have been and will continue to encourage most people to start moving BEYOND the publisher model and build a true brand to future-proof their business.

If your CURRENT method of driving website traffic for ad revenue is entirely from Google, it is beyond time to start diversifying.

Here are my suggestions:

#1) Start growing an audience on other platforms

Google is probably going to increase the amount of non-blog content that they are ranking…

… and if you’re smart, you can capitalize on this by creating content in these additional formats.

This means you need to be open to growing on more platforms than just your website.

#2) Start building revenue streams beyond just ad revenue

You also need to understand that ad revenue is not the end-all be-all to business, since not all platforms are great at driving website traffic.

For example, growing an audience on IG, TikTok, or YT shorts probably won’t bring tons of people to your website…

…. since people like to consume content directly ON those platforms and usually aren’t trying to click away to a site.

#3) Grow your email list at the same time

But if you’re smart, you can utilize tools like ManyChat* to offer people incentives to join your email list when they DM you or leave a comment on your social posts.

(*This is my affiliate link, which means I may earn a commission if you sign up through my link.)

Then once someone is on your list, you have a direct line of communication to them moving forward, regardless of what happens with algorithms on any platform.

You can continue to send your valuable content to people via your email list and pitch them paid offers if you have any. It’s a win-win.

So essentially, the game is BIGGER than just ad revenue.

It always has been, but we were in a golden period for the last 5-7 years where if you didn’t want to expand beyond that, you kind of didn’t have to.

The Verdict: My prediction was CORRECT, but not everyone is doing it.

Stay tuned for my next email, where I’ll be talking more deeply about the rise of social media SEO and how you can use it to your advantage in 2025.