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independence3 unconnected · 1 more author in those circles
standing

contested · 6 claims against 2

applies to

consumer, no audience needed

assumes a product under $20

confidence

high

evidence

9 claims · 7 articles · 4 receipts

window

2013-12-12 → 2024-10-01

3 builders who never spoke to each other · contested

List the product where buyers already shop

Some segments search inside one marketplace and never reach the open web, so putting the same digital product there can outsell your own site while the two channels stay roughly even. The costs are real: the platform keeps the email addresses, and its internal ranking is not something you can tune the way you tune your own traffic.

What both sides agree on

  • Separate where your traffic comes from from where your money comes from, because the channel sending almost all your visitors may be sending almost none of your buyers.

Where this splits

A marketplace listing is credited with a third of revenue and with baseline income needing no promotion, and separately called a channel that plateaus while owned search compounds and hands you no email addresses.

  1. side 01 · 6 claims

    List on the marketplace where buyers already shop

    Cory Zue · Florin Pop · Jakob Greenfeld

    1. 1Research where your buyers actually shop and then list your product inside that marketplace, because some segments search only there and never reach the open web.
    2. 2List a digital product on the marketplace where buyers already shop for that category rather than only selling from your own site.
    3. 3Sell through both your own site and a marketplace, because the split can stay roughly even and each channel reaches different buyers.
    4. 4An evergreen course on a marketplace can cover baseline income with no promotion beyond mentioning it in passing, freeing attention for new bets.
    5. 5A store that takes a percentage of what you sell cannot put you underwater, unlike ad spend or paid content where the money leaves before any arrives, and it has its own reason to push the best listing to the top.

  2. side 02 · 2 claims

    Marketplace sales plateau and the platform keeps your customers

    Cory Zue · Nathan Barry

    1. 1Expect marketplace revenue to plateau rather than compound the way owned search traffic does, because you cannot tune a marketplace's internal ranking the way you tune your own SEO.
    2. 2Republishing an existing course on a marketplace grows reach but not your list, since the platform keeps the email addresses.

What it returned

  • 12

    In Zue's record week of 12 sales and $12 revenue, which was 36% of all revenue the site had ever made, two thirds came from his own site and one third from Etsy

  • $1,601

    $1,601 from the Udemy course that month, with payouts arriving a month in arrears and no active marketing.

  • Opening an Etsy shop for his place card templates produced more September sales than his own site's organic channel; organic only overtook Etsy again in October.

  • Zue added Place Card Me templates to Etsy alongside cutting prices, and Etsy later accounted for about a third of his sales

Sources

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

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the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click, and the address is used for this and nothing else.