A little-know fact about my online life:
Between 2016 and 2018, I became a low-level celebrity and semi-expert in the aromatherapy and essential oils niche.
I had connections with top experts in the aromatherapy field. I had an email list that’s about twice the size of my current copywriting list. I was regularly and successfully selling info products about aromatherapy — an ebook and occasional webinars.
I started this side career as a marketing experiment and learning opportunity.
In fact, the name of my aromatherapy website, Unusual Health, was a tell. The health part was obvious — I was writing about alternative health topics. The unusual part — well that was standard copywriting lingo, like one weird trick.
I bring this up because last week, I got an email from a reader named Nick.
Nick wrote in response to my “Back to the Boardroom era” email. That’s where I said there might once again be an opportunity to simply package up good, credible information and sell it. And Nick wanted to know:
“If you were going to offer a product of information that was of high quality on any given topic where would you gather your information? What would your research process look like? Where would you avoid looking for information?”
I won’t burden you with an exact recipe. But I will tell you the general idea:
Think “library” instead of “smartphone”.
I’ not saying you have to actually go down to your local library. I’m also not saying you have to become a PhD candidate in whatever niche topic you want to sell info products in.
But I do believe that as soon as people come in contact with your product, they can smell immediately if there’s something new there. And the easiest way to give people something new… is to genuinely do what nobody else is doing or willing to do.
In the case of my aromatherapy website and info products, that meant digging into sources of data that were a layer or two deeper than what everybody else in the space was doing.
I’m talking books, textbooks, science papers beyond the abstract. Much of this stuff was publicly available online. But it wasn’t anywhere to be found on essential oils blogs or Facebook groups or YouTube channels.
Of course, you still have to package the earnest but dry info you dig up in a sexy way, using your copywriting and marketing skills.
For example, the lead magnet on my site was The Little Black Book of Essential Oil Scams. I got that straight from Boardroom, and their Big Black Book of Secrets.
Anyways, by the end of 2018, I decided to shutter my essential oil influencer career. I had too much copywriting work and other projects that were more lucrative.
But one day, I might get back to selling aromatherapy, because I found the topic interesting.
And that’s the final thing I want to share with you:
You might be stressing about which niche to pick for a side project, business, or even as a copywriter who wants to specialize.
And no doubt, it’s hard to succeed long-term writing and researching and promoting a topic that you absolutely hate.
But in my experience, the more you know about any topic, the more interesting it becomes. A bit of interest is enough to start.
So if you have a bit of interest in dog training or black-and-white photography, now might be time to start writing the “5-Minute Bad Dog Cures!” or “Black & White Power: Secrets and Strategies for Better B&W Photography.”
Or, if your interest is marketing or copywriting, well, you can write your own stuff. Or for inspiration, you can read what I write in my daily email newsletter. You can sign up for it here.