I think your problem is, you're trying to make money based on something you're passionate about. What does the marketplace want?
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Free registration at the forum removes this block.This idea sounds good. You could test if people will pay by making a stub website funnel with mockup images of the service, and seeing if anyone clicks to go further, then say "not ready yet", get email etc.- Guitar practice website featuring backing tracks (rhythm tracks/audio that people can practice playing over) with info such as the chord shapes, scales, and arpeggios to use to practice over them. This idea has sort of been my main 'gut feeling' idea for a while. It's something I'd personally find real useful but not sure it's something people would be willing to pay for. It's potentially something I could charge a monthly subscription for, but would be tough to charge for until I've created a good amount of content.
Requires authority. Steve Vai can do this, but for you to do it you'd need to build up solid authority first, e.g. YouTube channel with lots of subscribers. And even then, people don't pay for newsletters unless it's some special industry INSIDERS knowledge stuff.- A daily or 2-3 time a week email newsletter for guitarists. Idea would be to include a short lesson, a gear/product showcase, and guitar news. This idea could potentially be combined with the one above.
Excessive competition, like you said. Think of how many online marketplaces you know? A few, all are massive, because it's an economy of scale thing.- Royalty-free audio/music site or marketplace. My thought is to target a specific niche, such as podcasters, and focus on short instrumental audio clips. Could either charge per download, or a monthly fee, but would be competing with sites that already have thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) audio clips already.
Same as above.- Guitar audio loop store. I'd sell loop packs (basically zip files) with a bunch of guitar samples that other musicians can use in their songs. I'm not sure how big of a market there is for this. There is a good-sized market for audio loops and samples, but drums are typically the ones that sell the most.
As above. They wouldn't pay for your news unless you have built authority.- A daily email newsletter for entrepreneurs, featuring interviews with successful entrepreneurs and business tool reviews. Could monetize it with ads and affiliate links. It would take time to be able to monetize it, as you generally needs thousands of subscribers to generate any decent advertising revenue. An alternative would be for it to be a paid email newsletter, but not sure if it's something people would pay for).
Marketplace: as above.- A marketplace for online business tools. These exist out there already, but I have ideas on how to improve on them. Could either be monetized through affiliate links, or possibly a monthly or annual subscription fee, with the promise to not use any affiliate links, so people know they're getting honest recommendations.
What would be special about your outdoor gear versus all the larger competitors?- An outdoor gear company/brand, starting with t-shirts and other apparel. This would have low margins, and would have to deal with things like shipping and returns.
@DustinG, what are the ideas you're working on now? Perhaps we can comment on them and help you pick the best one.
1. I'd prefer to do something I'm passionate in (guitar, for example), but struggle to find
concepts I'd think people will pay for, and that is different enough from the rest of the
market.
@DustinG, what actions did you take based on the feedback you received in this thread?
Further to this, whenever I search for a cover I always search for band covers. I always just find small random channels. If you create a channel based on band covers that would be amazingHey @DustinG
i don't know if you've ever considered looking into youtube, creating a channel and play guitar over some known songs and "spice them" up. If you're really passionate about this, i think you would find a way to gain audience and monetize this with ads.
Maybe you could even build a website or blog to show people how you're doing it and maybe even advice them so they can do this too. Or let them pick the next song to cover.
This will also connect you to other artists - and who knows where this leads too?
Example that came to my mind is Ryan Leslie on youtube:
God, i really wish i could play like him *.*
- Guitar practice website featuring backing tracks (rhythm tracks/audio that people can practice playing over) with info such as the chord shapes, scales, and arpeggios to use to practice over them. This idea has sort of been my main 'gut feeling' idea for a while. It's something I'd personally find real useful but not sure it's something people would be willing to pay for. It's potentially something I could charge a monthly subscription for, but would be tough to charge for until I've created a good amount of content.
- A daily or 2-3 time a week email newsletter for guitarists. Idea would be to include a short lesson, a gear/product showcase, and guitar news. This idea could potentially be combined with the one above.
- Royalty-free audio/music site or marketplace. My thought is to target a specific niche, such as podcasters, and focus on short instrumental audio clips. Could either charge per download, or a monthly fee, but would be competing with sites that already have thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) audio clips already.
- Guitar audio loop store. I'd sell loop packs (basically zip files) with a bunch of guitar samples that other musicians can use in their songs. I'm not sure how big of a market there is for this. There is a good-sized market for audio loops and samples, but drums are typically the ones that sell the most.
- A daily email newsletter for entrepreneurs, featuring interviews with successful entrepreneurs and business tool reviews. Could monetize it with ads and affiliate links. It would take time to be able to monetize it, as you generally needs thousands of subscribers to generate any decent advertising revenue. An alternative would be for it to be a paid email newsletter, but not sure if it's something people would pay for).
- A marketplace for online business tools. These exist out there already, but I have ideas on how to improve on them. Could either be monetized through affiliate links, or possibly a monthly or annual subscription fee, with the promise to not use any affiliate links, so people know they're getting honest recommendations.
- An outdoor gear company/brand, starting with t-shirts and other apparel. This would have low margins, and would have to deal with things like shipping and returns.
^^^ This.1) Research the market. What are buyers are already buying and what are 3-5 things you can do better
2) Find a way to reach a segment of your market. youtube, facebook, twitter, etc
3) Decide on what you will offer. Coaching is the simplest thing you can do, since it takes almost no time to create. (like a product for example)
4) Either invest in some ads (that save time and cost money) or produce a ton of content
A lot of this thread has zeroed in on our passion for guitars/playing music and I think you're steering towards teaching guitar online or something similar.
Think more broadly. As a musician, you're in a good position to identify the pain points of playing guitar. The guitar capo, for example, is a tool that nearly every guitar player uses. It solved a need and is widely adopted.
What do you struggle with as a musician? Instead of trying to find somebody who will pay you to do what you like, maybe you have your own frustration that you can explore solving?
Oh man... what can I say... it's really, really hard to focus on monetizing what you're passionate about. Most "gurus" out there tell you to follow your passion and to do what you like/love but, I very rarely see this working.
I'd say focus on buying yourself out of financial slavery, so you can focus on what you like/love. If it happens to also give you money down the road then great, but you'd know you didn't do it for money in the first place.
I'd love to play ping pong every day. I'd also love to write and discuss philosophy, the cosmos, and the meaning of life all day. But I also need to eat and have a daughter and a mortgage. So, I'm working really hard on achieving financial freedom via whatever means possible (as long as they are legal), so I can wake up and do whatever the F*** I want without worrying about money!
Upgrade your worth.Thanks for asking. I started working on the first idea.
The process has made me realize that I think I could benefit from some sort of mastermind-type group or maybe some sort of coach to just keep me accountable. I am more productive when I have deadlines (beyond deadlines I set for myself). Not sure I have the budget to pay for a coach at the moment, but maybe there are some free small mastermind groups.
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