2 builders who never spoke to each other

Stack every product on one audience

Choose the group first and let the format follow, so a course, a book, software and a talk all serve the same people and promotion of one carries the others. Products spread across unrelated markets mean effort on each does nothing for the rest, so kill, sell or fully automate whatever sits outside the core even while it still earns, and expect to have nothing to say in an industry you have no connection to.

The method

1. 01

   Choose one audience and stack products on it rather than repeating a good business in three unrelated markets

2. 02

   Keep every product inside one audience so that promotion of one carries over to the others; unrelated products mean effort on one does nothing for the rest

3. 03

   Kill, sell or fully automate the products that sit outside your core audience even while they are still making money, because the attention they take is the real cost

4. 04

   Resist the urge to make lots of unrelated things once you go independent - breadth produced no meaningful revenue, and the money came from the two or three products already aimed at one audience.

5. 05

   Solving a genuinely painful problem in an industry you have no connection to leaves you with nothing to say and no repeatable way to sell

What it returned

• Brennan Dunn built Planscope, a freelancing rates book and a follow-up course all for freelancers, uniting both customer bases on one blog; Patrick McKenzie's teacher, professional-services and marketer products each earn well but share no audience, and he was jealous of the single-audience version

• His four early products had almost no audience overlap, which he calls a marketing nightmare; his second design book earned roughly twice the first largely through cross-selling the same audience

• He sold one app and planned to retire another that still earned, keeping only one small app because its audience overlapped and it needed no attention

• Six months of a hundred-things challenge, including a burrito project, produced no significant new revenue; income came from writing Jolt, re-releasing Marketing for Developers and doubling down on Product People Club. He also renarrowed the podcast from makers generally to developers, designers and entrepreneurs wanting independent income.

Sources

• My First Year Teaching: How I Built My Audience - Double Your FreelancingBrennan Dunn · doubleyourfreelancing.com · Segment Your Audience · 2013-08-15
• Going independent (2016 year in review)Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · The 2016 maker challenge · undated
• Your business isn't about finding a great ideaJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Your business isn't about finding a great idea · undated
• How to cheat at online businessNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Building your audience · 2013-08-06
• Back on the HorseCory Zue · coryzue.com · Publish my year in review: B · 2022-02-01