🗂 Overview
This week, I wanted to try something a bit different with how I structure this email. So this week I’ll break down 3 business ideas in a slightly more condensed but equally valuable (I hope) format. Let me know what you think in the poll at the bottom of the email.
Let’s jump into this week’s new venture opportunities:
💡 Opportunity #1 - Green Noise
🗂 Overview:
Green noise machines produce a variation of white noise that focuses on natural sounds at a low frequency to create a soothing effect.
Unlike white noise, which contains equal volumes of all sound frequencies audible to the human ear, green noise emphasizes the frequencies in the middle of the spectrum, which many find more pleasing and less harsh. It's particularly good for sound masking, blocking out distracting noises from the environment like traffic or conversations, thus potentially aiding in sleep by reducing heightened awareness and promoting relaxation.
The concept of green noise comes from its association with the natural world—it features frequencies similar to those of rivers, waterfalls, or wind. This type of sound can be helpful as a sleep aid because it provides a consistent auditory backdrop that can block out the sporadic and potentially disruptive sounds that often disturb sleep. By mimicking the serene sounds of nature, green noise can also create a calming atmosphere conducive to concentration and mental clarity
📈 Trends:
TikTok Trend for Sleep Tips
📊 Stats:
59% of Americans get seven or more hours of sleep at night, while 40% get less than seven hours. (source)
The global white noise machine market is worth £1.3b. (source)
The global sleep market size was valued at USD 60.35 billion in 2022 and is estimated to reach USD 102.07 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 5.91%. (source)
⭐️ Examples:
Yoga Sleep sells white noise machines and other sleeping products and gets around 60k visitors to their site every month.
This white noise machine on Amazon has had over 2k sales in the last month.
👎 Problems:
Disrupted sleep due to environmental noise such as street traffic, noisy neighbours, or a snoring partner.
Difficulty concentrating or maintaining focus in the presence of distracting sounds, which can be particularly problematic in open offices or busy households.
Elevated stress and anxiety levels are often exacerbated by the relentless pace of urban life and its associated noise pollution.
Need for a consistent and controlled sound environment to facilitate relaxation, meditation, or mindfulness practices.
General discomfort and irritability caused by harsh or high-pitched sounds, where a softer sound spectrum could provide relief.
🚀 How to Build/Grow:
Find a Supplier: Look at websites like Alibaba, Global Sources, DHGate,
Build a Website: Shopify is the best platform to run a DTC website on. It has everything you need and loads of support documentation available plus it allows for near limitless scale.
Create Social Content: Create content educating people on sleep in general and how green noise can help improve the problems listed above.
Run Ads: Get in front of your ideal target market with PPC and Social ads.
Sell Add-Ons: Increase your AOV by selling add-ons like other sleeping aids such as masks, pillows, gummies, etc.
Create an App: Create an app to enhance your Green Noise machines by giving them extra functionality to reduce stress and improve calm. For example, you could allow people to edit the frequencies they hear so it could be White, Green or Brown noise - meaning it is more adaptable and can be better suited to what works for them.
💡 Opportunity #2 - Editorialised Product Hunt
🗂 Overview:
Many people are finding product hunt has become more a place to market your product vs actually discovering new products. It’s become very easy to game the system - anyone can make their product look good.
I think we're at the point where there's sufficient room + appetite for an aggressively editorialized version of Product Hunt. Feels like it's shifted a little too far towards being a marketing channel as opposed to being an actual to learn about new products
— #Justin Duke (#@jmduke)
2:03 PM • Oct 4, 2023
Creating a version that promotes only the best new products in a more editorialised way could be the solution. There are thousands of products submitted every month, so standing out from the crowd is very difficult and finding quality products in a sea of mediocrity is equally difficult.
📈 Trends:
📊 Stats:
Product Hunt gets over 4m monthly visits on their website according to SimilarWeb.
⭐️ Examples:
Startups.fyi - is a weekly newsletter and directory of startups and how much they are earning in MRR. It is mostly targetted to entrepreneurs and indie hackers looking for their next idea but has grown to an audience of 12k in a short amount of time.
The Internet is Beautiful - Made by the same person and in a similar format is a weekly newsletter and directory of interesting websites & tools for various purposes.
Insanely Useful Tools - Again made by the same guy as the 2 above, it is just a newsletter and is a bit more focused on tools that can help workflows. According to the latest addition they have over 20k subscribers.
There are also sites like insanely useful websites that do similar.
👎 Problems:
It’s too easy for mediocre products to game the system.
It’s more of a marketing tool than a discovery tool.
There’s a lot of competition if you’re promoting your product and it’s difficult to stand out from the crowd.
🚀 How to Build/Grow:
Find a Niche: This could be AI, Software, Amazon Sellers, Shopify Store Owners, Entrepreneurs, Accountants, Designers, Agencies, Newsletters, etc
Newsletter: Create weekly a newsletter using Beehiiv where you show off X number of products you’ve found that week for your chosen niche.
Directory: Create a directory site using Webflow or Framer where you store the discovered products.
Submissions: Let people submit their products to you for free and you choose if it’s good enough to be added to your publication.
Sponsorships: Allow people to pay a fixed or recurring fee to be featured prominently in your newsletter and on your site.
Promote Your Own Products: Once you’ve built up a big enough audience you can also put your own products in the list to help build traction.
Write Blogs: Your newsletter can act as a blog as well but blog articles like X best tools for X problem and so on can rank really well in Google. Check our Brian Dean’s YouTube channel for more on that.
Opportunity #3 - Subreddits to Newsletters
🗂 Overview:
Newsletters (like the one you’re reading now) have had a renaissance over the last couple of years. Newsletters like the Hustle being bought for over $20m and others have been valued at over $100m. With very little barrier to entry and huge potential upside, it’s no surprise everyone wants to try to get a slice of the pie (myself included).
But with everyone starting newsletters it’s often hard to stand out from the crowd and to pick a niche that you can thrive in. That’s where this reddit strategy comes in to play - find increasingly popular subreddits that are still relatively untapped and create newsletters around those topics.
📈 Trends:
📊 Stats:
⭐️ Examples:
The Hustle, a daily business and tech newsletter, was acquired by HubSpot in 2021 for $27 million. (source)
The Skimm, a daily newsletter aimed at millennial women, was valued at $100 million in 2018. (source)
Morning Brew, a daily business newsletter, was acquired by Insider Inc. in 2020 for $75 million. (source)
👎 Problems:
Newsletters are a much more effective way to communicate with your audience when compared to social media. Unlike platforms like Twitter or Instagram, you own your audience so if a platform loses popularity or shuts down you won’t be impacted.
They also allow for a much more personal approach and can help you build stronger relationships with your readers.
They are also very efficient ways to monetize your audience. Most newsletter management software now have features that allow you to earn money every time you recommend another newsletter and someone signs up. Business also want to get in front of a hyper specific, engaged audience so will often sponsor content. And you can even charge a monthly subscription fee for high-value premium content.
🚀 How to Build/Grow:
Find an Exploding Subreddit: Use sites like Subreddit Stats and Gummy Search to discover up-and-coming newsletters.
Research: Once you have your niche start researching and learning more about it. It’s a good idea to find something you’re slightly passionate about to ensure you remain consistent.
Start Writing: Start writing your newsletter. Try not to overcomplicate it. I’d suggest starting with a weekly newsletter because daily is almost impossible unless you have a team.
Start Monetizing: With Beehiiv Boosts and Sparkloop you can start monetizing from the moment you start your publication.
Contribute Value to the Community: Start becoming an active and valuable member to the relevant subreddits and other online communities.
Create Content: Create videos for Social Media and YouTube to get in front of more people for free. (shameless plug but I’m going to be releasing some short videos here).
Run Ads: Use Meta and Twitter to run ads to get in front of your target market. If you have Beehiiv Boosts or Sparkloop these should offset a considerable chunk of your acquisition costs.
Get Sponsors: Start contacting businesses or joining sponsorship platforms like Paved to sponsor your newsletter.
Create a Premium Version: If possible in your niche create a premium version of your newsletter for a monthly recurring fee. Provide as much value as possible to encourage users to upgrade.
🚦 Signals
Want to see interesting trends that I’ve noticed this week not related to this week’s newsletter topic? Get a sneak preview of 10 emerging trends I’m looking into for future emails.
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