In episode 12, we’ll talk to Mohammad Afaneh about identifying a niche, validating it, and the customer acquisition process for info products.
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Topics covered
[00:35] Mohammad Afaneh is a software developer who specializes in embedded systems in BlueTooth low energy products.
[01:26] Adrian and Mohammad recount how they met initially.
[03:14] Mohammad talks about his past in software development, and how he came to be interested in BlueTooth low energy (BLE) products.
[04:23] “There was something missing…at the time I quit my job without knowing exactly what I wanted to do.” – Mohammad on becoming an entrepreneur.
[05:47] Mohammad discusses his journey to info products after leaving his day job, and how customer development led him to create his current business.
[06:40] “Everyone that I talked to….the recurring theme was that there was a lack of educational resources..” – Mohammad on BLE.
[07:38] Mohammad discusses how in his process of creating info products around BLE, he found Adrian’s content and how similar they were in some ways.
[08:52] Adrian discusses how having passion for your specific niche is so important in the long term.
[10:17] Thinking about what the customer needs is so crucial to success. Adrian discusses how Mohammed did this with customer development in order to hone in on specific parts of BLE and what people in the field are looking for.
[11:08] “Email is gold…” – Mohammed on selling your info products.
[12:05] It doesn’t matter how big or small your email list is, what matters is finding the right customers.
[13:24] Adrian asks Mohammed how he uses his web presence to capture a potential customer’s email address once they arrive on his site.
[15:13] Mohammed gives away some of his older content on his site as a way to help educate his customers and hopefully get them to subscribe to his new content, but to also give back to the community.
[16:50] Adrians talks about repurposing content, for example blog posts, and how that could be put together to make a book just by repackaging it to use as a lead magnet, and also as a way to give back.
[19:19] “Look for libraries and packages that are really really popular but have really poor documentation” – Adrian on how to find a niche for your info products.
[20:46] Mohammed discusses his experience so far in info products and how helping people has been probably the biggest win, as well as other fringe benefits of creating content.
[22:49] Consulting opportunities and scalability are important, especially in the beginning and one of the upsides of creating info products.
[24:10] Something to consider. What kind of info product business do you want to build? Will your content be used as a lead generation tool to find new customers for a development business? Or will the content itself be the business? Something that is important to think about.
[25:39] One of the upsides to having an info product business that has a lot of customers versus a consulting business that may only have a handful is that churn can be less detrimental to your bottom line.
[26:52] Mohammed discusses own battles with imposter syndrome and building trust with his audience. Also the importance of getting out of your comfort zone.
[28:38] “Everyone has to start somewhere. Get some content out there and get out of your comfort zone.” – Adrian
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