Why your online business is not making money
Here you’ll find one web3/investing/self-development article, one actionable tip, and one quote to think about.
In this Issue
Article: Why your online business is not making money.
Tip: Put the framework described in this article into practice.
Quote: A great quote from a person whose content inspired this framework and this article.
Article
Most online businesses fail to make money or reach their true potential. And there’s usually one, common reason - not targeting a specific enough niche. I’ll be the first one to admit that this is something I’m constantly trying to improve too.
The mistake most people make is that they just start marketing their offer (usually by creating content around it) and when the results are not good enough, they just simply do more of the same. There’s a famous quote often attributed to Albert Einstein - ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results’. And yet, this is exactly what most online business owners and content creators do - try something and if the results are not good enough - double up the efforts.
How can you approach it differently?
Use the following framework.
Make a list of everything you’re interested in and/or are good at.
Pick 3-5 things on this list, which you’re the most interested in or most proficient at.
Think of topics and content on the intersection of those interests. For example, I’m interested in investing/trading, crypto, entrepreneurship, education and self-development, so a lot of my content is focused on teaching people how to invest in crypto.
Answer a very important question - is there a potential there to make money? It can be in the form of educational content, consulting services, partnerships, etc. but the main question is - will you be able to monetize it? If not, go back to point 2 and start again.
Try different approaches, types of content, platforms, etc. - experiment as much as possible.
Here’s the important part - track your results. Get as much data as possible and see what works and what doesn’t. Double up on the stuff that works.
IMPORTANT - don’t look just at ‘vanity metrics’ - likes, followers, etc. What really matters is not the amount of engagement but the quality of it - meaningful comments and DMs and enquiries about your products or services.
Keep experimenting and fine-tuning.
So what this all has to do with finding your niche?
If you follow this process, you’ll automatically hone it on what’s your unique offer and your audience. Let me give you an example.
I made a list of around 10 things I’m interested in or good at.
I narrowed it down to investing/trading, crypto, entrepreneurship, education and self-development.
Decided to focus the majority of my content around teaching how to invest in crypto.
Crypto and blockchain technology overall is still very young so there’s plenty of potential to make money by providing education in this area.
I’m trying different platforms - YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, blogs, newsletter, TikTok, LinkedIn and different types of content - written and video, long and short-form.
I noticed that I’m getting the highest quality engagement on YouTube, especially my long-form content. So I put the majority of my focus there…
…but this doesn’t mean I gave up on other types of content. I just know that I have to be strategic with it and put my focus and efforts in the right place. I keep experimenting with my YouTube content and I keep trying different things on other platforms too.
This whole process helped me get a better idea of who my audience is and what type of problems I can solve for them. This is important - I’m not creating content based on some imaginary target client but instead, I’m using real-world data. Yes, it’s more time consuming but the data is far more valuable as there are fewer assumptions to make.
The majority of them are around 30-35 years old.
They are either just starting out in crypto or they tried it before and got burned or they have some basic knowledge and want to learn more (most fall in this last category).
They’re interested mainly in long-form video educational content and some market commentaries.
This already helped me narrow down my niche but more importantly, I can keep improving my results and make my niche even smaller by simply repeating this process over and over again.
Andy
Tip
Give this process a shot :-)
Quote
‘A one-person business wins with one niche, 1000 true fans, one big problem, and a differentiated solution.’ - Justin Welsh