TACTICALOct 11, 2022

The building blocks of building in public [part 2]

Picking up from my previous post, here is the rest of my advice on questions related to building in public.

Additionally, you can always pick one platform and stick with it, and eventually diversify. For ex: Start with Twitter and later expand to Linkedin or TikTok etc.

6. How do I decide what my niche is?

Explore widely, then narrow down deeply into 1 or 2 niches. Here are all the niches I made content on from 2018 to 2020:

• philosophy

• meditation

• Buddhism

• productivity

• new tools found on Product Hunt

• startup ideas

• online communities

• no-code

• building in public

However, by 2020, the data was clear that people were enjoying my no-code and building in public tweets way more than others. Plus I fell in love talking about them and sharing all my insights and experiments. So I chose those 2 niches and stuck with them for over 2 years now.

Here’s another bonus tip on niches:

7. What do I do if I don’t see immediate results?

Like with most things in life, there are no shortcuts while building in public. The external rewards can take a long time to appear. But be extremely patient and focus on what you can control. (your inputs and improvement)

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. —- — Robert Louis Stevenson

• Here are a few other tips:

  • Virality is overrated, utility is underrated. Be helpful and specific with your content. Add value to a core (tiny) niche group of people.. that builds more credibility and unlocks sales than sheer “likes” alone.

  • You will learn many skills in this journey but patient consistency is the meta skill

  • Focus on building a content creation habit which can take time to develop

  • Rather than obsessing over vanity metrics, try to identify what seems to be resonating relatively well and double down on that style/topic of content

  • Read the room — study the top performing content on your platform to understand what nuances are helping these pieces of content to resonate widely

8. What if someone steals my ideas? To what extent can I openly share about my business without risking copycats or leakage of sensitive information?

This is inevitable because that risk always exists. But you can't control copycats. All your favorite startups attracted dupes. Google was the not the first search engine and won’t be the last. Get used to competition and focus on users.

In an abundant market, you’ll never NOT have competition, either now or in the future. The way to escape them? Be authentic and tell your unique story: (h/t Naval)

9. What does success look like? How do I know my attempt at building in public is working

Here are how most people measure their success while building in public:

• number of RTs/ replies each of their tweet gets on average

• number of impressions or profile visits

• growth of followers

While these sound tempting, they can be a trap and can result in quick demotivation if you’re not seeing such instant results.

Here are my metrics of success while building in public: (success to me is when I see ANY of these metrics go up each week)

• expansion of my luck surface area (which means my content attracts new leads, connections, intros, DMs who want to help me in my journey)

• real-time answers to my pressing problems (the ability to find answers to tricky questions is golden)

• my launches attracting decent reception/ engagement (which means more people visiting my products at launch, sharing feedback or upvoting on Product Hunt etc)

• people talking/tweeting about my products/work in public (which is an indicator that I am remaining top of mind for others .. which is the marketing holy grail!)

• past tweets that can be referenced for my future presentations, newsletters or workshops (which means the body of content I create has a longer shelf value)

• number of other people I have helped/elevated. You can’t expect others to help you without giving value and offering your help first.. so I track how many other-oriented tweets/posts I make

• quality of Twitter accounts interacting with me either publicly or in DMs (it’s not always about going viral, but success is about building bonds with those who you admire)

• weekly visits to my landing page/ websites (apart from all the above benefits, it is also key to track how much traffic you are attracting organically just by sharing your stories)

10. How do I balance building vs building in public?

Well, this one is difficult. Without building stuff (product wise), you can’t advance your startup’s roadmap and create new features to help users. But if you’re just heads down building without sharing about your journey/building in public, you won’t build the momentum you will need to launch that next feature. So I say ideally the ratio should be 50%- 50%. Some argue this is too much or too little so find your ideal balance but make sure you aren’t overlooking anything.

That’s it! Those were my personal tips for building in public more effectively. I’ve tried to draw from my own experience and journey so far but I will the first to admit that I don’t have all the answers yet. Use these as general guidelines, not gospel. At the end of the day, the best learning occurs when you enter the area and try things yourself.

Announcements:

• Last week on the Build In Public podcast, I published an episode featuring Rehan Choudhry — founder of an app called Chptr. Chptr is a community to gather, share, and hold memories for loved ones lost. Check out the full conversation: (Link to video on Youtube, Link to Audio)

• SPECIAL OFFER:

  Are you someone who’s potentially interested in joining my program called “The Build Track” which is starting next Monday Oct 17, 2022 at Day One. I am packing it with tons of high-value content to help you learn skills to start a side hustle that generates $1k-$10k in extra monthly income without having to quit your job. This will be fun. If this is right up your alley but you are on the fence, I’m opening up my calendar for a handful of people in the next few days. I’ll share 20 min of my time and advice personalized to you and see if we can find a fit. soon. No strings attached. Book my time here.

Once again. thank you for reading and giving me a piece of your attention!