One Of The Biggest Business Mistakes I’ve Made

When I first started this site I wasn’t exactly sure where I wanted I take it. I knew that I wanted a site dedicated to helping men get the most out of life but wasn’t sure how I was going to promote and expand it. I knew nothing of online business having only worked at regular jobs and never made a dollar online. I figured I’d write a book so wrote The Primer before starting the site but other than that had no other “business plans” as far as that went. I figured that I’d just start writing and hey maybe something would catch on and I could make some money from the site.

And you know what there’s something to be said for that. There’s something to be said for just keep trudging forward and taking action as opposed to sitting back and trying to get everything right and falling victim to perfectionism. As many a successful entrepreneur has said “Ready, fire, aim” and while I certainly gained a lot of valuable experience from that approach looking back there are certain things that I could have done much better (of course hind site is 20/20) so while it took me over a year to get some things right, hopefully you can benefit from them right away. We’ll start with my biggest business mistake that I’ve made.

The Biggest Business Mistake I’ve Made

Alright so like I was saying when I started my site I really didn’t have a set plan for it (a mistake but not the biggest one). I thought about all the things that have improved and changed my life and figured that I’d share that with others. I’d make this a journal of sorts but instead of meanderings and random stuff it would be filled with actionable advice and great knowledge for men. So I looked at all it took to make a man successful and happy with his life, while also getting the most out of it and being a man that his ancestors and offspring could and would be proud off. Quite a big bill to fill. I knew there was no one size fit all so I started out broad. That is why there are a multitude of different topics on my site.

One article will be about getting in better shape, the next about picking up women, the next about business advice, and then the one after that on being a stronger man. All of these facets help make up a man’s life and a man needs to address them to get the most out of life, this much is true. But it makes for a poor business model, let me explain why. Perhaps you’ve heard about something called the long tail. Boiled down it simply means that with the invention of the internet our society (and therefore market) has drifted away from mainstream sources that give us all our needs to more niche sources. So less applying little to a broad audience and more applying greatly to a small audience. Less Wal-Mart and more mom and pop shopes (at least online). So what does this have to do with me and my site?

Dr. Broad & Dr. Niche

Let’s say that you had an infection in your eye and you had a choice between two doctors. Dr. Broad is a very well respected doctor in the area and has been studying medicine since before you were born. He is the best general practitioner in the entire state. Then you have Dr. Niche. Dr. Niche just recently opened up his practice and is not very well known. He is a couple year younger than you and you know no one who he has served, but there’s one more thing he’s an optometrist. Now even with all the good things about Dr. Broad that vast majority of people with eye problems are going to go to Dr. Niche.

Now you may say “Yeah for eyes but for anything else I’d go with Dr. Broad” but then your get a rash that spreads all across your skin and you’re choice is between Dr. Broad and another Dr., Dr. Skin Rash (you get the idea). So Dr. Broad even with his experience, expertise, and many other good factors may go out of business (or not make nearly as much as he could) because he’s so broad. People want specialized service geared for them. The days of the general practitioner are numbered, especially online. Unless you’re in the top 10% of general practitioners you’re not going to be able to be competitive.

How This Applies To Online Business

Here’s how this applied to me. As you know I write about a variety of different topics. My last couple of books have covered everything from gaining freedom, to being strong, to losing fat. All of it is quality information and above and beyond what is generally out there. However even with that being said things sell very differently. We’ll take two books to use as examples. I have two books Man Up and How To Lose Fat both are sold on Amazon. But contain great information of their respective subjects. Yet one sells at a rate of 45 times the other one. Why is this? When you look at the size of each market the market for How To Lose Fat dwarfs the size of the market of Man Up and yet Man Up is the one that sells at a rate of 45x that of How To Lose Fat.

Now I worked hard on both books and both contain top quality information. How To Lose Fat is from not only reading all the top fat loss books out there and experimenting with them but also from working with clients using a variety of different protocals and narrowing down the most effective methods. It’s one of the best books on the subject out there (trust me I’ve read them all) and yet it barely moves off the shelf. And this is because of me. Even though I do write frequently about fitness (with some damn good information if I do say so myself) I’m not known as a fitness guy. It doesn’t matter if my advice is one hundred times better than a guy who specializes in fitness because that guy will be known as a fitness guy.

What I’m Getting At

If I knew what I knew now I’d break things apart. I’d have a site dedicated to picking up women and that only. A site to being more masculine and that alone. A site to getting in shape and that alone. And so on and so forth. Don’t get me wrong I’m not changing anything at this point, it is what it is and you live and you learn but for those of you just starting out listen to this. Find a niche and dominate it, the more specific the better (to an extent). Don’t go broad, go deep. I know you’ll want to write about more but just save it for now. Once you have dominated your niche and are well known in it then you can expand to other things.

But first you have to conquer and dominate your niche. Be the go to expert in a very specific topic. For example we’ll use game as an example as it’s popular. Instead of just going in and being a “game guru” or whatever (even that’s too broad and that’s much narrower than my own site) be a “fast escalation guru” or a “club game guru” or a “picking up a certain type of woman guru” then dominate that niche and then and only then could you move on to other things. This applies to business of all kinds. So if you’re look to make your site a business rather than a hobby make sure you choose a specified niche and then dominate that niche before going anywhere else.

If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it.

-Charles Sledge