Online Entrepreneur: The Path to Product
Here’s something funny to ponder as you build your business online. You have to have a product to sell. So many of us are out there blogging and building an online presence. That’s great, and it’s all part of the game. But I have a tip. You have to have a product to sell if you want to be an online entrepreneur. One that people are willing to pay for. It’s easy to lose sight of that fact.
So here’ the path I suggest you follow.
Create A Product As Soon As Possible
–Start blogging.
–Explore your voice and niche.
–Start to learn SEO.
–Create a free give away to get people to opt in to your email list.
–Start thinking about what product you plan to sell.
–As soon as is practical, create the product.
–It’s important to create an actual product that you are trying to sell as soon as possible because you probably will not do tremendously well (if at all!) with your initial product(s).
–So, just like blogging and building out a niche, there is a learning curve with the actual building and marketing of a product. The sooner you are building and selling products, the sooner you will learn the key skills and get closer to real success.
–Keep blogging, tweaking your niche, and selling your product(s).
–Keep iterating and working at it.
Help People, Yes, But Sell Something If Your Are Really an Online Entrepreneur
At the time of writing this post, I’m personally at about stage four of the above process, learning SEO. All of this is taking longer than I anticipated, which is predictable. As they say, you overestimate what you can accomplish in a year, and underestimate what you can accomplish in three years. Quite true. So don’t expect to have your product up and running immediately. But keep your eye on the prize and pivot to creating and selling something as soon as possible.
Your focus needs to be on: a) helping people and b) steering them towards the product. If they don’t buy, you don’t get to keep helping them.
Oh, yeah. And remember–the product has to be something people are willing to pay for.
