I did it again.
Each time I have a content idea, I go round the same loop.
- Think of the product idea
- Think of the wider market it sits in in case I need to pivot a bit
- Buy a domain name
- Set up a landing page and an email list
- Decide I can’t be arsed to maintain a separate brand
- Roll the content back into my personal site
I’m trying to work out why I keep doing this and I’ve spotted some opposing forces going on here.
On the one hand, for information products at least, it’s incredibly hard to separate the product from the founder.
Don’t @ me with a bunch of exceptions of people who sold their info businesses because most of them fail. Just this week I’ve just seen Justin Brooke take over Adskills again after it failed to perform under the new owner.
There’s plenty of others..
On the other I think I’m trying to avoid pigeon-holing myself into just being “The Email Guy” or however people see me. I’ve been selling stuff online since 1995. If all I knew by now was email, I’d be a disappointment to myself and my family.
I know a hell of a lot more than that, but I also know that at least half of my audience doesn’t give a damn about more than one thing. I learned a long time ago that you can’t go far from your lane at all if you want to keep the majority of your customers happy.
Before we even get on to marketing tactics, I know enough about marketing tech, persuasion psychology, overcoming creator mindblocks, and running outsourced teams to fill books on each one.
I could probably write half decent books on rowing training, parenting and surviving marriage to someone with ADHD when you’re the complete opposite.
If the following quote speaks to you at all, we’re probably in the same situation.
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
― Robert A. Heinlein
I’m coming to the conclusion that “nicheing” is a horrible way to live. It might make more money, but it’s a soulless existence. The people I look at as being “successful” by nicheing live the most boring lives.
Let me give a few counter examples:
Ian Stanley: Best known as an email copywriter, but almost everything I’ve bought from him has been on the mindset of creation and making money. His best email is about his dog.
Ed Latimore: Ed wrote the first Twitter growth course I bought, but he’s had just as much success with products about breaking addiction. Tweets regularly with jokes about coffee and crack addicts.
Justin Brooke: “The paid media Guy”, but the most money I spent with him was a consult on organic content. Also, the content I followed most closely was his epic road trip around the US, homeschooling his kids as they went.
These guys are 3-dimensional characters, with more than one skill, and some enviable parts to their lives. They have more to share than they’ll ever fit into one book.
The challenge is finding a “philosophy of life” that threads each of the stories together. Something other than just “this will make you money”.
If you can find that thread, you’ll be able to follow it for years, hanging different products and services off it as you evolve.
