Don't Fall into the Info Product Trap

https://www.indiehackers.com/post/dont-fall-into-the-info-product-trap-2aba588781

by adamlangsner • 5 years ago

16 3 5 years ago

RileyJames• 5 years ago

Totally agree with the article, me too info products and repackaged / resold ideas are frustrating bullshit. Product hunt is full of ‘makers’ compiling lists of resources and reselling them.

But back to his original concern, his Saas ‘business’.

A tweet composer...

Take a free feature of the original FREE product. And sell...

And it’s not even the first, or remotely original. There are 100s possibly 1000s of tools for writing and scheduling tweets, many of them free.

I hate to sound like a negative Nancy, but WTF other outcome is expected when building a me too product in a me too market.

I’m seriously struggling to believe that during customer development the overwhelming feedback was “the biggest pain point in my life is writing and scheduling tweets and I would pay $$$ to solve it but I don’t want to use buffer, hoot suite, etc, etc, etc....”

adamlangsner• 5 years ago

OP here.

You are spot on. I actually built TweetSpacer because there are lot of existing players in the market.

I've spent 2.5 years building "original" products that never made me any money.

So I decided to try something totally different this time, I decided to go into an existing market and just put my spin on it and produce a product with good build quality.

I figure the market for social media automation tools is monopolistic and so I think that if I make a good product, talk to customers and carve out a niche I could have a small business.

It may not work. It could blow up in my face. But so far it's the first thing I've made that's generated any revenue. Not much yet, but it's better than the $0 I was stuck at for so long.

I used to loathe the idea of making something that's already out there, but I kept thinking about pepsi. Why does pepsi exist? I still don't know why. I like coke. But I think it's ok to have multiple proudcts that achieve a similar task. There's lots of dimensions you can compete on.

nicbou• 5 years ago

I live from an info product. So does a big part of the publishing industry. I learned to do something (move to Germany) and I now help others do the same. I thought of doing the same about motorcycle travel but it's not really that difficult.

Am I missing something?

Don't Fall into the Info Product Trap

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