Let’s start off by clarifying that this is going to be messy. When talking about business models, there are no clear black/white lines. Everything below doesn’t fit in nice little buckets.
Would you consider Print on Demand a good revenue model for online business? I suppose it's a bit like.. affiliate. The main printer is printing most money (as usual). But I wonder from a business perspective whether it's easier to promote, get SEO on (perhaps), etc.
I don't advise print on demand unless you already have an audience that you can promote your messages to. It's so easy to start print on demand, there's a million store that do it. Hence hard to rank for and low margin.
I recently found out about your Substack and have been reading all your posts from the beginning. It is very inspiring! I have been thinking about starting a website that aims at helping people improve their social skills (things like how to socialize at cocktail parties or what to say on first date). My plan is to start small, sharing books, videos, podcasts that I'm reading or watching on a daily basis, and contents that I think would be relevant for my audience. Long term plan is probably to grow into a coaching/course/subscription business. My questions are:
1) do you think overall whether it is a good plan? any major concerns?
2) you talked about starting with either e-commerce, affiliated or content business. So it seems like my plan in the short term looks like a content website? I feel like if I'm just sharing information on a daily or weekly basis, it is more like a blog? is it the right approach to begin with?
3) do you think if it is a good idea to start a substack website, instead of my own website? basically sharing information over there and grow into a newsletter subscription business.
You have to decide whether you want a newsletter business or a coach/course business.
The first, the newsletter is going to be your product and you'll want to funnel everyone into that using social or other means. Then add on courses once your list is built.
The latter is going to be focused on your social accounts with your website as a showcase and a focus on turning it into an SEO machine. Then add on your courses/coaching.
The decision really comes down to whether you can get more traction with SEO or social accounts in my eyes.
Thanks! I think the latter route sounds more like what I'm thinking, I already have a tiktok account for the content, so will keep growing that and aiming to drive the traffic to the website while working on turning it into an SEO machine.
It'd be best to drive people to a landing page on the website to convince them to hand over their email then below that, showcase your content. TikTok followers aren't the same as Twitter or Insta followers.
You have a great point, yeah, personally when I watch TikTok, I barely check the their account info. So probably there is a limitation in terms of driving traffic. To your point of convincing people to hand over their email, my question is in the short run, I don't really have a course or coaching service to offer, what do I do with all those emails? Is it more for the long run when I decide to monetize my products, and then I will a list of leads from emails?
Also, I found out about BowTiedTetra from one of you articles about inbound marketing. Do you think if he would be a good resource for the business model that I plan to do? He offers consultation service on his website, but it looks like he is heavily on affiliating marketing, so not sure how relevant that would be?
that sounds good. so I guess my focus for now should be 1) create more contents on my website 2) build out social medial accounts 3) collect emails addresses; once the traffic grows into a certain mass, I can start to think about how to optimize it and monetize, Is that a fair assessment?
Very helpful how you laid out the trade-offs between selling a product on Amazon vs. building a standalone DTC website. My impression from reading is that Amazon has lower downside and lower upside, which makes it the better route for someone starting out with no e-com experience (i.e. myself). Lower downside because it's easier to setup, there's built-in traffic, and they manage your inventory, but lower upside because of high competition (incl. from Amazon itself) and less data. Do you agree?
I have one other question: you said "it’s pointless to send 20-50 units to Amazon for FBA when you’re just getting started." So if I were to manufacture a product and sell it on Amazon, what are my upfront costs going to look like to reach an appropriate scale? Can you give me a rough idea in terms of # of units or cost (I think you said $20-50k in another article)? I am trying to gauge what the initial investment will look like (excluding any advertising and other costs).
1. It's not that much easier to set up. There's built in traffic but you still have to find a way to get in front of that traffic. That's going to be paid ads or some blackhat stuff. Amazon is easier to start but not that much easier. You'll likely have better luck with Amazon in the beginning though.
2. Your upfront costs depend entirely on your product and manufacturer. Without knowing what you're selling, it's impossiblel to guess. Do your items have a MOQ of 100 units or 10,000? Are you selling an item that costs $0.50 to manufacture or $500 to manufacture per item?
You don't start with a budget and work backwards. I mean you can but if you're going that route, it may be best to start with affiliate, services, or a digital product if you're low on cash.
You should find a product and manufacturer and build the cost model based off of those items.
Autist q: When you say “leave and never come back” under DTC you mean “cmon u know what this is unless your an idiot” (funny) rather than “leave/dont try this (business model) its too hard”. Right?
I was trying (and apparently failing) to be funny. Yes if you need an explanation on how the revenue model of basic selling a product on a website (DTC) works... Then this may not be the community for you.
Fantastic post. Not from the US but reading the Amazon "cons" section gives me an idea of what our local marketplaces in Asia (Shopee, Lazada) will be pulling on us over the next few years.
Would you consider Print on Demand a good revenue model for online business? I suppose it's a bit like.. affiliate. The main printer is printing most money (as usual). But I wonder from a business perspective whether it's easier to promote, get SEO on (perhaps), etc.
I don't advise print on demand unless you already have an audience that you can promote your messages to. It's so easy to start print on demand, there's a million store that do it. Hence hard to rank for and low margin.
I recently found out about your Substack and have been reading all your posts from the beginning. It is very inspiring! I have been thinking about starting a website that aims at helping people improve their social skills (things like how to socialize at cocktail parties or what to say on first date). My plan is to start small, sharing books, videos, podcasts that I'm reading or watching on a daily basis, and contents that I think would be relevant for my audience. Long term plan is probably to grow into a coaching/course/subscription business. My questions are:
1) do you think overall whether it is a good plan? any major concerns?
2) you talked about starting with either e-commerce, affiliated or content business. So it seems like my plan in the short term looks like a content website? I feel like if I'm just sharing information on a daily or weekly basis, it is more like a blog? is it the right approach to begin with?
3) do you think if it is a good idea to start a substack website, instead of my own website? basically sharing information over there and grow into a newsletter subscription business.
You have to decide whether you want a newsletter business or a coach/course business.
The first, the newsletter is going to be your product and you'll want to funnel everyone into that using social or other means. Then add on courses once your list is built.
The latter is going to be focused on your social accounts with your website as a showcase and a focus on turning it into an SEO machine. Then add on your courses/coaching.
The decision really comes down to whether you can get more traction with SEO or social accounts in my eyes.
Thanks! I think the latter route sounds more like what I'm thinking, I already have a tiktok account for the content, so will keep growing that and aiming to drive the traffic to the website while working on turning it into an SEO machine.
It'd be best to drive people to a landing page on the website to convince them to hand over their email then below that, showcase your content. TikTok followers aren't the same as Twitter or Insta followers.
You have a great point, yeah, personally when I watch TikTok, I barely check the their account info. So probably there is a limitation in terms of driving traffic. To your point of convincing people to hand over their email, my question is in the short run, I don't really have a course or coaching service to offer, what do I do with all those emails? Is it more for the long run when I decide to monetize my products, and then I will a list of leads from emails?
Also, I found out about BowTiedTetra from one of you articles about inbound marketing. Do you think if he would be a good resource for the business model that I plan to do? He offers consultation service on his website, but it looks like he is heavily on affiliating marketing, so not sure how relevant that would be?
He's good with SEO. You aren't to the point to need consultation yet. You need to build first.
As far as the emails. Send a weekly email of interesting reads or whatever. Anything to keep the email list warm.
that sounds good. so I guess my focus for now should be 1) create more contents on my website 2) build out social medial accounts 3) collect emails addresses; once the traffic grows into a certain mass, I can start to think about how to optimize it and monetize, Is that a fair assessment?
Very helpful how you laid out the trade-offs between selling a product on Amazon vs. building a standalone DTC website. My impression from reading is that Amazon has lower downside and lower upside, which makes it the better route for someone starting out with no e-com experience (i.e. myself). Lower downside because it's easier to setup, there's built-in traffic, and they manage your inventory, but lower upside because of high competition (incl. from Amazon itself) and less data. Do you agree?
I have one other question: you said "it’s pointless to send 20-50 units to Amazon for FBA when you’re just getting started." So if I were to manufacture a product and sell it on Amazon, what are my upfront costs going to look like to reach an appropriate scale? Can you give me a rough idea in terms of # of units or cost (I think you said $20-50k in another article)? I am trying to gauge what the initial investment will look like (excluding any advertising and other costs).
1. It's not that much easier to set up. There's built in traffic but you still have to find a way to get in front of that traffic. That's going to be paid ads or some blackhat stuff. Amazon is easier to start but not that much easier. You'll likely have better luck with Amazon in the beginning though.
2. Your upfront costs depend entirely on your product and manufacturer. Without knowing what you're selling, it's impossiblel to guess. Do your items have a MOQ of 100 units or 10,000? Are you selling an item that costs $0.50 to manufacture or $500 to manufacture per item?
You don't start with a budget and work backwards. I mean you can but if you're going that route, it may be best to start with affiliate, services, or a digital product if you're low on cash.
You should find a product and manufacturer and build the cost model based off of those items.
Makes sense, thanks for your feedback.
Autist q: When you say “leave and never come back” under DTC you mean “cmon u know what this is unless your an idiot” (funny) rather than “leave/dont try this (business model) its too hard”. Right?
I was trying (and apparently failing) to be funny. Yes if you need an explanation on how the revenue model of basic selling a product on a website (DTC) works... Then this may not be the community for you.
Good. Agreed.
Fantastic post. Not from the US but reading the Amazon "cons" section gives me an idea of what our local marketplaces in Asia (Shopee, Lazada) will be pulling on us over the next few years.
Thanks! It's still a worthy avenue to go down though. There are a lot of consumers that will only shop on marketplaces and won't buy direct.