A Path To Success?

Building An Audience

Building an audience. Ultimately that is the key! The hardest part of creating a successful product or service is not building the product. Any semi-competent software engineer will be able to build a basic application given enough time. The hardest part of the equation is in fact marketing and selling the product.

Why do I say this. There are endless amounts of influencers out there on the internet selling personal branded rubbish to their followers, who are more than happy to purchase. Unfortunately, quality is not the most important factor in the short term. These individuals have built up huge followings on social media platforms. As a result they have immediate access to potentially thousand’s if not millions of individuals to market products too.

Here is my problem. I now have a basic product that is ready to sell. It’s not perfect. There is a lot still to improve. However, the foundation is there. The issue I now have is how to market, advertise and sell the product. Fortunately, I have an audience on YouTube. However, this audience is small. Only 12000 people. Enough to possibly get my first few customers. However, not enough to make it a sustainable business.

So what is the plan?? I need to create a llooottt more content on YouTube and also TikTok related to language. Every video I create will have my personal language products (Lingualime and others) advertised. I need to grow my audiences. This is a slow process. It could potentially take years. However, this gives me a means of distribution and a niche audience who will be more than willing to try out my products.

I’m The Product Testimonial

In 147 days, April 1st I will be going to Costa Rica on a holiday with my girlfriend and her family. I need to learn more Spanish before I go. My Spanish is verrryyy basic right now. Enough to have super simple conversations but nothing more. My goal is to make Lingualime the best flashcard app possible. As well as any other language apps that I make. I’m essentially making them for myself as the target user. Which is awesome and it will really help with motivation when building knowing that I’m doing it to help my own learning. If it is good enough for my learning then it is going to be good enough for my audience.

I’m going all in on Spanish. Spanish is the most-learned foreign language in the english speaking world. It has the largest potential audience for me. I also love German but the audience is far smaller. I need scale right now. Also Spanish is considerably cheaper to learn given that I need to have Spanish speaking lessons and I’ll be using services that allow me to speak to people in Latin America.

Steps To Take

Why Is This The Best Way

I have a partially developed audience. I know that I can grow the audience making Spanish content on YouTube and TikTok.

I love languages. If I wasn’t working I’d be learning languages and coding anyways. I don’t want to make some boring B2b SAAS product. It’ll be no fun and I’ll lose interest quickly. Yes, this may take longer than 2 months. Which means I’ll have to get a job for a while. However, that’s ok. As long as I start down the path. I’m in it for the long run.

Audience building actually has the bigger reward here. Remember the marketing and selling is the hardest part. There are plenty of influencers out there able sell rubbish personal branded products on the internet simply because they have an audience who trusts them. I aim to have an audience who trusts me and is willing to try out my products. Except my products are actually going to be decent quality as I’m making them for myself as the target customer. I’m the poster boy for my products. “Use Lingualime to speak Spanish like me”. Is essentially going to be the marketing tactic here. I find it very impressive when english folk speak a foreign language fluently. I know other people will find it impressive when I speak Spanish fluently on YouTube / TikTok.

Overview

So, the objective is to be at a B1-B2 (intermediate) level in Spanish by the time I leave for Costa Rica. That is 5 months. 147 days.

Learning Spanish will allow me to make interesting and engaging content for both YouTube and TikTok. This is the key to the whole formula. No audience. No marketing. No money.

Also I can’t wait to learn Spanish. It’s not going to be a chore.