DH003 - How to build a niche online community - with Dan Comerchero of The Pro Audio Files

Digital Hustle

**Intro:** Hello everyone and welcome to the SendOwl Digital Hustle podcast. Just pretend that you've accidently tapped into a telephone conversation with people that are sharing intimate details about how they found success on the internet.

I’m James Milliron from SendOwl, if you want to make waves with your ecommerce business, keep listening.

Our goal is to help you uncover new ideas and tools to add to your online sales strategy and that through the experience of our expert guests.

This podcast is hosted by SendOwl the leading digital sales and delivery app for entrepreneurs who want to increase their online sales conversion rates, to provide a seamless checkout experience for their buyers, and for those who want to get setup up and selling in under 5 minutes.

You can learn more about SendOwl by visiting [SendOwl.com/pod](www.sendowl.com/pod) where you will find a 30-day free trial waiting just for you.

So, thank you everybody for tuning in. Do subscribe to our podcast feed on iTunes or SendOwl channel on YouTube to stay up to date on future episodes.

Without further ado, let’s get into it, our topic of discussion today is about how Dan Comerchero built a niche online community for recording artists, and how he monetized it. I do have Dan here with me today. Dan thanks for joining us. How are you?

**Dan Comerchero:** Hey good, thanks for having me.

**James Milliron:** And I must say that I'm a bit terrified to be inviting onto one of our first podcast episodes somebody who is an expert in recording. That's just a tiny bit intimidating so I hope you will take it easy on me today!

**2:30** – Introduction to The Pro Audio Files.

- A website and community that teaches people how to mix record and master music.

- 600 free articles plus more in-depth courses.

- We teach people how to mix and record music.

- 10 contributors to produce articles and videos.

- Our goal is only to get people involved that I fully trust and respect so I can give them complete creative freedom to do their thing.

- That facilitates creativity

**6:00** - How does giving your contributors full freedom contribute to your business?

- It contributes to the quality of our content.

- When you build a niche online business, every contributor brings their own flavour to the table.

- It ensures that I can get the highest quality content created.

- Quality content can generate the most revenue.

**7:15** - Who is Pro Audio Files for? Who should sign up?

- Beginner and intermediate audio engineers

- People with home studios

- People producing their own music

- Electronic producers

- Musicians who want to learn more about mixing and recording

- It's important to stay focused in your niche. We do that at Pro Audio Files

**9:15** - If you don't keep a niche focus for the long run you might find that people unsubscribe and lose interest. A niche focus helps retain the audience.

- Be aware of adjacent niches also.

- Adjacent knowledge can be very useful but if you get too far away from the core niche business then people may walk away.

- We want to reach as many people possible without alienating our core subscribers.

**11:00** - When did you start Pro Audio Files?

- Seven years ago in 2010

- I started it in college

- I was working on an ear training app and I thought "I think it would be cool to release articles about mixing and recording so I can have a banner ad for my app on the sidebar."

- I didn't even know what content marketing was.

- Blogs were different back then. Today, many people want to publish on 3rd party platforms like Medium, but there's something to be said for hosting your own content. I wanted to do that.

- I made a post on a forum and asked a group of audio engineers to contribute to my website and I said I would pay them.

- It was a win/win because I got great content for my site and my contributors also got to promote their own personal brands.

- Online, you can make things happen so quickly!

- One of our great contributors, David Glenn, somebody retweeted one of his tweets. I watched one of his YouTube videos and then sent him a DM on twitter to say, "Hey I loved your video. Would you be interested in getting involved with the site. You can build your brand and we can pay you."

- 20 Seconds later David got back to me and said "Hey I love your site. I follow it. Let's do it."

- Don't let an opportunity pass you by because you are afraid of hearing "no."

- Just send the message or make the call and you'll be surprised how many people will say "yes."

**15:45** - Sometimes people get social anxiety, like millennials. We don't always feel comfortable reaching out to people.

- I've had success enough times reaching out to people that I can override it or go to my therapist more often. haha

- We put people on pedestals too often.

- Even in audio we have "A list" engineers that seem unapproachable but they're really not.

- People are people. Send one email and they are down to do it.

- If I never posted on that forum and met Matthew Weiss, I would have a totally different business.

- I could have so easily not have sent that message...

- If you're listening right now and there's somebody in your head that you think "I would love to do business with that person..." Just reach out and make it happen.

**17:30** - Is Pro Audio Files your first entrepreneurial venture?

- I was in school for music production and interested in learning about audio.

- I thought that I could promote this app that I had just made which is made for readers of this blog, and I would also learn a lot about audio at the same time.

- Not only would I learn, but I would develop a platform to promote my app.

- Outside of this, there was no other foresight.

- It's important to be open to your project or business changing into something else.

- You might have a vision but you have to be open to that changing over time.

- Eventually our site became monetized!

- I love the process of idea to execution. That's where I'm happiest. Pro Audio Files was the one idea that blossomed into something that I could make a living from.

- Some of the best business opportunities are things you need for yourself. Problems you need to solve. That's where you can build a niche online business.

**21:15** - The Pro Audio Files has a monthly membership subscription. What other revenue streams are connected to this business?

- The main expense is getting high quality content on the site.

- For two or three years all I was doing was promoting the app through the site. That was great because it didn't fall into the app store abyss.

- I couldn't make a living off of it back then.

- Somebody approached me and said they wanted to put a banner ad on my site. I was ecstatic!

- Back in the day it was bliss to get 1000 visitors to the website.

- When we got the banner ad proposal for a couple hundred dollars per month I was excited.

- Fast forward a couple years. We had a lot of interest in how to mix hip-hop. We had a lot of organic Google traffic coming from these terms. Matt wanted to make a paid course on this. So we decided to do it.

- We made a landing page and packaged the course. We were charging way too little for it but we made a couple thousand dollars and were hyped because the site was making money.

- Now we have 15 or 20 paid courses, the [membership site](https://www.sendowl.com/blog/how-to-sell-subscriptions-and-memberships-online.html?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=dh003&utm_content=promo1), and ad revenue coming from Google.

- Every couple of years we keep pushing it forward and test what is and isn't working.

- Don't become too romantic about an idea. Test it and if it works do it. If it doesn't, move on.

- When I hired an editor it freed me up to do things other than editing the site. That was a big win for us.

- Figure out how to put systems in place that help you scale to your business goals.

**27:15** - As you build a niche online business, do you offload or outsource the tasks that you don't like to do or do you offload tasks that you're not good at?

- You can't just outsource things you don't like.

- There are some very specific things that only you can do.

- It doesn't make sense for me to outsource business development.

- Tasks that I don't enjoy and also don't require a specific skill that only I have, that is something I can outsource.

- Entrepreneurs struggle with being control freaks, but you have to offload tasks to grow.

**29:20** - What ecommerce tools are you using to sell online?

- We use WordPress for the blog and [membership site](https://www.sendowl.com/blog/how-to-sell-subscriptions-and-memberships-online.html?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=dh003&utm_content=promo1).

- We sell all the products on SendOwl.

- We use Member Mouse for our membership site.

**30:10** - What about other people that use your website. Do you have members of your community that are selling their work online?

- The music industry is really tough. It's hard to make money.

- I switched from music performance to music production was because it felt more tangible and lucrative.

- It's important to have your hand in a lot of different things.

- A lot of people using our site are running their own studios.

- You can purchase the complete bundle of courses from Matthew Weiss for $350 and get full access to Q&A and everything. You don't have to go to college for it anymore if you don't want to. Obtaining the knowledge is much easier.

- People are making money off of what they learn at Pro Audio Files.

**33:15** - How might SendOwl customers use Pro Audio Files to get help with their creations?

- Pro Audio Files can help any musician expand on their skillset so that they can produce better tracks faster.

- For under $1000 you can have your own rig. A midi controller, an interface, a single microphone and an instrument are all you need to create great stuff.

- There's no stigma attached to being a "bedroom producer."

- You can use Pro Audio Files to expand your knowledge and make better music.

- One great idea to do: If you read an article you like on a website, reach out to the author and see what you can do together. You never know!

**36:30** - Tell me about your experience with SendOwl.

- I love SendOwl

- I switched to SendOwl from the first ecommerce platform that we used.

- I appreciate the thoughtful UI and design.

- I switched everyone with an audio website over to SendOwl so I could take advantage of the affiliate program.

- I also think it's cool that George, the founder, does customer service and I get messages from him.

**38:40** - What's it like to start a niche community?

- I don't really know what it's like to start a business with a broad reach. I sometimes wonder if that increases the fad factor.

- It's easier to build a tight-nit community when it's a niche thing. Everybody is passionate about it.

**40:00** - At what point did you have to put in the most hustle to overcome a slow time?

- Every day! I have to remind myself to keep going at it.

- It's scary running your own business because there's no net underneath.

- I have to constantly remind myself not to let the good things make me complacent.

- I hustle on different aspects of the business to keep pushing it forward.

- I reinvest every cent that I have into it and I put every day into it.

- You have to meditate on "what's the best use of my time right now?"

- Make sure you hustle in the right places.

**43:10** - Our listeners are always looking for a cool new marketing idea. What was one marketing thing that you did which propelled your business forward?

- If you run your own business and you have video but you're not transcribing the video, that's a huge missed opportunity.

- We transcribe the video and upload it all on YouTube. We keep the full transcript because Google can't understand the words in the video, but the transcription can be indexed.

- That's been a big SEO win lately.

- Also, find what you're good at and go all in on that. For us, that was Facebook Ads.

**45:30** - What is better? To dabble in a number of different marketing ideas to see what works, or should you go after one specific marketing idea at a time and go all in with it?

- What do you enjoy and what do you think is sustainable?

- When I get into something and enjoy it, I can go all in and focus on it.

- Test a lot of things at first before you go all in.

- You don't need the quantity if you set up the right funnels for it.

- Notes in this section about maximizing what is already working.

- It doesn't matter if the content is old. If it's a new audience to target, it's new to them.

**50:30** - The best content in the world that you can turn into a business is quality. It's not free, it's sold.

- We'll put out a quick tip on YouTube, but it's not the full picture. They watch the free video, see the style of the video and the quality of the education, then they end up on the course page with testimonials. Then the next step is to sign up.

**53:00** - A fun question, have you met any celebrities?

- I've met people that are mixing pop tracks on the radio. They're all just super cool normal people. Accessible and not on a pedestal.

- One of the first backlinks we got was from DJ 8-Track. He had a blog and he linked to our article.

- I reached out to a few respected audio engineers and they agreed to do interviews. Everyone can help each other with mutual value.

- Everyone is connected online these days.

**55:15** - Q&A with SendOwl

_In Owl Language_ “Do you follow [Gary Vee](https://www.youtube.com/user/GaryVaynerchuk) and [Tai Lopez](https://www.youtube.com/user/tailopezofficial) on YouTube?”

- Gary V is all about Hustle Hustle Hustle.

- Tai Lopez is all about don't work harder, work smarter.

- There was a war between the two of them online which was funny.

- Actually though, it's finding a middle ground between the two to make your business successful.

- Find something that works and go 1000% in on it.

**58:20** - Where can people find more information about Pro Audio Files and how to get in touch?

- [TheProAudioFiles.com](http://www.theproaudiofiles.com)

**1:00:00** - Wrap up additional resources and contact information

Visit [SendOwl.com/POD](https://www.sendowl.com/pod) to get a 30 day free trial of SendOwl.

If you liked this episode, **subscribe** to the Digital Hustle podcast on iTunes and the [SendOwl channel on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbzM1MjvVUU6tAOzgeFrO9g).

[How much should I charge for my digital product?](https://www.sendowl.com/blog/how-much-should-i-charge-for-my-digital-product.html?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=dh003&utm_content=promo1)