As a new online information business owner (what I call an ‘infopreneur’), it is only natural that you will be going into your venture with some preconceived notions about what to expect. Some of these stem from your own experience (or lack of) in online business, but some of them derive from the influence that other online business owners have had on you up to this point. You see their ads and claims, so you draw conclusions on what is possible despite having any actual evidence in hand.
When I became an infopreneur, I was more than guilty of believing certain myths which ultimately stunted my progress and held me back from achieving success. Now, 3 years later and far wiser, I would like to help dispel some of these common but incorrect beliefs with you.
1. Fame equals fortune.
Suzie So-and-So has 1,000 Facebook likes; she must be making more money than me, right? Infopreneurs often fall prey to the influence of vanity metrics, or measurable things which are not direct indicators of a business’ success. Social media followers is a common one. When we see others who have thousands of followers, we think their money must just be rolling in. Not so fast. It might be the case that this person just has a lot of personal Facebook friends that ‘liked’ their page. Or, they might have purchased followers. Or, they might have gathered a bunch of unqualified leads as followers. Just because someone is seemingly famous in their niche doesn’t mean they are making equivalent money. Today, it’s easy to put out a persona of success without actually having the results to back it up.
This is a lesson that infopreneurs should heed. Don’t waste time comparing your business to someone else’s based on vanity metrics because you never know the true success they are having, but also, don’t get caught up in trying to improve your own vanity metrics just to appear more successful than you really are. It’s a waste of your time, money, and energy that you should be putting into activities that will actually get you to your end goal.
2. Everyone else’s overnight success stories are 100% true.
I remember seeing advertisements from many infopreneur business coaches when I was first starting out touting that they made tens of thousands of dollars with their first product launches: “I made $10,000 in a week! Let me show you how!”
What they neglect to tell you is that they were able to bring in that kind of revenue only after building up their audience for months or years prior. They want you to believe that they suddenly came onto the scene and hold some secret to knocking it out of the park, which, of course, they want to charge you for. Here’s the truth: building an online business takes time, so stop believing everybody’s overnight success stories and just start putting in the work.
3. Better content sells better.
This is the myth I fell victim to the most in the beginning of my infopreneur career. My very first informational product ever was my ebook about how to travel internationally. As someone who has been to 24 countries and knows the ins-and-outs of international travel like the back of my hand, I wrote what I still consider to be the best manual out there. I was convinced it would fly off the shelves because it was just that good.
The reality is that it didn’t. The reason is because before the book’s launch I put absolutely no time into creating an online platform where I could curate an audience that I could pitch the book to.
Informational products don’t sell because they’re the best quality. They sell because they have a good marketing plan. They sell because the buyers know and trust the creator. They sell because they are promoted. It might not be right, it might not be fair, but it is the truth.
4. A unique niche means less competition and more success.
This is a myth I see new infopreneurs believing left and right, but it might also be one of the most understandable beliefs. Business, after all, is competitive. When looking to large corporations like Apple or Uber, it is reasonable to assume that a person who can come up with a truly innovative idea and disrupt the market has the best chance of succeeding.
But there are many different kinds of business, and you, as one lone infopreneur, aren’t a gigantic corporation or even a tech startup. You aren’t out to disrupt an industry. You’re out to join the world of authors, speakers and coaches simply leveraging your life experience to make a difference in other people’s lives. Therefore, you shouldn’t be trying to identify that niche where no one is currently doing business and start a website about it. Why? You’ll have no customers. There’s a reason there are so many infopreneur businesses that teach health, fitness, beauty, business, and relationships. These are the topics people want to know about.
Stop and think for just a minute about your potential customer base before you choose an obscure niche. Remember, competition in your field is a good thing. It means there is a demand for your services. Don’t be afraid there are already people working in that space!
Though there are many ways to make money online as an infopreneur, there are basic, foundational business principles which need to be learned if you want to succeed, regardless of the niche, revenue streams or marketing plans you employ. In my free introductory infopreneur toolkit, I share my six step process for launching an infopreneur business from scratch while teaching sound advice from my own experiences and dispelling even more myths that new infopreneurs are likely to believe.
What myths did you believe when starting your infopreneur business that you have since learned to be untrue?
10 Steps To Go From Hours Of Code To Development-Free Design
