If you're stuck in the "I need a following first to make money" mindset, this is for you.

A couple of days back, I stumbled on this post on Reddit.

This dude built an app, set it out there for free, and got 250,000 users.

He's hit the dream a lot of the content creators out there aim for.

Big audience, engagement, and "intent", right?

But, if you read the post, you'll see he went from 70,000 active users to 400 customers that make him $1600 / month. Likely not enough to cover his costs for this kind of app.

And he quit his job to do this to boot. Ouch.

He made one schoolboy error.

He thought free users would easily convert to paid plans.

Here's the thing.

Attracting free users/leads and paying customers are 2 different games.

All the content creators out there who get loads of likes, shares, comments, and free leads etc, are creating super generic, mainstream stuff.

The kind of stuff anyone can relate to and that's easy to like.

It's nice and easy to like, but it's fluff.

All that mainstream attention and none of it is actual purchase intent from their ICP.

Likes and window shoppers ain't gonna pay your bills.

A lot of people take this content first approach.

They get on the hamster wheel of production and think if they can just attract enough people, they'll find a way to monetise them.

But, here's the thing.

People you attract with free info/offers that have mainstream appeal rarely convert to customers.

So, what's the better way?

Start with the offer and look at getting paying customers.

This'll solve like 90% of your problems down the road.

And here's why.

First, it's a faster path to PMF.

A lot of content creators and freebie offer owners can generate an audience, but then can't find the right product or offer to sell them.

They end up with a generalised audience who they can't monetise.

Second, it enables you to spend to reach more people.

Ads are great for distribution. But more so, they're great for feedback and data.

Having a paid offer unlocks ads. And when you're getting daily insights on what works and what doesn't, you can adapt faster and find the offer, audience, and angle that works in a fraction of the time.

Third, you remove stress.

In my experience, the freebie seekers of the world are the highest-stress audience to have.

They'll have you chasing all sorts of things to help them, but they're giving you literally nothing back.

When you focus on the paying customers, you get better quality questions and requests. And often, they'll pay for the help.

Once you've got the offer locked in, then you look at going and generating the content to reach a bigger audience.

I know plenty of people pulling 6 and even 7 figures who you've likely never heard of.

They have no following, no hordes of fans, no public presence of note.

What they do have, is an offer that solves a problem.

That's all you need.

So, if you're stuck in the "I just need more followers" stage, scrap it now.

Instead, jump into the $1 product challenge and build an offer that enables you to make money without a following.

Then, when you get the following, it's just fuel to the fire.

Pete "no followers" Boyle