Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Back in the housing frenzy of 2021, homeowners were bombarded with inquiries from eager investors looking to see if they were open to selling. The outreach came in all forms—text messages, postcards, phone calls—and often felt relentless. Redfin data shows that in Q4 2021, investors scooped up 94,715 U.S. homes, a 51% jump from the 62,581 homes they purchased in Q4 2019. But that investor-driven surge—powered by rock-bottom interest rates, pandemic stimulus, and the remote work boom—began to fade as the Federal Reserve pivoted to fighting inflati…

About three years ago, David Lafitte surveyed the website, social media, and marketing content from Tecovas, the Western apparel brand he leads, and realized that the messaging had become “very diluted.” So the Austin-based company decided to establish a company-wide OKR—the goal-setting framework it uses, short for “objectives and key results,”—that focused on storytelling. Tecovas brought on more creative types who experimented with different messaging, including long-form commercials, and things started to click, Lafitte said during a discussion at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW. “I think everyone embraced this storytelling concept because we have to talk …

Feeld markets itself as “the dating app for the curious.” For most of its users, that means curiosity about kink and casual sex—but its newest tool asks you to be curious about yourself. As a favorite platform for the kink, fetish, and non-mongamous communities, Feeld is a place where taboos are the norm. But a new survey from the app suggests that kink is more mainstream than dominant culture would have you believe. And Feeld’s new tool, Reflections, accompanies the data by letting anyone, Feeld users and otherwise, assess their own relationship with nontraditional sex. Feeld surveyed thousands of both its own users and external respondents for opinions on the pe…

It’s still more than two years until the cauldron lights up for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, but we now know what the multibillion-dollar global sports spectacle will look like. The design team at LA28, the local organizing committee for the games, has given Fast Company a preview of the concepts and visuals that will guide the look and feel of the 2028 Olympics. The design approach is conceptually based on the superbloom, a natural phenomenon sometimes experienced in Southern California when an unusually wet winter leads to an explosively colorful spring bloom of wildflowers. The LA28 design approach uses bright, almost neon tones and an abstract graphic tha…

A new ad from the Coca-Cola Co. opens with a shot of a typewriter clacking out Stephen King’s The Shining. The viewer follows a passage being written in an old-timey typeface until there’s a reference to a bottle of Coke. Suddenly, the type appears as the cola company’s script logo. The ad is part of a new campaign called “Classic” running in Spain and the U.K., in which Coca-Cola highlights instances when its brand name appears in literature by rendering them in the books’ original first-edition typefaces. The passages are printed in black, and references to either “Coke” or “Coca-Cola” in passages from King’s The Shining, J. G. Ballard’s Extreme Metaphors, and V. S.…

Mark Twain once quipped, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” The problem is that we rarely question our own beliefs. Once a false assumption takes hold, it becomes a default lens we use to interpret the world—and dislodging it becomes incredibly difficult. One very basic assumption that lies at the heart of many change efforts is that information is power—the notion that if you arm people with the right knowledge, they will act on it. That’s why so many change programs are rooted in education and training, because they assume that the right information will change people’s behavior. There’s ev…

In the days before a recent ballot referendum in Seattle that would determine the future of social housing in the city, large tech companies spent big. Amazon and Microsoft, both of which are headquartered in the Seattle metropolitan area, each donated $100,000, and opponents of a tax to fund social housing spent a combined $780,000 in the lead-up to the February 11 vote. Despite this, the vote on a corporate tax to fund the city’s social housing authority won, with 63% of voters supporting it. In 2023, voters had already resoundingly approved the social housing authority, agreeing that a new entity would be created to acquire and construct mixed-income housing and keep …

Feeling numb as your boss announces your promotion. Fighting back tears as you skim the email offering you a new stretch opportunity. Knowing you “should” be excited to grab coffee with the industry leader who could open doors, but really it just feels like a drain. On paper, you’re doing everything right and hitting the milestones you once worked so hard to reach. And yet, internally, you feel exhausted. Disconnected. Frustrated by a success that looks good, but doesn’t feel good. This doesn’t mean you need a vacation. It means you may be burned out for a reason no amount of time off or spa days will fix. While burnout has become so common that the World Heal…

Understanding the transformative power of AI can significantly impact your content monetization strategies. How do you see AI influencing your blog or YouTube channel? AI Insights: AI's ability to analyze data can reveal what content resonates most with your audience, helping you tailor your approach for better engagement.Content Creation: Tools powered by AI can assist in generating ideas, optimizing headlines, and even drafting posts, saving you time and enhancing creativity.Personalization: AI can help you deliver personalized content to your audience, increasing retention and conversion rates by catering to individual preferences.Monetization Strategies: By leveragin…

Anthropic’s Claude chatbot has opinions of its own, and it’s not afraid to share them. “It should be a sparring partner with you,” says Joel Lewenstein, Anthropic’s design chief. “It shouldn’t take your thoughts verbatim. It should push back.” Perhaps this is predictable from a product carrying the slogan “keep thinking.” But Claude’s quirky (and, at times, passive-aggressive) personality sets it apart from the competition. That’s on purpose, Lewenstein explains. “I find that to be a truly astonishing experience where I’m like, ‘Oh, you are not a sort of slavish executor of my vision. We are coproducing this outcome together.’ I think that’s really powerf…

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Last week’s Modern CEO made the case that boards and recruiters should stop focusing on CEO candidates’ résumés and start evaluating their potential for agility. That said, one aspect of work history can serve as a good proxy for the ability to manage uncertainty and change: international exp…

At first glance, your Kindle might seem like a no-frills reading device: straightforward, minimal, and focused on the basics. Kind of like an actual book, huh? But beneath its simple exterior lies a surprising range of features, tools, and tricks designed to make reading smoother, smarter, and more enjoyable. So, whether you’re a seasoned reader or new to Kindle, here are five hidden gems to take your reading experience to the next level. Double-Tap to Turn PagesAmazon may have killed off physical buttons, there’s a new feature that might help ease the pain. If you’ve got the most recent Kindle Paperwhite or the new Kindle Colorsoft, you now have access to double-tap func…

When people choose their cofounder, it’s rarely scientific. They’re guided by trust, and trust is easiest to find in familiar places: former coworkers, college classmates, close friends, people who already sit in your orbit. While starting a company is chaotic enough without bringing strangers into the mix, I wanted to understand whether this instinct toward familiarity actually comes with a cost. Turns out it does. Having worked with hundreds of early-stage startups as founders and investors, including at Coatue, Kleiner Perkins, and NFX, we wanted to test whether the instincts founders use to choose partners actually hold up in the data. We surveyed nearly 350 U.S. te…

Over the past 30 days, many big-name tech giants have seen their stock prices fall hard, largely thanks to President The President’s chaotic tariff rollout. For example, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has seen its shares fall 11% over the past month, while Nvidia has seen its shares fall (Nasdaq: NVDA) fall over 12%. But until yesterday, IBM (NYSE: IBM) was one of the big-name tech giants that rode out the tariff storm pretty well. While the company’s stock price did tank along with the rest of the markets in early April, it has recovered nicely since then and, as of the close of bell yesterday, its shares were actually up just a bit (about 0.6%) over the past 30 days. But…

Chili’s Grill & Bar turned 50 this year. But as a new generation of diners is learning, it’s still got it. Thanks to a series of well-timed marketing efforts—and at least one viral hit appetizer—diners are flocking to the restaurants, which just posted a same-store sales increase of more than 30 percent in its last fiscal quarter. Traffic is up more than 20 percent. Kevin Hochman, CEO of Chili’s parent Brinker International, credits some of this success to operational adjustments: better kitchen technology, better cook training, and a recent dishwasher-listening tour in which the often invisible, but absolutely vital, employees who clean the chain’s dishes were asked…

With their drab gray suits and their Buddy Holly glasses, the so-called traitorous eight don’t look like revolutionaries. Given no context, you can imagine them occupying some kind of middle-management role at a small regional bank. And yet these are the people you can thank for the digital world. The eight—which included Intel cofounder Gordon Moore—had departed Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory to found Fairchild Semiconductor, which soon became the world’s biggest producer of electrical components for computers. Many of its founders would, in turn, leave again to launch their own ventures. Many of these companies coalesced in the same area—the place we now call Silic…

A bold new building at Spelman College in Atlanta is all about breaking down barriers. Designed by the architecture firm Studio Gang, the Center for Innovation and the Arts is the new home for collaboration between students of science, technology, art, and performance at the historically Black women’s liberal arts college. It will provide a new space where Spelman’s programs in dance, documentary filmmaking, photography, theater and performance, and music can tap into emerging technologies from the worlds of science and computer science. Studio Gang founder, Jeanne Gang, says the primary goals of the project were to help the college better connect its programs and events…

Kalshi made headlines last month over allowing people to place wagers on the Iran war. Now the prediction market platform is being sued by the state of Arizona, the first state to file criminal charges against the controversial company. The platform, which allows users to place wagers on happenings, such as sports games or even current events, is being accused of operating an illegal gambling business that violates the state’s laws. In a 20-count document, prosecutors alleged that the platform is mischaracterizing itself to avoid being subject to gambling laws and allowing bets on political races. “Kalshi may brand itself as a ‘prediction market,’ but what it’s actuall…

I’ll never forget the morning I froze in front of a client. I was a Vice President at Kearney, the global management consulting firm, presenting our proposal to a three-person client subcommittee. Mid-sentence, my mind went completely blank. Not the normal “lost my train of thought” blank. The kind of blank that leaves a scary emptiness where confidence used to live. I’d been putting on a mask each day. I’d tried to be positive and stay on top of everything. But that morning, I couldn’t do it anymore. I felt anxious and exhausted at the same time. My mind was racing, and my body was depleted. The mask had finally cracked in the worst possible place. What I didn’t …

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. AI pioneer pulls in a cool billion to launch his “world model” AI company Yann LeCun, one of the pioneers of AI and Meta’s former chief AI scientist, has long argued that large language models alone will not produce AI systems that outperform humans at most tasks. LeCun says today’s transformer-based large language models are useful enough to be applied in valuable ways, but he also believes they are unlikely to achieve the general or human-level intelligence needed to perform many high-…