Cedula: The Dominican Republic is transitioning from a simple plastic card with a photo to a full-fledged electronic document with an embedded chip. A lot of Dominicans and expats have expired cedulas on hands. Each visit to JSE and request to update ends in nothing.

The President has issued a decree that expired cedulas are valid. However, employees of international embassies and airports are not aware of the Dominican decrees.

By Yenifer Fernandez (yenifer.fernandez@lagente.do)

Periodista de LaGente.do

My ID expired in February 2024, and as a law-abiding citizen, I went to the civil registry office to renew it.

“Come in October,” the civil registry clerk replied. “Your ID is valid until the end of October 2024.” “It’s a pity that nobody knows about it except the civil registry staff,” I thought.

In the past, in 2023, I returned to the Dominican Republic from Istanbul with Lufthansa. The entry stamp to Turkey was in my Russian passport, so I bought the Lufthansa ticket with my Russian Federation passport.

After the events in February 2022, holders of Russian passports worldwide faced unprecedented difficulties in travel. Lufthansa staff at Istanbul International Airport began to refuse me boarding, even though everything was correctly arranged.

Only my ID with my permanent address in the Dominican Republic, along with my Dominican driver’s license, saved me. These two documents convinced Lufthansa staff that I was flying home. After 30 minutes of coordination with management, they let me board. Other Russian passport holders were less fortunate. As you understand, if at least one of the documents I presented had an expired date, I would still be at Istanbul Airport.

Now, with an expired ID until the end of October 2024, My tourism should be limited to within the Dominican Republic. Because only the civil registry staff knew that the ID was valid. Because when I go to the embassies for a visa, they look at the expiration date of my expired ID. And not at the government decree.

I think many expatriates living in the Dominican Republic who turned to the civil registry for renewal of their Dominican ID faced a similar problem.

Let’s see what the official website of the JCE (https://jce.gob.do/), the authority responsible for the Dominican ID renovation, says:

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As we can see, searching for information about the delay in exchanging identification documents on the official JCE website yielded no results.

Let’s stick to tradition and Google it:

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Google provides only one link to information on the official website (as we saw, the site’s own search function doesn’t work). Following the link to the only document available from the search, dated June 2022, we learn that the process of updating identification documents will begin in August 2024. Which, to put it mildly, is not true.

The communication department of the civil registry, to put it mildly, misinformed the public about the start date of the document renewal process.

The only material with a future date available at the time of writing this article is found in a Google search from the newspaper “Diario Libre”:

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From this material, we learn that it will only be possible to renew expired identification documents in October 2024. And that the new ID card will have a new design and an embedded electronic chip.

Since this is the only available information at the moment about the renewal of expired identification documents in the Dominican Republic, we are publishing the full material from “Diario Libre”. The link to the original is here.

Cedula: changes that the new identification document will undergo:

Despite the fact that the current identification document expires this year in 2024, the Central Electoral Board (JCE) has established that it will remain valid for citizens to exercise their right to vote in both municipal and congressional as well as presidential elections.

Author: Stephanie Hilario Soto

January 4, 2024

…

…

The process of updating the identification and electoral cards will begin on October 26 of the current year, 2024, with the issuance of a new document equipped with a microchip and other security measures aimed at addressing the deficiencies of the current document.

In advance, the Central Electoral Board (JCE) provided political parties with a report on the characteristics and the project itself for updating the identification (ID) and electoral cards. This report was submitted on December 21 with a deadline of 10 working days for providing feedback.

The current ID, which will be replaced after the elections, is made of plastic and can “delaminate,” meaning its elements can be separated. It does not have a microchip and is not electronic.

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The new identification card is expected to be equipped with a microchip and other security measures aimed at addressing the deficiencies of the current document. (EXTERNAL SOURCE)

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The material chosen for the new identification card is polycarbonate, which is used in most countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Finland, Mexico, Ecuador, and Uruguay. It facilitates the integration of security features that hinder their reproduction on other materials, such as windows with engraved and embossed effects.

Polycarbonate does not delaminate like the current ID material, and attempting to alter the data on it will result in destruction. It has a long service life and durability.

The photograph on the current ID has a dark background and does not comply with the specifications of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and it will be produced in shades of high-quality gray, “sufficient to identify the bearer,” as specified in a document accessed by Diario Libre. All data will be stored in color and printed on robotic devices at the only center operating in the country.

It is proposed that the citizen’s photograph will appear three times on the identification card, i.e., on the front side. The map of the Dominican Republic, currently located in the bottom left corner, will be placed above the photograph in the bottom left corner.

The integrated circuit or microchip embedded in the card will allow identity verification in offline mode. It will contain an electronic signature, be embossed with names, and allow biometric comparison of a fingerprint recorded on the chip with a live one captured within a few seconds.

The current identification cards and electoral cards expire this year in 2024, but according to the decision of the Central Electoral Board (JCE), they will remain valid for citizens to exercise their right to vote in both municipal elections in February and congressional and presidential elections in May.

Author: Stephanie Hilario Soto
Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephaniesotord?s=21
A journalist from the Dominican Republic, a graduate of the University of Santo Domingo (UCSD). She also works as a broadcaster, emcee, model, as well as host and producer of her own digital project “Acceso VIP.”

At the moment, this is the only information available on the timing of exchanging Dominican identification cards found through Google search.

We hope that this material has been helpful to expatriates and citizens of the Dominican Republic who have expired identification cards.

If this material receives enough likes or comments, we will reach out to the civil registry office and the manufacturer of the new identification card for further details.

By Yenifer Fernandez (yenifer.fernandez@lagente.do)

Periodista de LaGente.do

Why does the U.S. keep running up debt? Why does the dollar remain the world’s currency of choice? And why do presidents’ promises to “fix” America’s trade problems never seem to work? The answer lies in a 60-year-old economic paradox called the Triffin Dilemma—a force that has quietly shaped the global economy and outlasted every administration.

The Lemonade Stand That Explains the World Economy

Let’s start with a story. Imagine a small town where everyone loves lemonade. Alice runs the only lemonade stand, and her lemonade is so trusted that people use it as money to trade and save. As the town grows, everyone wants more lemonade to keep trading, so Alice has to keep making more—even if it means borrowing lemons and sugar from other towns. If she makes too much, people worry her lemonade will lose value. If she makes too little, the town’s trading slows down.

This is the heart of the Triffin Dilemma: when your money is everyone’s money, you have to keep supplying it, even if it means going into debt. But if you stop, the whole system suffers.

Communicating Vessels Analogy:

Think of two connected tanks: one is the U.S. economy, the other is the rest of the world. The world needs a steady flow of water (dollars) to keep its tank full and its trade flowing. But the only way for the U.S. to keep the world’s tank topped up is to keep sending water out—by running trade deficits and borrowing more. If the U.S. sends too much, its own tank gets dangerously low (debt rises). If it sends too little, the world’s tank runs dry, and global trade suffers.

The Triffin Dilemma: A Paradox at the Heart of Global Finance

First described by Belgian-American economist Robert Triffin in the 1960s, the Triffin Dilemma is the catch-22 faced by any country whose currency is the world’s main reserve. To keep global trade flowing, the U.S. must supply dollars to the world—usually by running trade deficits and borrowing. Over time, this increases U.S. debt and can undermine confidence in the dollar, but if the U.S. stops, the world economy risks a shortage of dollars.

This paradox is not just academic. It has shaped the global financial system for decades, influencing everything from the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in the 1970s to today’s debates over “de-dollarization” and the rise of digital currencies.

Who was Robert Triffin?

Robert Triffin (1911–1993) was a Belgian-American economist whose work at Yale and with the IMF and OEEC shaped international monetary theory. His analysis of the Bretton Woods system exposed the inherent tension between supplying global liquidity and maintaining confidence in the reserve currency—a dilemma that still shapes the world economy.
Read more: Robert Triffin International Biography

How the Triffin Dilemma Works in Practice

The U.S. dollar is the world’s main reserve currency. Countries use it to trade, save, and pay debts. To meet this demand, the U.S. runs trade deficits (imports more than it exports) and issues debt (Treasury bonds). This keeps the world’s “lemonade tank” full, but means the U.S. keeps borrowing and spending.

This dynamic is why the U.S. can’t simply “fix” its trade deficit or stop issuing debt without risking global instability. The world’s thirst for dollars is both a blessing and a curse.

Seigniorage and Capital Flows:

The U.S. benefits from seigniorage—the profit from issuing currency used globally. But persistent deficits mean growing reliance on foreign capital, exposing the U.S. to external shocks and higher borrowing costs.

Historical Impact: From Bretton Woods to Today

The Triffin Dilemma played a key role in the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. In the post-World War II era, the U.S. promised to exchange dollars for gold at a fixed rate. But as global trade expanded, the world needed more dollars than the U.S. could back with gold. In 1971, President Nixon ended the dollar’s convertibility to gold, ushering in the era of floating exchange rates and cementing the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency.

Case Study: The Nixon Shock

By the late 1960s, U.S. gold reserves could no longer cover the volume of dollars held abroad. Nixon’s suspension of gold convertibility in 1971 was a direct response to the unsustainable pressures Triffin predicted.
Federal Reserve History: Gold Convertibility Ends

Today, the dilemma persists. The U.S. debt and trade deficit keep rising, but the world still relies on the dollar for trade, reserves, and investment. Even as alternatives like the euro, Chinese yuan, and digital currencies emerge, none have yet displaced the dollar’s central role.

U.S. Presidents vs. the Dilemma: Policy Attempts and Outcomes

Every U.S. president since the 1960s has faced the Triffin Dilemma, whether they knew it or not. Donald Trump tried tariffs, tax cuts, and “America First” policies to shrink the trade deficit and bring jobs home. Joe Biden has focused on infrastructure, green energy, and rebuilding domestic industry. Both have talked tough on debt and trade, but the numbers keep going up: U.S. debt has soared past $37 trillion, and the trade deficit hit nearly $1 trillion in 2024.

Expert Insight:

“While Trump’s and Biden’s teams have tried to address trade imbalances and boost domestic industry, neither could escape the Triffin Dilemma’s logic—global demand for dollars keeps the U.S. running deficits and accumulating debt.”
Investopedia: How the Triffin Dilemma Affects Currencies

Why? Because the world still wants—and needs—dollars. Whether it’s for buying oil, paying for U.S. weapons, or simply holding reserves, global demand for dollars keeps the U.S. running deficits and issuing debt. Presidents can tweak the system, but they can’t escape its logic.

The Numbers: Debt, Deficits, and Dollar Demand

The data tell the story. U.S. arms exports and international conflicts increase demand for dollars, but don’t solve the underlying dilemma—they just recycle dollars back to the U.S. Meanwhile, trade deficits and national debt keep rising, as the world’s need for dollars persists.

Sources:

U.S. State Department FY2024 Arms Transfers
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024 Trade Data
U.S. Debt Clock

Why Do Conflicts and Arms Sales Matter?

Many international conflicts have hidden economic motives: control of oil, gas, trade routes, or strategic resources. Publicly, leaders talk about security or values, but economic interests are often the real drivers.

U.S. arms sales are paid for in dollars, reinforcing the dollar’s dominance. U.S. sanctions work because the dollar is the backbone of global finance. The Triffin Dilemma means the U.S. must keep supplying dollars, even as it tries to manage its own economy.

Further Reading:

Council on Foreign Relations: U.S. Trade Deficit
Brookings: The Geoeconomics of Conflict

Source: ACLED: Global conflicts double over the past five years

Real-World Cases: The Dilemma in Action

• Russia–Ukraine War: The U.S. and EU have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia, leveraging the dollar’s centrality in global finance. U.S. arms and aid to Ukraine are paid for in dollars, reinforcing global demand.
• South China Sea Disputes: The U.S. Navy’s presence and arms sales to regional partners are part of the system that maintains dollar dominance and global trade stability.
• Middle East Conflicts: Oil is traded globally in dollars (“petrodollar system”), reinforcing the need for countries to hold dollar reserves. U.S. arms sales to the region are paid in dollars, increasing global dollar demand.

The Five-Year Forecast: The Dilemma Endures

Looking ahead, the Triffin Dilemma isn’t going anywhere. Even if a future Trump (or any president) brings back tariffs, slashes taxes, or tries to force a weaker dollar, the world will still need dollars. Debt and deficits will keep rising. The dollar will remain king, but new challengers—like China’s yuan or digital currencies—will slowly chip away at its throne. Global volatility will likely increase, but the basic paradox will endure.

Practical consequences:

• Federal debt will likely exceed $45 trillion by 2030, with interest costs crowding out discretionary spending.
• Tariffs will keep inflation higher than it otherwise would be, and the trade gap will narrow only superficially.
• Geopolitical friction will boost U.S. arms and energy exports, recycling dollars back home.
• De-dollarization will progress incrementally, but the dollar will remain the world’s primary reserve.

Possible Solutions: Can the Triffin Dilemma Be Tamed?

While the Triffin Dilemma is deeply embedded in the global system, several solutions have been proposed to reduce its impact:

• Diversifying global reserves: Encouraging the use of other major currencies (euro, yuan, yen) or baskets like the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) could spread the burden of global liquidity, but requires deep, trusted markets and international coordination.
• Digital innovation: Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and blockchain-based assets may offer new ways to manage cross-border payments and reserves, though adoption and trust remain hurdles.
  ECB: The Triffin Dilemma in a Digital World
• Fiscal discipline: The U.S. could pursue more sustainable fiscal policies to reduce debt risks, but as long as the dollar is the world’s reserve, deficits are hard to avoid.
• Global reform: The most ambitious solution—a new international reserve system—would require unprecedented cooperation and trust, and faces resistance from those benefiting from the status quo.

The Bottom Line: Who’s Really Winning?

The Triffin Dilemma is still in charge. Presidents can change policies, but as long as the world wants dollars, the U.S. will keep running deficits and building up debt. The world’s thirst for dollars keeps America powerful—but also perpetually in debt. Until a true alternative emerges, the paradox will keep steering the global economy—no matter who’s in the White House.

If you want to understand the world economy, just remember Alice’s lemonade stand: when your money is everyone’s money, you can’t stop pouring, even if your own cup is running low.

Sources and Further Reading

• Robert Triffin and the Triffin Dilemma – IMF
• Bretton Woods Created – Federal Reserve History
• Gold Convertibility Ends – Federal Reserve History
• The Dollar Reigns Supreme as the World’s Top Currency – IMF
• U.S. Arms Exports FY2024 – U.S. State Department
• U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, Annual 2023 – BEA
• U.S. National Debt Clock
• U.S. Trade Deficit: How Much Does It Matter? – Council on Foreign Relations
• The Biden-Harris Administration’s Economic Agenda – White House
• The Geoeconomics of Conflict – Brookings
• U.S. Arms Exports 2023 – SIPRI
• How Do U.S. Sanctions Work? – Council on Foreign Relations
• Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea – Council on Foreign Relations
• The Petrodollar System – Brookings
• How Do Western Sanctions Affect Russia? – Reuters
• The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2024 to 2034 – Congressional Budget Office

Is the Triffin Dilemma a blessing, a curse, or both? Can any president ever break free from its grip? What would it take for the world to move beyond the dollar? Join the discussion below.

Is That LinkedIn Medical Interpreter Offer Legit? Here’s the Truth Behind the Pitch

Ever get a LinkedIn message promising easy freelance work as a medical interpreter—plus a “must-have” training course? If you’re a newcomer to the U.S. or just exploring side gigs, you’ve probably wondered: Is this a real job, or just a clever way to sell courses?

Let’s cut through the noise. I dug deep into the U.S. healthcare language services market to find out which offers are genuine, who’s really hiring, and how you can actually land paid work as a medical interpreter.

The Problem: Too Many Promises, Not Enough Clarity

The U.S. medical interpreting market is booming, but it’s also crowded with companies eager to recruit—and sometimes upsell—newcomers. For professionals who only occasionally check LinkedIn, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of offers that blur the line between opportunity and sales pitch.

The Reality: Who’s Who in Medical Interpreting

A handful of giants—LanguageLine Solutions, CyraCom, AMN Language Services—dominate the market, serving hospitals nationwide with 24/7 coverage and seamless tech. But there’s also a long tail of regional players and startups, each with their own approach to hiring and training.

Here’s the breakdown:

• The top three companies control half the market and are always hiring, but competition is fierce—especially for common languages like Spanish.
• Mid-sized firms like Liberty Language Services focus on the Mid-Atlantic and are known for onboarding new interpreters, especially for rare languages.
• Most companies require a 40-hour medical interpreter certificate (CCHI/NBCMI-qualifying) as your ticket in.

To give you a clearer picture, here’s a snapshot of the market leaders:

OPI = Over-the-phone interpreting; VRI = Video remote interpreting; Onsite = In-person interpreting

How Do Hospitals Choose Their Vendors?

Hospitals and clinics overwhelmingly prefer the largest vendors, mainly for their 24/7 coverage, rapid response times, and seamless integration with hospital systems. Here’s how the “preference” breaks down among U.S. hospitals and medical clients:

Note: Hospitals often use multiple vendors, so totals exceed 100%.

The Solution: How to Spot a Real Opportunity

Worried that “training required” means “scam”? Here’s what matters:

• Legitimate companies (including Liberty) do offer both training and jobs—but you’re not forced to buy their course if you already have a recognized certificate.
• If you’re certified, you can apply directly for work. If not, their course is one of several reputable options.
• For rare languages, your chances of getting hired skyrocket—some companies hire 70% of new certificate holders in these languages.

To illustrate, here are estimated probabilities of getting hired with a fresh certificate and no prior experience:

What’s Your Best Move?

Want real work, not just another certificate? Here’s your action plan:

1. Get a recognized 40-hour medical interpreter certificate (CCHI or NBCMI-qualifying).
2. Apply widely—especially to companies known for hiring newcomers.
3. If you speak a high-demand language, highlight it. Flexibility and persistence pay off.

Bottom Line

Yes, there are real jobs out there. The U.S. medical interpreting market is hungry for talent—especially if you bring rare language skills and the right credentials. Don’t get distracted by the noise. Focus on certification, target the right companies, and you’ll find genuine opportunities.

Ready to make your language skills pay off? Don’t just scroll—take action. The opportunity is real, if you know where to look.

Sources

• Global Growth Insights: Medical Interpreter Services Market Size, Growth (2024)
• Nimdzi: Top 10 Healthcare Interpreting Providers in the US (2024)
• Business Research Insights: Medical Interpreter Services Market Share, Forecast 2025 – 2033
• KLAS Research, “Communication & Language Access 2024” (summary)
• Company career pages, Indeed, Glassdoor, interpreter forums (2024–2025 data)

If you have questions about specific companies or want advice on how to get started, feel free to reach out or comment below.

By Slava Riumin. Business blogs can be found at https://neploho.agency. I also run the blog “Fell, Got Up” at https://t.me/ruminblog.
The text is published with the permission of the author.
The original text is here.

I burned out as a programmer and turned my hobby into a business. Now I make 37 million a year selling on marketplaces.

I’m 42 years old, and like many IT professionals, I completely burned out by the age of 35. In gardening groups, I became friends with a chemist, and in December 2021, we decided to start producing fertilizers and soil for houseplants.

I didn’t start the trend of selling “crap” on marketplaces, but as an experienced gardener, I decided to take it literally and produce fertilisers instead of manure.

Although sometimes after marketplace tariff updates, there's a temptation to literally deliver manure to the pickup points.

I’ll tell you how to obtain the product using a concrete mixer, a drill, and Uralhim, why Ozon steals measuring spoons, what unpleasant condition Leroy Merlin imposes on manufacturers, why the Chinese don’t want to deal with powders, and how much my production earns and spends.

Usually, home gardening is perceived as a “hobby for old-timers,” with simple cacti or violets.

…

Everyone remembers the semi-alive greens in schools on shelves and windowsills.

In reality, the indoor plant market is worth billions. The cost of rare or trendy varieties of philodendrons, monsteras, alocasias can range from 20,000 to 50,000 rubles. And this is a common occurrence.

Professional fertilizers and soil are required for their cultivation. It’s another gigantic market where billions of rubles are involved. Today, let’s talk about it.

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In the photo, a variegated Melanochrisum is growing.

If you know the difference between a Monstera and a fern, give a like, and share in the comments which plants accompany you!

DISCLAIMER: The article was written by the author of the blog “Fell, Got Up” based on an interview with the founder of a fertilizer production company, who chose to remain anonymous to preserve relationships with technology giants and retail chains.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
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2. Business in Fertilizers from Scratch, Without Loans, Credits, or Government Support
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3. Revenue of Fertilizer and Soil Production
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4. Expenses of Fertilizer and Soil Production
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5. Profit Potential in Soil and Fertilizer Production

Business in Fertilisers from Scratch, Without Loans, Credits, or Government Support

For the initial purchase of ingredients, my partner and I each contributed 5,000 ₽, and we sold that batch through a VK group of fellow gardeners. Gradually, sales grew, and we first moved into a basement, then eventually to a full production facility.

The process of making our fertilizers looks like this:

1. Develop the formula – we reverse-engineer it using the Chinese method

We take an Indonesian or well-known American fertilizer and perform reverse engineering using the Chinese method.

That means we examine the ingredients listed on the label and ask the seller about the proportions from the perspective of experienced gardeners. Next, we study scientific patents to adjust the proportions. These patents describe the effects of various concentrations of essential ingredients on plants and are, by the way, freely accessible.

This way, we create our own product copy at 30% less cost than the original.

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The Chinese approach involves taking a well-known product, reproducing it exactly, and then adding your own innovations.

2. Mix the necessary components

In the basement, we mixed the components using a concrete mixer and a drill with attachments.

At the production facility, we use powder mixers instead of concrete mixers, specifically “drunken barrel” mixers (2 units at 84.5 gallons each).

It turns out the classics were wrong when they said a concrete mixer only mixes concrete. It does an excellent job mixing soil and fertilisers too.

3. Package the fertilizers into bags and jars

In the basement, we used a chair, a scoop, and a bucket for this.

At the production facility: you load the mixture into an automatic packer, the machine fills it into jars and seals them. Labels are applied using a third machine.

Automatic packer - 700,000 ₽

Packaging machine - 350,000 ₽

We manually add measured scoops and pack them into sturdy bags with marketplace labeling (if required).

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1. Primary raw materials: agricultural and fine chemicals.
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2. Grind the components into a powdered form.
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3. Mix the components according to the recipes into homogeneous blends.
   
   In the photo – the process of fertilizer production. Our fertilizer is half mineral (agrochemicals) and half organic: vitamins, amino acids, phytohormones (fine chemicals).

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1. We package the fertiliser into PET jars of various sizes.
   .
2. We pack them into crates, palletize, and send them to warehouses or wholesale.

In the photo, packaging of fertilisers.

Similarly with soils: you load the mixture into the packaging line, the machine fills it into bags and seals them. Then you manually apply the label and pack them into boxes.

Packaging line - 950,000 ₽

We manually apply the labels and pack them into boxes.

According to wholesalers’ standards, we have a small volume. Printing houses reluctantly produce 5,000 labels, and if they do, it’s at 10 ₽ per label. But if you order a million labels, they come out to 1 ruble each. Therefore, we print the labels both in the basement and now on a printer, laminate them, cut them with a cutter, and stick them on self-adhesive paper.

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1. We mix according to recipes. We add anti-fungal additives.
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2. Primary raw materials, divided into fractions: zeolites, bark, lava, and others.
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3. We pack them into bags, apply labels.
   .
4. We pack them into crates, palletize, and send them to warehouses or wholesale.

The process of soil production

4. We test the resulting mixture.

When introducing a new formula, we first test it on our own plants, then we pass it to a focus group – several familiar gardeners with a variety of plants and families (25 people). We give a trial jar to the laboratory. Then friendly nurseries test it on a mass scale of plants. If everything is fine, the product is launched into production (+ certification).

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Some succulents have bloomed, while others have acquired beautiful colors, which means we can launch the fertiliser for sale.

At the start of our developments, there are often blatant failures. Complaints about hygroscopicity, clumping, powder hardening, burst packaging, and so on. Fortunately, customers provide feedback and advice – ultimately, we address the shortcomings and move forward.

In total, the estimates for the launch looked like this:

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1. Concrete mixer
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2. Drill with attachments
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3. Buckets
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4. Shovels
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   Total: 200,000 rubles

Basement

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Production estimate:

Soils:

1. 82.5 gallons mixer. Externally similar to a concrete mixer, but more powerful. 80,000 rubles.
   .
2. Automatic packer for packaging and sealing the mixture in bags. 950,000 rubles.
   .
3. Stone crusher for grinding components to the required fraction. 70,000 rubles.

Fertilisers:

1. Powder mixer similar to a “drunken barrel” (2 units). 640,000 rubles
   .
2. Dosing-packaging machine for packaging powder into PET jars. 700,000 rubles
   .
3. Capper for lids, also a dater, also a labeler. 350,000 rubles
   .
4. Mills for fine grinding of components (2 units). 60,000 rubles

Total equipment cost: 2,850,000 rubles

Production

The main problem in the production of fertilizers and soils is dust and dirt. It’s not like laboratory coats and clean offices. When mixing powders, dust rises, some of it is captured by the exhaust system, and some settles on all surfaces.

…

The same problem exists with soils: peat, stones, zeolites – almost every component generates dust.

Therefore, throughout the entire cycle, workers wear masks and special clothing. Afterwards, thorough cleaning and washing of all surfaces and equipment are mandatory.

…

Visually, it looks like this.

Revenue from the production of fertilisers and soils

As you can imagine, December 2022 was the perfect time to start replacing Western products with domestic alternatives. Some competitors disappeared. Due to sanctions and disrupted supply chains, Western original competitors became more expensive, while our product became 2-2.5 times cheaper, leading to significant growth.

Soils and mineral-organic fertilizers are purchased by everyone who imports, collects, propagates, grows, or resells houseplants, including expensive exotics and super-expensive new varieties.

The monthly revenue by channel is averaged over the last three months.

Marketplaces (WB and Ozon) – 1,410,000 ₽

Problems with marketplaces – items are thrown around, and components are stolen.

As a result, a customer might receive just a bag instead of a bag with fertiliser, or only a jar instead of a jar with a measuring spoon. However, in defence of marketplaces, it should be noted that sometimes buyers steal the measuring spoons and then refuse the purchase.

Warehouses have sealing machines that help reseal the product when the spoon has already been stolen. I don't know why this happens; maybe they use them for their meals.

…

User chose to hide their details: “This is the second product I’ve purchased, but there’s no measuring spoon again.”

Stolen again.

Retail – 190,000 ₽

We sell through a VK group to small towns where there are no Ozon or WB points. In Moscow, customers either pick up their orders or have them delivered by a courier. One person processes orders, and when they’re unavailable due to personal matters, we handle inquiries ourselves.

…

When the gardeners are satisfied, they send their horticultural successes.

Wholesale sales – 600,000 ₽

Nurseries buy wholesale. They nurture imported plants, acquire microclones from Taiwan, and sell them at x10 prices in Russia. To ensure good plant survival, they purchase specific soils and fertilisers.

Group orders – 850,000 ₽

In the most remote regions (Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Transbaikal, etc.), it’s cheaper for gardeners to pool their resources and order a large batch. The organizer of such a purchase receives a 30% discount on the entire batch (this is their earnings), and in exchange, they advertise for us.

Leroy Merlin and chains – 0 ₽

To enter Leroy Merlin, an unpleasant condition must be met. The price at Leroy Merlin must be lower than the market price. For example, if fertilizer costs 1,000 ₽ in a VK group, 1,200 ₽ on a marketplace, it should be priced at 900 ₽ in Leroy Merlin. At this selling price, they want to buy fertilizers for 450 ₽ because the French markup is 100% of the purchase price. This is 250 ₽ cheaper than our usual wholesale price (our wholesale price is 700 ₽).

So instead of earning 700 ₽, I’ll only get 450 ₽, and this price doesn’t guarantee sales volume, especially since you’re competing with well-known brands on the shelves. Big players like PhosAgro or Uralchem are pushing through huge batches via chains.

In other words, to sell at Leroy Merlin, you yourself must promote the brand through advertising, just like with brands like Head & Shoulders, which were recognized on the shelf thanks to advertising. Otherwise, it’s just like on marketplaces, but with less favorable conditions for me.

Therefore, it's currently more profitable to collaborate with Ozon and WB than with Leroy Merlin.

Resellers – 0 ₽

Periodically, there are those willing to become dealers, and twice we even agreed.

For a reseller to make a profit, they sold at double the purchase price, meaning they bought for 700 ₽ and sold for 1,400 ₽. With such a price, they couldn’t compete with us (we sell for 1,200 on marketplaces). Selling wholesale for less is not interesting for us. And if we start raising retail prices, we reduce demand. It’s beneficial for us to keep prices below the market; then people come to us rather than to the Dutch.

Distributors were relevant before the era of marketplaces: you produce in Moscow, and customers are in Kamchatka. Postage is expensive, and then you need a dealer. They will bring in a wholesale load and resell it at retail there.

But now, with marketplaces everywhere, anyone in the countryside can order directly, and dealer intermediaries are no longer needed. And if we sell to resellers to trade on marketplaces, we have to give them a price of 250-300 ₽ because on marketplaces, the price from the purchase must be increased by three times for the math to work out. And for us, as manufacturers, it’s absolutely unprofitable to sell at such a price, let alone breed competitors.

…

Leroy Merlin and resellers – zero.

Ozon – 580,000.00 rubles

Wildberries – 830,000.00 rubles

Retail – 190,000.00 rubles

Wholesale – 600,000.00 rubles

Collective orders – 850,000.00 rubles

Total: 3,050,000.00 rubles

Production expenses for fertilizers and soils

Expenses calculated based on a turnover of 3,050,000 ₽.

Suppliers (ingredients and packaging) – 610,000 ₽

In nature, organic substances are generated by mold, bacteria—everything that exists in the soil. That’s why it’s not necessary to heavily fertilize plants in the field; minerals suffice—nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium—and the rest will come from nature. However, for potted indoor plants, nothing naturally comes to the pot, so besides mineral fertilizers, organic additives (fine chemistry) are included—vitamins, amino acids, phytohormones, sugars, and so on.

We source mineral fertilizers in Russia. We traditionally have many fields, so mineral fertilizers are abundant here. Russia also accounts for 16% of global exports in this sector. Previously, we bought from resellers, which was twice as expensive, but with a small volume, we couldn’t deal with major suppliers like PhosAgro and Uralchem, as they only deal with orders of at least 1 ton.

As for fine chemistry—vitamins, phytohormones, amino acids—we get them from China; they simply aren’t produced here. The Chinese trick is to dilute everything with maltodextrin, a derivative of white starch. As a result, you get a vitamin where half of the bag is maltodextrin. However, maltodextrin isn’t a problem in our business; in such cases, we can just use double the diluted component.

To avoid being deceived in China, you can find a buyer. These are specially trained individuals who speak both Russian and Chinese.

…

Through the website 1688, buyers purchase what you need, verify it, and send it to Russia.

An isolated issue in our niche is that no one wants to deal with powders. Customs scrutinise powders carefully.

…

You never know what you’ve mixed in there.

Your shipment from China can either be transported by auto as a consolidated cargo or in a maritime container, and you pay $1.5-2 per kilogram. That’s why we’re trying to transition to working with Russian wholesalers. They buy in bulk from China and distribute in Russia. It’s cheaper for them because large wholesalers fill a whole container with their goods, and the delivery cost per kilogram is only a few cents.

But we’ve had problems with other countries as well. For example, last year we ordered 20 tons of volcanic lava from Armenia for our soil. We expected stones sized 3-5 mm, but we received a truckload of lava sized 4-8 cm. We had to buy a crusher.

The 610,000 for suppliers is the total amount of purchases for the year divided by 12. We don’t calculate the cost for each item like large factories do because inflation has hit, and everything has gone up in price. The dollar has increased, Chinese components have become more expensive, etc. We just use a simple Excel sheet. I think 90% of accounting is the ability to input data, you can even do it in a very convenient accounting service, you just need to be diligent and enter the numbers. For now, it’s enough for us.

…

Self-employed – 342,000 ₽

We are located in an industrial zone (food industry, metal rolling), and nearby there is a workers’ settlement where many are interested in part-time work. We have a WhatsApp group with 8 people who work for us regularly. We set a project, for example, on Fri, Sat, Sun, the task is to produce, package, and pack 4,000 units of product. And whoever is available comes – usually 3-4 people.

Currently, we pay 1,000 ₽ per hour, and from this amount, the person pays taxes themselves. When we paid 500 ₽/hour, there was a high turnover, people could earn more easily as couriers.

If there are any issues, for example, if we prepared components for 4,000 jars, but we are told that only 3,500 jars were produced, we start checking the surveillance camera recordings.

Once we found out that a bag containing one of the components had been spilled, swept up, and simply thrown away.

People tend to stick to this job because they like the pay rate, so there are few problems.

…

We don’t prohibit the guys from taking fertilizers for their own flowers; they take one jar once every six months, which doesn’t make us poorer. Besides, fertilizers are not stolen willingly in general.

The main value of our company is the formulation, the secrets that cannot be shared with anyone. Therefore, when we invite employees, we prepare the components in such a way that they do not understand the composition; otherwise, this formulation will quickly leak from us. Our task is to prepare the bags, mix the fine chemicals into the primary mixtures. And we show the employees which bags to use to get the final product. These bags are already not labeled with what is what, and visually, you cannot guess.

Marketplaces – 496,800 rubles

At a turnover of 580,000 rubles, Ozon consumes 214,600 rubles (37%).

At a turnover of 830,000 rubles, Wildberries consumes 282,200 rubles (34%).

Tariffs are constantly changing, but for now, the margin allows it. We don’t buy premium, we don’t promote, we don’t monitor competitors, we don’t participate in promotions, and we don’t create colorful cards. Traffic on marketplaces is purely organic, through word of mouth – people search either by brand, product name, or through direct links.

…

To find us, you either need to know the exact name or click on the “Next” button. Currently, we are at the 250th position.

I think if we start advertising, we’ll end up giving away the remaining profits to the marketplaces. Additionally, we’ll have to produce more, deal with a lot of disloyal customers, and face many complaints. In essence, we’ll be producing more, earning less, and essentially working for the marketplaces.

…

Review: “Maxim: Pros – happy plants. Cons – none.”

Certification (spread over the year + government registration) – 100,000 ₽

In Russia, certification for fertilizers and pesticides is complicated, and everything remains from Soviet times, tailored to large enterprises. The agro-industry is state-owned, and it is not profitable for it to allow small companies into this sector, so they do not change the requirements, and they are very stringent.

To register mineral fertilisers, you need to pay 3 million for one position.

Exactly, for our 17 positions, we would have to pay 50 million. We wouldn't make that much income in 10 years.

Got it, since our fertilizers are not purely mineral but organic-mineral, with half minerals and half organic components, we don’t need to go through the Ministry of Agriculture and register with Rosreestr. Instead, we just need to obtain a declaration of conformity to GOST standards. This is a simpler process, and the certification for each product costs around 100,000 ₽ including testing. We have 17 products, and we periodically certify new ones, so I’ve budgeted 100,000 ₽ per month for certification expenses.

Advertising – 0 ₽

Group on VK, a few giveaways – and that’s it. We don’t run contextual ads, don’t attend exhibitions, and don’t engage in barter in exchange for praises about our products. We haven’t been working on the design of the group and cards for a long time – “it’s good enough as it is”.

Everything that promotes us at the moment is free word-of-mouth. There are plenty of groups and chats among plant enthusiasts – that’s where all this magic happens every day without breaks on weekends.

…

Review: “Pros: I love this stimulator. Plants grow roots superbly, quickly, and adapt painlessly.”

I believe that the best advertisement is recommendations from those who use the product, are satisfied with it, and share their emotions and impressions with others. And the overall estimate looks like this:

…

1. Taxes (7% of revenue) 213,500.00 rubles
2. Cost of goods (materials plus packaging) 610,000.00 rubles
3. Rent (plus utilities plus cleaning) 100,000.00 rubles
4. Equipment and depreciation 150,000.00 rubles
5. Certification (spread over the year plus government registration) 100,000.00 rubles
6. Payroll for order processing and assembly (3 employees) 150,000.00 rubles
7. Ozon commissions (37%) 282,200.00 rubles
8. Logistics (pallets and boxes, stretch wrap, and delivery to the marketplace) 50,000.00 rubles
9. Unforeseen expenses 40,000.00 rubles
10. Accumulated balance (reserve fund, 5%) 152,500.00 rubles
    

Total: 2,304,800.00 rubles

The total expenditure on turnover of 3,050,000 ₽ amounted to 2,304,800 ₽.

How much can you earn from the production of soils and fertilisers?

In the basement, the variable expenses included rent – 15,000 ₽, ingredient purchase for 700,000 ₽ revenue – about 100,000 ₽. We mixed, packaged, and sold everything with my partner. Since the process was not well-organized, we had about 5-7% returns. But still, out of 700k revenue, we managed to make about 300k profit.

If we look at the average over the last three months, the monthly calculation is as follows:

…

• Revenue: 3,050,000.00 RUB
• Expenses: 2,304,800.00 RUB

Total (for two): 745,200.00 RUB

For 745,200 RUB between the two of us, we each spend about 60 hours per month. I handle the formulations and production, while my partner takes care of finances, procurement, managing non-production staff, and order issues.

Currently, the quarterly growth is around 18-25%, and last year it reached up to 40%. There is virtually no seasonality (unlike the agrochemical market for summer cottages and gardens). The biggest contributors to growth are marketplaces and bulk orders.

In conclusion, I believe it is more sensible to invest in the product rather than advertising. A good product naturally encourages people to advertise for you.

…

Reviews: “Hello everyone! I read a post here that after using Micro Plus, orchids started to bloom. I decided to try it too. And indeed, after just one application, some of my orchids started to bloom (they rarely bloom for me). I recommend it.”

And there’s no better advertisement than that.
Thank you for reading, and please water your plants, not me, in the comments.

Credits

DISCLAIMER: This article was written by the author of the blog “Fell, Got Up” based on an interview with the founder of a fertilizer production company, who chose to remain anonymous to maintain good relationships with technological giants and retail chains.

I run the blog “Fell, Got Up,” featuring stories about real businesses, not just “success stories.”

You’ll read about: how I opened and failed a chain of nightclubs, how to properly glue cardboard to sell it on marketplaces for 50 million rubles a year, how a farmer spent 250 million in a village, why dumpling production is dying in the provinces, why a taxi fleet with 300 drivers and 40 cars is no longer a business, how a techie restored a Soviet camp but fell into a 60 million ruble cash flow gap, and other stories.

I write these articles for my blog, and my team and I also create commercial blogs, such as the blog for MoySklad. If you need content marketing, for example, on Habr or vc.ru, contact Ryumin.

By Slava Riumin. Business blogs can be found at https://neploho.agency. I also run the blog “Fell, Got Up” at https://t.me/ruminblog.
The text is published with the permission of the author.
The original text is here.

In November we wrote about how to “digitize” an apiary and turn it into “bee sharing”. In this article, its author, Artem Zharov, talks about the economics of the project and the change in business model.

https://pchelosharing.ru/
By Artem Zharov Founder and designer of BeeSharing and BeeSharing/Gift

Bees in the hive

Actually, the figure of 40 kopecks per year is not entirely accurate. To begin with, on average, a bee lives for 3-4 weeks, meaning each season sees 4-5 generations of bees working.

The 50,000 bees in a hive is also an average number during the peak cycle of the bee colony’s life. When summer begins, everything is in bloom, and the queen bee produces as many bees as possible.

…

“Only bees are better than honey”

Moreover, not all bees gather honey. Apart from the basic division of bees into the queen, drones (males, needed solely for fertilization), and worker bees, there is also a division based on roles, specifically by age. The bee’s body develops, and along with that development, its functions change. The list is ordered by increasing age:

• Cleaner bees
  .
• Builder bees
  .
• Nurse bees
  .
• Guard bees ‍
  .
• Ventilating bees
  .
• Forager bees (peak of bee development)
  .
• Scout bees
  .
• Water-carrying bees (old age of the bee)

But since all roles are necessary for production, we can calculate on average.

Bees can gather from 30 to 100 kg of honey per season depending on conditions. Obtaining 50+ kg is possible with an industrial approach, collecting nectar from agricultural fields.

This is 108% not our option because, at a minimum, we dislike monofloral honey (gathered from a single crop), and pesticides can easily find their way into honey.

…

Our bees gather around 40 kg, and half of this honey needs to be left for the bees for autumn, winter, and spring. So, we or the hive owners get a yield of 20-23 kg (last season resulted in 21 kg).

Industrial honey

The cost price of industrial honey is 20-40 ₽ per kilogram.

A kilogram of industrial honey in bulk costs 100-250 rubles.

In small wholesale, it goes up to 300 rubles, and at retail directly from the beekeeper, it can be up to 500 rubles.

At fairs, it can reach up to 700 rubles if purchased in 1-2 kg quantities.

In a store, after processing and packaging in a beautiful (or not so beautiful) jar, it can be around 1000-1200 rubles per kilogram.

…

Typical honey packaging is the complete opposite of our vibe.

The cost price of such honey is around 20-40 rubles per kilogram, depending on the arrangement of the apiary, its size, and most importantly, the yield.

All such apiaries use sugar, do not value the life of bee colonies, and do not hesitate to use industrially produced antibiotics, and so on.

…

COG of honey manufacturing.

If a beekeeper sells bee packages and other beekeeping products besides honey, having 500 bee colonies can generate a net income of up to 4 million ₽ per year. Blood money in the honey business.

…

Possible profit in an industrial apiary with 500 bee colonies: 4,000,000 per year.

Homegrown honey and honey from eco-friendly apiaries

Products like these are rarely sold in large wholesale quantities (several tons) because, with minimal sales skills, they can be sold at a good retail price. Also, there are rarely such large apiaries with such an approach.

Average cost price of homegrown honey: 200 ₽ per kilogram.

Summary of indicators and distinctive features:

• Yield: 30 to 50 kg depending on the region.
  .
• More work on the apiary.
  .
• Higher expenses for treatment and prevention.
  .
• No expenses for fuel, as the apiary is stationary.
  .
• Average cost price comes out to around 200 ₽ per kilogram.

…

COGS of eco-friendly apiary.

Apiaries that are now joining BeeSharing sell their honey in small wholesale for approximately 600-650 ₽ per kilogram. This often exceeds or equals their retail price. However, unlike retail, they don’t need to deal with:

• Packaging
  .
• Delivery
  .
• Marketing
  .
• Sales

Moreover, this is an expansion of the apiary without additional investments – hive acquisition is covered by us.

Thus, by selling through BeeSharing, adding a hundred hives results in an increase in the net profit of the existing apiary up to 1.6 million ₽.

…

1.6 million per year. This is an increase in the profit of an eco-apiary of 100 bee families working through bee sharing.

Working independently, without our platform, a beekeeper is forced to handle packaging, delivery, find clients, rent sales points at fairs or markets, advertise on platforms like Avito, maintain a blog…

Even if they sell at double the price, at 1200₽/kg (though discounts are common, especially for purchasing larger quantities like a 3L jar), the net profit comes out to roughly the same 650-700₽. Additionally, instead of staying at home with the kids and relaxing, they have to deal with sales.

…

Our additional values

We have our own apiary, and the figures above are partly based on it.

However, in addition to the apiary, we are developing a platform for beekeepers and a personal hive account for customers. So, in BeeSharing, apart from apiary costs, there are also the following expenses:

Content: It amounts to almost 350k per year, including:

1) A photographer takes photos and videos for photo reports published in the personal account. On average, 2-3 shoots per month.

…

2) A photographer takes photos and videos for photo reports published in the personal account. On average, 2-3 shoots per month.

…

Illustrations and design. It costs 250k per year. We create packaging for honey and related items. In our catalog, there are 50+ design templates, and each hive owner chooses how their yield will look as we approach autumn.

…

Including, we also create custom designs for clients. For example, here is a sketch of a label for the Cinemapicnic apiary of director Maxim Rusanov. The concept was approved on the first attempt:

…

Packaging and dispatch of orders + support — 600K per year. We package honey in St. Petersburg, not in the Krasnodar Krai where the apiary is located. From there, we dispatch parcels to customers using a courier service. Shipments usually reach Moscow within a day, and for St. Petersburg, we often provide same-day delivery.

…
New Year’s gifts for the employees of Pasha Molyanov’s “Let’s Do It” agency

Hosting, services, and such — 50K per year

Office rental — 480K per year. For packaging and for me. I have too many children to work from home

Communication at the apiary — 36K per year and a one-time (hopefully) 100K for equipment.

https://pchelosharing.ru/gift

And also: a discount of 9.99% with the promo code “СКОРО14И23”.

https://pchelosharing.ru/
By Artem Zharov Founder and designer of BeeSharing and BeeSharing/Gift

By Vladislav Vorkel
Product designer at Yandex.
Founder of the service for finding internships: https://t.me/Intern_Sheep.
Author’s blog: https://t.me/designvorkel

My internship search product currently has over 300 paying users, and it generates a monthly income equivalent to the salary of an average IT professional. I dreamed of creating a product that people would use, even if just a couple of them.

Hello, I’m Vlad Workel, a product designer at Yandex and the creator of InternSheep, a community with internships for designers. I’ll share how I really wanted my product and how I made it happen.

…

Roughly, this is how my dog helped in creating the product.

Internship search: where did the dream originated

I am a product designer and have worked in product roles, but I have always been interested in looking beyond the design field. I wanted to experience a product from all perspectives, from the idea, development, and demand to working with my team. Moreover, having my own product means it’s solely my responsibility, my decisions, and only my success or failure.

In simpler terms, it’s like crafting a wooden bow for a child that actually shoots, and then proudly running to show it to the adults.

The first attempt

About 1.5 years ago, I decided to embark on my first project – Gradeup. It’s a test for designers that, upon completion, allows you to assess your skill level and receive a competency map. It is still operational, and you can find it here: gradeup.vercel.app.

I found a developer acquaintance who was just learning front-end, designed the interface, and created a test consisting of competency cards from various companies. Initially, we tested the demand for the MVP test using Google Forms, where the result was a PDF that I personally drew and sent to each test-taker. I initially found the first users through my channel, which had about 500 people at that time.

There were many different hypotheses on how to monetize this test, but we never got around to it. Perhaps it was because there was a lack of understanding of how to do it, or maybe it was because I had already burned out and lost faith. That’s when the idea of gathering internships for designers came to mind, as it is something everyone needs!

The second attempt

Yes, that’s the one: InternSheep. So, the main story will be about testing the hypothesis, how we implemented the service in a couple of days with a developer in a hackathon format, how we attracted the first users, how the internship bot turned into a community, and how we created an educational program.

How not to start

The first week, I spent on absolutely unnecessary research, thinking I had to do it the “right” way. I scripted interviews, found respondents, and asked them about their job search experiences, problems faced, and so on.

The truth is, research is necessary when you don’t understand the target audience or when launching the product costs more than the research itself. In my case, I had a clear understanding of the target audience’s problems because I had personally gone through internships, and everyone around me was job hunting. It was literally part of my daily life. As a result, I abandoned the research and started building the product.

My opinion (it’s just mine, but I like it): in personal projects, it’s better to solve your own problem, then you won’t need extensive research. If your solution works for you, it will likely work for someone else – we are not unique.

…

The simplest hypothesis test:
There is a website where only internships are published. Internships of all cool companies immediately appear on the website after the company posts them on its official website. You will receive a notification. Are you ready to subscribe to the service for 200 rubles?

Yes: 52%
No, I don’t need internships: 18%
No, I’m sorry for the money: 17%
No, I’ll write in the comments why: 1%

From idea to the first revenue in just a few days

So let’s begin! The idea of implementation was to write parsers for career websites of top Russian product companies, we started with 15. Write a bot in which parsers will instantly send internships to users. They decided to sell the service by subscription – 200₽ per month

I assembled Landos in 1 day using nocode. I found several respondents for a decision interview and sold 3 subscriptions to a non-existent product. I just remember how I almost begged for real payment – only the money on the card could confirm the hypothesis in my case. It was a little awkward, but I overcame myself))

So, 600 rubles on the card, 0 developments, 3 people are waiting for the product within 2 weeks.

Let’s start development

I messaged Roman, a developer from Yandex, shared the idea with him, and we immediately started implementation. We needed parsers!

What parsers? Are you stupid or what?

Roman Dubinsky

Roman’s righteous laziness prevented us from making that mistake. Finding a student from Voronezh who browsed 15 websites several times a day turned out to be 100 times easier and cheaper. Later on, we did write parsers for some websites, but that’s not as important now.

…

Those very parsers…

In less than a week, we did the most essential thing: a bot and its admin panel where we uploaded internships.

The bot consisted of…

The bot consisted of:

1. Choice of Specialty: We had 5 options, but in practice, only designers subscribed.
   .
2. Subscription Payment: Done through the external Donate bot directly in Telegram.
   .
3. Each Internship had a link to the vacancy.

The entire flow seemed quite convoluted and makeshift initially, or at least, that’s what we thought at the beginning. In reality, it turned out that almost no one got confused, and people joined us smoothly.

So, the launch!

Actually, when I received the first prepayments, I started warming up the audience in my channel, talking about the service and collecting applications.

I asked all my acquaintances with channels to mention the service, and many responded absolutely for free. Thank you, if you’re reading this, it might not have worked out without you.

In the end, before the launch, we had over 300 applications.

As a result, we decided to sell it for 290 rubles to everyone who left a request, and then raise the price to 390 rubles.

We announced a broadcast where I presented the product and talked in more detail, but we started registering applications and opening access a few days before the launch.

…

The very broadcast where I tell you why you need to pay me 290₽.

At the time of the launch, we had sold about 200 subscriptions.

Couldn’t believe it when my card had not just 600₽ but 60,000₽. The amount may be modest, but it’s not about the money. I did something useful, and I’m getting paid for it! Wow!

Creating a community

Initially, we didn’t plan on doing anything like that. The idea was just to create a bot with internships – that’s it. But users suggested that it would be cool to have a chat where people in similar life situations could connect, receive support, and exchange experiences.

Both we and the participants saw significant value in this. Over time, it evolved into a community where we engage in various activities, communicate, and build friendships. People come to the product for internships but stay for the community. Many have found jobs or internships but continue to be a part of our community.

I was building a product and found friends.

What’s happening in the community now?

Continuous communication – and this is the most important aspect. People share test results, discuss who received invitations and who didn’t, seek advice, and find support when things get tough. Natasha, the community manager, and I have established a culture of zero toxicity and maximum friendliness. Throughout our time, we can count on one hand the instances of toxic conversations.

Lead designers conduct reviews several times a month where anyone can submit their portfolio or test work and receive a quality analysis.

We regularly host online meetups in our Safe Space, where you can come and simply talk when facing challenges at work or when despair sets in.

There’s also a book club and a poster art circle. Together, we read design-related books and discuss them, and in the art circle, we create posters with a designer from Yandex.Eats.

We are creating a small, warm, and friendly world where one feels inspired to grow and develop.

Periodically, members of our community would share internships that we didn’t initially have information about. We started keeping track of new companies, and as a result, the count increased from 16 to 26.

The product after 9 months

We haven’t closed down.
We are working!

Currently, the InternSheep channel has 2500 subscribers, with around 300 paying users in the product. Over 30 individuals have secured internships in top companies.

Throughout this period, I’ve hardly invested in advertising. There were trial sowings that yielded no results. Our growth is solely organic, which is great, but it’s time to learn how to attract more.

The team consists of three part-time individuals, including myself – a community manager/SMM, a designer, and me. Occasionally, we bring in others for one-time tasks or consultations.

What are our metrics?

As in any subscription-based service, the primary metric is retention.

We retrieve data from the Donate bot, which tracks all charges, subscriptions, and cancellations. We create charts that illustrate retention across monthly cohorts.

Currently, our average conversion to payment in the second month is 75%. I’m not sure how good of a metric that is, but it certainly seems quite favorable.

…

Retention from February to October.

I won’t talk about the number of paying users. It’s obviously important for us.

The second key metric is monthly revenue. From the start, we increased the cost twice – from 290 to 390, and then to 490. Subscription is not the only monetization model in the service – we sold partner products and channel advertising. Currently, we are developing our educational program and assisting companies in hiring talented interns, but I’ll write about that in the next article.

Let’s summarize

I dreamt of a product, and now I dream that it continues to live and grow. It’s a wonderful platform for experiments, for personal and professional growth. The most valuable thing I gained in the 11 months of working on the product is experience and passion.

Currently, the product brings in a monthly income comparable to that of an average IT specialist. A worthy reward.

Thank you for reading my story – perhaps it will inspire you to embark on your own pet project, or maybe it will just brighten your day a bit.

I would appreciate it if you subscribe to my Telegram channel (5000+) – I share stories about my projects, my work at Yandex, and the journey of self-discovery. I also throw in some humor occasionally.
The channel “InternSheep“: the product I talked about in this article.

By Vladislav Vorkel
Product designer at Yandex.
Founder of the service for finding internships: https://t.me/Intern_Sheep.
Author’s blog: https://t.me/designvorkel

Finder.work has collected unusual solutions from around the world.

…

Sima Land office space

The office of the Russian online store Sima-Land features golden plasterwork, large chandeliers, paintings in ornate frames, and intricately painted ceilings. What do you think?

…

Inventionland

A design studio from Pittsburgh is experimenting with its 6,500 square meter office space. The decor includes pirate ships, race tracks, artificial caves, castles, and much more. Instead of being ordinary employees, Inventionland staff refer to themselves as ‘creativists’ and wear lab coats.

…

Pons and Huot

The architectural firm Christian Pottgiesser has designed an office for two French companies, Pons and Huot. The space resembles a greenhouse and accommodates no more than 20 people. Each workstation is separated from its surroundings by its own transparent dome!

…

Selgas Cano

The Spanish firm Selgas Cano created its office with a simple desire to work close to nature. The space is located in a forest near Madrid. Ventilation is regulated using a pulley mechanism.

…

Palotta Teamworks

The workspace, named ‘Apostrophe,’ is situated inside a large warehouse with containers.

…

Pionen — White Mountain

The office of a Swedish internet provider is located in a Cold War-era bomb shelter. The space is situated 30 meters below the granite cliffs of Vita Berg Park in Stockholm.

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Nykredit

The meeting rooms of a Danish bank are suspended above the atrium of a business center.

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By Finder.work
https://finder.work – a service for finding vacancies and employees for remote work.
Our telegram channel https://t.me/theyseeku

Copy, copywriting: Creating high-quality content is expensive, which means releasing it once and forgetting about it is too wasteful. In this article, I will share how I distribute content in my projects to maximise reach from a single piece.

Hello! My name is Pasha Molyanov, and I lead the content agency “Sdelaem” (“Let’s Make It”). We produce a lot of content for self-promotion: I have blogs on Telegram and VC, conduct webinars, and my agency team manages social media, releases articles, creates courses, and videos. You could say we have a small content factory.

We strive to maximize the distribution of the limited content produced by this “factory.” I’ll talk about 8 ways how this happens.

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1. Write a copy in the media

In January, I conducted a webinar on the Tilda Education channel, where I discussed 7 ways to improve text for landing pages. Approximately 100 people watched the live broadcast, and the recording gathered 5,400 views.

A couple of weeks later, I provided the recording of this webinar to one of our authors, and he turned it into an article. We published it on VC, and it garnered 9,600 views. I didn’t come up with entirely new ways to enhance landing page text, nor did I conduct an interview with the author to generate material. I simply edited the text a bit before publication, and that’s it.

Case 1: Webinar. 5400 views.
Case 2: Article on the VC. 9600 views.

2. Make a lead magnet

Once, we hosted a webinar on how to write articles on VC, and following that, a brief guide on the same topic was published directly on VC. Taking it a step further, we created a mini-course based on the same theme. Now, it can be used for advertising purposes to attract a new audience.

Case 1: VC 8400 views
Case 2: Pikabu 6000 views
Case 3: Habr 2900 views

Currently, we are working on another lead magnet – a knowledge base on content marketing. To achieve this, we’ve compiled the best posts and articles from our blogs over the entire period of their existence, and we’ve organized them into a personal dashboard. Access to this dashboard will be granted in exchange for an email address.

As a result, everyone benefits: people have convenient access to advice they no longer need to search for across channels, and for us, it presents a new opportunity to attract individuals into our sales funnel, garner additional reach, and provide a second life for posts that might otherwise have been lost in the depths of Telegram.

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3. Cross-posting in the media

If you’ve published an article in your blog or on VC, you can repost it without changes on other platforms, such as at least Pikabu and Habr. They treat non-unique content normally, and there are no sanctions for it.

I’ve recently started using this method, and there’s already an effect. For example, I wrote an article on VC about hiring a personal assistant, and it gained good traction with 14 thousand views. On Habr, it almost reached the same number: 13 thousand. Doubling the reach literally from scratch!

Of course, there are instances where cross-posted articles don’t perform well. For example, the same article about the assistant on Pikabu didn’t yield anything except for sharp comments. Well, that’s okay, as the publication cost me practically nothing.

We’re implementing this process in our agency, so currently, we only publish on Pikabu and Habr. There are other publications where you can follow the same principle. Someday, I’ll gather them into a comprehensive collection and publish it on my blog.

My agency’s primary social network is Telegram. We don’t specifically create content for other platforms; we simply copy it there.

Again, if a post doesn’t gain traction on other platforms, well, that’s okay, as it only took a couple of minutes to publish. But if it does, that’s fantastic because it’s free exposure.

On VKontakte, where I have 5,000 friends-subscribers, posts typically reach 600-1200 views, sometimes spiking to 2500 views.

On Zen, this tactic has brought in 8,400 subscribers since 2018. Posts there average 1600-1800 views, with a cumulative reach exceeding a million people.

On Tenchat, where I simply republish posts from my Telegram, I’ve become one of the largest bloggers, with 11,000 subscribers and a weekly reach between 20,000 to 100,000.

There are leads as well, not just reach. Over 4 years of managing blogs:

• From Zen: 89 agency service leads and 80 purchases of paid training.
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• From Tenchat: 30+ leads.
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• From Facebook, several targeted leads come in every month. Recently, for example, a lead from there resulted in a deal worth 1.2 million rubles.

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5. Resizes for social networks

When we release a long read or conduct a webinar, the content is repurposed for social media: the essence remains the same but in a condensed format. If the material is extensive, we might even create multiple posts.

When we used Instagram advertising, we followed the same strategy. Additionally, we ran ads for these posts, gaining subscribers at a cost of 30-40 rubles per follower.

Resize according to the article about resizes as an example of how resizes can be done.

6. Republishing

Reposting successful posts after some time is a smart strategy: new followers may not have seen them, and even if the existing ones did, they are unlikely to react negatively if your overall content provides value.

There are different ways to repost:

1. Direct Reposting: Simply repost the same content without changes. Throw the post back out there after six months to a year. Unless you’re Artemiy Lebedev, chances are no one will notice.
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2. Create Content Collections: Compile several posts at once to boost overall reach. You can create a collection of the best posts for the month or organize posts around a specific theme.
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3. Reference Old Posts in New Ones: This is something I do in my Telegram channel. I add a link to a related post at the end of a new one. If there’s no post specifically on the topic or if I’m feeling lazy, I just link to a random post.

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7. Mailings

If you have an email database, you can include already released content in a lead nurturing sequence. Here’s how it works for us:

1. Someone receives a lead magnet in their email and joins our email database.
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2. We identify which of our content performed the best, gauged by social media reactions or media coverage. If we conducted a newsletter campaign announcing an article, we can also evaluate it based on open rates and clicks.
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3. We craft emails from these successful content pieces and create a sequence. You can send only these emails or mix them with product-related messages and offers, depending on your goals.
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4. Voila! New subscribers receive an email with our most impressive content every few days. We don’t do anything extra for this; subscribers think we release gold every week =)

This strategy not only keeps your audience engaged but also showcases your best content to new subscribers, creating a positive impression.

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8. Conferences

I began this article with a story of how a presentation transformed into text. Now, I’ll end with a tale of how the text turned into a presentation.

In the middle of last year, I invested heavily in advertising for my Telegram channel—placing ads in 34 channels, experimenting with various creatives, and creating a convenient table to analyze the results.

Later on, I decided to share this experience and wrote a post on how I purchase advertising. The post gained traction, leading us to compile a detailed article for VC, which has now garnered over 50,000 views.

When I was invited to speak at a conference on sales and content marketing, I simply crafted a presentation from this article and went on stage.

In short, if you’ve produced successful content once, release it a second, third, fourth, fifth time. Why let something good go to waste?

By the way, this article is also a result of such an approach. I’ve long been writing in my blog about zero-waste content production, and now I decided to share it with you.

If you found this helpful, consider subscribing to my Telegram channel on content marketing and agency development. Most of my content appears there first → @molyanov

BY PAVEL MOLYANOV
I blog about content and marketing. 
I run a content marketing agency.

"We are a young, dynamically developing company" copy on your web does not work any more. 
In the article, I discuss how to obtain a cool texture for your website without struggling with the text and without inundating future readers with watery content.

I'm Pasha Molyanov, the head of the "Sdelaem" ("Let's Do It") agency. We create content for businesses, launch remote editorial offices, and, among other things, design landing pages.

When clients come to us for a new website, I often inquire about how they came up with the old one. The process typically goes like this: a marketer or company leader solemnly declares, “Let’s create a corporate website!” Then everyone starts scratching their heads and begins to laboriously present themselves:

→ Individual approach to each client…

→ Working with Scrum and Agile…

→ Our story began back in 2003…

→ We love our work more than life…

→ More than mom…

In general, employees do their best to praise themselves and their company. It’s good if they do it sincerely, but even with such content for the website, there remains a problem:

This is how every other company writes about itself. It’s a dull nonsense that can be placed on the website of almost any business without losing its meaning. Both plumbers and dentists and photographers individually cater to each client—just that it doesn’t say anything about the business ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

For a website to turn out genuinely impressive, preparation is key. Dig up information about the business and its customers. It’s worth compiling the main advantages of the company and also understanding the interests and needs of the customers. At the intersection of these realms, a good commercial website will emerge.

What information about the business is worth seeking for a good copy

The task of a corporate website is to introduce the user to the company and convince them that you’re impressive. It’s crucial to structure the narrative so that the reader has no lingering uncertainties after viewing the page. To achieve this, it’s essential to address three overarching questions:

Question 1: “What do we do?” Provide information about the product directly on the first screen. It should be unequivocal, clear, and concise. To formulate key points, consider the following additional questions:

• What is the essence of our product?

• How can the product be described in a couple of sentences?

• Who needs the product and why?

• In what situations is the product beneficial?

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The complex Digital Foreign Trade service has been encapsulated in a couple of sentences by our company’s specialists. These highlight the main aspects, with details available on subsequent screens.

Question 2: “Why is what we do considered impressive?”

Having introduced the website visitor to the company, it’s now essential to convince them of our professionalism. To achieve this, gather information that highlights the company’s advantages and distinguishes it from competitors. Here are some guiding questions:

• How is our product superior to competitors?

• What features are exclusive to our product?

• What are we particularly proud of?

• What do customers praise most frequently?

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The document workflow service EnDocs lists all its advantages in a concise list, then further elaborates on each of them in detail.

Question 3: “How does it work?”

Explain to the reader the mechanics of interacting with your business. Users should understand how the service is provided, what the product looks like, and how to use it. This alleviates concerns before making a purchase. Consider the following points:

• How is our product structured?

• What happens after placing an order?

• What additional perks do we offer?

• What aspects are typically unclear to buyers?

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Dasha.AI, the conversational AI, can be a complex product for the average user. That’s why the company has placed a video explaining its functions on the second screen to make it more understandable.

All the information for the future website can be squeezed out through independent brainstorming, but it’s time-consuming, challenging, and it’s easy to miss important details. Instead, it’s better to use more reliable methods. More about them in the next section ↓

How to extract meaningful information about the product

When a company has been operating for a while, it accumulates a wealth of valuable data about its own product. This includes marketing statistics, customer correspondence, technical support reports, and much more. All this data should be extracted and processed. Where to dig:

Talk to employees. Inside any company, there are specialists who can share interesting information about the product. A sample interview list might look like this:

• Company Director: Most likely, they know almost everything about the business. You can inquire about how the product is structured, its purpose, and why it is designed the way it is.

• Product Manager: This specialist can provide additional information complementing what the director shared. As they are usually more involved in operational work, they can share finer details that may be overlooked by the director.

• Sales Department Manager: This employee has a better understanding of what motivates potential customers to make a purchase. You can find out which product features seem more attractive to the audience and which ones might be off-putting.

• Marketer: This professional can provide insights into the company’s strategies for product promotion and what proves to be more effective. This data can be a basis for crafting future text.

• Technical Support Operator: This employee knows the challenges customers face. They can share information about which parts of the product are more prone to issues, what tends to break most frequently, and what customers struggle with. This information allows for a more detailed exploration of nuances and helps navigate controversial details.

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Most often, employees willingly engage and even propose their own solutions for gathering information.

Send the brief to the product manager. It’s a straightforward method of information gathering: you work through the questions in the document once, and then you can use it dozens of times in similar situations. The product manager will independently approach all specialists in the company and extract valuable data from them.

Briefs come with their drawbacks—sometimes, documents are filled in haphazardly, during smoke breaks or lunch breaks. As a result, the information in the file turns out fragmented and not detailed enough—details still need to be extracted independently.

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Fragment of the brief we send to clients. In the document, we include an example so that the client better understands what information to provide.

Refer to the knowledge base. The company almost certainly has repositories from which you can extract a bit more data. This includes the old website, product presentations, sales instructions, technical support scripts, and marketing reports. Ask the company specialists if you can access these files and thoroughly sift through them—perhaps you’ll discover interesting details.

When you receive the files, immediately click on all the links and open all the archives. It would be awkward if the client provides links, and you come back for access a week later.

If you gather information about the product following this algorithm, you’ll likely have more than you need. Don’t force-fit it all onto the website. Leave space for the client.

Where to get information about the client

When the entire landing page is dedicated to the company, it turns into continuous self-admiration. Clients will find such content uninteresting—what’s crucial for them is understanding what they will gain from your product. To achieve this, gather information about the audience, their interests, and needs.

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What is important to the reader versus what you wrote.

Talk to the employees again. Consult with the director, product manager, sales department manager, marketer, and technical support operator. Inquire about how customers choose a product, what factors they consider, and what problems they solve with it. This will give you an initial understanding of the audience.

Questions to ask include:

• Who uses our product?

• Into which segments can they be divided?

• Where can these people be found?

Surveying employees in this case is just the first step in gathering information. Beyond that, extensive research begins. Ideally, after the interviews, you’ll compile a list of information sources. This could include a collection of blogs followed by the audience, contacts of regular customers, or a database of customer reviews.

Explore social media. Find relevant public pages and groups, join thematic chats, and subscribe to competitors’ pages. Then, read comments on posts, follow discussions, and note popular topics. You need detailed answers to five questions:

• What do people find confusing?

• What questions do they commonly ask?

• What can’t they find?

• What frustrates them?

• What do they praise and why?

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I have a community called “Overheard in Copywriting” with 30 thousand subscribers. When launching a new product for authors, we draw inspiration from the discussions in it.

Listen to recorded calls and review correspondences. You can gain access to them through sales representatives, account managers, and technical support. It’s beneficial if you’re provided with the password to a work account so that you can review everything yourself. Ideally, gaining access to the CRM system allows you not only to extract compelling arguments but also to see the outcomes of the conversations.

In CRM, you can filter calls that resulted in a sale. By listening to them, you can understand which arguments or statements are most effective in convincing people to make a purchase.

Conduct surveys. Create a list of questions that will help better understand the audience. For each company, these questions will be unique, so it’s better to focus on global blocks that need to be covered:

• What does our average buyer look like?

• What convinces the user to make a purchase?

• What prevents users from making a purchase?

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For creating surveys, we often use Google Forms. It’s a free tool, users don’t need to register, and the data can be easily uploaded to CRM.

Once the questions are ready, it’s time to distribute the survey. You can reach out to the existing customer database and also publish the questionnaire on social media, your website, and send it to customers via email.

If the existing customer base is insufficient to gather enough information, consider joining relevant communities. If you sell fishing hooks and lines, reach out to the administrator of a “Fishing Club”; if you offer services for digital marketers, contact the owner of an advertising-related community. It’s likely that you’ll have to pay for placement in an external community, but the insights you gain will justify the investment.

To obtain more surveys, you can use survey services. For example, you can organize information gathering through Yandex Vzglyad. In the service, you can create a form and then launch the survey. The target audience will see the questionnaire, but you’ll need to pay for promotion.

5 rules for conducting in-depth interviews

A complex but highly effective way to gather important information about clients is to conduct in-depth interviews with them. Request contacts for a few clients from company employees; in most cases, 10 people are sufficient. Call them and inquire extensively about their interests, needs, perceptions of the product, and decision-making motivators.

During interviews, focus on five principles:

1. Don’t sell or praise the product. Sometimes we do this unconsciously when describing a company’s product or service. Neutral characteristics can be easily presented in a way that makes them look advantageous and appealing. This leads to two distortions:

• People agree with you not to offend you.
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• In the moment of the interview, the person might show interest in the product, but in reality, they won’t actually make a purchase in the future.

2. Don’t believe compliments. During interviews, people may offer compliments out of politeness or enthusiasm. It’s not guaranteed that these praises accurately reflect reality. You might even choose not to record compliments to avoid distorting the research with them.

3. Don’t talk about the future. Immediately discard questions in the spirit of “what if… would you buy…”. They don’t contribute to sales because many people simply don’t know what they really want. Right now, the idea may seem cool and interesting to them, but when you come to them with the product, they’ll likely have more important matters to attend to.

Instead of hypothetical reasoning, it’s better to talk with the audience about the past and present:

Would you use an orbital laser with auto-targeting on your car to warm up the engine in half a minute?

How do you usually warm up your car’s engine?

Questions about what is already present in the client’s life will provide much more insight into their needs. Theorizing about the future makes it much more difficult to obtain information that aligns with reality.

4. Ask open-ended questions so that people can elaborate and provide more information:

Do you think this product will solve your problem?

What do you currently see as an issue for yourself?

5. Don’t impose the desired answer. Interviewers often try to confirm an existing hypothesis. Therefore, they unconsciously steer towards the answer they want to hear. This leads to a distorted picture: the buyer agrees with the interviewer on everything, is ready to buy anything, and doesn’t see any flaws in the product.

At the end of all your research, you’ll have a wealth of information that can be used on the website. However, there’s no need to cram everything in – the reader’s head will explode before they buy the product. Organize and structure the data beforehand, extracting the most important elements.

How to link information together

A great website highlights the product’s advantages and takes into account the buyer’s interests. We already have data on both aspects. Now it’s a matter of weaving everything together, discarding the unnecessary, and retaining the essential.

When preparing landing pages, we gather information into five groups:

• What sets the company apart from competitors.
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• What concerns buyers more profoundly.
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• What is unclear to users.
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• What is important to the audience.
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• What solves the problem for consumers.

Almost always, the information we place in these categories finds its way into the final version of the website.

Conduct a consolidated analysis. Read through all your notes again and highlight information that connects customer queries with your solution. For example:

Customer Concern: Not enough time to monitor contractors.

How You Solve It: Clients in your agency are accompanied by an account manager who sends a weekly report on tasks.

Website Text: You won’t have to spend a lot of time monitoring progress – every week, we send a detailed report on tasks. You will always be informed about the project’s progress even without deep immersion.

Segment Your Audience: Organize customer data to better understand which segments to target with website content. Here are common methods:

• Use Customer Avatar descriptions – profiles of the average customer. Describe their age, interests, and why they turn to your company. Multiple avatars may emerge, and you can work with all of them.
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• This method is very visual. When crafting texts, you can envision a real person rather than focusing on dry data. However, it’s not commonly used due to its time-consuming nature.

Example of a Target Audience Portrait for a Self-Employed Service. When designing the website, one can envision this young woman and carefully consider the information she would like to see.

Name: Anna

Age: 28 years

Occupation: Copywriter, freelancer

Lifestyle: Anna values freedom and flexibility in her work. Being self-employed and active, she often finds herself on the go – in cafes, at events, or in the park. Her day is filled with work, creativity, and socialising.

Problems and Needs:

• Financial management: She wants an easy way to track income and expenses to plan her budget effectively.
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• Legislation: Tax-related and self-employment rules interest her, but she prefers the information to be presented in an accessible and understandable way.
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• Insurance: Concerned about her future, she wants to understand how to ensure insurance protection for herself.

Expectations from the website:

• Mobile-friendly interface: Considering her active lifestyle, it’s essential for her to manage all aspects of her business from her phone.
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• Clear articles and guides: Information about taxation and insurance is presented in simple language.
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• Income tracking tools: The ability to manage her finances and generate reports easily.

When designing the website, the designer and copywriter can imagine how Anna interacts with the content and tools, making them as user-friendly as possible for her.

You can simply make a sign with different groups and write down the needs, motivators, interests. Everything is approximately the same, but without representing a specific person.

Here’s a simplified table with different groups and their corresponding needs, motivators, and interests:

This table provides a general overview of the diverse target audience groups, their specific needs, motivators, and interests. Designers and content creators can use this information to tailor the website to meet the expectations of each group effectively.

Create a list of hypotheses. Review all the gathered information and brainstorm ideas for the future website. Highlight the company’s advantages that align with the audience’s needs. Present the theses in a way that is clear and beneficial to the potential user you have identified.

To filter out wild ideas that may arise, present the ideas with reasoning: “Let’s include X on the website because our clients want Y. This will convince them that our product is A and alleviate concern B.”

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Hypotheses that we formulated before designing one of the landing pages. It’s only after confirming such decisions that we should proceed to develop the prototype.

Who should write text for the site?

After preparing the hypotheses, the next step is to defend them before the team. Those that survive the collective brainstorming session will be implemented on the website. When it comes to writing the text, there are different approaches:

1. Do it Yourself: This is a cost-effective option if you’re on a tight budget. If you can dedicate several hours a day to the website, you can manage all the texts within a week.
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2. Hire a Professional Copywriter: Hiring a good copywriter is crucial. Opting for a cheaper specialist might result in low-quality work. Sometimes fixing poorly written text can cost more than hiring a quality professional from the start. The cost of a copywriter could range from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles.
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3. Delegate to a Marketer: A marketer can outline the structure and then find a more affordable copywriter to produce decent texts. The expenses in this case would include paying the marketer for their work and an additional 10,000 rubles for the copywriter.
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4. Engage an Agency: Turning to an agency is a great option for a turnkey solution. Agency specialists will conduct research, identify copywriters, and then design and develop the website. While it provides a hassle-free experience, development costs start from 50,000 rubles.

If you’re interested in content marketing, subscribe to my Telegram blog → @molyanov

Every day I share my experience of attracting clients using blogs, social networks and the media.

BY PAVEL MOLYANOV
I blog about content and marketing. 
I run a content marketing agency.

Copywriting: We make cool projects, but the cases turn out dull. What is the problem? 

I'm telling you about 8 reasons why it's challenging to showcase how truly cool and professional you are in stories about work.

Hello! My name is Pasha Molyanov, and I lead the content agency “Sdelaem” (“Let’s Do It”)

If I had to choose just one format from all of content marketing, I would choose case studies. Because in them, you have everything: showcasing results, telling the story of the work process, demonstrating your expertise, and illustrating how a product can be based on the client’s task.

…

But I know that many struggle to streamline case study production because they turn out differently than expected. At first, it seems like each case will be a significant event and lead to a bunch of clients, but in reality, they end up as a small splash with zero comments.

Here are the most common problems with case studies that prevent them from succeeding ↓

Issue #1. Inflated Expectations from Case Studies

Perhaps, cases may only seem unsuccessful because too much is expected from them: likes, comments, tens of thousands of views, and a flow of service inquiries on top. While such cases do exist, they are genuine gems, like this case.

Most cases, however, are workhorses that don’t break the internet. For instance, with “Bathyscaphe,” we wrote a case about tax optimisation. The article got 3200 views, which isn’t a lot. Yet, it brought in four clients.

Another essential function of cases is to be in the right place at the right time:

• A client chooses between two companies and prefers the one that published a case on dealing with their specific task and industry.
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• During negotiations, a client doubts whether their task can be solved, and the seller immediately shows them a relevant case.
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• A client visits the website, sees 150 successful cases, and the mere presence and quantity add a plus to the trust in the company.

In these cases, it’s not even about popularity at the level of 3200 views, but cases fulfil their purpose.

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All else being equal, cases always lose in popularity to guides, explanations, analytics, reviews, sketches, and storytelling. If one case out of ten takes off, that's already impressive. The purpose of cases is different: to demonstrate how you work with a specific user scenario.

Issue #2. Lack of Interesting Texture

A qualitatively executed project can be downright uninteresting. For example, our agency writes articles for clients on VC. The vast majority of such projects follow the same script: the editor communicates with the client, selects a few topics for articles, chooses one with the client, conducts an interview based on it, writes and approves the text, and then publishes it: done.

Often, advice on writing cases includes suggestions like: “Tell about unexpected situations! How you dealt with things not going as planned! How you made mistakes! How you made a difficult choice!”

I completely agree with this, but what if there isn’t any of that? Make things up? We approached the client call with trepidation: we had to choose three out of five approaches for the article. Those very three approaches that would determine the fate of the entire advertising campaign in PromoPages!

The copywriter is giving birth to an intriguing and epic approach to one more copy about setting up advertising in Telegram Advertising.

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Even for “ordinary” projects, cases are necessary. I am generally an advocate of having a case for every project. However, they can be released in a light version: simply showcasing the results of the work.

“An article in the media about how to save money on preparing advertising content.”

And we don’t have to struggle, and the client will see: here’s the article, it’s interesting to read, the views are good. So, these guys are great, we can turn to them.

Issue #3. Project authors don’t want to deal with case studies.

In publishing cases, two people are most interested: the owner who needs cases to attract clients and the copywriter who is paid for their production.

For everyone else, it’s task number 100500.

The problem is that neither the owner nor even the copywriter can write the case on their own. It’s crucial to have the person (or persons, compounding the problem) who worked on the project.

This person is usually busy working on another project. To write a case, they need to recall the course of the previous project, gather materials, give an interview to the copywriter, and approve the text before publication. It’s a big task, and that’s why cases get stuck. The copywriter hangs around, is treated to breakfasts, and when those stop, they get a “quick” interview.

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Employee to copywriter: “Let’s write a case.”

I haven’t come up with an elegant way to solve this problem yet. There’s only one that works with a script, but at least it works.

To address this issue:

1. Incorporate case creation into the employee job responsibilities. Make it so that saying “It’s not my job” is not an option.
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2. Devise clear motivation for the team. In our “Let’s Do It” agency, editors receive a fee for cases. “Non-Boring Finances” shared that producing a certain number of cases is a condition for moving to the next grade.
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3. Assign someone responsible for cases. Have a person who will push everyone. It’s crucial that this person can’t be told, “Let’s do it sometime later,” “I don’t want my case published,” “I’ll send the screenshots in 4 weeks,” or just be ignored. In our case, it’s the marketing director handling this. Hopefully, he can delegate it =)

Issue #4. The copywriter is not familiar with the subject matter.

When the project is excellent, the expert has provided interesting insights, and the case should turn out fantastic—yet the outcome is something crumpled and amateurish, with oversights and even factual errors—it’s often because the copywriter is not familiar with the subject.

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This can happen when a copywriter is just starting to work with a new topic they are not acquainted with. The key is not to write off the copywriter as soon as you get the first “amateurish” case. Accept that the first five to ten cases may need extra effort: finding articulate experts, attending meetings with the copywriter, editing the cases several times, and providing materials for learning.

In the early stages, evaluate purely copywriting skills: structure, logic, formulations, visualization skills, and the ability to conduct interviews. Expertise will come later for such a copywriter if you help them immerse themselves in the subject, as it’s entirely new to them.

If you’re not ready for this, seek out copywriters with experience in your field. It’s challenging, but then the cases will be excellent right away.

Issue #5. Not a story but a collection of facts.

Even the most interesting project can turn into a dull, unreadable case if you simply bombard the reader with facts: conducted an audit, implemented one thing, fixed another thing, conducted a plan-fact analysis after a month, here are the results, thank you and goodbye.

In such cases, what’s lacking are the connections that bind the facts into a coherent story:

We began our work with diagnostics and noticed that one of the salespeople was experiencing a drop in conversion → Our task was to increase the conversion rate, but the company lacked detailed analytics. Without it, it was unclear what exactly to focus on. So, we started with diagnostics: for two weeks, we measured the results of the sales department as they were, without any changes. When we tallied the results, we saw that one of the salespeople was experiencing a drop in conversion.

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To boost conversion, we developed an individual training program for the salesperson → Usually, conversion drops when the salesperson lacks knowledge about the product or doesn’t follow the sales process. To check this, we listened to dozens of calls by Ilya – but there was nothing significant there. However, we noticed his speaking style: calm, quiet, sometimes even monotonous.

To the project author, all these connections might seem obvious because they’re accustomed to making such decisions. However, for an outsider, these connections help in better understanding the situation, making it more enjoyable to read.

Moreover, notice how many interesting details have been added: you can see how the specialist reasons, relies on their experience, and finds solutions based on the situations. This is where expertise lies.

Issue #6. Lack of visualisation.

The text effectively conveys facts but struggles to create a mental image for the reader. As a result, cases with weak visuals become overly abstract.

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Header: “How did “PlanFact” solve the problem.”

Pointers: “How it looks in the service?”, “You can also show it.”, “How is this displayed?”

Did you set up an advertising campaign? Show the advertising creatives and placements where they were used.

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Did you implement financial accounting? Take screenshots of the reports and show what familiar metrics look like in them.

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Have you completed a long-term project and gradually achieved the desired results? Create a chart so that the dynamics can be seen at a glance.

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Have you built friendly relations with the client, surrounded them with love and care? Instead of directly talking about it, it’s better to insert screenshots of conversations into the narrative.

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Issue #7. The case is about everything and nothing.

This happens when a comprehensive project is completed for a client or when there’s an extensive and long-lasting collaboration resulting in a multitude of accomplishments. It might seem logical to cover all these aspects in one case, but it often leads to a case that is either too lengthy or overly superficial.

It’s better to release multiple cases for one client: one focusing on cost optimization, another on the employee motivation system, and yet another on the financial planning system.

If it’s crucial to showcase the complexity of the services, these cases can be assembled into a mega-case. This is what we do with our most significant and prolonged projects: compile cases on one page and showcase them to potential clients when necessary.

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Issue #8. Cases are just sitting on the website.

If a company has many cases on its website, that’s already great. They will fulfill their basic purpose: a potential client visits the site and sees that the team is experienced and has already solved tasks similar to theirs. However, more can be done:

Announce the cases on your social media. Let the audience see that the company is not just talking about smart theories but is engaged in real and rigorous practice.

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Create resized versions for social media. A detailed, lengthy case can be simplified to a 30-second read, increasing the likelihood of wider reach.

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Include cases in your warm-up email sequences. After all, what better way to warm up than with cases? Nothing beats it.

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Use cases everywhere in content marketing. Writing a helpful article? Support your points with practical stories. Need to provide an example in a webinar? Refer to one of your cases. Creating a collection of articles on a topic? Include cases in it as well.

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Integrate cases into the sales department. Encourage sales representatives to incorporate cases into their presentations, choose relevant cases before calling clients, refer to cases when making arguments, study user scenarios and the company’s methodology through cases. It’s frustrating when cases are produced, but the sales department isn’t actively leveraging them.

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Several slides from our agency’s presentation.

I hope this article helps someone write cases more frequently and effectively. There’s also my personal interest in this because I always enjoy seeing a cool case somewhere on the internet =)

If you’re interested in the topic of content marketing, subscribe to my blog on Telegram → @molyanov

Every day, I share my experience in attracting clients through blogs, social media, and the press. I also talk about how I’m developing the “Sdelaem” (“Let’s Do It”) agency.

BY PAVEL MOLYANOV
I blog about content and marketing. 
I run a content marketing agency.