This actually reminds me a lot of the way pyramid/MLM schemes worked back in the 90s (and probably still work now). I got briefly snared by one of these things as a kid, and the materials were certainly of high perceived quality (nicely bound, etc.), but it didn't take long to figure out that the whole thing was about selling the thing you were being sold. Similarly a massive proportion of Amway's revenue, and the revenue of successful Amway members comes from the sale of materials and seminars related to building your "business". The household products themselves are very much a sideshow.
All these deeply meta, self-referential product optimization products have a similar - slightly grubby - feel to them. Old ideas repackaged as new. I mean, I suppose fair enough if you can make a living out of it and you're not actually scamming anyone, but how many of these damn things does the world really need?
All companies, everywhere do this, not just indie hackers looking to share what they've learned from their process.
Business news writes about revenue numbers hit by large companies every day. This is a form of advertising. Sadly, I do not have Forbes to do a story on my tiny payday, so I write about it myself.
I also don't think this is re-packaged content. I only know of one other person (the file I was inspired by) who did the same. In my ebook, I talk mostly about the process of setting up the page, with detailed steps for the launch -- but the lessons are 2-fold (how to design your website for success, and how to launch). The design aspect is a highly in demand service that your company has probably hired for multiple times. In fact, every business in the world (or just about) hires people to work on their websites and make them work more efficiently. Those who don't usually don't survive. It's a skill you need in today's competitive environment.
Not everyone who teaches can sell. Not everyone who sells can build.
I can read a detailed step by step guide by a guru who spells out exactly how he made his billions, but that doesn't mean I can execute it.
My shared account is just me sharing my learnings. I have already shared most of it in public. The ebook is me practicing what I preach -- that everything can be monetized if you just apply some effort.
Check out my tweets to see exactly what I am talking about.
The primary idea -- that a product will make the consumer's life better -- is what is being repackaged and resold over and over again. In most cases, consumers are buying the quick shot of dopamine they get when they swipe their credit card, not the product itself.
I wish.
What’s being resold and repackaged is telling other people how to make money by telling other people how to tell other people how to make money by telling other people how to make money.
Folks start out trying to make money online, until the eventually come to realise, the only way to make money online, is to sell a product telling other people how to make money online.
That's patently untrue. For every huckster hawking his latest course, there are 10x as many successful marketers. You just never hear about them because they run actually successful websites.
Anyone you see ranking for "best hosting" or "best website builder" is likely pulling in nearly 6 figures a month
I suppose this is not limited to the internet marketing genre, but I've found from my own experience, this is common.
Small anecdote: I was once asked to review an ebook in the internet marketing space based on some things I was doing at the time. The "author" had created an ebook that consisted of clipart, default Microsoft Word formatting, and egregious spacing to pump up the page count. The "author" was furious when my review was neutral rather than glowing.
In fact, I've already had a handful of conversations with people who told me my writeups were the reason they are working towards a life that does not involve the 9-5. For this, I am eternally grateful and happy that I wrote what I wrote.
The entire marketing industry is a treadmill and everything you do in life is touched by it. That thing you ate for breakfast? Marketing treadmill. The car you drove to work? Marketing treadmill.
I get the positivity aspect here, but my rant is about meta-products marketed to other “builders” - there is just something unsettling about the idea of making money from other people’s dreams before they have even started. “Build in the open” is nice when you are actually building something.
I am not making any money from "other people's dreams. I sell a product which helps companies make their sites sell better, retain users, and satisfy their users's needs.
Your definition of building "something" other than a digital product is quite interesting, thank you for sharing your view.
Personally, I like to think that I help companies thrive, which means they can hire more people, create more jobs, enable their communities to grow. If that's not impact, I don't know what is. My blogging about it has already inspired many people to pursue their side projects - and I'm very happy about that.
Not really sure what you are getting at here... at all.
At the same time - if you are on the Dev side it is well worth it to learn as much about marketing as you can
There is an Art and a Science to creating these Marketing Treadmills and making them work
The dream is
A truly talented dev team that can make an AMAZING product
MERGED WITH
A splendid marketing team that can really market it
*
While there might not be very many similarities, you can always learn from what people do to market and sell their product. Heck some of the best marketing strategies are used by people who have things to sell which seem completely pointless