Choosing A Niche & Branding Yourelf - Selling a "Me" Package

byjayaffiliate

205 followers

Updated 10 years ago

I don't have this figured out.

I'm going to walk through it, step-by-step, in hopes that you relate and contribute. So, please comment and lets start a discussion that we can all benefit from.

Previous Failures Online:

I've started and abandoned a handful of blogs over the years. So many social accounts and business sites have gone into the great unnoticed deep dark abyss, the black hole of the trafficless noisy internet.

Every single time, I just lose interest in the site. Most of the time, the reason was because no one cared, it went unnoticed. So I figured, why should I keep doing it.

What I'm really trying to figure out is this...

• what value do I actually have to offer a specific audience?
• who's the audience?
• how do I find them online?
• and what do they already want?

I have to have something that is needed or wanted by a solid audience that has money, is already searching for it, and would pay for it... don't I?

I don't see myself buying numerous products and reviewing/comparing them in hopes that people click through my amazon or affiliate link to make their purchase.


About "Me"... Packaged:

Can "Me" be packaged and sold:

We've all seen the Pat Flynn's and David Siteman Garlands of the web. They've branded themselves. They're extremely helpful to a specific niche audience. They're a rare breed. Or are they? Is it just that they followed through and THAT is the rare part?

• Can anyone be packaged up and sold or does it take a very specific experience and personality that people already are attracted to?

• Did people gravitate toward them first, or did they create something that people eventually came to like?

As Marilyn Manson put it, "We're all stars, in the dope show". While he's obviously talking about drugs, the point here is that in the sobering world of reality, we're not all that interesting.

My Story:

Is it good enough?

I've been the Marketing Director for a television network. We sold Real Estate by auction 4 nights per week on tv as well as jewelry, rare coins, rugs and other items. We had an ecommerce site but 99% of our sales came from live TV viewers calling in orders, 1% from the internet.

I've been a local real estate auctioneer calling bids at the podium selling commercial property, residential, land, industrial and office complexes. I've been a Realtor. I've flipped real estate. I've specialized in bail outs for foreclosures and mortgage short sales.

I've had 2 hobbies that I'm pretty well versed in: Musician and Fitness.

I'm currently the Marketing Director for a company that helps home improvement companies get high income home owner leads to do high dollar home upgrades, like kitchen remodels, re-roofing, brick pavers, pool installs, etc. Most of the time through direct mail lead generation, sometimes through internet leads.

My day-to-day:

I manage a small team consisting of a graphic designer, an Infusionsoft specialist who handles the annoyingly granular details of campaign automation, and a small 2 man call center with an autodialer connected through an API to Infusionsoft's CRM, calling business owners nationally. We deal with 80 franchises.

Is there anything interesting enough or informative enough to have this all packaged up with the shiny new toy appeal that adds up to a "Me-Package"? If I attempt to package that, who's really looking for anything that I have there?

Can I squeeze "Me" into a package?

When you come across someone like David Siteman Garland, it's something that has value to a targeted audience. An audience that already exists and goes online seeking answers for what he's banged his head against for years.

When he started, was there already others doing it way better than him? Or was he first on the scene and that's why it worked?

This thought process is possibly the closest I've come to not creating a website that ends up just floating around in space?

What angle do I take? How do I package it up?

I'm looking for an AH-HA!

The Struggle:

I've heard so many good stories...my story is still in the struggle part. That's okay because, all good stories have that hard uphill stage...Although it sucks to be in that phase!

I'm at the part where I have more month at the end of the money. Where I do not have that AH-HA moment on the foreseeable horizon.

As I write this, 2 kids are in the pool that I'll have to jump up and tend to in a few minutes so this won't be a college dorm room start up story, pulling all-nighter's with red eye caffiene break through's till the wee hours figuring things out. It very likely will be a small incremental movement that isn't profound at all, It's going to be a slow, hard road.

When people talk about start up capital and hockey stick growth it excites me and it upsets me, that's just not a likely outcome. Not that I'm apposed to it.

I have time, but not tons of it. I'm a father, nights and weekends are barely even available to me but I can squeeze in a solid handful of hours per week. Probably about 10.

I hope someone will say something that makes me go YES! That's what I should do!

And I hope that something here makes someone else stir up their creative juices.

As of now, I spend my 10 hours a week poking around wondering what I SHOULD be doing instead of DOING what I should be doing, in a single direction every time I sit down in front of this god forsaken mac!

I'm scattered. I find a great idea then I realize I don't have all the ingredients to do it so I have to look around further for something that will work better for me.

I'm not really interested in buying a bunch of products to compare them in hopes that the reader clicks through to make a purchase. Although I would very willingly do that if I though that it was the long play to my future happiness. I don't fear working for it, I fear wasting time and effort going in the wrong direction.

Any suggestions???

Can we knock our noggins together and unwind the components of a break through?

-Fearless & Scared Shitless