Mel,
One day I was waiting my turn at the barbershop and I happened to grab a copy of Guns & Ammo Magazine.
In it was a letter from an aspiring writer.
Young guy, still in college, and he thought writing about guns for a living was just about the coolest imaginable job.
He smartly asked if the editor had any tips for getting a job like that.
The editor replied that there are oh, maybe eight people in the whole world who manage to make a full time living writing about guns. Everybody else is just weekenders who pick up some spare change
sharing the details of their hunting trips with everybody else.
He added that if you're going to write about guns and get paid for it, you'd better be a good photographer too.
Such is the nature of plunging headlong into a market dominated by enthusiasts.
Early in my career I indulged my love for music by spending 2 years designing car speakers at Jensen.
Turns out that solving acoustics problems can be just as hard as playing Rachmaninoff, and there's not much difference in the pay.
People who work in the audio industry do so because they like speakers, they like equipment, they like music.
For them, it takes a higher pay scale to lure them OUT of the audio biz.
I made 20% less at that job than I would have made designing plastic injection molding machines or whatever.
From the outside, selling to an enthusiast market LOOKS fun and easy, because the people you're selling to are a lot like you.
But in reality, half your customers want to knock you off and start their own gig.
There's less money in deals like that; the competition is more plentiful and often more committed, even if only for idealistic reasons.
Enthusiast markets also naturally have better ads than "business" markets.
Why?
Because enthusiasts know how to talk to other enthusiasts, regardless of whether they've cracked a marketing book or not. The ads in Guns & Ammo—some of them are great ads, if only because they communicate passion for the sport.
Same in Guitar Player magazine, same in Black Belt, same in a knitting mag.
That's why I usually try to steer new marketers and consultants away from these B2C markets and into the B2B world.
If you stroll blithely into an enthusiast market like health or self-defense, you're going to get your clock cleaned.
Instead, dig up a list of SIC codes, grab a cup of coffee and start reading.
Look for industries where they've never heard of two-step lead generation and think "pay per click" is something that holds stacks of paper together...
A "land of the blind" where you can amaze and astound with your one-eyed prowess...
If you choose to ignore this wisdom and blaze your own trail through the jungle, I wish you the best.
Maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones who make it through alive.
But whatever you do, watch your step—
Or you might look up to realize you're the guy brandishing a paring knife in a room packed with AK-47s...
Carpe Diem,
Perry Marshall
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