The Power of Niches

The Internet Isn't ALL Evil

Because I’m a woman with many side hustles and hobbies, I enjoy going to estate sales and auctions on weekends, buying up old books that range in price from free to one dollar, and then reselling them on the internet for as much as $700. It’s a strangely profitable hobby.

I’ve found first editions Dickens and Hemingway. I’ve sold huge sets of imperfect books to movie sets. My little Etsy shop is currently selling a set of Kipling books with his signature and some Bobbsey Twins books. I’ve been super busy for the past six months and haven’t had time to upload new inventory, but I still got three orders over the weekend. I’m coasting off work that I did creating those listings years ago.

I could never operate a hobby bookstore in real life. The doors of the shop would have to be open full time just to pay the rent on a place. My customers would be limited to folks who walked in the front door. It would be a lovely shop that smelled of old books and coffee, but it would make absolutely no money.

In contrast, my Etsy shop caters to the random person in Montana who, for some mysterious reason, really wants a history book about New York civil war gravestones. With a google search, he finds me, clicks the order button, and that book is in the mail to a ranch in Montana by the end of the day.

My business really took off during Covid, when people were bored at home and looking for interesting knickknacks for the background of their Zoom calls.

Thanks to the Internet, I can run a bookstore that sends books to people spread out all over the country, who need something that they can’t find in a brick and mortar store. There aren’t very many of those types of people out there, but the Internet brings them together. It’s a business model that is bigger than an Etsy bookstore.

Three years ago, my younger kid graduated from high school, and I had no idea what to do with him. He had high functioning autism - smart, but still really dependent on adults to get him through his day. He was medically fragile from getting epilepsy just the year before when Covid struck. Because New Jersey had nearly two years of a hard lockdown during covid, his social skills were a disaster. There was absolutely no way that he was ready for work or college.

So, I prevented him from officially graduating from high school and did a ton of research, while the school kept educating him in a transition program. Eventually, I got him in the disability support system, traveled around the country looking at special programs, and networked with experts. After a couple of years, I became an expert myself. Random people heard about me and started calling me for help.

Back in January, at a local school function, I complained to an administrator that my evening were booked with helping random parents. He paused and said, “Laura, charge them for it. They can afford it.” Um, okay. Honestly, I had never considered turning my very niche knowledge about autism and adulthood into a business. But I like making money, so I decided to test the waters.

I created a website, newsletters and a webinar series. The webinars were well attended, and my mailing list grew to 1,300 names. A lawyer friend told me to use this platform to get rich clients, who would pay for concierge service to help them with government paperwork and provide a specialized college search. I did that for a while, until John, a former boss of my husband on Wall Street, convinced me to change things up.

On a Zoom call, John was also interested in digital education — the business model that I had stumbled into. He said that people are making six figures by running classes on their own particular little expertise — turning doodles into art, juggling, making corsets — into online classes.

He convinced me to turn my information into products — an ebook or a video series — that can be sold to a mass market, rather than working one-on-one with rich clients. So, I’m spending the next two months writing 2,000 words per day about autism and life after high school. To get dopamine hits to fuel the writing process, I’m putting out little clips of the book in my other newsletter and on TikTok. (I’m not sharing the TikTok videos, because my first efforts suck.)

Online education is probably done for the greatest profit by the MasterClass series. Check out the trailer for Michael Lewis’s class. It’s amazing.

I love a learning curve. I know how to write, so that’s easy. I know so much about the topic that I can write without looking up a fact or a figure for hours. Rather, I’m learning about new technology. Last week, I learned how to use CapCut to make little videos. When the book is done, I’ll have to figure out the best way to make online classes based on the book and then sell them.

As someone who started blogging in the dawn of the Internet age, I’ve always understood the power of niches. Bloggers that were disciplined enough to stay on topic — not me — developed a loyal readership.

Reddit operates totally on the power of niches. On this old school platform, people self sort themselves into groups of like-minded fanatics. I currently follow subreddits on British Royal Family gossip, autism, and rare books. Jonah, my older guy, follows subreddits on European soccer leagues and Jersey politics.

For those of us who are outliers — those don’t fit into mainstream society — the Internet is a god-send. It enables us to hook up with others who share our unique circumstances without the limitations of geography.

I’m a parent of a young man with high functioning autism. There’s not many of us, and sometimes it can get lonely. But with the Internet, I met other parents like me and shared stories. Some online friends have been with since the early days, and I adore them. Yes, Internet niches can sell classes and books, but they all bring you real friends and connections. A good thing.

One of the benefits of the online niche market is that after you create an educational product, the business should run itself with just a few hours a day of maintenance. Owners can live anywhere in the country without being tied to down to a physical space.

All my time is going into my autism ebook at the moment, so I haven’t had much time to put into my niche bookstore. But I’m hoping that things will ease up soon, so I can split my time evenly between my two ventures.

I like to think that everybody has some niche expertise that can shared be with the world, regardless of profit. The Internet has created a nation of teachers, where we can find information about tying a Windsor knot and running a three-hour marathon. What’s your niche? What can you share with the world?

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LINKS

Changes be happening. This newsletter is now a long-form essay machine that is published on Mondays. It is still free for the moment, because I’m having fun and don’t want to feel guilty about missing a week or two. Random links will be a separate post that happens on Wednesdays.