Be careful about attracting beginners

They often can’t afford what you sell or will try it once and move on.

Instead, create content for your ideal client instead, one can afford your offer and will do the work.

I wrote blog posts and articles for new authors and writers for a few years.

Two examples come to mind. I wrote a several thousand-word guide to using Scrivener for blogging, packed with pics, examples, and templates.

I also published a huge step-by-step breakdown about how to crowdsource great book covers over at 99designs.

Creating beginner content takes hours. I covered every step, including pics, supporting videos, explainers, and examples. It was kind of like writing a recipe but it took far longer. And I had to eat my own dinner, i.e. use Srivener to blog for a few months and spend money on getting a book cover from 99designs.

When I get this type of content right, it does well on search or social for a few months. I was OK with this measure of success for a few years. More search or social traffic meant more ad revenue.

I like it when DMs and comments roll in, too. They always fall into one of three camps.

Camp one says, “I followed your guide. It was great, thanks”. And I never hear from them again.

Camp two says something like, “Doesn’t work!” without providing context or information.

Camp three says something like, “I’ve got this great resource you could include in your guide” and proceeds to pitch their wares or product.

o what’s missing here?

You can’t make money from camp one, don’t pay attention to camp two, and camp three is trying to make money from your content.

I was fine with beginner content for a few years because I ran a content publishing business. I felt happy when a reader found a piece of my content helpful. And I got paid via ad revenue.

But I shifted my business model last year. Now, I work with clients. Traffic and ad revenue aren’t part of that model. So that means publishing far less beginner content.

Beginners can’t afford coaching or premium offers. Like running a high-end restaurant, you don’t want to attract people looking for fast food prices.

I’m better off creating premium content further up the value chain. It’ll get less traffic, but it should prove more profitable. That also means assuming a certain level of expertise for my ideal client or reader. If someone can’t follow along, they’re probably not a good fit.

On that…

I’m creating a paid newsletter offering custom Claude and ChatGPT prompts for creators. I’m assuming you’ve tried these tools and want to use them more. Reply ‘AI’ if you want first access.