How to smash the blocks – making money online [a mindset shift]

There are some things I hear so often from the people I work with about making money online……

‘Someone else is selling the product I wanted to sell’

‘I had an idea but X is doing it now and theirs is great’

‘I totally missed the boat, X has just launched what I’ve been working on’

Regardless of whether you plan to start a blog in a specific niche or launch a new product, so often we fear we’re too late to the game to start making money online.

We think…….

• There are already so many blogs in the niche we have chosen.
• Someone else in your niche already offers the exact service you intended to offer.
• We know at least two other people who have launched a similar product.

…have you missed the boat? Is there no room for you? Or should you go back to the drawing board?

The answer is no.

via GIPHY

Let’s have an example to illustrate this. Imagine we have two lifestyle bloggers who both decide to release the same product. Say it’s a household control planner.

Both of these bloggers can be successful with their respective products for two main reasons:

1) Even within niches, there are sub-niches.

Even in something as niche as “lifestyle blogging” there are other niches. These other niches can be broken down in lots of different ways…

By social media platform.

• Bloggers who hang out on Facebook
• Bloggers who hang out on Instagram
• Bloggers who hang out on Twitter
• Bloggers who hang out on YouTube
• Bloggers who hang out on Pinterest

There are massively different communities with different audiences even just within the different platforms.

By topic

• Lifestyle bloggers who primarily post about family organisation
• Lifestyle bloggers who primarily post about cleaning hacks
• Lifestyle bloggers who primarily post about both of the above
• Lifestyle bloggers who have a different focus altogether
• You get the point……

By target audience

• A blogger focusing on speaking to young mums
• A blogger focusing on speaking to empty nesters
• A blogger focusing on speaking to students

The point being that two bloggers could release the same product in the same niche, but they may be reaching completely different people.

If Blogger #1 spends most of their time on Twitter and is focused on family organisation, they may never even come across Blogger #2, who spends most of their time on Facebook and is more focused on cleaning hacks.

They are in different sub niches so it is possible for them to both have success with a virtually identical product.

2) Every creation is different

When people buy a product, a huge part of what they’re buying is YOU—the seller.

To give you an example, when I launched the Revolution Inner Circle membership I had people waiting for the email so they could immediately jump in and join the membership. Yes, people buy into the Inner Circle because they want the features, but they also buy it because they read my blog, have seen my work, and just trust me to deliver a quality product.

People are buying the product because YOU made it.

They know you, they trust you, they care about you. They’re confident that YOU will deliver an awesome product.

If you see two identical products, which are you more likely to buy? The one made by someone you know? Or the one made by someone who’s a stranger to you?

Plenty of people will know Blogger #1 from our example, but not Blogger #2. And vice versa. Everyone tackles things from a different angle.

Even if you have two lifestyle journals or planners, they won’t be completely identical. Each person will approach the project differently and the formatting and design will be different.

Similarly, imagine two online courses on the same topic. The lessons will still be different even if they had the same title. The voice sharing the information and the focus will be different.

People will buy your product because they know your voice and have seen your blog post, watched your Facebook lives or YouTube videos and connected with you and how do present information.

Don’t be afraid to release your blog post or product just because it’s already been done before. There are very few totally unique products out there in the world.

Your product will be different, even if purely because it’s made by a different person.

Have you ever worried about making money online? Maybe about creating something you’ve seen done before? Or have you ever seen a very similar product being launched by two people in very different ways?