Builder 01 - Sidebay Studio v3 and 20 templates later
Builder 01 - Sidebay Studio v3 and 20 templates later
My journey from freelancing to creating value
This is my first newsletter and I can't hide the fact that it stresses me out because English is not my native language. I'm doing the best I can, hoping that you'll enjoy it and that I'll be understood by a lot of you.
Also, please note that this newsletter is not meant to spam you or anything. 'm not going to send you a newsletter every week telling you about the new products I've created, that's not the point. The pace is random, I write and send only when I am inspired.
The Sidebay.Studio case
I created Sidebay.Studio exactly one year ago during which I did not stop producing templates until I reached the number of 20 and spoiler alert, it is still far from being finished.
I didn't expect these results in such a short time, without big marketing campaigns, without advertising, without even really talking about this business around me.
The freelancing problem
When I was much younger and had not yet had the idea to create Sidebay.Studio, I was freelancing like any designer wanting to start a business.
The solution to freelancing is clients... but then that's also its biggest problem.
Clients are at the center of your business when you're freelancing. You end up with people who have the right of life or death over you because you are there to deliver a service and this same service must correspond to the expectations of your client which can be very bad because the reality is that... you create nothing.
If the service is not up to what the customer wants or even if the service is up to what the customer wants but he decides to say "no", it becomes a big loss of profit. So it was not the right solution for me... even though I managed to make some money with it. Nothing crazy though.
Moving to another level
5 years have passed and in the middle of the health crisis, I had the idea to develop a passive income but I didn't choose my niche.
I was already using Webflow but I seriously didn't think that I would generate passive income with this platform especially since I had no audience or followers, which in theory I still don't have because I only have 200 followers on Twitter and barely 400 on my Instagram combined as I write this... and many of my peers will tell you that it is very difficult to sell without an audience which is pretty true.
How did I do?
I don't like to talk about luck because luck in my opinion is something that can be caused and controlled. I simply used the right niche and that niche was Webflow.
Webflow already has an audience, even a community and their Marketplace part really puts your templates in the spotlight, so you hardly need to do any marketing or advertising.
I still recommend to do it if by coincidence you want to enter this business today because the market is getting more and more saturated. Doing marketing and advertising will only be a bonus for you. I have decided to finally get into it because beyond Webflow, I want to offer other digital things on Sidebay.Studio in a short time.
There's also selling an identity:
A lot of templates look the same on the market in general, not exclusively on Webflow but in a global vision, so you need to be able to stand out. I have my style and it's brutalism / minimalism. Yes, this is nothing like what my peers do on Webflow, but this choice of a niche within a niche is also a marketing strategy.
This is a risk because there is a possibility that I will lose potential buyers but on the other hand, it builds loyalty among those who like, understand and want this ready-made art direction for their next website.
It allows me to create consistency, I don't have to start 100% from scratch for each template and therefore, I save time that I can spend on my other products or business.
Conclusion
Here is how I did globally to create Sidebay.Studio. I couldn't explain all the details and subtleties because I didn't want this newsletter to be too long either.
However I plan to make videos to talk about it in more depth very soon if I have time. In the meantime, take care of yourself and see you later.