Is there any advice
[2023-11-06 05:19:41 PM] : Is there any advice for taking a product that already exists and monetizing it?
1 Reply
[2023-11-06 05:20:23 PM] : I'm going through the course and just got through the PDF (Pain, Dream, Fix) section. As I was going through it it occurred to me that I have a site that I could maybe dress up a bit and use to sell a fix.
[2023-11-06 05:21:14 PM] : I have locs - basically it can be really difficult to find a loctician, especially if you're in a new city or have a particular hairstyle. So a few years ago I built https://loccollective.com, which essentially gets no traffic and doesn't have great SEO because it's a single page application.
[2023-11-06 05:21:33 PM] : I thought about monetizing it by converting it into a paid directory, but locticians don't seem to have a need for this. It's the clients who are struggling to find them, not the other way around.
[2023-11-06 05:22:40 PM] : I was thinking about offering a paid service to match people with a loctician who meets their criteria. I need to spend more time safari-ing and doing research on pain points to see if there's anything else I could monetize as a fix but so far I can't think of anything. It would just be nice to have people actually be able to find this site and use it since I've spent so much time on it and when I send it to other people who can use it they seem to really like it.
[2023-11-06 05:23:22 PM] : tl;dr - am I missing something in terms of monetizing something that's free (the directory) by connecting it to something that's paid?
[2023-11-06 05:24:11 PM] : Or maybe it's so hard to monetize something that already exists that it's not worth doing?
[2023-11-06 05:41:17 PM] : I think there's a section on existing products somewhere in the course, maybe?
[2023-11-06 05:41:26 PM] : I could be misremembering
[2023-11-06 05:42:08 PM] : Hmm ok, I'll double check.
[2023-11-06 05:42:15 PM] : in the second half, if this exists.
[2023-11-06 05:42:16 PM] : and I think a different section early on about avoiding B2C as a first pass, since it's harder
[2023-11-06 05:43:05 PM] : This is an audience of people who spend on value so thought it might be worth a try given that I already have the site up and running.
[2023-11-06 07:12:47 PM] : december (Be warned that I haven't been through all the material in a long time, so I'm just spit-balling here.)
"People with locs" sounds like a potentially good audience to explore - you belong to the group, and people with locs spend on value as you say.
It could be worth throwing a little effort at your site to get more traffic, and at the same time safariing to see what other problems are experienced by this audience. You may find that your site is a good lead magnet for building trust if you provide the service free of charge, and then build a product ladder of some sort. I think the main thing is to avoid assuming that the site can be monetized, but rather try to safari this audience with an open mind to see what turns up.
[2023-11-09 12:24:26 PM] : Thought I might boost this thread since it was posted the same day as office hours. I updated the copy on my website and am seeing more impressions (which isn't really saying anything, there were so few before). But not really seeing people clicking through my website or it showing up for the right search terms, either. I haven't been sharing the link directly in watering holes yet but I'm wondering if maybe this just wouldn't work out.
[2023-11-09 01:24:29 PM] : thanks, I missed this before!
[2023-11-09 01:29:27 PM] : I agree with what Marya said here:
I think the main thing is to avoid assuming that the site can be monetized, but rather try to safari this audience with an open mind to see what turns up.Here's how I tend to think about things like this: when you think of sites/products as 'things to monetize' you end up in this trap of thinking "who would pay for this" which is a pretty hard question to answer. On the other side, if you have built something that is useful enough to attract a specific audience, and you can use that thing to earn their attention & trust (think of that single site app like an ebomb, similar to our conversation about the pet travel airtable), you typically CAN offer those people something to buy that solves related pains/problems to the thing that attracted them. [2023-11-09 01:31:00 PM] : so instead of "can I monetize this?" the question I'd be asking is "could this help me build a channel for reaching people who I could sell related products & services. [2023-11-09 01:31:07 PM] : the center of the decision is the audience, rather than the thing you created. [2023-11-09 01:31:16 PM] : Do you have more examples of a product (or at least not an article) as an ebomb? [2023-11-09 01:32:50 PM] : In the course I'm primarily seeing written articles as ebombs so I'm not quite sure what to do with something that isn't that (or a podcast interview, for example). [2023-11-09 01:33:35 PM] : totally - we start people with written ebombs because they tend to be the easiest and most reliable place to start, but ebombs can literally be ANYTHING. [2023-11-09 01:34:07 PM] : here's a fun one I saw recently [2023-11-09 01:34:08 PM] : https://dxcheckup.com [2023-11-09 01:34:23 PM] : it's still mostly written, but more of an interactive checklist of sorts [2023-11-09 01:35:35 PM] : an ebomb is anything that's small, shareable, and can lead people to sign up for your email list. [2023-11-09 01:38:58 PM] : your site https://loccollective.com could let people search, and then you could let people "save" the options they found easily by asking for their email and sending the link to their inbox. [2023-11-09 01:42:36 PM] : I've also seen things like calculators (e.g. how much should I charge, how much should this cost, etc etc), quiz/survey tools. [2023-11-09 01:42:55 PM] : events can be ebombs, too! online or in person. [2023-11-09 01:43:44 PM] : just like products can take tons of different forms, ebombs can take just as many. [2023-11-09 01:46:39 PM] : Another example that might help give shape to my nudge in this direction: Amy's https://everytimezone.com is example of an app that has sent a LOT of traffic to their paid app, Noko Time Tracking. They did try launching paid features based on things people were asking for, and it made some money, but not nearly as much as they earned from the traffic that ETZ sent to Noko. [2023-11-09 01:47:22 PM] : other factors at play with that example, but it's still a good illustration. [2023-11-09 01:58:10 PM] : How does Every Time Zone drive traffic to Noko Time Tracking? [2023-11-09 01:58:28 PM] : I see that if you want to customize it you have to sign in with google, is that how? [2023-11-09 01:59:50 PM] : It sounds like the process is user uses a product online => user provides their email to access some functionality of said product => user is added to mailing list => buys a product after receiving emails on the mailing list. In this example how would you get the user's email? Do you explicitly ask "want to be added to my newsletter"? [2023-11-09 03:33:07 PM] : Etz has a simple and small link at the bottom. That's it! [2023-11-09 03:33:22 PM] : I think it used to be more prominent but I might misremember that. [2023-11-09 03:34:56 PM] : "User provides their email to access some functionality" - yup, which could be a login, or it could be a "send me XYZ" [2023-11-09 03:35:37 PM] : Think of it a bit like "buying" something but instead of $ the currency is their email so you can tell them about related and useful things they might want in the future. [2023-11-09 03:39:53 PM] : Explicit/active opt in is ideal, yes. I probably wouldn't recommend framing it as "add to newsletter" but instead make it clear why it benefits them. Examples of what they're gonna get via email (more free resources, discounts, early access).