Alejandro Arce — home Thinking in Public
No. 25 · Business

Sell your own product

If you create content, it's always better to sell your own product than someone else's.

But at the start, selling other people's products is a great way to understand what your customer actually needs. You trade margin for information to empower your investment.

Line illustration of two hands trading a coin for lightbulbs
Start
Sell someone else's product
Which teaches you
What your audience really buys
Then build
Your own product

The progression — from someone else's shelf to your own

Once you know what they need, build it. Start with courses and ebooks about your own knowledge — they're the cheapest way to package what you've learned. Then move into products.

Line illustration of a small box, a book, and a large terracotta box with a flag — the progression to your own product
Line illustration of a hand placing a terracotta box on a shelf of plain boxes

Sell what you learn. Then sell what you make.

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