work in b2b sales (biz travel, prev ad tech sales & fintech) and cold email for meetings daily. Not sure if cold email agency still viable or other type of lead gen would be better?
Do you know anything about cold email or lead gen other than being on the end of it?
How to buy/sell emails, how to setup the infrastructure, how to keep a domain warm as to not end up in spam, etc.?
Niche down further. Both of those still work in many sectors but they're way too broad to answer any questions. IE lead gen in lawsuits - huge money. Lead gen for plumbers, a lot less money.
Just wanted to drop in and say that the entire Substack has been a tremendous help for setting up my first official business. It's probably gonna fail but this Substack increased my odds of success ten-fold. Will try to provide an update way down the line on how its going. Might be awhile though because like the jungle says "Success ain't linear".
You have to learn to write and structure articles the way Google likes, learn KW research and targeting, learn interlinking, etc... You can't outsource the process to someone that doesn't know what they're doing if you don't know what you're doing. You'll just be wasting money on content that won't rank.
Y'all, I have NO clue what to do! I'm unemployed. I've worked in the NYC high-profiled restaurant life and luxury beauty retail sales. I'd love to have a newsletter since I'm a newsletter fiend; I've lived in Brazil a few times, Portugal, Aruba, Buenos Aires - living abroad is my drug - but I can't figure out how to translate that into a newsletter since I'm broke and can't afford to travel anywhere atm. I am also intrigued by the boutique hotel industry but I don't know what would bring value to boutique hotels so I can get PAID. I need money yesterday. Thoughts anyone??
Idea for future stack: Would love to hear about successful e-commerce stores and how they got going. Hearing semi detailed success stories would help people to think through their own venture, start creative idea brainstorming, and how provide real life examples to start and grow.
Starter Story is great but they don't actually go into the nitty gritty about how the business was built. Much of it is "if this person can do it, you can too". Great for the beginner to see the big picture but not for actionable advice.
Hi Opossum, Great thread！ Any thoughts on using the Kadence theme for wordpress compare to GeneratePress? Which is more user friendly for non-coders to build a website?
Didn't see this until now. It doesn't matter. They're both good themes even though I haven't used Kadence. The point is, just use a good theme and get started immediately.
f you’re serious about starting your first income stream, get the free version of GeneratePress. Once your site is stood up, reach out to me and I’ll give you a copy of the premium version for free.
NGMI question, I saw your blogspot and saw this on the theme section on your blogspot, could. How can I have this Bowtied Opossum bro?
I'm at the “I just don’t have an idea.” stage Opossum. I reached here because Bull wants us to a secondary source of income and I thought I'd do something online. I am an ICU doc. Thats my niche. I could start a website on that. But there are hundreds already. I could start a book summary site. I love reading. But there are hundreds already. I could start a blog of my random thoughts/observations about all the things I'm interested in..etc. But who would care to read my plain vanilla observations.
There's a million paths to go down. Picking and doubling down on the idea is the hardest thing. For an ICU doc, here is some high level ideas for you.
1. Look at what https://twitter.com/DoctorAnarchist is doing with his Substack. He's filled a niche in medicine that's long overdue. I'm not saying copy him but it's worth a read.
2. I know a few ICU docs and they tell me the craziest stories of the ICU. Could start a humorous newsletter about the best roundups of crazy. You'd have a medical and non-medical market for that.
3. Dumbed down emergency medicine for the preppers of the world. A lot of people would love basic first aid delivered to their inbox every week with if this happens, do this. Make sure you caveat this with "not medical advice".
4. Real world medicine for med students and residents. What they teach you in school vs the ICU. idk-maybe not my best idea.
5. I'm sure you have a broad amount of contacts in the medical equipment niche. Leverage those contacts for wholesale agreements and start selling the equipment online.
6. General ecommerce with a different product. Any product. Just like the rest of us shlubs.
If you like any of the above ideas, run with them. But don't box yourself into "My niche is ICU doc". I was a self proclaimed engineer (not software) before I made a career change.
Thanks for the great content Oposssum. I'm in the same boat as NCA above, struggling to find an idea to go all in on. I'm really sitting between two basic ideas:
1. I am an engineer by training that specializes in R&D, tech entrepreneurship and building MVPs. I've done a lot of technically impressive things but haven't hit success commercially yet. I am struggling to figure out how to turn that into compelling content. I think there might be something in either building MVPs as a business or writing about how to build tech products quickly, cheaply efficiently etc.
2. I love reading especially business and psych but as someone else pointed out there's a million blogs like that out there. I'm still thinking about trying my hand
Get out a piece of paper and write out as many ideas as possible for companies you could build. Do it again tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that... Eventually you'll run upon a good idea.
Mailchimp sucks for a variety of reasons, but at least the functionality is decent. It's really going to depend on your email size and needs. Email clients are easy to exchange so until you get to 1000+ subscribers or an ultra customized funnel, it won't matter. Mailerlite is another basic free avenue. Once you go paid, it's going to really depend on your need.
work in b2b sales (biz travel, prev ad tech sales & fintech) and cold email for meetings daily. Not sure if cold email agency still viable or other type of lead gen would be better?
Do you know anything about cold email or lead gen other than being on the end of it?
How to buy/sell emails, how to setup the infrastructure, how to keep a domain warm as to not end up in spam, etc.?
Niche down further. Both of those still work in many sectors but they're way too broad to answer any questions. IE lead gen in lawsuits - huge money. Lead gen for plumbers, a lot less money.
You’re right. Only know some of the basics, not all and not an expert at them.
Re: niche selection, have considered lead gen for personal injury firms in X city. Maybe senior living in certain area.
Really, I’m unsure which type of business to start? Figured something around sales experience but maybe need to improve specific skills first?
Appreciate it, Opossum. I know I probably sound like an idiot.
Hey Opossum,
Just wanted to drop in and say that the entire Substack has been a tremendous help for setting up my first official business. It's probably gonna fail but this Substack increased my odds of success ten-fold. Will try to provide an update way down the line on how its going. Might be awhile though because like the jungle says "Success ain't linear".
It's only a failure if you give up or don't learn anything.
Yup. My main goal going for this business is learning the ropes. Only one true way to learn business and that’s by starting one.
I have a YouTube coding channel with 1k views/day.
Any recommendations on how to leverage it to make affiliate/other money?
Just subscribed as a paid sub, and haven't read all your articles yet.
Start your own product, sponsorships, funnel that audience to social/website/email list and sell there.
Breaking shit for a couple days
Havent had this much fun in a while
Probably nothing
Very informative, do you have to use WordPress, or can you just use sub stack to get started for blog writing?
https://bowtiedopossum.substack.com/p/july-qa-roundup
Great information. Would you recommend paying for content writers or just learning to write and taking the time to do it yourself?
By the way, would like to take you up on the offer for the premium GeneratePress. Let me know, thanks!
You have to learn to write and structure articles the way Google likes, learn KW research and targeting, learn interlinking, etc... You can't outsource the process to someone that doesn't know what they're doing if you don't know what you're doing. You'll just be wasting money on content that won't rank.
As for GP, dms.
Great information
Y'all, I have NO clue what to do! I'm unemployed. I've worked in the NYC high-profiled restaurant life and luxury beauty retail sales. I'd love to have a newsletter since I'm a newsletter fiend; I've lived in Brazil a few times, Portugal, Aruba, Buenos Aires - living abroad is my drug - but I can't figure out how to translate that into a newsletter since I'm broke and can't afford to travel anywhere atm. I am also intrigued by the boutique hotel industry but I don't know what would bring value to boutique hotels so I can get PAID. I need money yesterday. Thoughts anyone??
Get a job. Then get a career. Then make WiFi money. Then worry about the things you like to do and care about. In that order.
Thank you Opossum. Secured 6 fig USTT job, now time to start second income.
Idea for future stack: Would love to hear about successful e-commerce stores and how they got going. Hearing semi detailed success stories would help people to think through their own venture, start creative idea brainstorming, and how provide real life examples to start and grow.
This is called starterstory.com
Starter Story is great but they don't actually go into the nitty gritty about how the business was built. Much of it is "if this person can do it, you can too". Great for the beginner to see the big picture but not for actionable advice.
Hi Opossum, Great thread！ Any thoughts on using the Kadence theme for wordpress compare to GeneratePress? Which is more user friendly for non-coders to build a website?
Didn't see this until now. It doesn't matter. They're both good themes even though I haven't used Kadence. The point is, just use a good theme and get started immediately.
f you’re serious about starting your first income stream, get the free version of GeneratePress. Once your site is stood up, reach out to me and I’ll give you a copy of the premium version for free.
NGMI question, I saw your blogspot and saw this on the theme section on your blogspot, could. How can I have this Bowtied Opossum bro?
What would you recommend finding your niche? I currently speak a few languages fluently and have some tips but it seems saturated. Does that matter?
I'm at the “I just don’t have an idea.” stage Opossum. I reached here because Bull wants us to a secondary source of income and I thought I'd do something online. I am an ICU doc. Thats my niche. I could start a website on that. But there are hundreds already. I could start a book summary site. I love reading. But there are hundreds already. I could start a blog of my random thoughts/observations about all the things I'm interested in..etc. But who would care to read my plain vanilla observations.
What do I do? Am I overthinking this, Opossum?
There's a million paths to go down. Picking and doubling down on the idea is the hardest thing. For an ICU doc, here is some high level ideas for you.
1. Look at what https://twitter.com/DoctorAnarchist is doing with his Substack. He's filled a niche in medicine that's long overdue. I'm not saying copy him but it's worth a read.
2. I know a few ICU docs and they tell me the craziest stories of the ICU. Could start a humorous newsletter about the best roundups of crazy. You'd have a medical and non-medical market for that.
3. Dumbed down emergency medicine for the preppers of the world. A lot of people would love basic first aid delivered to their inbox every week with if this happens, do this. Make sure you caveat this with "not medical advice".
4. Real world medicine for med students and residents. What they teach you in school vs the ICU. idk-maybe not my best idea.
5. I'm sure you have a broad amount of contacts in the medical equipment niche. Leverage those contacts for wholesale agreements and start selling the equipment online.
6. General ecommerce with a different product. Any product. Just like the rest of us shlubs.
If you like any of the above ideas, run with them. But don't box yourself into "My niche is ICU doc". I was a self proclaimed engineer (not software) before I made a career change.
Thanks for the great content Oposssum. I'm in the same boat as NCA above, struggling to find an idea to go all in on. I'm really sitting between two basic ideas:
1. I am an engineer by training that specializes in R&D, tech entrepreneurship and building MVPs. I've done a lot of technically impressive things but haven't hit success commercially yet. I am struggling to figure out how to turn that into compelling content. I think there might be something in either building MVPs as a business or writing about how to build tech products quickly, cheaply efficiently etc.
2. I love reading especially business and psych but as someone else pointed out there's a million blogs like that out there. I'm still thinking about trying my hand
What do I do? Am I likewise overthinking this?
#2 is going to be hard for you to make money on.
#1 doesn't sound bad but it's not flushed out.
Get out a piece of paper and write out as many ideas as possible for companies you could build. Do it again tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that... Eventually you'll run upon a good idea.
thanks for the advice. I'll do that.
Great intro. I can't wait to start selling some fucking lamps!
possumlamps.com - lighting up the jungle.
What email service do you recommend for collecting, managing, and sending to your email list?
Mailchimp sucks for a variety of reasons, but at least the functionality is decent. It's really going to depend on your email size and needs. Email clients are easy to exchange so until you get to 1000+ subscribers or an ultra customized funnel, it won't matter. Mailerlite is another basic free avenue. Once you go paid, it's going to really depend on your need.
Check out convertkit. Haven't used them yet but I've been told good things.
I went with convertkit and so far the onboarding process is really good.