You should be creating content
This is the fundamental piece of advice I give all my clients (see above)
So let’s start with that.
The form and format of that content is important, but that’s something that can develop with time - every single successful content creator started somewhere and iterated.
There are 1000+ people out there who can tell you how to make your content better and more engaging, but that means nothing if you’re not actually creating it! This is me starting to follow my own advice, taking the leap, walking the walk.
Two pieces of advice I’ve recently “heard” (= Instagram reels…) really resonated with me and provided the final push I needed:
“Content is simple, just document what you’re doing”
“If I was starting out again I would create a piece of content everyday solving very specific problems”
(If anyone knows the sources please let me know…. )
The first one seems a lot simpler to kick off with, so that’s where I’m starting, but I have a plan for the second part that will be revealed…
But I’m a business, not an “influencer”
Whatever your business is, people are buying into your content, make the effort and they’ll respond. In a world with so much content and information - if you’re doing something amazing it’s not enough. You need to be able to tell your story.
You can tell the same story in many different ways depending on the audience, we’re entering a world of hyper-fragmentation so you’re actually compelled to test many different methods of getting people’s attention.
I don’t like the word “influencer” but have massive respect for what most people call “influencers” - it’s not easy to capture people’s attention and create content at a cadence that the algorithms want. I also love helping businesses to grow, and having run a few of my own - I’ve spent many years as a commercial consultant advising on everything from warehousing to growth marketing to organisational structures.
I can’t think of a business in the history of time that has ever been successful without influencing people, so the very nature of being a business requires optimising your influence. Ultimately all the product, place, promotion and pricing you do only works if you can convince people to purchase.
It has always been this way, but the technological revolution is now very much upon us and the battle for attention has never been greater. The history of innovation is littered with the bones of great products that were beaten by others that exerted great influence, and many incumbent Goliaths have fallen to the stones of David by losing their influence.
Who am I to be giving this advice?
No-one, really. I get paid for giving advice, but it’s really only valuable once it’s put into practice, and content is a tough one to stick a revenue projection against.
I have no following at the moment, I am not an influencer, I have created very limited video content in my life, I have a face for radio - so basically I’m a nobody.
I have made other businesses a lot of money, and I’ve set-up quite a few of my own, but never had a huge exit. I’m often described as entrepreneurial, whatever that means.
I’m now in my mid 40’s and I’m looking to answer that question… I believe an entrepreneur in 2025 needs to have some element of content creation ability in their deck of cards.
There are many, many people making a good or great living from doing this, so I’m committing some time to putting all my content strategies and tools to use to see what happens in the real world. That’s probably the most compelling reason I can give to follow me on this journey - I am starting at ground zero, I might be just like you. I have helped people with hundreds of thousands of followers make more money from their businesses, but I’ve never built a following myself beyond 10k.
I don’t even think that you need to have a big following any more, it’s all about engagement and community in my opinion. I’m an optimist! I really believe that technology can and will bring about change and justice, so I’m putting it into practice.
Latitude is my consulting business, and Launchpad is my way of practising what I preach. Within most of the businesses I work with, the single biggest challenge and opportunity is content. It’s something everyone struggles with - and what I’ve realised is that so do I! I’ve got a list of content to write about and share, but I’ve done nothing with it. That changes now.
How am I going to make money from this?
I actually don’t really know yet (don’t tell my wife…) ! Here are five proven ways to make money online -
Sell a physical or digital product
Generate leads for someone else’s product
Get paid to promote a product
Get paid to create content for someone’s product
Sell advertising space on your website
All of these require the ability to generate traffic, engagement, leads and conversions - that’s a common feature of anything you want to do online.
The Physical vs Digital Space
It used to be that you rented some real estate and your location, location, location was king. You’d still need to follow the same principles as online - but you’d have a fixed base, somewhere it was more stable to build up traffic and repeat customers. I’ve worked in retail since I was 15 and done a fair amount of real estate since then - and I still love it. But consulting on real estate has a huge disadvantage - you have to travel to the physical locations and I don’t like all that wasted time.
The CEO of a successful outdoor business once told me he analysed the cost of paid advertising, ran the numbers and worked out it was cheaper to have physical locations in strategic locations close to where his community are. That was in 2016 and the cost of online advertising has increased x5. He needed to invest upfront, but banks (back then) would loan you the money for a shop fit at a great interest rate, and then traffic is the cost of keeping the lights on.
I love this attitude and counter-intuitive strategy! Paid ads have a place in almost any well-developed marketing mix, but the costs are very high, and it’s best practice to learn how to excel in organic channels first. Nail that and you can bolt on paid advertising much more profitably.
So I now focus my consulting on digital assets (or physical assets in locations like to visit!). The crossover of physical and digital have many similarities, but one of the advantages of digital is the low cost of entry.
I’ve got a couple of physical projects on the go, and they are really exciting, but they require financing to get started - and they’ll also need digital strategies to support them.
So for one reason or another, it all starts with digital - if you can build a digital following then this can be leveraged on physical space. Property owners and investors are much more likely to back you if you’ve built a significant following than if you’re starting from scratch.
How do you make money online?
So back to the question, how do you make money online and how am I going to make money from this endeavour?
The answer is… the same way all my clients will make money from improving their content and creator outreach - commit to regular content and build traffic, engagement and a community.
The real question is the personal opportunity cost. One of the smartest people I know told me about 20 years ago that most founders fail to account properly for their time, and it’s really wise advice for any business owner who is not paying themselves a proper salary - what wage could you pay yourself and still be profitable? If that’s less that you can earn in a job then have you got a sustainable business?
I’m all for taking a pay cut for doing something you’re passionate about, but make sure there’s at least minimum wage in it for you or it will quickly become a burden.
Businesses require a lot of admin, so that passion project quickly gets old when it’s time to pay the bills.
Thanks to my consulting work I have a pretty good measure as to my daily value (contact me for rates ) and that gives me a guide as to what I need to potentially earn from this endeavour in the future.
I’m comfortable that this project is worth the investment - this is about experimenting, learning and practising what you preach. Who am I to tell everyone else how to do content if I’m not doing it myself?
I’m a big believer in getting as much advice as you can - time is too expensive to only learn from your own mistakes - but at some point you need to jump in and own it.
If you’re paying attention then this piece of content breaks all the rules about solving a niche problem, so this is how I’m going to deal with it: My plan is to create a longer form piece of content each week that has a series of niche issues in it, and then refer to those niches from posts on other channels anchor linking into the article. Where there’s traction based on a niche then I can expand.
Let’s see how this goes.
March 7th - follower count:
Linkedin: Personal 1894, Latitude Projects 35
Instagram: 5
Youtube: 0
TikTok: 0