Being Viral is The Worst Thing That Can Happen To Your Business

Today I want to talk about something most creators get completely wrong.

The pursuit of virality.

And why chasing it might be the worst thing you can do for your creator business.

There's a massive misconception about making money on the internet:

People think you need tons of followers to make money online.

It's probably one of the most damaging beliefs out there.

Because in reality?

A ton of big creators and influencers you follow make very little money and have zero freedom.

Here's why:

These creators have audiences that don't fully belong to them.

Their followers are on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok.

External platforms that can change their algorithm overnight and destroy everything they've built.

Even your follower count today doesn't mean anything anymore.

We see it clearly now.

Platforms are so algorithmic that they don't show you content from people you follow.

They show you content the algorithm decided would keep you scrolling longer.

Your feed is barely composed of people you actually followed.

And if you do see people you follow?

It's because you consume their content, not because you hit the follow button.

The algorithm would have shown it to you anyway.

But here's the bigger problem:

These creators with massive followings don't own their means of monetization.

They're great at creating content that gets views.

But terrible at monetizing their audience.

They don't have products they own.

They can only monetize through ad revenue.

TikTok creator fund. YouTube AdSense.

Or through brand deals and product placements.

Brand collaborations can pay well, sure.

But you don't own the product.

You're just paid for the attention you generate.

You're basically a giant billboard.

For me, that's the opposite of freedom and what I want to create as a content creator.

I don't want to be so famous that people recognize me everywhere I go.

And I definitely don't want to be a billboard for brands who pay me just because my content reaches millions of people.

Here's what most people don't understand:

A ton of big creators are broke.

They have no money. They're struggling.

Few people can conceive this.

Everyone thinks lots of followers equals rich.

But no.

And on the flip side, people think if you don't have many followers, you can't make real money on the internet.

When the truth is completely different.

There are creators you've never heard of.

And it's logical. They don't have many followers, so you don't see them.

They're in the shadows.

Only a handful of people discover them.

They develop a super niche community that follows them, becomes true fans, and buys all their products.

And these people make thousands, tens of thousands per month, even millions per year with small audiences.

The difference?

Their monetization model and how qualified their audience is.

My vision for my creator business is simple:

Build a small tribe.

A small community of people who discover me through YouTube, through Substack, who enter my world.

I don't want 100,000 people in my universe.

I don't want a million followers.

I want a few thousand people, maybe tens of thousands (still pretty niche at internet scale) who follow me, love what I do, see value in what I produce, and are ready to buy my products.

That's what will bring me freedom, fulfillment, and financial abundance.

This morning, I discovered a French content creator named Jean Rivière.

He's been making a living on the internet since 2004.

A true internet dinosaur who's been living off content creation since before it was cool.

Here's his model:

He makes videos walking in forests, parks, or cities while traveling.

He doesn't even film himself. Just his POV. What he sees.

He talks about whatever he wants.

Each video gets 500 to 2,000 views.

Sometimes 5,000 or 10,000 if the topic hits.

Then he sends a daily email.

He writes two books per week with AI.

Practical guides on specific online business topics.

He sells these guides for 30-40 euros to his audience.

And makes tens of thousands of euros per month.

And has for years.

It's exactly the kind of creator business I want to build.

A niche community in a world I created that loves what I do, follows me, buys my products because it brings them value.

Without the downsides of being famous.

Because yes, there are advantages to being known.

But there are massive disadvantages too.

When you're known enough that strangers recognize you on the street, but not necessarily the right people, it's not pleasant.

But when you're known in your niche? When you have a small audience?

The people who recognize you are incredible.

It's happened to me before. Even with a 3,500 subscriber YouTube channel on SMMA in the French market, I got recognized two or three times.

And every single time, it was amazing.

Because they're all people who follow your content, who love what you do.

Always pleasant encounters.

When you unlock this mental model, everything changes.

You realize that your YouTube video with 300 views is exactly what you need.

If you make content that gets few views, but it's only seen by qualified people in your audience who could become clients, that's all you need.

Same thing on Substack.

Your notes don't need 10,000 likes to succeed.

If your notes get 5 or 10 likes, and you get one or two new subscribers per day, you're building an audience of qualified people.

And here's something few people know:

Creators who track which content brings them the most clients have noticed it's not the content with the most views.

It's the content with fewer views that looks like it "didn't work."

Because the metrics we optimize for as creators (views, likes, comments) aren't the right metrics at all.

The right metrics are:

• How many people subscribe to your email list

• How many people buy your products

• How many become clients

• How many are genuinely happy with what you do

Most people understand this intellectually.

But emotionally, they still chase vanity metrics.

And those vanity metrics hurt them.

Because here's what happens when you optimize for vanity metrics:

You start creating bad content.

As a creator, you test things. You improve. You study what works.

Eventually, if you keep creating, you'll make something that goes viral.

It's inevitable. It's a lottery, and you'll win when you keep playing every day.

But sometimes, going viral is one of the worst things that can happen to you.

If you go viral with content that's not perfectly adapted to your audience, that doesn't attract the right people, and you double down on that type of content, you end up optimizing for a life you don't actually want.

But your posts that get 5 likes?

The ones where you feel like no one sees them?

Those might be your most important posts.

Because if those 5 people love what you do, subscribe, and join your list, that's worth infinitely more than 1,000 views from tourists.

I saw a perfect example recently with a French creator I follow.

(Side note: it's funny, when I was in the French market, I only consumed American content. Now that I'm in the US market, I only consume French content. I find the best ideas in what's not popular in your own niche.)

This creator made a reaction video about drama between two big French entrepreneurs accusing each other of being frauds.

When watching that video, I thought:

This is the incarnation of my business anti-vision.

And I respect this creator. I've enjoyed his content in the past.

But making videos for views ? Using drama ? Overly abusing negativity bias to generate engagement ?

It's the complete opposite of what I want to accomplish.

I'm happy making content that gets few views but serves a small number of people well.

I never want to be ultra-famous, ultra-viral, making content followed by millions.

Now, going viral in the right way can help.

I'm not saying don't try to grow your audience.

But the way you do it matters.

You need to optimize for metrics that social media doesn't show you:

Is this aligned with your values?

Does it attract the type of person you want in your audience?

Does it bring you your ideal clients?

Does it bring you people who, when they message you or want to work with you, make you think "I'm so happy to meet this person, I only want to work with people like this"?

Those are the real metrics that matter.

Those are the things that actually matter when growing your audience.

And you can't measure these with analytics tools.

That's why so many people get trapped optimizing for the wrong metrics.

This trap is especially dangerous on short-form content platforms.

It's much easier to go viral with a 30-second video than a 20-minute YouTube video.

If you go viral with long-form, it usually brings a more qualified audience anyway.

But short-form platforms?

That's where creativity get destroyed.

Twitter threads chasing engagement through negativity and drama.

Instagram Reels optimized purely for views.

TikToks designed to exploit algorithm patterns rather than serve an audience.

I can't remember where I heard this, but someone said:

"If you optimize for views and likes on social media, you'll eventually end up making dancing videos and cat videos."

It's funny because it's true.

That absolute quest for engagement and views will lead you there, because that's what works best on the platforms.

It perfectly illustrates what happens when you over-optimize for the wrong metrics.

You know what inspires me most?

Small niche businesses followed by a few thousand people.

Thousands of people is actually huge when you think about it.

On social media, we've been conditioned to think it's nothing.

But if you had thousands of people standing in front of you, you'd realize how massive that actually is.

What inspires me is creators who build their own way of working, their own business model, their own way of attracting clients and an audience that aligns with their values.

And they turn it into a sustainable, stable business.

That's what I'm building with Noah's Ark.

And that's what I invite you to build too.

Don't lose sight of this when you create content.

Don't get discouraged if your content doesn't get thousands of views or thousands of likes.

When content performs better, great.

It's a good indicator. But it's not an absolute indicator.

Your 5-like post might be changing someone's life right now.

And that person might become one of your best clients, biggest supporters, or closest friends in this creator journey.

That's what matters.

Thanks for reading.

And welcome back to the Ark.

Noah.