The Real Stories Behind Making Money Online Blog Series
What does it really take to earn an online income? Is there a trick? A special sauce? Magical fairy dust?
Or is it just about hard work, perseverance and persistence?
Or do you have to get lucky? Know the right people? Have friends who will buy your stuff?
The Series
In this multi-part blog series (which is also a podcast series), Case Lane takes a detailed look at eight online business platforms, and answers the questions every aspiring entrepreneur wants to know:
- Am I the right type of person to start this business?
- How do I get set-up?
- Where does the money come from?
The Platforms
Click the image or blog link to read the Real Story Behind the Online Platforms that interest you.
And if you are not sure which business to start…read the whole series or listen to the podcast episodes on The Ready Entrepreneur podcast episodes 143 to 150 here: https://www.readyentrepreneur.com/podcast/
How to Dominate Your Niche of Niches Online
Part 4 of 4: Be the Automatic Leader in the Niche of Your Choice
by Case Lane
As an aspiring entrepreneur, you may have spent years, maybe four or 8 or 10, continuing your education, putting in hours or days on your chosen skill, or maybe even researching a subject of interest every day.
With the activities you enjoy, and wherever your interests lie, you have more information about the subject than someone who is looking for the product or service you have to offer.
Yet when it comes to thinking about delivering your message online, you may feel uncomfortable. You squirm a little at the idea that you could be someone who could deliver value to others – for money.
Maybe even at your work, there are probably people who are paid more than you; in education thousands of others have your diploma; and in your hobby…it’s a hobby, for a reason. Your daily reality may make you question how you could be a leader on online.
You Can Provide Solutions
Once in the Duty Free store at Los Angeles International Airport, I overheard a discussion between a store clerk and a passenger. The clerk was trying to explain to the passenger that she could not take the bag of stuff she had just bought – alcohol, perfume – with her.
That policy can be confusing for infrequent travelers. Duty Free Stores are promoted as free from taxes. You can purchase products when you are leaving the country. But the store must send the items to your flight, and you pick them up literally as you are walking on to the plane.
The passenger obviously had not bought duty free before so she was confused, and was trying to understand the rules in a language that was not her own.
But I could understand both. Or make myself understood. I had an approach – unique and singular – based on my education, knowledge and experience. No one else can deliver in exactly the same way (no one else was around), the moment was mine to seize.
I could provide a solution.
Of course, there is a risk in providing unsolicited advice. Some people might consider you rude, presumptuous or…not an expert. You may not be their idea of a solution provider, your approach may not suit their sensibilities, or they may not respect the experience you have.
There are many possibilities….
But at the same time, when people are struggling, and they’ve tried other solutions and nothing worked, they still need help.
In my case, I was in a position to deliver a solution.
Where will you be when your future customers come looking online for you, and your potential product or service?
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, your role is to deliver value to those who want or need the product or service you want to offer. If you have something to offer, the only way your community can learn about it is if you offer your knowledge.
You may find it awkward to offer people your help in a way they are not expecting. But at the same time, if you have the knowledge and a way to deliver it, you can support another person’s goals, and be a great assistance to them.
In the beginning, you may feel imposter syndrome because your position is new and untried. But it’s valid. You have a solution – someone else does not. It’s your opportunity, some would say, responsibility as an entrepreneur, to offer the value you have to deliver.
Summary: How You Dominate Your Niche
1. If you have gone in to business, it’s because you believe you have value to offer. You have business ideas in your head or a solution for someone else’s problem. That value needs to be expressed.
2. Your approach to the product or service is different from others, and it’s an approach you should not feel afraid to deliver. Because your experience, education, expertise – that’s all unique to you, and that uniqueness is what is going to differentiate you and make you the automatic leader.
3. There were automobiles before Henry Ford, furniture before Ikea, makeup before Mary Kay, mobile phones before Steve Jobs, movies before Walt Disney. And you probably do not need to be told why those products became unique when those individuals decided to deliver them.
As an aspiring entrepreneur, you do not have to be creating a global corporation, but you do have to use your uniqueness to attract the customer base that you have created the product or service for.
Online people can be accusatory and critical – but there is a way to ensure those ones are not relevant to you.
You deliver to the people who appreciate your uniqueness, and you ignore everyone who does not.
ENJOY LIVE CLASSES?
Case Lane is delivering a FREE WEBINAR: How to Start an Online Business With An Idea You Champion!
Thursday 10 am PST via Zoom
WANT TO READ THE BOOK?
Get a FREE Summary of Case Lane’ new book Recast: The Aspiring Entrepreneur’s Prep Guide to Starting An Online Business
Click this link to get your summary and early bird notice of the book’s release.
How to Decide on an Online Platform
Part 3 of 4: Choose to Be Comfortable
by Case Lane
When choosing to launch an online business, you do not want to be phony.
In fact, you are told must be authentic.
Except there’s the conflict. You are being told you MUST be authentic, under the assumption that everyone knows what authentic is.
At the same time that people claim you must be authentic, they also claim you should make videos, or send email, or start a podcast or dance on Tik-Tok.
Aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a business, and attract an audience, but are turned off by the so-called ‘authentic’ things everyone is saying to do, need an alternative for appearing on an online platform.
The best bet is to pick the space where you are most comfortable.
What is an Online Platform?
Your online platform is the Internet space where you have your online presence – the basis for your business.
Bloggers have a website, podcasters appear in directories, vloggers post YouTube videos. Social media influencers dominate on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter.
You decide which one works best for you by deciding first which form of public expression suits your preferences.
A Presence You Own and Defend
A while back, in Hollywood, one of my colleagues once told me about this incredible idea one of the senior executives had that would change the industry.
My colleague was prone to exaggeration about a senior executive’s idea…especially if it could lead to career advancement. But the executive in question was more qualified than most, and had a solid reputation.
The idea could have been great…
….but, it was terrible.
And to my surprise I told my colleague exactly what I thought of the idea. I reacted against character because I felt passionate about the subject, and had a strong opinion of its viability.
The decision whether the idea would be implemented was not mine to make, but the opinion was definitely mine to express.
The defense of your own approach is even more pronounced online.
Model Your Own Instincts
When you see people online in your target industry acting all the same – being cutesy, dancing, giving shoutouts, swearing and hollering….
You might think that’s how you have to behave to win over people in your potential community.
Many aspiring entrepreneurs imitate successful people because they believe the success can be directly copied.
But that approach rarely works.
There is already a successful person being the original version of who you want to be, so a fake version has a limited chance.
Often a new entrepreneur does not want to behave like the successful person. But does it under the mistaken belief that the community will only respond to the questionable behavior.
However, since you are passionate about your product and service, and turned off by the presentation of the existing leaders in your field, then you may have an opportunity with other members of the community who feel as you do.
No doubt your niche has specific approaches to ensure you are seen by your community, and are communicating your message effectively, but you can modify your approach to ensure you are comfortable, and therefore authentic in your presentation.
If you see a successful person in your industry who is a blogger, but you hate writing, you can either do something else, or outsource the writing to someone else.
Remember, online your marketplace is the entire world. There is likely a community that would appreciate receiving your product or service in a form that it is not currently presented.
For example, today almost every book is released in digital, print and audio formats. Not to mention those that may eventually be made into a movie or show.
The reason you can keep releasing the same story in different forms is because different people want to absorb the same story in the format they prefer.
Select Your Platform Preference
You can deliver your product or service offering on exactly the platform that you prefer.
You have to decide where you add value, and how you want to contribute based on your expertise and skills.
You can also look at your niche the same way. Test the approaches you prefer, and measure your community’s response.
For example, professional NFL football has one community of beer-drinking, screaming, face painters…and another of statistics and analysis geeks from analytics professors and statisticians to college students and the curious who discuss the probabilities of certain plays, moves and scores in every scenario.
The business of data is data tables, analysis apps, fantasy football instruction manuals, courses on how to understand the game, blog, podcast, affiliate for clothes, gear, and food…and more.
You can approach your own passion in your niche in any direction you choose, and find your community wherever they may be hiding.
You can write, talk, film, teach, dance or holler…
Practically everyone is on the Internet, and everyone is looking for their preferred approach to education, information and entertainment.
There is no competition and all fields are wide open because people are constantly searching for their preferences.
When you go online with your business idea. You can deliver as you see fit.
That’s the incredible opportunity that exists in the online space today. And you have the opportunity of a lifetime to take advantage of it.
For the next article: Click Here for Part 4 of 4: How Dominate Your Niche of Niches
ENJOY LIVE CLASSES?
Case Lane is delivering a FREE WEBINAR: How to Start an Online Business With An Idea You Champion!
Thursday 10 am PST via Zoom
WANT TO READ THE BOOK?
Get a FREE Summary of Case Lane’ new book Recast: The Aspiring Entrepreneur’s Prep Guide to Starting An Online Business
Click this link to get your summary and early bird notice of the book’s release.
Today’s entrepreneur will inevitably be asked at some point where you like to connect on social.
Are you on Facebook? Insta? Do you tweet? Pin? Prefer Linked?
If you are not in to social media, or you prefer not to have your business on social media, you will miss out on potentially thousands, maybe millions, of customers who use social to find all the information they seek.
But you have many options for choosing a preferred social media platform. Some will say follow your audience, others will stay stick with favorite site. Some believe in only being on the biggest. Others like the niches. Some insist you should be everywhere, others believe you must specialize on one.
In all cases, consistent and valuable content helps build a lasting audience that always knows where to find you.
But what is the best path for choosing a social media platform?
And how do you know which social media platform is right for your business?
Whether you love or hate social media, you are going to have to have a position on the platforms for your business. Potential customers will look for you on social, and they will want to engage with you there. You will also have the opportunity to market, promote and share value every day, all day.
So how do you choose?
Understand the platforms
You need to understand what each of the social media platforms are, and what they do. You should also understand the demographics for the dominate audience on each platform.
The basic idea of a social platform is that you establish a profile, post your text or pictures, and people engage with that profile, leaving comments and feedback that other people can see.
Find Your Audience
When marketers say you need to know where your audience is hanging out, you can use either formal or informal approaches to finding this information.
The informal approach is to check out the sites and see who is there. Make sure you set-up a profile and see if you can engage with other participants.
Search topics relevant to your business, and look at the people who are posting and commenting on the subject. Narrow your search as much as possible. If you search #entrepreneur on Instagram, you see tens of millions of posts.
But if you search #womenentrepreneursofsaskatchewan, there are fewer than 100 posts.
As you look at the public profiles or pages of your potential customers, you will be able to learn about their preferences and interests.
The formal search approach involves using paid analysis services.
When you are looking to analyze where the audience is located, you can look at sources like Hootsuite. Every year there are multiple organizations that analyze social media trends and usage. You could spend some time reading these documents, or you could just go to each site and see what’s there.
Although these are great services for information, they present the information in generalities. While the general profile of the audience may be valid, you will not have the specifics about your potential customers who could be anywhere.
Be careful about dismissing a potential audience thread because you read the audience is more likely to be somewhere else. Look at the content on the platform and see for yourself if you think the audience appeals to you.
Go through the platform as a user, search for topics that interest you and see what comes up, and whether it’s easy or difficult to find what you are looking for.
Do you get bored after a few minutes or end up being sucked in for hours? That’s the real test of whether or not the platform works for you – now ask does it work for your ideal customer?
Overview of Each Platform in Alphabetical Order
Despite its increasingly eroding reputation, Facebook is still the social media behemoth. With a couple billion users a day, Facebook is impossible to ignore. But ironically it’s one of the more difficult platforms for building an audience.
You must bring friends to your Facebook page, and hope they will like or follow you, or preferably both. Facebook is the most demanding platform when it comes to proving interaction.
Your potential customer must friend, follow and like you to count in your numbers. That’s three clicks just to be recognizes as operating in your world.
But you have the benefit of using Facebook for long text messages, short messenger messages, images, videos, and links. That kind of complete functionality does not exist on the other sites.
If your business is prepared to spend Facebook also has a robust advertising program that allows you to directly target people who have expressed an interest subjects you define. The scope of their customer analytics is extraordinary, but the frequently changing rules is a challenge for all sides.
Goodreads
Goodreads is included as an example of a subject specific social site. The site is for readers, which means it’s used by authors who have profiles, to answer questions, post reviews and engage in groups.
If you are a writer or writing a book that is linked to your business or other non-fiction in your genre you can engage with readers on the platform. But be careful, Goodreads is a readers site meaning authors are not welcome to promote their books, only to offer value.
You can search for subject social sites and forums discussing issues around your product or service.
The occasionally-defined, and often-repeated rule is to add value first, avoid promoting your product or service unless permitted, and respect the site for its declared purpose, not as a place only for you to find more customers.
For all the photography buffs, Insta is for you. The site is defined by its visual presentation of images and videos. The emphasis on images leaves you with a limited profile and no place to put links inside posts.
Insta is perfect for businesses that use images in promotion like travel and cooking. It has fewer opportunities to direct people off the platform, unless you have a business account, which does have additional features.
In the past, Instagram has been one of the best sites for growing an audience organically because you could use hashtags to connect your content to various topics and ideas, and people would discover you.
However, it seems to be getting harder to be discovered on Insta which limits the options for those who do not have community coming from somewhere else.
Linked In
The site for professionals is all about profiles, networking and adding value.
Linked In is probably the most serious of the sites, with people who have high expectations for the type of contact that should be available. You can add links, videos, and pics, but all should be of the highest quality and interest.
This is probably the hardest site for growing a business and attracting people to developing ideas, but one of the strongest for more established ideas and information people can use in their existing professional lives.
Many are surprised to realize that Pinterest is more of a search engine, than a social site. This is a place where people are looking for specific topics and ideas.
The user’s approach appears to make Pinterest more serious than a typical social site. Pins often lead to blogs, that provide detailed resources, keeping users off the social site. But the functionality also makes Pinterest the most mysterious of the social sites.
You are pinning your ideas, which require extra work to find and create an appealing pin graphic, and then writing the post in the description area. The organization and categorization of your pin is not intuitive. If you decide to become serious about using the site, you should do some research into keyword selection and writing for pins.
But if you are putting together interesting collections on your pin boards, you may be surprised about how you begin to attract new followers.
Snapchat
The site most associated with a younger crowd appears to have lost its original lustre. But it’s all about creativity – pictures and captions – decorated and enhanced for appeal and attraction.
This site is mostly ‘fast,’ and in the moment so if that’s how your business rolls it could be your preference.
Tik Tok
This is one big party. You could have room for your business here, but only if it’s a party.
Whether you are inflamed or not by the messages, you know Twitter is where people make statements sometimes short, sometimes threads, and all range of controversy.
If you want to be quoted, leave your comments on Twitter. You can also just use the site to post announcements about your business.
If you are using Twitter for business, you may not want want to be doing anything that will effect your revenue or turn off your ideal customers. The temptation is there to fill in those 280 characters with a shocking statement. But it’s not always the most ideal way to move forward.
YouTube
If you set up a channel for your videos, you can use the description section in YouTube to provide more detail, and help people find you.
Although YouTube not set up as a social site, it can still be used as one. Viewers can engage with you in comments and you can reply – allowing others to see the discussion.
Next to Facebook, YouTube is the biggest social site. It’s hard to ignore the appeal of video. Even if you are not comfortable on camera, you may still want to consider how the platform may be useful for you.
Summary of Social Media Platform Differences
Here’s a quick glance guide to each platform:
Facebook – short or long posts, images, videos, and links, but you have to get the audience to come to you. There’s an invitation step for friends, and a commitment from followers
Goodreads – readers, readers and more readers and all things books – look for similar sites in your niche
Instagram – images, videos, stories, people can find you through hashtags – but no links and not many long involved posts
Linked In – serious, professional, more thoughtful posts, but also more engaged and possibly more connected
Pinterest – images, text in the descriptions, links, more of a search network, no comments, but people can find you and follow you
Snap Chat – all social all the time, great if you want to be communicating with your audience all the time
TikTok – all performance all the time, if you have creative videos this is where you should be
Twitter – short phrases, witty posts, your quotes and brief comments hashtags, but not much room for serious engagement
You Tube – video with text explanations, a search engine, links in the description, social in the comments
