Can Specialty Niches Make Money in Info Marketing?

[fltrt521]

Thank You for allowing me to post on this forum, I've just finished reading the book and was totally impressed with the no-nonsense truth on what it takes to have a successful business. I gave a brief description of myself on the about page but If you haven't checked it out, briefly I started a website called <<link removed by mods>> designed to show home owners how to fix their own minor home plumbing issues.

My you tube channel currently gets approx 60,000 views a month with about 3000 subscribers. I make a couple of bucks off of the banners ads, but nothing to speak of. I just created a product comprised of a keynote presentation, video and screencast demonstrations which is designed to walk home owners through a process I use in my one-man plumbing business. It will show them how and where to look for small plumbing problems before they turn into full blow emergencies.

I'm currently running FB ad's offering to down load the product for free in exchange for their honest review of the product as well as any improvments that they feel I could include. To date according to my leadpages analytics , their have been 356 views and 27 opt-ins. That's about an 8% return on a free down load? I've spent to date about 300.00 on the FB ad's. Question is, if they won't even download a free product, how can I expect to place it up for sale? Pricing will be anywhere between $27.00 - $47.00.

Between shooting videos for you tube and creating the product I also operate my one man plumbing business which takes up the majority of my time. I'm just getting back to creating more content for youtube. So the question is althought this is not a glamorous subject matter, is it possible to make money in such a specialized niche? Thanks to all that relpy!

 

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[theag]

Why would your target audience buy any of your products when they could use the money to pay a professional to fix it for them?

I dont think theres a big enough market here.

 

[jon.a]

Where's that @Andy Black post about giving vs. taking?

 

[biophase]

How many people on FB have a plumbing issue? Probably not many. People only will search for your stuff when something is wrong. You need to get in front of those people, not random people surfing Facebook.

Let's say my toilet handle stops working. I know nothing about how a toilet even works. At that point I'd look online for toilet handle problems, maybe I find out my chain inside broke. That's an easy fix.

Have you looked up the guy who does the same thing in garage door repairs?

 

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[Supa]

Where's that @Andy Black post about giving vs. taking?

This one?

I've gained more from doing free calls with people than I've ever gained from doing paid calls.

If you aren't paid, then you've created an inbalance in the world. It will work to pay you back.

If @Vigilante was paid for those lectures, the "transaction" would have been complete. There'd be nothing extra to come back.

That might sound foo-foo to you, so let's frame this with the cold lense of ROI. You help someone for free. You have no expectation of anything in return. The person you helped is going to be much more inclined to do business with you again in the future, and much more inclined to refer you on.

Not because you're free, but because they know what you can do for them, and for their friends.


I've done free calls that lasted two hours.

Give away my knowlege for nothing? Am I crazy?

But what I think is that a busy business owner gave me two hours of their time.

Wow.

And then, because I was helping them with no expectation of anything in return, they finished the call with their advice on how I could better grow my business or change my offerings.

All because they could see first hand how I can help businesses.

How much do you think I would have had to pay for advice like that?

And multiply it by all the business owners I've helped?


Please please please believe it. Give, and you'll receive more than you can ever comprehend.



EDIT: I'm just back home from giving a Maths grind to someone's teenage son. Last week was Calculus, this week was Permutations and Probability. I didn't get "paid" with cash. But the look in his eyes last week when I was leaving was GOLD. He "got" it. He was delighted he got it.

His Mum told me he was delighted with himself. She's over the moon.

Most importantly for me.... He now knows he's not stupid - just that he's been taught badly.

That look was MASSIVE, and it's going to return and compound MASSIVELY over his lifetime.

 

[Andy Black]

Thank You for allowing me to post on this forum, I've just finished reading the book and was totally impressed with the no-nonsense truth on what it takes to have a successful business. I gave a brief description of myself on the about page but If you haven't checked it out, briefly I started a website called <<link removed by mods>> designed to show home owners how to fix their own minor home plumbing issues.

My you tube channel currently gets approx 60,000 views a month with about 3000 subscribers. I make a couple of bucks off of the banners ads, but nothing to speak of. I just created a product comprised of a keynote presentation, video and screencast demonstrations which is designed to walk home owners through a process I use in my one-man plumbing business. It will show them how and where to look for small plumbing problems before they turn into full blow emergencies.

I'm currently running FB ad's offering to down load the product for free in exchange for their honest review of the product as well as any improvments that they feel I could include. To date according to my leadpages analytics , their have been 356 views and 27 opt-ins. That's about an 8% return on a free down load? I've spent to date about 300.00 on the FB ad's. Question is, if they won't even download a free product, how can I expect to place it up for sale? Pricing will be anywhere between $27.00 - $47.00.

Between shooting videos for you tube and creating the product I also operate my one man plumbing business which takes up the majority of my time. I'm just getting back to creating more content for youtube. So the question is althought this is not a glamorous subject matter, is it possible to make money in such a specialized niche? Thanks to all that relpy!

Welcome to the forum @fltrt521, welcome to the inside, and thanks for your intro post.

I love that you're a plumber with 30 years experience, and are now trying to leverage those skills and detach your income from your time.

I married into a family of tradesmen and have a soft spot for helping tradesmen and freelancers. We've plenty of both in the forum.

What advice would you give the young and aspiring tradesmen and freelancers in here?

It's great that you've got a YouTube channel and are even running FB ads. Not many plumbers are doing that, so you've a big chance to carve out a space for yourself online.

What advice would you give to people about creating videos, promoting a YouTube channel, and running FB ads?

Your market are people who would spend money on a plumber, and fellow trades people who want to grow their business like you did, and maybe sell to their employees like you did.

Preventative maintenance is a tough sell. Much easier to sell to a starving crowd who are ALREADY searching for what you're selling.



It would be better to post more about yourself in this thread, rather than link to your website for us to read your About page. I've removed the link to your website as it's against forum rules ("If you're new, no self-promotion.").

When you have enough posts you'll be able to create a signature that goes under each of your posts. You'll be able to link to your website there. The most important use of that link would be for people to learn more about you who first got value from your posts.

That's what @jon.a and @Supa are getting at with their comments in this thread. If you want to get the most out of this forum then add value first. People will then naturally want to engage with you, and then pile into this thread to help you out. And there is a LOT of experience in this forum that can help you and you'll get MUCH more value this way.

Two posts worth reading that expand on this are:

• Why not take off your coat and stay a while?
• Fastlane Paradox

Here's my introduction by way of comparison:

• AdWords dude saying hello

Notice how I ended up linking to my website in my third ever forum post (post 4 in that thread), and how the moderators didn't delete it. That wasn't pre-planned, but joining the forum to add value first was.



EDIT: Maybe you can do an intro on the outside in the intro section and in it maybe help some of the youngsters who can't afford to pay for an INSIDERS subscription?


Looking forward to learning from you.

 

[fltrt521]

Welcome to the forum @fltrt521, welcome to the inside, and thanks for your intro post.

I love that you're a plumber with 30 years experience, and are now trying to leverage those skills and detach your income from your time.

I married into a family of tradesmen and have a soft spot for helping tradesmen and freelancers. We've plenty of both in the forum.

What advice would you give the young and aspiring tradesmen and freelancers in here?

It's great that you've got a YouTube channel and are even running FB ads. Not many plumbers are doing that, so you've a big chance to carve out a space for yourself online.

What advice would you give to people about creating videos, promoting a YouTube channel, and running FB ads?

Your market are people who would spend money on a plumber, and fellow trades people who want to grow their business like you did, and maybe sell to their employees like you did.

Preventative maintenance is a tough sell. Much easier to sell to a starving crowd who are ALREADY searching for what you're selling.



It would be better to post more about yourself in this thread, rather than link to your website for us to read your About page. I've removed the link to your website as it's against forum rules ("If you're new, no self-promotion.").

When you have enough posts you'll be able to create a signature that goes under each of your posts. You'll be able to link to your website there. The most important use of that link would be for people to learn more about you who first got value from your posts.

That's what @jon.a and @Supa are getting at with their comments in this thread. If you want to get the most out of this forum then add value first. People will then naturally want to engage with you, and then pile into this thread to help you out. And there is a LOT of experience in this forum that can help you and you'll get MUCH more value this way.

Two posts worth reading that expand on this are:

• Why not take off your coat and stay a while?
• Fastlane Paradox

Here's my introduction by way of comparison:

• AdWords dude saying hello

Notice how I ended up linking to my website in my third ever forum post (post 4 in that thread), and how the moderators didn't delete it. That wasn't pre-planned, but joining the forum to add value first was.



EDIT: Maybe you can do an intro on the outside in the intro section and in it maybe help some of the youngsters who can't afford to pay for an INSIDERS subscription?


Looking forward to learning from you.

Thank you for the welcome and sorry about the web link, won't happen again! In my case plumbing found me as my father was a plumber and I was exposed to the trade a very early age. My area of expertise is residential service,repair and installation. The only way you learned that back in the day was to work as a helper with a seasoned mechanic, keep your mouth shut, watch, listen and learn. The other alternative was to get into a union apprenticeship program, but back then you had to have a family member in the union to even be considered.

After my generation (baby boomer) less and less young people were interested in the trades because they all want to become stock brokers, work five days a week live in the "fast Lane" no pun intended. Suddenly there was a shortage of qualified talent available and you basically had to find someone who wasn't college bound, had a good sense of mechanical skill and train them to your standards. Fast forward to today and it's near impossible to find qualified talent that to work with. As a result, more and more immigrants are entering into the trades. Plumbing, Carpentry, Roofing, Electrical, etc.

Now their's not a problem with immigrants taking these positions, but most owners won't take the time to train them properly, then you have in most cases a language barrier, you have licensing issues and most of them are being paid off the books not mention are here illegally! If you're lucky enough to find someone and train them, more often than not they'll stay for a few years, learn and then leave to go out on their own. Licensed or not!

The lack of qualified talent was the only reason I sold my business back in 2004, I searched for one-year screening candidates and if they had some sense of ability that I was willing to take a chance on, most had horrendous driving records and my insurance company told me they could not drive the service vehicles. Great! I'll just hire a driver to take them from job to job! I think NOT!The trades and trade unions are starving for young talent and if you're not college bound you have basically two choices. Join the plumbing union, go thru their apprenticeship program after which you'll make a decent high five figure living with benefits, pension, etc. The other alternative is to seek out a progressive private company that does not only plumbing but also a combination of home services ie. electrical, h.v.a.c, etc. that has a continuing education program in place. In this case, if you're talented and have burning desire to learn, you'll break a six figure income with no limits.

Technology is great and I totally embrace it, but the fact of the matter is your i-phone, i-pad, or i-mac (or android device) is not going to repair, service or install your toilets,faucets, fixtures, heating systems etc. There's much more to tell about myself, but I don't want to put some of these "Fast Lane" entrepanures to sleep. Just trying to carve out my niche and figure out how to package my knowledge into enough value that people are willing to pay for!

 

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[jon.a]

The answer might not be teaching homeowners to plumb. But rather teaching the candidates to be better apprentices.

 

[fltrt521]

The answer might not be teaching homeowners to plumb. But rather teaching the candidates to be better apprentices.

This has been said to me on more than one occasion. I think I may have to start reconsidering my market! Thank you much!

 

[jon.a]

BTW, does this need to be on the Inside? You get more eyes on the problem in the open.

 

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[fltrt521]

BTW, does this need to be on the Inside? You get more eyes on the problem in the open.

You're correct, still trying to figure out how to maneuver the site Hey I'm a plumber, give me a break!LOL!

 

[jon.a]

Here's a guy making money off the LEEDS exam prep...
http://www.greenexamacademy.com/

Same guy in Security Guard Training...
http://www.securityguardtraininghq.com/

 

[jon.a]

Here's a guy making money off the LEEDS exam prep...
http://www.greenexamacademy.com/

Same guy in Security Guard Training...
http://www.securityguardtraininghq.com/

Here's his main site...
http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/

 

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[Andy Black]

You're correct, still trying to figure out how to maneuver the site Hey I'm a plumber, give me a break!LOL!

Just say and I'll move it to the outside.

 

[Andy Black]

Here's a guy making money off the LEEDS exam prep...
http://www.greenexamacademy.com/

Same guy in Security Guard Training...
http://www.securityguardtraininghq.com/

Find out how Joe Polish got started too.

 

[Andy Black]

How many people on FB have a plumbing issue? Probably not many. People only will search for your stuff when something is wrong. You need to get in front of those people, not random people surfing Facebook.

Let's say my toilet handle stops working. I know nothing about how a toilet even works. At that point I'd look online for toilet handle problems, maybe I find out my chain inside broke. That's an easy fix.

Have you looked up the guy who does the same thing in garage door repairs?

^^^ This.

People don't visit plumbing sites for entertainment. They do it because they have a problem they want to solve.

How would a non-plumber solve a plumbing problem?

If they want to DIY it they might Google it, search on YouTube, or ask a friend.

If they want to find a local service, they might Google it, or ask a friend.

(There's other ways of course.)



If you want to get in front of plumbers, plumbing apprentices, or people who want to become plumbers, then try Google AdWords bidding on things like "plumber jobs <cityname>". (Hint: I've already done these campaigns in the past.)

You should also be able to target them via FB.



Might be worth you checking out the first and third links in my signature...

 

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