With all the existing platforms out there to sell your product through — Amazon, Etsy, Creative Market, Minted, iTunes, etc — is it really a good idea to spend time making free content?
Angelene is a Fizzler who makes beautifully designed illustrations, cards and photo packages and this question is top of mind for her right now.
Tons of experts advise building up an audience at your own website so you can create an ongoing relationship. But is this too “old school” to work these days?
Subscribe to the show and listen along to hear more about Angelene’s question and our conversation about selling products in the modern internet economy.
Enjoy!
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““Build your audience. Audience, Audience, Audience… shouldn’t I work on products first?” ”
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Angelene’s Question:
After learning that my business falls under the Established Sales Platform, things are starting to make sense… Prior to joining the Fizzle community, my online readings and research on online businesses would mostly say Grow your audience. Build your audience. You need an audience. Audience, Audience, Audience… This didn't quite sit well with me for some reason, in my head "red flags" would raise and I would be thinking shouldn't I work on products first?
With the idea of thinking I needed to grow my audience, I went ahead and created my website late October last year, with an opt-in form, links to my sales platform, but I felt that my page was too static for some reason and felt the need to make it more engaging, so I thought I would commit to start creating design tutorials, and share some tips through posts in the new year as I felt this was going to help get traffic to my site…
Long story short, I'm struggling to keep up with creating engaging content on my site, I feel a bit in regret of mentioning I will be creating tutorials, as I realize how much of a commitment this will be, and I feel as though I'm further away from my initial business which are my existing online shops on creativemarket.com and minted.com.
Part of me wishes I didn't launch my site at the time that I did, cuz now I feel somewhat of a fraud not being able to consistently put material out when I said I would. I feel my energy can really be well spend creating products on my sales platforms… I know I cannot undo what I've done, but I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions or advice on my situation as I want my business to primarily be focused on my products before anything else.
Show Notes
Top 10 Mistakes in Starting an Online Business
In our work with thousands of entrepreneurs we’ve seen smart people make the same mistakes over and over.
This guide will help you avoid those common pitfalls on the road to building something great.
Angelene's Stores: Minted, Creative Market, Instagram
10 Marketing Channels to Grow Your Small Business (FS107)
9 More Marketing Channels to Grow Your Small Business (108)
Blogging is Dead Again (FS146)
5 Ways to Earn More Revenue from an Existing Product
Saffron Avenue : Saffron Avenue
Learn how to set goals that actually stick!
The Top 10 Mistakes in Online Business
Every week we talk with entrepreneurs. We talk about what’s working and what isn’t. We talk about successes and failures. We spend time with complete newbies, seasoned veterans, and everything in between.
One topic that comes up over and over again with both groups is mistakes made in starting businesses. Newbies love to learn about mistakes so they can avoid them. Veterans love to talk about what they wish they had known when starting out.
These conversations have been fascinating, so we compiled a list of the 10 mistakes we hear most often into a nifty lil' guide. Get the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Starting an Online Business here »
Nailed it you guys!
Big takeaway…. This business thing is super hard.
My industry (entertainment) is a service business where people who book me will (usually) never book me again. It means I don’t do content marketing.
Instead I connect with 3rd party sites that have amazing SEO and the occasional online ads. I’ve been trying to get out of this business because I hate the feeling I need to constantly be in sales person mode.
I am trying to get this blogging thing to work so I can just make stuff, put it into some type of marketing process, and then have fun conversation with my customers (who are awesome).
Haven’t finished the episode, but had to add a correction before I forgot.
The answer isn’t 45. It’s 42.
Good catch Josh ;)
Great episode. I disagree with 1 thing that Barrett said. Barrett said (well, might say) that if Angelene wants to focus on weddings, she shouldn’t go for her own audience. He’s right if her perfect customer is the bride-to-be. But she could partner with wedding planners. That might be a better customer for her.
Chase,
If your content has to be a hit, it’s going to be stressful. But if your content has to be fun – has to be true – has to be helpful – then it doesn’t necessarily have to be as heavy of a burden.
I needed to hear that. Great show!
I haven’t finished listening to this episode yet, but I will do. Just had to stop and say that I’m with you Chase on the chewing thing. Actually there was an article on it a while ago about “sensory gating” and how creatives like Marcel Proust etc. have a hard time filtering out irrelevant noise…because we’re brilliant! Anyway, here’s a link to an article on it:
http://www.iflscience.com/brain/easily-distracted-noise-you-could-be-creative-genius
I might do my own Instagram or blog post on it, at some point. :)
Also – I find myself wanting Lacroix fizzy water lately! :)
Thank you Fizzle team for sharing my questions on the fizzle show… It really surfaced a lot of internal questions and brought me to a new awareness of the direction I want to take my business. For the longest time I was in a mindset to just “work, work, work” “do, do, do” for the sake of getting results faster, not considering my personal brand or passion side of the business. But after looking back at what I started it really put things into perspective as to how I want my sales platforms to work for me and my brand. It wasn’t easy to come to that realization, but at least now that I recognize it I’m finally able to move forward with a supporting community like fizzle. It’s scary this business thing… but totally worth it. Thanks again! :)
Very interesting story. It really made me think a lot. Thanks for sharing.
good article.
https://www.fiverr.com/s2/5dade0adff