Lex's Digital/Physical Product Group Accountability Thread

[Lex DeVille]

February Sales: $463.34
- Thrivecart: $119.85
- WooCommerce: $343.49

February Expenses: $68.31
- Google Ads: $43.31
- FOMO: $25.00

February Profit: $395.03

In total, I made slightly less in profit than all of my Udemy courses combined, so even though site 1 is moving kind of slow, it became a worthwhile source of income. Ads weren't particularly effective in generating traffic or sales early on, so I didn't spend much on them. Most of my traffic finds me organically on Google.

For March, I'll focus more on organic outreach and building my email list. I created a YouTube channel last month to share talking head videos on the website. All of the current videos are unlisted. Four people subscribed on YT, so they must have come from my site. This month, I'll add public videos to the channel and more long-form SEO blog articles. I'll start making YouTube shorts as well.

My financial goal for March is to get this site up over $1,000 in profit without significantly increasing expenses. I'll leverage Ebay as sales channel / funnel source. I'll also start building out the social media side of things on Facebook.

Overall, not bad for the first full month. It's not $2k in sales, but it's a good start.

Udemy Course
The course I published this month was a dud. Despite the 9k+ searches per month on Google, I haven't received even a single sale. The course has had 8 visitors total to the landing page, and only one of them got there by searching for the exact search term. All others were looking for courses on other subjects. I took a chance on a topic idea and it didn't pay off this time, oh well.

Site 1 Courses
I'm not sure how courses will do on this site, but I do have a few ideas for courses. I think they could even be audio-only courses rather than video (like listening to an audiobook). I'll probably add 1-3 of these to the site this month. I doubt I'll call them "courses." I'll probably frame them as "Audio Programs."

 

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[kr8nt]

If I haven't made a sale with a digital product in 1-2 months I'd probably find a new product, but I don't think that answer fits everyone. I know how to get products online for sale and in front of people fast, and I don't waste time on action-faking tasks. Not saying you do that, but a lot of people are action-fakers who spend time on non-essential tasks and then call it quits when they don't have sales after a short period. That's not the same as putting products in front of real people and asking them to hand over their cash.

Got it. Thank you a lot for taking the time to answer my question, Lex!
I will try my best to put the knowledge you have shared to use and report back the results here once I get them.

 

[JUAREZ]

Update. Found a physical product to test (samples are on the way). On Monday I hope to receive them and to place the test order. Will try to sell them on my website and marketplaces.

 

[KJFast]

Okay I haven’t actually taken action and begun work yet. Although I was planning to today until last night after a meditative exercise; something came to me. An idea, fully checked out by CENTS. I’ve never had this before, so today is going to be spent researching the validity of this idea. So far, so good. If my research checks out I’m going all in on this.

 

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[KJFast]

Okay I haven’t actually taken action and begun work yet. Although I was planning to today until last night after a meditative exercise; something came to me. An idea, fully checked out by CENTS. I’ve never had this before, so today is going to be spent researching the validity of this idea. So far, so good. If my research checks out I’m going all in on this.

Going to make my own progress thread, so far haven’t taken action but got to figure out clear aspects. I’ve been sick for a couple days but now that I’m starting to get better, thinking about this again

 

[JUAREZ]

Update

I have received the samples, and the quality was good. After some tests, I placed the test order. The products are in the box already, waiting to be picked up. Hope to get them this week or the beginning of the next.

Till then, I focus on pictures , description and some ads.

Have mixed feelings. Sometimes excitement, sometimes doubt thoughts. But it's ok. The alternative is worse, so we go forward.

Prize if I manage to sell them: INSIDERS subscription.

 

[KJFast]

Update

I have received the samples, and the quality was good. After some tests, I placed the test order. The products are in the box already, waiting to be picked up. Hope to get them this week or the beginning of the next.

Till then, I focus on pictures , description and some ads.

Have mixed feelings. Sometimes excitement, sometimes doubt thoughts. But it's ok. The alternative is worse, so we go forward.

Prize if I manage to sell them: INSIDERS subscription.

Hope it goes well for you! Just subscribed to INSIDERS and was definitely worth it. Though the value on normal forum is amazing too

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Site 1
We're almost halfway through March and it was crickets until today. Today saw the first $20 sale. Hopefully things pick up later this month, but we'll see. I may need to adjust some of my systems.

I'm still on the fence about making YouTube videos for Site 1. They would probably work as a traffic source, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. For now, I intend to let the site run a bit more and see how the month plays out.

Udemy Course
The course was a total dud. Not even one single sale. Barely any traffic on Udemy. It seems I picked a topic with a lot of searches, but basically nobody who is willing to pay for a course on it. Oh well.

 

[DCG]

Update: I just deleted my website and made a new one, didn't take very long. I have my products set up as well as google listings setup. I'll do ads later when I have enough money.

Goals:

• Set up Google Ads
• Make new category of products (Need to make current products more valuable first)
• Increase value for current products
• Set up and learn about SEO
• Setup Email Marketing and automations

I wish that I didn't delay on this project but oh well better late than never I guess.

 

[JUAREZ]

Update

On Thursday I have received photos with my products in the box that will be send to me. Was very excited and thought I will receive this week. On Monday I contacted again the supplier and told me that that day will be picked up.

Fast forward to today, after I contacted him again: "Because the actual packing volume is much larger that I estimated, the actual freight has reached "more with 45$". Can you pay that extra freight?" LOL. Is he trying to get some comission?

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Site 1
We're 2/3rds through the month, and it's been a bit of a dud. I made four sales at $19.97, but one immediately refunded as soon as they purchased. So I'm sitting right at $60 in revenue. Three of those sales happened in the last two days since I turned ads back on at $5/day.

Since sales are slow at the higher price point, I lowered my prices. Now all of my products that were $79 before are $19.97. If that works to move more sales, I'll take it, but I won't know for a few days.

I'm also starting to add some physical products. These are inexpensive items purchased from Temu that I think I can sell for a solid return. I intend to sell these at a higher price than the digital products (which is another reason why I'm dropping the price so low on the other items).

Hopefully, I'll have more news to report on this soon, but I haven't received my first shipment from Temu yet. One thing I like about Temu is I can test small quantities of physical items to figure out what people want, and then can purchase in volume once I have a better idea.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Made some adjustments to my site. I dropped all of my digital prices to $19.97 except one or two. I added new videos, and completely overhauled the sales page for the main product to turn it into a proper sales page. I added a pop up opt-in on a couple of pages with a 20% coupon code offer to start collecting emails. Lastly, I adjusted the wording for my ads.

My ads were in pending mode forever (okay less than 24 hours), when they finally came out of pending, I got a sale within an hour at $49. So I've crossed $100 in digital sales for the month.

Hopefully, this is a sign of good things to come.

I re-subscribed to ActiveCampaign as my email service. I don't like their price point, but I don't have time to learn new systems right now. ActiveCampaign is $70/mo and FOMO is $25/mo so I'm just barely breaking even on software this month. Add in Google ads and I'm in the negative. Still, I think things are starting to turn. Can't wait to get some physical products on the site and see what happens.

*As soon as I posted this, I got another sale for $19.97, bringing me up to $129.94.

 

[Lex DeVille]

The latest changes seem to be making a difference, at least for ThriveCart sales. $100 in sales just today. I had 5 total TC sales last month. I'm up to 8 TC sales this month, and almost $100 over last month's TC revenue. I'm still waiting on the physical products to arrive. I believe those will increase sales as physical products will help legitimize the site as a whole and give people more things to spend money on.

 

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[StrikingViper69]

The latest changes seem to be making a difference, at least for ThriveCart sales. $100 in sales just today. I had 5 total TC sales last month. I'm up to 8 TC sales this month, and almost $100 over last month's TC revenue. I'm still waiting on the physical products to arrive. I believe those will increase sales as physical products will help legitimize the site as a whole and give people more things to spend money on.

View attachment 54953

nice!!

 

[Lex DeVille]

Yesterday I got the first 10 products from Temu listed. I spent less than $2 per product and only $31 on the entire order. Overnight, I saw my first two sales from this order for a total of $100. Now that I know this is a viable product option, I'll add more Temu items from my niche.

I've seen some arguments that Temu is a marked up version of Ali Express. That may be the case, but I've never had scam UPS orders shipped under my name with Temu (so far) and I've had that frequently with Alibaba and Ali Express.

I'll place my next Temu order shortly.

 

[John Clancy]

Yesterday I got the first 10 products from Temu listed. I spent less than $2 per product and only $31 on the entire order. Overnight, I saw my first two sales from this order for a total of $100. Now that I know this is a viable product option, I'll add more Temu items from my niche.

I've seen some arguments that Temu is a marked up version of Ali Express. That may be the case, but I've never had scam UPS orders shipped under my name with Temu (so far) and I've had that frequently with Alibaba and Ali Express.

I'll place my next Temu order shortly.

Congrats! I'm curious - how are you handling packaging for these products? Have you gone for stuff that's fully aligned with your branding, or something more generic?

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Congrats! I'm curious - how are you handling packaging for these products? Have you gone for stuff that's fully aligned with your branding, or something more generic?

Generic packaging. No reason for branded packaging at this point. The website isn't generating enough for branding yet, plus, until this morning, I didn't know if the products would sell. Branded packaging would be a waste of money if it turned out nobody wanted these items.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Sales
More sales today. Sold another ring $1 ring for $50, plus $100 in digital products. Gross sales are just under $700. A few more sales and March will double February's revenue.

Ads
Right now, Google ads are running at $10/day. CPC is $0.14. Once I get my next shipment of physical products in, I intend to launch new ads targeting people who are searching for those specific products. Right now it's my digital product audience that is buying the physical items.

Email List
The list is up to 170 subscribers and growing. I'm using a popup opt-in on the home page only that offers 20% off of their first order. Previously, I had a box opt-in (non-popup) on the home page, but it wasn't converting well.

Funnels
Sometime this week, I intend to set up an upsell in ThriveCart for the main digital product. If someone buys the main product, I want to give them a one-time opportunity to get a nice discount on one or more physical products.

Blog Content
I don't write blogs often. Maybe two per month so far. But those articles are getting read. I need to look more closely at analytics to see if they're bringing people to the site.

 

[StrikingViper69]

Website tools can be a good way to get some SEO traffic, if you’re after it. For example, loan repayment calculators for a bank website

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Well that's that. March's numbers are in. Thought I'd have my first $1,000 month and I came damn close, but fell shy by a single sale. Oh well. Even with the added expenses, profits were up a lot over last month ($395.03 in Feb). Looking forward to April.

March Sales: $989.26
- Thrivecart: $409.59
- WooCommerce: $579.67

March Expenses: $310.68
- Google Ads: $96.15
- FOMO: $25.00
- ActiveCampaign: $70.00
- Physical Inventory: $119.53

March Profit: $678.58

From the charts below, we're starting to get the bouncing airplane, gaining momentum as sales try to take off. We're achieving multiple days of sales in a row, and higher totals overall. It's taking a bit longer than my previous store, but still getting there.





Major Changes from March That Paid Off
The biggest change was the addition of niche physical products. As soon as I listed items, they started selling. I only list the items as 1 in stock (because I only bought 1 of each item lol). This probably motivates sales due to scarcity. All of these items that sold were purchased for under $2 ea.

- 3 Rings for $50 ea
- 1 Necklace for $150 ea

Some of the physical inventory expenses from March will play a major role in April's sales. I'm still waiting on two shipments of that inventory to arrive. One shipment should be here today or within the next few days. The other one should follow close behind.


Updates for April

Funnels: In April I'll build out new funnels. I'll get products added as upsells for the digital purchases (which are still my top seller in terms of quantity).

Inventory: I'll add more physical products and intend to extend my product lineup to test some other items I think will do well. Once I have a good idea of what people will/won't buy, I'll start to narrow my inventory purchases and increase volume on specific products.

Google Ads: This week I'll launch a new campaign targeting the physical products to see if I can draw interest from new markets. I'll probably run those at $5/day to start.

Email: I intend to send more emails this month. Those emails will mostly run to blog posts that will funnel people back to specific products.

Blog: I'll increase the number of blogs to 2 to 3 per week. I wrote a blog last month that funneled people to a specific necklace, and that necklace sold for $150 within a day of publishing the blog post. ChatGPT will assist with writing.

 

[Andy Black]

I'll probably run those at $5/day to start.

I'm doing daily-ish progress updates for my own €5/day project on LinkedIn.

 

[NervesOfSteel]

Well that's that. March's numbers are in. Thought I'd have my first $1,000 month and I came damn close, but fell shy by a single sale. Oh well. Even with the added expenses, profits were up a lot over last month ($395.03 in Feb). Looking forward to April.

March Sales: $989.26
- Thrivecart: $409.59
- WooCommerce: $579.67

March Expenses: $310.68
- Google Ads: $96.15
- FOMO: $25.00
- ActiveCampaign: $70.00
- Physical Inventory: $119.53

March Profit: $678.58

From the charts below, we're starting to get the bouncing airplane, gaining momentum as sales try to take off. We're achieving multiple days of sales in a row, and higher totals overall. It's taking a bit longer than my previous store, but still getting there.

View attachment 55091

View attachment 55092

Major Changes from March That Paid Off
The biggest change was the addition of niche physical products. As soon as I listed items, they started selling. I only list the items as 1 in stock (because I only bought 1 of each item lol). This probably motivates sales due to scarcity. All of these items that sold were purchased for under $2 ea.

- 3 Rings for $50 ea
- 1 Necklace for $150 ea

Some of the physical inventory expenses from March will play a major role in April's sales. I'm still waiting on two shipments of that inventory to arrive. One shipment should be here today or within the next few days. The other one should follow close behind.


Updates for April

Funnels: In April I'll build out new funnels. I'll get products added as upsells for the digital purchases (which are still my top seller in terms of quantity).

Inventory: I'll add more physical products and intend to extend my product lineup to test some other items I think will do well. Once I have a good idea of what people will/won't buy, I'll start to narrow my inventory purchases and increase volume on specific products.

Google Ads: This week I'll launch a new campaign targeting the physical products to see if I can draw interest from new markets. I'll probably run those at $5/day to start.

Email: I intend to send more emails this month. Those emails will mostly run to blog posts that will funnel people back to specific products.

Blog: I'll increase the number of blogs to 2 to 3 per week. I wrote a blog last month that funneled people to a specific necklace, and that necklace sold for $150 within a day of publishing the blog post. ChatGPT will assist with writing.

great going!

 

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[Lex DeVille]

April kicked off with a bang. I sold $200 worth of jewelry and another $70 worth of digital products yesterday. Pretty sure two Temu orders will arrive today, and I placed a third order to keep products moving.

Dealing With Chargebacks
I received the first chargeback from a digital order back in February that's outside of my 30-day refund policy (not that it matters since they didn't ask for a refund). The chargeback is a $78 transaction. The customer claims "unauthorized" which means "it wasn't me."

I challenged the dispute by showing the customer's information (address, CVC code, etc.) passed fraud checks. I uploaded his receipt, email communications, a log showing he downloaded the product, and even his digital signature on the product.

If that's not enough, I'll probably remove this product or add a mailed aspect (even if it's just a thank you for your purchase card) with signature.

I also installed a plugin that logs site activity so I can capture more data on the user's activity to build a stronger case next time.

As it stands, physical products are doing way better than the digital products. I could potentially phase out all of the digital products except the main one that brings people to the site. Then I'd be more of an ecommerce store than a digital product store. The digital product would become a tripwire.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Four days in.

I'm already almost to $600, which means I've surpassed all of February's revenue in just four days, and I'm only a couple hundred away from surpassing all of March too.

Product Shipments
None of my shipments have arrived. One supposedly was delivered today. The delivery even had photo confirmation. Unfortunately, UPS delivered to the wrong address...

So I filed a claim with UPS, and contacted Temu support. Temu immediately reshipped the items for free. Who knows what UPS will do. The other shipment is set for delivery in a few days. I really wish they would hurry up. I'm certain I'll sell more as soon as I have more inventory...

Digital/Physical Split
My sales for the month are almost split, but physical products have an edge by maybe $30 or so. I removed one digital product that was the source of multiple refunds and a dispute. I'll replace it with something better.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Sales
The 3 sales that brought me close to $600 in the last post were cancelled last minute, but sales have climbed back up to $650. I'm still running $10/day in ads.

Videos & Funnels
I've been busy this month and haven't made any videos. I built out a few funnel modifications but nothing major.

UPS Claim
After I filed the UPS claim, they went back and found my package and delivered it to my house. Now I've got a ton of inventory that needs to get listed.

Product Descriptions
I've modified my product descriptions slightly to make them more engaging, so hopefully I'll see more sales. The first sale from this batch covered the entire cost of the batch. My margins are pretty good. The product descriptions are mostly templated at this point. There's a paragraph of text that changes per product, and I let ChatGPT write it so I don't have to use mental energy.

Pricing
I increased the price of my main digital product by $10 and it's still making sales. My physical products are listed between $49 and $149.

Audience
Coming up on 200 email subscribers, 7 YouTube subscribers (no public videos).

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Sales
Good news for April. As we approach mid-month, I've surpassed last month's total sales. Currently sitting at $1,035.81. I really hope to reach $2,000 this month.

Repeat Business
For physical products, I'm noticing that those who have purchased in the past are quick to return when I list new products. Those who purchased digital products were among the first to give my physical products a try.

Returns/Refunds/Chargebacks
I haven't had to deal with many of these so far. I think part of the reason is that physical products now make up the majority of my sales. Physical products offer something tangible, so the desire to refund is probably lower. Tracking numbers likely reduce the volume of people who would attempt to claim fraudulent purchases or that their item wasn't received. Requiring the customer to pay for return shipping for any returns likely plays a role in the decision to return an item or not. Hopefully, it stays this way.

 

[kr8nt]

Sales
Good news for April. As we approach mid-month, I've surpassed last month's total sales. Currently sitting at $1,035.81. I really hope to reach $2,000 this month.

Repeat Business
For physical products, I'm noticing that those who have purchased in the past are quick to return when I list new products. Those who purchased digital products were among the first to give my physical products a try.

Returns/Refunds/Chargebacks
I haven't had to deal with many of these so far. I think part of the reason is that physical products now make up the majority of my sales. Physical products offer something tangible, so the desire to refund is probably lower. Tracking numbers likely reduce the volume of people who would attempt to claim fraudulent purchases or that their item wasn't received. Requiring the customer to pay for return shipping for any returns likely plays a role in the decision to return an item or not. Hopefully, it stays this way.

That's amazing progress, congratulations, Lex!

Do the customers return when you list new products on their own, or do you send out emails that you have listed new products? Also, do you offer some kind of a discount or something for returning customers?

 

[Lex DeVille]

That's amazing progress, congratulations, Lex!

Do the customers return when you list new products on their own, or do you send out emails that you have listed new products? Also, do you offer some kind of a discount or something for returning customers?

I send an email once a week that shares some of the newest products on the site and links back to each one. The only discount is if a customer has previously purchased the main digital product. Those customers get a standard 20% discount, but they have to input a code at checkout to use it.

 

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[kr8nt]

I send an email once a week that shares some of the newest products on the site and links back to each one. The only discount is if a customer has previously purchased the main digital product. Those customers get a standard 20% discount, but they have to input a code at checkout to use it.

Sounds like you got yourself loyal customers that like to buy your products, that's great!

Also, have you considered doing some kind of giveaways, where people have to share your post on social media/tag their friends, for a chance to win? I recently read somewhere that this is a great way to get your customers pretty much do your marketing for you. Thought it would be interesting to hear your opinion on this approach.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Sounds like you got yourself loyal customers that like to buy your products, that's great!

Also, have you considered doing some kind of giveaways, where people have to share your post on social media/tag their friends, for a chance to win? I recently read somewhere that this is a great way to get your customers pretty much do your marketing for you. Thought it would be interesting to hear your opinion on this approach.

There are a lot of ideas that *might* work to market products and services. My process already is working, so there's no need to add in the X factor of social media for now. I have little interest in spending time or effort on any social media outlets outside of YouTube for the immediate future.