Monetizing Knowledge in Crypto Through the Creation of Notion Templates: Finding a Unique Niche. Interview with Nixi @ On-Chain Income
Welcome to a new chapter of our meeting with entrepreneurial creators, where we learn about running digital product businesses and reveal the secrets of their success. Today, our guest is Ni𝕏i (@NixisWorld) a crypto enthusiast who truly help others to strive in the field with his Notion templates.
Let’s kick off. Tell a bit about your background? What did you do before starting a Notion template business?
Before I started making Notion templates, I was doing crypto trading (still do). But I always enjoyed building things, no matter whether they were physical or digital. It explains a lot since all my previous jobs were building jobs, carpentry, soldering and assembling products, etc. When I was young, I built lego stuff.
Amazing transformation from the physical to digital creation world. Why did you decide to build such an interesting mixture of Notion and crypto?
Because of niching down. It made perfect sense to me to use my current crypto and trading experience and try to position myself in this niche, where at the time nobody was creating products specifically for the crypto niche. Besides, I used spreadsheets to track my trades and portfolio before I built it inside Notion with a more aesthetic and clean look. Yes I use the products that I build myself too!
Yeah, many venture founders recommend being the user of your own product to feel and relieve the real pains of your customers.
Is your business affected by the crypto market rollercoaster?
Certainly! When crypto is pumping so are my sales, as people search for those things. My website traffic is sometimes crazy and sometimes non existent because of this. It affects my business more than I sometimes care to admit. Yet I’m doing this all because I enjoy it and its fun, not that much because of money like most people do…
Yeah, there are always ups and downs and it’s interesting that you can even predict some of them.
Let’s talk about the process of creation. Writers can be visited by a muse. A tech founder might get an idea of an app for solving their own needs. What does the process of inspiration and creation look like for a Notion template creator? Is it closer to an artistic creator or a developer?
Depends, I have a page inside notion with new template ideas and suggestions from my customers; it is closer to a developer. We develop apps made inside Notion with no-code.
Building takes time, but sometimes it also doesn’t. It depends on the idea and the template itself. Sometimes it takes half a year to build the original idea. Sometimes it takes a few hours.
So the creation of a Notion template is more like a development process. What are your working cycles? Do you alternate making and marketing integration?
I first build the products and then market them. My latest products were so successful that I ended up doing just marketing and distribution for more than 4 months. I'm now in the process of building new things, going back to the roots of what I actually enjoy doing. I also usually work in the mornings, but not all the time. I used to work 16 hours per day to come here; now, I'm working barely 6 hours.
It’s super exciting to hear that a solo creator has extremely successful products!
Can you tell me more about your tools? You have to create images for products, write copy, build and host websites, manage payments and do many other things. What do you use for it and how it simplify your life?
My tool stack is as simple as it gets. I use Canva Premium for mockups and shots.so. I also use Photoshop sometimes and don’t use Figma. I write the copy myself; I read books about copywriting and learned about it. I sometimes use AI to help me, but I always rephrase the sentences it generates. I host my website on Porkbun for $10 per year and Systeme Io, which is free. I haven’t yet decided to go for their premium plan as I don’t use all the features they offer. For payments, I use good old Gumroad and Sellix for crypto payments. I recently switched to Sellix on my website, but am considering going back to Gumroad and keeping Sellix only for the crypto payment option. I use Google Analytics to track everything that is going on in my stores. I also use Make for automations on my notion templates.
Pretty solid toolkit. I haven’t even heard about a some of the tools, but they seem to be a great choice for a creator.
Let’s discuss your experience as a creator and entrepreneur. What kind of feedback have you received from users? Can you share any success stories?
The feedback was very heartwarming and inspirational for me. Here is a recent one from a crypto friend on X:
“Very nice template! Love Notion and managing all my crypto related stuff in there is great. Very comprehensive framework for all aspects, like portfolio tracking, trading journal, etc.”
Or this one: “Nixi's Crypto OS is amazing! You noticed instantly when you opened the template that there was a lot of love and care that went into this. Nixi really thought of everything. I wish I had something like this when I first started out with Crypto. I would've saved so much time. This is a must for anyone that wants to get into Crypto or even seasoned pros that wants to further expand their knowledge.”
This is really amazing to get such warm words from customers. I wish you to receive more of them.
Could you share 3 tactics that are worth doing to boost business and 3 ones which were a waste of time?
3 that boost the bizz:
- Email marketing,
- Posting what you do on X and YouTube videos,
- Building a website and landing pages for my products.
3 that were a waste of time:
- Instagram was a waste of time for me and probably for many other creators,
- Publishing my templates on irrelevant new marketplaces, there are only a handful of marketplaces that actually drive traffic.
- Giving to much effort to ProductHunt, that platform sucks for notion creators lately
It’s super valuable! For many digital creators, it's difficult to determine the proper price for their products. What factors influence your pricing strategy?
It revolves around your Mindset. One day I decided it’s time to reach $1k in revenue from this side hustle and that’s it. Before, I used to give out everything for free with a $10 upsell, $25 max. It didn’t work for me, and I also didn’t have templates that were in demand like I do now. I chose Crypto OS as my main product that I want to sell and built the pricing around that. If you look closely, it’s almost always worth it to go for the OS because it has all the templates for just $99, but also with the 30% discount, you get it all for $69. Anyway, once I increased the pricing, people started buying my products as they saw them as valuable.
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Once I increased the pricing, people started buying my products as they saw them as valuable
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Do you think your niche is a red or blue ocean? What do you do to stand out of your competitors?
I'm basically the only one doing notion and crypto so far. Sure, there are people doing something similar but their message is not clear.
Amazing! Now, a couple of questions about your vision. Do you think AI will be a threat or a booster for Notion template creators and industry? Why?
A booster, but it depends on how you use it. I used AI to create my Crypto OS template. I asked it what problems can I solve in the crypto industry and what type of templates can I build for it. It helped me develop my ideas into reality. I didn’t use it for making the product but just for brainstorming. P.S. I don’t even use Notion AI.
What do you think might be the new gold in the field of digital products?
Teaching others how to make money, I didn’t want to share my secrets before. But making a paid course is a good idea. I want to make it unique and really teach people to make money.
And the final question. If you could go back in time and start your business again, what would you have done differently?
Don’t wait for things to happen, just do them yourself. Don’t pay for anything because most stuff is free if you know how to look. Don’t try to perfect a template. You will end up never completing it. Instead, let your customers help you make it better by providing feedback.
Thank you for reading so far! I hope you find our content valuable. We are already working on new episodes to showcase the best creators in the digital world and contribute to the community.
Social media with cool thoughts to follow:
Guest: Ni𝕏i (@NixisWorld)
Host: Alexey Kramin (@alexhustles)