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Thoughts on a hostile marketplace...?

by mr2monster
6 replies
Hey Warriors..

I've been building a presence in a niche for the last 6 months now and have developed quite a few followers/subscribers/etc.

Enough that I think that I could probably monetize it and make pretty decent scratch... if they weren't so damn hostile! haha

Here's the problem:

There's currently one or two other people within the niche that are selling information products in the typical e-book / membership sites type way, and the niche is WAAY up in arms about it. I mean straight bashing these people publicly and just ruthlessly terrorizing them (like, posting their info out in the open, etc).

I've really never seen anything like it...

So, I'm probably not going to go the traditional e-book route to monetize on the front end, until I can get them into a funnel deep enough that they trust me in that way.

What other kinds of ways can you think of to monetize a situation like that?

I was trying to come up with a way that I could still give them the information they wanted for free, but make money on the back end or something.

I've attempted advertising (adsense/affiliate/etc) on the website, but haven't had too terribly much luck on it.

I'm not afraid to piss off a bunch of people, but I'd rather not have my name drug through the mud because I have a book for sale...

Just kind of wanted to post here and brainstorm... any thoughts?
#hostile #marketplace #thoughts
  • Profile picture of the author Matt Bard
    As a marketer, why are you in a niche that gets pissed at the thought of buying stuff?

    You want to be in a niche where people are happy that you are helping to solve their problems.
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  • Profile picture of the author MartinPlatt
    I think the question is not how you can find a way to do something different and potentially avoid the hostility, but instead find out why they're hostile in the first place. What is it that they're annoyed with? Is it being slammed with e-mails, products not living up to their hype?

    You just need to do it better, that is all.

    If everyone is pissed off with buying, then you need different followers, as you won't make any money. But I don't believe that that is actually the case. These people probably need to be asked why, and listened to.

    If it's just a few people that cause problems, it might be an idea to stop them posting that stuff, maybe ban then, as the crowd are following them. If 20% are causing trouble, get rid, they'll never buy. If the other 80% are people who are interested, keep them, and ask them what they want to see. they're the buyers, not us.
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    Martin Platt
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  • Profile picture of the author sanhal
    I was going to say the same thing that Martin has just said. Why are they hostile?

    Once you know then you can work out the way to go about it. Can you survey your list and get some answers?

    Sandy
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  • Profile picture of the author Martin Avis
    People do often get annoyed at being sold at. Nobody likes a door to door salesman.

    But if you are talking about promoting products in your newsletter, that's not the way to do it anyway.

    A newsletter writer should never sell anything - they should make informed, useful and honest recommendations. Like from one friend to another.

    That's why I always tell my students that they should honestly buy (or beg) a copy of anything they plan to recommend and to really test it out first. You find a lot of mutton dressed up as lamb that way. If you really like an ebook or bit of software you will be able to tell people why. If you have any doubts about it, don't mention the product - you'll only lose trust if you recommend rubbish.

    And if you think a product really stinks like a ripe Stilton, say so. Nothing builds trust faster from your readers than an honest anti review. Don't overdo it though. One or two a year is often enough (and stick to verifiable facts - you don't want a lawsuit hitting you).

    Summary: It isn't the job of a newsletter writer to 'sell' anything. After all, what's the point of writing a hard sell that sends people off to another hard sell on the sales page? A newsletter writer's job is to awake interest, pique curiosity, provide social proof and build a warm, receptive environment for the product's sales page to be able to do its work without creating the kind of animosity you mention.
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  • Profile picture of the author Curtis2011
    Sounds like a bad niche for making money in.
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    • Profile picture of the author mr2monster
      Originally Posted by Matt Maiden View Post

      As a marketer, why are you in a niche that gets pissed at the thought of buying stuff?

      You want to be in a niche where people are happy that you are helping to solve their problems.
      Well, this didn't seem to be how the niche was until recently. I got into the niche when it was basically untapped, but I could tell it was going to blow up and that there was potential there for it. It's a wildly growing niche and I think this may just be growing pains. Like I said, there are only a couple people monetizing it in this way, that I've found. But I do know they're not being received very well in how they're accomplishing it. Hence me trying to be a little more creative in how I go about monetizing. I KNOW there is money in this niche.

      Originally Posted by MartinPlatt View Post

      I think the question is not how you can find a way to do something different and potentially avoid the hostility, but instead find out why they're hostile in the first place. What is it that they're annoyed with? Is it being slammed with e-mails, products not living up to their hype?

      You just need to do it better, that is all.

      If everyone is pissed off with buying, then you need different followers, as you won't make any money. But I don't believe that that is actually the case. These people probably need to be asked why, and listened to.

      If it's just a few people that cause problems, it might be an idea to stop them posting that stuff, maybe ban then, as the crowd are following them. If 20% are causing trouble, get rid, they'll never buy. If the other 80% are people who are interested, keep them, and ask them what they want to see. they're the buyers, not us.
      That's exactly what I'm trying to do... do it better.

      Good points... The squeaky wheels always get the grease, and I think you may be right in that a noisy few might actually be giving me the impression that the market is pissed.

      I've listened to their reasoning, and it's basically that there is no need to pay for information when you can find everything for free... The others in this marketplace are charging for info, so they're labeled scammers. Even though the info they give is actually quite good. (I've purchased almost everything from them to see what else was out there).

      Originally Posted by sanhal View Post

      I was going to say the same thing that Martin has just said. Why are they hostile?

      Once you know then you can work out the way to go about it. Can you survey your list and get some answers?

      Sandy
      See my response to Martin

      Originally Posted by Martin.Avis View Post

      People do often get annoyed at being sold at. Nobody likes a door to door salesman.

      But if you are talking about promoting products in your newsletter, that's not the way to do it anyway.

      A newsletter writer should never sell anything - they should make informed, useful and honest recommendations. Like from one friend to another.

      That's why I always tell my students that they should honestly buy (or beg) a copy of anything they plan to recommend and to really test it out first. You find a lot of mutton dressed up as lamb that way. If you really like an ebook or bit of software you will be able to tell people why. If you have any doubts about it, don't mention the product - you'll only lose trust if you recommend rubbish.

      And if you think a product really stinks like a ripe Stilton, say so. Nothing builds trust faster from your readers than an honest anti review. Don't overdo it though. One or two a year is often enough (and stick to verifiable facts - you don't want a lawsuit hitting you).

      Summary: It isn't the job of a newsletter writer to 'sell' anything. After all, what's the point of writing a hard sell that sends people off to another hard sell on the sales page? A newsletter writer's job is to awake interest, pique curiosity, provide social proof and build a warm, receptive environment for the product's sales page to be able to do its work without creating the kind of animosity you mention.
      I don't write a newsletter for this niche, but I never recommend products I don't personally own or have at least gone through.

      Originally Posted by Curtis2011 View Post

      Sounds like a bad niche for making money in.
      Well, you'd think so... but I still see lots of potential. It just needs to be treated with a little more finesse. That's what I'm trying to brainstorm here..
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