Exploring Your Niche and Found Money

601 followers

Updated 6 years ago

I just woke up from a dream about finding money on the ground. I'm not much of a dream interpreter, but I immediately thought of an old friend of mine who was my roommate in the Army.

One day, he and I were walking to the post theater and he found a single, one dollar bill on the ground as we were cutting through a parking lot.

This sounds much like a trivial find, true enough. In fact, it turned out to be a trivial find for him but some 35 years later (today) it would resurface as a life lesson for me.

If nothing else, the course of our day changed completely as George and I scoured this rather large parking lot for more money. The movie had ended before George would give up on the idea that nobody drops just one, single dollar.

If I had found that dollar and if George wasn't with me, I would have picked the dollar up, put in my pocket and continued my day. But now, George had me thinking about a day that I found a $50 bill blowing against a chain link fence. Should I have looked for more? I will always wonder about that because, in my mind, a $50 is exactly the same as a $1. I mean, it is one, single bill.

Which brings me to WA and how I relate my finding money experiences to developing a niche and becoming successful within that niche.

Most of us came to WA not knowing what was in store for us. We did not know that we even needed a niche, much less develop one. Am I right? This is the part that I would relate to George and my decision to go see a movie. The post theater plays random movies, so we didn't know what we were in for, but we were up for the adventure.

Back to today...

So, in just one week's time, we settled on a niche and began writing within our niche, perhaps we have determined that we chose too wide of a market segment or too narrow of a niche that we felt constrained in. I see questions about this all the time. I'm certain it has happened to most of us. Anyway, this part would be akin to getting dressed for the day. What to wear for the day. As we consider our clothes for the day we consider what's available to us, what's clean, what's appropriate and what the weather is like.

As we write our articles and blogs, this is our journey. Developing a market within your niche is, in fact, a journey. But all of our journeys are different. Some take longer than others.

So, this next part is the whole relationship between my dream, my experience and developing my online business.

Along my journey, I earn a dollar. Do I stop what I'm doing, research how I made that dollar and try to develop that single dollar into more dollars? Or, do I put that dollar in my pocket and just keep doing what I'm doing?

There is a risk that comes with either answer.

You might learn that what earned you that first dollar will steer you in a different direction than you thought you were headed. Then, again, you might learn that was the only dollar you could find going that direction. Perhaps you will determine that you were on the right path and will keep heading in the direction you were already going.

I contend that in between those two options lies the best answer. I did not want to spend my entire day looking for money. In my opinion, it would have been reasonable to look around several cars, maybe get down on my knees and look underneath a few of them, then head to the theater.

In hindsight, it's easy to say that, had George just picked up the dollar and walked on to the theater, the result would have been the same. We only found one dollar that day.

For that part, you can take in relation to "Non-Expert" advice. While I might tell you that chasing that dollar is a waste of time, George would tell you that there are more dollars where that dollar came from. Only one of us would be right.

Here at WA, we talk about being distracted by shiny objects. Don't let that first sale be your shiny object. Certainly look at what you've done to earn that sale and certainly try to repeat your success, but your success may just be in the sheer number of articles/blogs that you have done on that subject. Don't close your mind to the idea of heading off in a new direction if you find that it will be a more successful direction.

I'm not suggesting that you'd change your niche altogether. I mean, George and I were in North Carolina. He found a dollar in a parking lot, so we didn't get in our car and drive to Georgia to search a parking lot there for more money, In fact, we ended up at the post museum that day...mostly because it was still open when we were done with the parking lot.

You might be writing about Pac Man video games today but then discover that you are going to make money on Space Invaders video games.

Just like in your daily life, sometimes you need to adapt to overcome!

I thank you for taking the time to read this scattered blog. As I try to develop my "Blogging" skills, I mostly struggle with what I might say to the WA community.

As always, I wish you all the very best in success!

John