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How can I monetize financial knowledge?

by MegaHold
8 replies
Hi there. I'm looking for some ideas on how to utilize the basic 'opt-in/free report > sales' model, where the "sales" part is driven by the provision of further knowledge (perhaps a more extensive report, course, book, etc.) but in the finance & investing niche.

I'm super interested in public equities (stocks), but could also write on more "exotic" securities and derivatives. However, stocks are of most interest. I could also niche down on this front to a certain type of stocks.

But two issues I have:
1) There's a ton of information & books out there already; I'd probably need to be super specific.
2) Particularly if I am super specific/niche, this will only add to the difficulty of acquiring customers. Even grabbing free opt-ins will be difficult, and Facebook advertising for example will probably not be best for the type of subscribers I'll be looking for.

For the "sales" part, whatever I sell (most likely an extensive course or ebook) would be priced probably at perhaps $99 or so (relatively high as reports go, but also high enough so as to be commensurate with the value provided, plus affordable enough for most people).

Any ideas on how I can steer these broad thoughts into a viable informational product idea..?! Thank you for your time & suggestions.
#financial #knowledge #monetize
  • Profile picture of the author uktrader
    Hi, good to see someone in the finance/investing area.

    It seems that the really big money in investing is in subscription products - the various investment newsletters, rather than one-time products (although there are some high ticket educational products too, priced in the hundreds and even thousands). The model is roughly how you say: offer free "special report" on your website, ideally on some currently hot investing topic -> make them sign up to your newsletter -> send investment tips and analyses -> promote paid products.

    One problem with this is that it is very demanding for content creation and hard to operate as a single person, unless you want to employ "experts" who would create the content for you (but they are not cheap in this industry). Also if you have some decent financial background, you will find that the information that sells is useless or even harmful as investment advice. People are looking for those guaranteed tips and secrets to game the markets, which as we know don't exist, unless you are a bank; they don't want to buy your product only to learn that there is hard work and research involved in successful investing and that the best thing the typical person can do when not having time for the work is regularly buy the SPY ETF and forget everything else.

    That said, there is certainly big money in this part of the internet.

    Regarding going niche, I'd say it's good to narrow it down (don't be Bloomberg), but not too much. For a one person operation I would go as narrow as e.g. small cap stocks, tech stocks, emerging market stocks (not all of these - just one of the examples). Or define yourself by the approach/method - value investing, dividend focused investing, technical analysis etc.

    As a promotional channel and alternative to the traditional social media platforms, have a look at seekingalpha.com, especially when you do stocks.
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    • Profile picture of the author MegaHold
      Originally Posted by uktrader View Post

      Hi, good to see someone in the finance/investing area.

      It seems that the really big money in investing is in subscription products - the various investment newsletters, rather than one-time products (although there are some high ticket educational products too, priced in the hundreds and even thousands). The model is roughly how you say: offer free "special report" on your website, ideally on some currently hot investing topic -> make them sign up to your newsletter -> send investment tips and analyses -> promote paid products.

      One problem with this is that it is very demanding for content creation and hard to operate as a single person, unless you want to employ "experts" who would create the content for you (but they are not cheap in this industry). Also if you have some decent financial background, you will find that the information that sells is useless or even harmful as investment advice. People are looking for those guaranteed tips and secrets to game the markets, which as we know don't exist, unless you are a bank; they don't want to buy your product only to learn that there is hard work and research involved in successful investing and that the best thing the typical person can do when not having time for the work is regularly buy the SPY ETF and forget everything else.

      That said, there is certainly big money in this part of the internet.

      Regarding going niche, I'd say it's good to narrow it down (don't be Bloomberg), but not too much. For a one person operation I would go as narrow as e.g. small cap stocks, tech stocks, emerging market stocks (not all of these - just one of the examples). Or define yourself by the approach/method - value investing, dividend focused investing, technical analysis etc.

      As a promotional channel and alternative to the traditional social media platforms, have a look at seekingalpha.com, especially when you do stocks.
      Thanks buddy; definitely considering SeekingAlpha as a means of promotion. I was actually considering niching right down and identifying Benjamin Graham-type value stocks - deeply undervalued, even so-called net-net stocks on OTC markets. But I'd have to be careful in how niche I go; I don't want to niche myself out of business! I'll have a think...

      Oil & Gas is big right down for obvious reasons, but I'd rather not cover this sector in the long run. I need something that will hopefully perpetuate and isn't just based on a short-term trend like a commodity price swing. And for personal reasons I'd be more interested in covering equities that aren't in commodity industries.

      I'll have a think... I think focusing on those people with smaller portfolios looking to beat the benchmark indexes (which is definitely achievable) could work. A lot of value investing books are applicable to everyone, right up to the $1BN (and well beyond) hedge fund managers. By focusing on the smaller cap value stocks I might have an edge.

      Rather than just "teaching" I could actually offer the fish too with stock suggestions, although I'd have to check the legalities here (and it'd be far more work).

      EDIT
      Buying cheap and targeted traffic is as important as the niche i.e. where to buy, what keywords to bid on, etc. There must be demand for the type of product already, preferably.
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      • Profile picture of the author uktrader
        I like your idea. There have been research reports and academic papers showing how small/mid cap value stocks have consistently outperformed the market and other groups in the long run. It makes sense, as you should be compensated for the higher uncertainty/volatility, but also on risk adjusted basis they seem to be superior. The key is long run + diversification. From marketing perspective value investing also has the advantage of having credibility from the story of Warren Buffett who is known to many people, even those not that interested in finance.

        The education vs. actual stock recommendations will be the key strategic decision. The entire structure of your business will be different depending on this selection. Yes, the second option is enormous amount of work and ongoing, although there is more money to make if you want/manage to grow really big. You can combine both, but perhaps it's best to pick one in the beginning and consider expanding only after you've built some scale with the first thing.

        I agree that oil&gas is very specific, with oil price often being driven by international politics, which is of course completely unpredictable. Although from marketing perspective I like how it's a nice, well-defined niche, with lots of people fascinated by oil price and making money from it, perhaps because they hear about oil so often in the news. Gold is another example of this. You can see a lot of oil/gas or gold investing blogs with related paid newsletters.
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Call it a "secret" and charge money for it.

    Works in any niche
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    "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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  • Profile picture of the author davidfrankk
    Hi, I myself have faced this situation a few years ago. I made a crowd-sourcing website where people could invest as little as $10 dollars and earn around 12-20% return per year. I make the trades. My experience and proven results is what attracts new investors.
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    Get paid for simple tasks | iPhone 7 features
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  • Profile picture of the author selfdisciplineacademy
    Some pricing averages:

    Free Report (Always free) > Tripwire Offer (Usually $7 - $10) > Core Offer (Usually $49 - $99) > Upsells (Anywhere from $79 - $1000's)

    Hope this helps
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  • Profile picture of the author uktrader
    MegaHold,

    Also check out this blog for useful information (basically internet marketing tips for small financial businesses):

    New Rules of Investing | ROI for your finance biz
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