Build for Another Trait Indie Makers Have in Common

There is a trap many Indie Makers fall into. A lot of them recognize it but don’t know how to escape.

The trap is that they only find success selling products to other Indie Makers. They don’t know how to break out of the bubble.

Understand the bubble first.

It comes from a genuine place. Eventually, the Maker realizes that he/she should be building an audience to sell to in the future. I wrote about this here, you want to be the Social Builder. It makes no sense to start over every time. It makes the most sense to have more people to sell to each time you launch.

The trap gets laid because the audience they build is always of other Indie Makers. It gets reinforced because good Makers ask their audience what they want and build it for them. It looks something like this:

Build a product → gain Indie Maker followers → ask that audience what they want → they want products built for Indie Making → build products for Indie Makers

Rinse and repeat.

Makers build B2B SaaS products because they meet the needs of the audience they have grown. If you #buildinpublic, post MRR in your bio, and consider Product Hunt to be your main launch strategy… you are going to grow a following of other Makers. And that’s ok.

But, you’re in the bubble now. And the bubble is getting more crowded every day.

There are 2 ways to break the bubble.

The first is to build an audience in a different niche. But that’s hard. Most B2C products fail because the founder doesn’t have the relevant audience to sell to.

The second, is to sell to a different trait your audience has in common.

You’ve built an audience, but you’re struggling to come up with new ways to serve this audience. The B2B SaaS idea you have has been built a dozen times, all by people with greater reach than you. Of course it’s possible to succeed this way, but it’s hard.

What’s easier is identifying another trait your audience has in common and building for that.

Pieter Levels does this with his digital nomad products. Many Indie Makers are Digital Nomads. Many Digital Nomads are Indie Makers. As he builds an audience of Makers, he already has great products for them. He sells to another trait Indie Makers have in common. He also sells to another trait Digital Nomads have in common. It’s a great system.

Figure out what other traits they have in common.

Here’s a list of traits they often have in common to start:

• Young

• Male

• Single

• Developers

• Designers

• Tech and AI enthusiasts

• Bloggers

• Have social media accounts they want to grow

What else can you add to this list? Better yet don’t answer this for yourself, ask them to answer it for you.

You should be asking your audience what products they want to see built. But, you have to be specific. You need to learn what they have in common other than being Indie Makers. You need to learn what other traits you can build for.

Being stuck in the bubble isn’t all bad. But you will get crowded out if you don’t sell to other traits. Make the cycle look like this:

Build a product → gain Indie Maker followers → ask that audience what else describes them → build products for those traits

The bubble can be your friend if you approach it correctly. The bubble can really be your friend if you have a newsletter. Newsletters are a great way to gather more data on your followers and ask what traits define them.

You don’t have to fear the trap. You need to understand and embrace it. Turn it to your favor and build for other traits your audience has in common.