How Easily Can You Be Replaced?
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Catherine of Be Awesome Online, who just announced a really cool project called “Awesome Fear Wrangling.” Check it out!
There’s a simple equation for making ethical money* online:
Problem + Solution = Profit
Step 1. People have problems:
- itchy scalps
- disobedient dogs
- boredom at work
- credit card debt
- pants that don’t fit
- doorknobs that don’t match
- social anxiety
- strange rattling noises from their engines
Step 2. People will pay for solutions to those problems.
Step 3. If you create a website that provides a solution, people will give you money.
Done. Simple. So why isn’t the money rolling in?
You have to answer one more important question:
Why should I choose YOU?
If you have a half-decent idea, you are guaranteed to have a lot of competition.
There are, at last estimate, over 110 MILLION websites on the Internet. Most – let’s be generous and say a hundred million – are obscure derelicts that have never had more than 50 visitors, and you don’t need to worry about them. That still leaves thousands of people who are providing similar solutions to your own.
Put on your plumber’s hat for a second. And the Mario moustache too, why not.
Here I am, on the Internet, looking for some information and help so I can solve my persistent dripping-tap problem. (It’s keeping me awake at night, dammit! This will not do!) There you are, with your No-Drips-No-Plumber-No-Worries e-book. You’re confident it will be exactly what I need: it’s easy, doesn’t need special tools, and is much cheaper than a plumber. It solves my problem excellently well.
So why haven’t I bought it yet?
Because there are 156,000 results on my Google search for “how to fix a dripping tap”. For me to choose you over all the free tutorials and government articles and other paid resources, you have to stand out in some way. Unless you’re comfortable with taking the odds that I’ll choose you over the 155,999 other options…
… plus the really seductive option to do nothing at all.
What the heck do you do?
Provide something unique. Something no-one else can provide.
You provide you. At full volume.
Are you patient and good at explanations? Then brand yourself as The Helpful Plumber: no-nonsense, never patronising, practical plumbing advice for scared laymen. Like Mr Rogers, with a caulking gun.
Are you excitable and dramatic? Then you’re The Singing Plumber! Handy tips, delivered with an operatic twist, tell your friends!
Are you a dog lover? Hello for the Joanna and Barksalot Show: you, a pipe wrench, and your Labrador. (Bark, bark!)
Are you snarky and sarcastic? Then start Don’t Be A Damp Idiot, where you caustically describe other people’s mistakes and how to avoid them.
Think I’m going too far?
Really? Spend five minutes getting a drink of water (it’s important to hydrate), then before you come back to the computer try to remember the plumbers. I bet you remember most, if not all, of them.
Do you remember the last plumber that worked on your pipes? Or was it “just some dude”?
I rest my case.
But I’ll alienate people!
This is very true. I would never, ever give money to the sarcastic plumber, because caustic wit makes me edgy.
The plumber-and-dog I might hire because they seem cool, although I’m not a big dog fan.
The singing plumber I would be overjoyed to give money to.
And the patient plumber? I would hire them even when my plumbing was perfect, just to hear them talk. I would tell all my friends. I would tell my 1200 Twitter followers. I would tell anyone, ever, who mentioned plumbing. I would be their biggest fan.
The biggest advantage
If you provide decent, useful advice: there are tens of thousands of people who can do what you do.
If you combine decent, useful advice with your personality: there are maybe a hundred people who have the same combination of personality traits and expertise? Maybe four. Four. Out of six billion.
I like those odds!
So how do you do it?
1. Choose an aspect of your personality, a hobby, an interest or a quirk. It should be:
- compatible with your topic (Vegan butcher? Maybe not.)
- a positive or neutral trait (Nothing that interferes with the perception of how well you can do the job – like alcoholism, or sloppiness)
- easy to describe (Mime artist. Geek. Astronomy-loving. NOT “collector of late-Renaissance duelling swords”. It’s a pity, because that sounds kick-ass, but it’s too wordy. “Sword collector” would be fine.)
2. Turn it up to eleven.
3. Make it a part of your domain name, business card, products, profile, everything.
How have you made sure you’re hard to replace? Tell me in the comments!
*There are equations for making unethical money, but I am not going to talk about those, thankyouverymuch.
Catherine teaches people how to grow an awesome website and then high-fives them. She’s about to launch her first big product, Awesome Fear-Wrangling: tame your website fears, grow your kick-ass website. Ironically, she’s petrified about it.
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