There's a buzz going around the Internet these days. Freelancers are worried because their digital sales are dropping. Their communities are fading. They're not making as much money as they expected (or as much as they did in the past). There's a lot of conversation that usually starts with "Maybe the e-book is dead" or "Joe Schmoe made $300,000 on his launch - what am I doing wrong?"
I have very definite feelings about why some people are "failing" right now. Want to hear my rant?
The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss gave people an idea that by fully automating client contact and systems, anyone could make a financial killing, and never really have to talk directly with anyone at all. It was an introvert's dream and a license to print money! A lot of people have bought into it. It's easy! It's supposed to work! It worked for Tim Ferriss...
And I'll be the first to tell you that the strategy may have worked in 2007. Maybe even part of 2008. But things have changed - most clearly, as you may recall: the economy tanked. Which shifted consumer behavior in powerful and profound ways.
In the last few years, consumer spending has been depressed and personal savings have risen. Consumers of e-products have also gotten wise. They tell me they have purchased too many things they never even read/listened to and too many things they purchased were "less than".
It's like there was an Oklahoma Land Rush to create info-products as The Ticket to wealth for producers, but most of the products were crap. They were created to generate revenue, not to solve a problem, and consumers felt burned. And after being burned a few times, they got wise.
So today consumers are wise and frugal. But they still have the same problems: they want to learn how to do something; they want to learn more about themselves; they want inspiration and guidance.
But they don't want a wholesale, mass produced info-product which - once they purchase and download it - won't really help them. They want a personalized, sure-thing. They want one-on-one for their money. They want to be known.
So why are freelancers and Internet marketers frustrated and stuck? Because those who cling to "it's supposed to be easy" wholesale content creation and the Internet marketing approach are flat missing what consumers are asking for today.
Who wants "mass media" any more? Your Iphone is completely personalized to you. Mine is to me. Your desktop is personalized. Your Twitter is personalized. Your Facebook is a completely different animal from my Facebook. YouTube has something for everyone. I mean, everyone (have you seen some of that stuff?). Consumers are used to this personalization in so many aspects of their lives - they want it in their learning, too.
If a client pays you thousand of dollars for a solution, and you still don't know their name, their biggest fear, their biggest success, their biggest goal - then you know nothing. You cannot really help them. And the client will feel it. You may work with them once, but you won't work with them twice.
And that may just be why your business is flat. Or failing.
So, my freelancer friends: Wholesale is dead. Hyper-personal is alive and flourishing.
How can you shift your business plan to deliver more of what the consumer is really asking for?
