A certain Sir Richard Branson once replied to the question “What advice would you give to someone seeking to start a business today, with little to no start-up capital?” by saying that they should start an online operation, which is great advice, since an online operation can be started up with zero capital if you have certain skills. That was some advice shared quite a while ago though, perhaps even a decade or more, and boy has it been heeded!
It’s still every bit as relevant today, because now we even have drag-and-drop web design platforms, which means that your start-up costs could pretty much just entail the purchase of your domain name and the monthly web hosting of your website or blog. Those costs are so low that they’re negligible.
However, in a world where everybody and their grandmother now has their own blog or website with which they inevitably compete against you, how do you differentiate yourself and gain the kind of market share which makes the whole exercise worthwhile and profitable? I’m specifically zoning in on the crafts niche, simply because along with health & fitness, it’s probably the one niche which has the fiercest competition. How many blogs are there which have something to do with crafts, this of course taking into account the fact that some bloggers cater to this niche as just one of many topics on their blogs, like how mommy bloggers do, for example.
Collaborate with specialist suppliers
Since you can never really be a specialist in every single aspect of your niche, the next best thing is collaborating with specialists in each of those areas. In fact, that’s the quickest way to effectively present yourself as an all round specialist, which naturally comes with a certain element of magnetism required to set yourself apart.
Create events around your offerings
The modern-day approach to creating events around any sales offers you may have is going the YouTube route. Many YouTubers don’t even bother blogging anymore, dedicating their lives to creating events in the form of videos to “warm up” the leads who watch, for some subsequent sales offers.
Demonstrate your offerings in action, as part of complete products
If you’re perhaps trying to monetize your crafts blog through selling some relevant products as an affiliate, probably every other blogger in the same niche is trying the exact same thing. What you need to do is differentiate yourself by taking things a step further and presenting your offerings as complete solutions.
Pair some plain caps, aprons, t-shirts, etc, with some StickerYou, for example and offer that as a complete product. Give people a reason to buy from you specifically…
Broaden your focus within your niche
It’s been often said that in order to succeed in the business of web publishing for monetization, you have to drill one inch wide and several inches deep, which means narrowing your focus as much as possible on a specific niche. Don’t go too narrow, because you might find yourself stuck with a niche that has very limited opportunities for monetization. Rather broaden your focus within a specific niche.