- Libertarianism
- Anarchocapitalism
- Free market economics / Austrian school economics
- Small government / limited government / no government
- Classical liberalism
I know a bit about this group, and I know that if I take the stuff I believe (essentially, Austrian school econ and classical liberalism), there’s a sort of halo of other groups and interests nearby — not all of which I really agree with, but worth considering anyway. This includes groups and interests like:
- Tea Party
- Preppers
- Millenialists
- Conservatives
- Birthers
- Religious traditionalists
- Religious fundamentalists
- “Off the grid”
- Gold standard / gold investing
- Open borders
- Closed borders
- Pro gun (or at least, pro gun rights)
- Pro life
As a side note, it is interesting how wildly divergent some of these culturally-related groups are. For example, the so-called “small government” activists in the Tea Party are usually war hawks in favor closed borders. On the other hand, nearly every respectable Austrian-school economist is in favor of open borders and is extremely anti-war.
I also want to reiterate, for any of you reading at home, that I do not agree with most of the things said by most of the people in most of the listed groups. I’m just trying to think through the implications of putting some version of “libertarian” at the center of my target audience.
How to focus / how to reach them?
So I’m looking at reaching people interested in learning more about economics, investing, and personal finance, who lean generally libertarian in their thinking. And I certainly wouldn’t be upset if I also sold some product to conservatives, neo-cons, crazy right-wingers, or whoever else comes along for the ride. (Remember: crazy money spends the same.)
In my product research, I am looking at newsletters produced and sold by Casey Research, and other similar organizations. These present news and analysis from a decidedly free-market/libertarian perspective, with advice about how to make money from whatever crisis the far-right currently thinks is about to befall all of us.
So, my initial thinking is to create my own low-end version of these sites.
List, hub, spokes
The primary goal (aside from direct sales) will be to build an email list. Everything I have suggests that email is the fastest way to make money, so that’s where I want to start.
As per the usual advice, I will give away a valuable piece of info (a PDF report on investing strategy) in exchange for email addresses.
The email-list/get-your-free-report form will be: - on one or more landing pages of a site - constantly in the sidebar of the site - in an overlay (modal) on the site - linked to from a FB page - linked to in articles, posts, etc.
The Hub
Following Chris Brogan’s advice, the “hub” will be a website (WordPress, of course, on my Bluehost account). Content of the site will be:
- Editorials by me. I can write about one post a day, on a variety of related topics. If I can move to this being a full-time job, I can write three or four articles a day.
- News roundups, which I can automate and publish daily.
- Republished content from places like Casey Research (they provide articles for reprinting, with affiliate links baked in).
- Various landing pages for the list and any other things that might need landing pages in the future.
The site itself will contain affiliate links — both in-content and also as sidebar ads, etc. More importantly, there will be near-constant CTAs to get people onto the email list.
Spokes
The primary source of traffic will, at first, be Facebook. I already spend a lot of time on Facebook, and have seen how it can catalyze an audience for a new publication. Obviously, every article from the site will be cross-posted to FB. I can also:
- share articles from other sites
- post provocative messages
- post highly-shareable memes, from the awesome to the truly stupid
I already have a number of Facebook friends in one or more of the categories listed above, so I feel certain I can generate some amount of traffic this way.
Another major spoke (I hope) is YouTube. This is tentative, but I believe I can make it work. Basically, my initial plan is to simply record myself reading my articles and news roundups, and publish them as videos. At some point in the future YouTube could turn into a platform for original content, but simply using it as a “syndication” platform is a place to start.
Everything else will be a straight syndication platform, at least at first. I don’t really have time to get involved with Twitter or Tumblr, or anywhere else — but I can use IFTTT to automatically spew my content all over, where someone might find it.
My spoke list is the usual suspects, and I feel like most of those decisions are pretty obvious.
High-end spokes
I have two additional places that can serve as higher-end spokes — that is, they require something a little more than just automated syndication, but they might end up being a lot more impactful. (I’ve mentioned both of these before.)
One is a libertarian blog network that I am already a member of. I have written a handful of articles here, but haven’t cultivated the community there as much as I could.
The other is a conservative/traditionalist blog that gets a lot of traffic. I jumped on-board as a writer early on, but haven’t produced very much there yet. Maybe a half-dozen articles over the last couple years.
Both of these sites require custom-created content, designed specifically for that audience. And only some of that content can link back to my main site, which means that some custom-created content on the main site, worth linking to, would need to be created.
I don’t have a specific plan in place for this yet, but I’m mentioning it here so that I remember and circle back on it once the main site is up and running and I can start fleshing out the plans.
What about SEO? What about PPC?
I consider SEO to be a long-term project, especially in an established market niche. So, I’m not going to worry about it too much — at least not right now. I will, of course, make sure my on page SEO is as good as possible, and try not to make any big blunders, but I don’t really see how organic search can be a major component if my goal timeframe is so short (threeish months).
As for PPC — I want to get into it. But I don’t have a lot of money at the moment. My plan is to do all the free things I set up all the free things I can do first, and then start some small experiments with PPC ads. Part of the reason for this is that if I can’t get myself together enough to do the free stuff, it isn’t really worth throwing money at, either. The free period is as much a test of my commitment as it a bootstrap.
What will be in the emails?
I will have to experiment with this, obviously, but my thinking is that subscribers will get something twice a week — one longer editorial (probably not written by me) and one “listicle” sort of thing, like a better news roundup or a something sort of like the 5-Bullet Friday.
What will the “free PDF report” have in it?
I’ve already started drafting this. My current piece is something like “Contrarian Investor Guide”. I will A/B test some titles, but the content is essentially a series of headlined tips about how to be an informed investor — what to read, how to think, what to ignore. It’s practical, good advice. It also include a number of links to books (Amazon affiliate), newsletters, and other products: all the same stuff I will also be promoting in the emails and on the site.
I’ve also recently read about creating a bunch of context-specific email sign-up incentives, and I really like that idea — so I’m going to work on that once I have some contexts. But this main PDF will be in the sidebar and, if I do PPC ads for my list (is that a good idea?!?) will be what I promote.
Secondary sites?
There is one thing I am really unclear about in my current thinking, and I would really appreciate any advice you might have on the subject.
I have more than one useful domain name, but one in particular I’m thinking about using — it’s general enough to appeal to a broad selection of the above-mentioned groups. But I’m also thinking about setting up some secondary sites that would publish their own content but advertise for the same email list.
I don’t know if that would be a good idea to create a larger footprint, or if it would just be a distraction.
Thoughts? Ideas? Help?
I will begin executing on this plan in the next couple days. I’m already writing my PDF guide. Then I’ll make a final decision on a domain name and start putting things online as quickly as possible.
Any idea or advice for this stage, to help get me off on the right foot?