Hey everyone. I've learned a lot from this forum and from TMF so I'd thought I'd give back in any way that I could by writing about my process of building an educational site. Also, writing out my process in a general manner I think will help me look at the bigger picture.
About two months ago I was stuck in a non-action-taking state as I searched for ideas, and finally just decided to execute, as I've read so much on here. I built the site and have created the majority of the content (it is a database of sorts) and launched it three days ago.
I've garnered around 300 users thus far, with an OK bounce rate (35%). The average session time is around 2.5 minutes which is good too (makes sense since the content is written). I've also got about 12 emails from a not very good sign up form (thats like what, 4% conversion lol). I've put in about $100 (domain name + hosting) but I've been resistant to using AdWords quite yet since the site isn't monetized.
Thats my real problem. I started out the site just seeking to provide value (and execute, because I was wasting time searching for "the idea"), but as I continue I realize that it is hard to monetize off this need directly. My site relies on content from others, fundamentally, and to solve the need is to congregate and organize that content. However, this makes it difficult to profit directly off of the need, because it is not my content, and I'd need many others to sign copyright permission forms (and they'd probably want compensation).
Here's one plan I'm considering.
1. Keep growing site using free methods (posting on sites, answering questions, word of mouth)
2. Concurrently, work on solving a new need in the same niche.
3. Validate that need by driving traffic from my site to a landing page
4. Create the product and sell, using traffic from my site as leads
I have another idea for how to go about this thats more "offline" and one goal today is to write it out and think about the practicality of it. I will keep this thread updated.
About two months ago I was stuck in a non-action-taking state as I searched for ideas, and finally just decided to execute, as I've read so much on here. I built the site and have created the majority of the content (it is a database of sorts) and launched it three days ago.
I've garnered around 300 users thus far, with an OK bounce rate (35%). The average session time is around 2.5 minutes which is good too (makes sense since the content is written). I've also got about 12 emails from a not very good sign up form (thats like what, 4% conversion lol). I've put in about $100 (domain name + hosting) but I've been resistant to using AdWords quite yet since the site isn't monetized.
Thats my real problem. I started out the site just seeking to provide value (and execute, because I was wasting time searching for "the idea"), but as I continue I realize that it is hard to monetize off this need directly. My site relies on content from others, fundamentally, and to solve the need is to congregate and organize that content. However, this makes it difficult to profit directly off of the need, because it is not my content, and I'd need many others to sign copyright permission forms (and they'd probably want compensation).
Here's one plan I'm considering.
1. Keep growing site using free methods (posting on sites, answering questions, word of mouth)
2. Concurrently, work on solving a new need in the same niche.
3. Validate that need by driving traffic from my site to a landing page
4. Create the product and sell, using traffic from my site as leads
I have another idea for how to go about this thats more "offline" and one goal today is to write it out and think about the practicality of it. I will keep this thread updated.
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