Getting an Online Audience Can Be Tricky
This is from my weekly email series, The Weekly Mixtape. I’d appreciate it if you did this right and subscribed. And don’t forget to check your Spam folder for the confirmation email!
Probably the trickiest things about having an online business is that to really get the kind of revenue that you want, you need to have an online audience. And with the way the online world is, everything is more crowded and louder than ever, so sticking out in that world can really be difficult.
There’s three primary ways to develop an online audience, each with its own potential issues:
- Social Media
- SEO
- Ads
Social Media has become a bit of a swamp (especially Twitter). With all the noise, it can be difficult to stand out. Yes, it’s possible if you are consistently above average in creativity or humor on your posts/videos/photos/etc., but that can be hard. That means many people take the easier road: be controversial. Unfortunately, this doesn’t exactly make the online world a more pleasant place to be (or IRL).
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, puts you completely at the mercy of Google. You need to play by their rules. And you never know when they may change those rules and you’re left starting over again. Plus their crawling likely isn’t going to pick up on your stuff right away, so you’re left waiting until they finally get to your stuff.
Then there’s ads. Paying for attention now with the hope it’ll lead to either revenue now or an audience for revenue in the future.
I bring this all up because this newsletter discusses my current progress on The Indiepreneur. And getting a wider audience has definitely been a struggle.
So, after quite a bit of resistance, I think I’m finally ready to try Option 3 and pay for attention. I just need to get the situation right, first. I’ll let you know how it goes once I get there, but I’m a little be hesitant about spending money to potentially get nothing in return.
Such it business life, though.
Has anyone tried using online ads? What has worked for you in the past?
The Links
- My latest: Very exciting stuff about getting a Tax ID for your business.
- Look, another book review! This one is about 7 Questions to help you be a better boss.
- I’ve written some stuff that doesn’t quite fit in here on Medium. Like this article comparing Freelance today to Unionization in the 1900s.
- Speaking of other things that I’ve done, I’m now officially a partner of LDGR
- My wife and I recently discovered the show Evil, which is somehow both interesting and not very good. I especially get annoyed when they leave things open to try to be creepy (I think) but it just comes across as sloppy.
Service Dog Update
Wilson is doing really well…except for his nipping obsession. He typically does it only in the morning when he’s been locked away all night and really is desperate for attention. Or in the evening when he really wants to get out and do something.
In other words, we all know Wilson biting our hands, legs, butt, etc. is his attempt to get more pets and play time. And all our trainers have made it very clear that the best way to stop dogs from doing attention seeking behavior is to not reward it with attention.
Yet it still remains really, really hard to not respond to a bite in the butt.
