Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv 2021-03-18

Seen two separate things recently on the TL about how substack is a scam and how NFTs are a scam and my personal read is that the real problem is that people are gullible


Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv 2021-03-18

If you solve for your own gullibility you don’t have to worry about being scammed

as a creator if you build an audience one real connection at a time you should be ok

yea every platform has tradeoffs but nobody owes you an audience


Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv 2021-03-18

there are some complicated things to talk about re: algorithms and throttling and so on but it’s really secondary to the fact that ultimately you (as a creator) ought to focus on what you can directly influence and control


Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv 2021-03-18

Apparently some artists have minted dozens of their artworks as NFTs - which costs “gas money” - and now they’re broke because nobody wants to buy their stuff

this is like, basic marketplace awareness 101. Don’t spend $ you can’t afford on supply until you know there’s demand


Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv 2021-03-18

Like, run small experiments. Do a pop up store to test to see if people want to buy your stuff before you put down money for retail space. Honestly IMO the reason most businesses fail is because most businesses are started by people with no survival instinct. Do the reading


Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv 2021-03-18

Sell one product before you sell a dozen. If you can’t sell one thing, selling two things is a bad idea because you just added complexity into the process and consumers are fickle/tired/distracted/bust etc. You reduce your odds by more than 50%


Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv 2021-03-18

(Well - there are counter-examples to “only sell one thing” - but try to get at the underlying spirit of what I’m saying here. It gets a lot more complicated depending on the cost of production and distribution and so on but the foundational thing is product/market fit)


Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv 2021-03-18

Some experiments are cheap to run - if you’re selling tshirts, you can post tshirt ideas on IG etc and see the responses people give, and then use that to gauge what you should sell. Beware of costly experiments, spreading yourself so thin it diffuses your value proposition


Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv 2021-03-18

I would say don’t sell ebooks until like a dozen people have literally bugged you saying “do you have an ebook? I would buy” first. Validate the demand. Practice your trust falls from survivable heights. Never spend $ you can’t afford to lose


Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv 2021-03-18

Don’t quit your day job until you’ve saved at least 6 months of runway, ideally about a year

Keep your expenses as low as possible

Be prolific on mediums that are free to publish on

Collect as much feedback as you can and never just assume that people will part with $ for you


Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv 2021-03-18

I can show you what I mean by pointing to my YouTube journey. My Twitter audience doesn’t actually convert very well to YouTube- turns out people who like text don’t like video that much. Maybe about 2-3% of Twitter followers become YouTube subs. I’ve uploaded about 150 vids

2021-03-14

I expect to reply to 10,000+ youtube comments before I’ve “made it”


Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv 2021-03-18

I made about 70 videos on my MacBook and had gotten a few dozen positive comments before I felt comfortable spending $1000 on a Proper Camera- and even that I consider a bit of an indulgence. After clawing my way to 2,000 subs I made like a few cents in ad revenue. Is YT a scam?

2020-12-23

just made my first $0.13 from youtube ads, hope all this money doesn’t go to my head

Image


Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv 2021-03-18

It depends on my expectations. Do I expect to be able to live off of ad revenue after a year of trying? No. I expect it to take many years. Building one relationship at a time, publishing 4,000 videos and replying to 10,000 comments. That’s the work, as far as I’m concerned

2019-04-04

I sometimes joke “who is this Pewdiepie person, never heard of him” – but the fact is he has published over THREE THOUSAND AND SEVEN HUNDRED VIDEOS. IMO, make and publish 1,000+ of *anything* before you gripe about missing some boat or hype train. Makers are usually busy making.