I have failed miserably several times with my online “businesses”.
Most likely you have done it too.
At the time, I didn’t know why I was failing. Why people were not coming to my site and not buying anything from me.
I was sure that I was creating good and valuable content. I also promoted good and helpful products.
But the sales weren’t going anywhere.
After several of these failed attempts I had to do something. I was bored of failing.
It was time to go back to the basics.
I also took a hard look at the successful businesses and compared them to my sites.
And then it hit me. My focus was off.
In some cases I was close, but not quite there. And that makes a huge difference.
I realized that the successful business ideas nailed 3 elements perfectly.
And here those 3 ideas are in a nice little graph.
And here is how I define them:
1. Market = Target customers (or readers)
2. Offer = Value creation in exchange for money/attention
3. Execution = A platform which connects the market and offer
All these individual elements will be discussed in more detail in upcoming posts.
But now, let’s take a look why having only 2 of the 3 is no good.
Market + Offer = Wishful thinking
This is the case when you know who you are going to target and you have the offer, but you are lacking in execution.
I call this “wishful thinking”.
After all, everything you have is just a dream, an idea. Without execution you don’t have a business.
I know this very well, since I am prone to come up with a lot of (great) ideas but often won’t execute on them. Hence a long list of ideas, techniques, business concepts and yes, unused domain names.
The only way to get rid of the wishful thinking syndrome, is to choose a market + offer combo you have identified and start building a platform. Or you can give others incentives to use their platforms to sell your products and services (= you are the product creator and rely heavily on affiliate activity for sales). Adding the platform to the mix and making it a valuable resource is the thing that will create a business.
Offer + Execution = Conversion nightmare
What about the case of offer + execution?
This one is called “conversion nightmare”.
Conversion nightmare refers to a situation where you have taken action (good job!) and you have a product to sell… but you don’t have a target market.
If you don’t know your market, your platform will be a bit hit and miss as you are trying to cater to an audience that doesn’t exist or you are trying to please everyone but actually pleasing no one.
So basically you have just built a product without customers or a blog without readers.
I have made this mistake in the past with a weight-loss blog. The keywords that I was ranking for brought in an okay amount of visitors, but there just wasn’t any conversions. Now, when I think about it in retrospect, the reason for the failure came down to few things:
- Me not being passionate enough about the topic. This lead to lack of consistency.
- Writing style of the content was aimed towards people my age. The people doing searches on those terms are typically around 40 or older. I found this only later on when I did some research.
- The above point also meant that the site wasn’t focused enough to solve problems of that exact market.
So been there, done that. Learned a lesson.
To solve this problem you have to focus. Focus on specific market. Market that has people willing to buy from you. Or to read your content and share it to their networks if that is your goal.
Market + Execution = Broke and Bitter
Ah, now comes the situation where several bloggers are in.
This is something that I call “Broke and Bitter”.
You have built a platform, gained some kind of an audience but you have absolutely no idea how to monetize.
Then you go on forums and/or other blogs asking how can you monetize your awesome site about minimalist lifestyle or wallpapers. Classic.
The thing is… you should have some kind of idea how you are going to monetize before even starting. Sure, in many cases you can come up with some ways to make some money after you have gotten traction.
But why make it harder for you in the first place? In the beginning, why not spend a little bit of time to have an idea what you want to accomplish and what is your vision for the future?
I have done this mistake too.
I ran a site focused on personal productivity, aimed at serial procrastinators employing themselves. I created pretty good content for the site, got some traffic and all. But I had no idea at all how to turn that traffic to money.
Sure, I could have created some products myself, but in reality, all my best content was already out there in my blog for free. Since this wasn’t a passion project either, I did what many people with no clue how to continue do: I quit.
Market + Offer + Execution = Viable business
Now this is the ideal situation. And I dare to say that it’s the only situation when you can create a sustainable business.
Sure, you can make some money when you have 2 of the above elements in place. But it won’t last for long.
Combinations of just 2 usually rely heavily on tactics. And luck.
I don’t want to base my business on those two things. I am sure you don’t either.
Just answer this question: If you know what you are selling, to whom you are selling and how you are selling, do you think there is a chance you will actually make money?
Sure.
If you know all those things, can you actually build a sustainable business around it?
Of course.
Final thoughts
Now I won’t be stupid enough to say that if you know your market, your offer and have a suitable execution platform, then you will immediately become Donald Trump of online business. That would be naive.
But. I dare to say that the likelihood of you actually creating business will increase a lot by thinking about the mix you choose and doing research about your target market.
The easiest way to know the target market is to belong in it, or have belonged in it before.
The best way to match a market and an offer is to create the offer yourself based on real, existing customer needs.
When you know the market and the offer, then it is just a matter of connecting them on a platform. Preferably a platform that your market is already familiar with, no matter if it’s run by you or partners (=affiliates).
And yes. You are not restricted to only one platform, one offer and one market. But all those should still form a coherent mix. Diversifying them too much will just lead to confusion and kill the laser targeted focus. And that will kill the business.
Your turn
Now, in the comment section please share some of your experiences:
- Have you reached a market/offer/platform fit? How did you do it?
- If you are comfortable with it, share a story of a failed project and explain why it didn’t work.