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Cracking Digital Sales Before it's Too Late.

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Sole

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Hi all,

Yesterday I was browsing this forum and found @Lex DeVille 's gold thread (this one) and I think it's exactly what I need to do right now. I joined the forum today and will document everything in this thread to stay accountable.

THE MISSION

I need to figure out a way to sell digital products before it's too late! I only have 5 months worth of living expenses.

BACKGROUND


A few month back my main source of income has ended abruptly. Basically I had an income-generating website that got hit by a Google update. I wasn't an expert at SEO or anything, but it worked fine. Now I don't trust SEO anymore, so in the past few months I tried a variety of new ideas with no immediate result.

My other sources of income are very low, so I won't be able to pay the bills. I could go back to freelancing but that's the last resort because I haven't done it in years and my skills aren't sharp (I know a little bit of everything but not good at anything in particular).

THE PLAN

I will create a digital product and market it with a very little budget. So I won't focus on Google Ads at first because I never used it and I don't have much money to spare, maybe I'll spend $100 at most. I will focus on free traffic generation methods (facebook groups, reddit, twitter, etsy). I will look for free ad credits like Bing/Twitter and whatever I can find to bring additional traffic.

I want to convert the traffic into email subscribers to sell them later, so I will need a lead magnet and a digital product. At the same time I will cut my expenses as much as I can and hopefully I will save another month of expenses before the 5 months run out. No more going out. No more movies (I just disabled my Netflix). I uninstalled Tiktok (although I could use it for free traffic at some point).

ACTION

While reading Lex's thread, I started doing research and here is what I did so far:
  • Went on Etsy (for the first time ever) and researched ideas by sorting trending listings.
  • I found a product that I'm confident I can sell.
  • Bought a suitable domain (used a promo and got it cheap).
  • Setup Wordpress with a free theme.
  • Added content to essential pages (about, privacy).

GOING FORWARD

I'll do my best to keep it up. I will try not to read the forum too much (unless there's something very specific that I need) because I get easily distracted and will start trying other methods instead of continuing this one.
 
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Raedrum

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I'll follow your thread because I plan to do that on the medium term, every feedback are welcome
 

MJ DeMarco

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Any interest in providing value? Or do you just want to sell digital products?
 

Shono

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MJ DeMarco

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valuable digital products

Sorry but I searched the for the word "value" and found nothing.
Then I searched for the word "need" in the context of value and solutions. I found nothing.

You can always smell someone who is money chasing when they don't start with a product, they start backwards with a channel or a preferred method of distribution.
 

Sole

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Any interest in providing value? Or do you just want to sell digital products?
Yes, the product has value. The fact that I'm confident I can sell it, despite never selling digital products before, is because it's a product I use myself. So when I saw a version of it selling successfully on etsy, I realized people are willing to pay money for it. I didn't know I had a product already. As a user, I can say that my product is better than what's on etsy right now, but mine is messy so I'll have to package it in a more digestible form.

Also, one of my goals with this journey is to learn to sell digital products, because I need a different skillset that doesn't depend on Google's algos.
 

BizyDad

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Yes, the product has value. The fact that I'm confident I can sell it, despite never selling digital products before, is because it's a product I use myself. So when I saw a version of it selling successfully on etsy, I realized people are willing to pay money for it. I didn't know I had a product already. As a user, I can say that my product is better than what's on etsy right now, but mine is messy so I'll have to package it in a more digestible form.

Also, one of my goals with this journey is to learn to sell digital products, because I need a different skillset that doesn't depend on Google's algos.

Okay, so you are actually the kind of person that your new venture would be looking for as a customer, right?

Cool. That's a start. That's actually quite helpful even.

But to MJ's point, who's going to value this? Who are you looking to reach? People like you?

Ok. Do you click on Twitter ads? If not, why are you even bringing up Twitter ads?

facebook groups, reddit, twitter, etsy

You said you're not on Etsy. So what makes you think that your customers are on Etsy?

Stop trying to think you have to learn everything. You're not in this to build 17 skills.

You're in this to reach somebody with a problem. And help them solve that problem.

So who is that person? Where do they hang out? And what can you say to them while they're in that spot to bring them to your new Etsy listing?

Here's another idea. You probably know people like you who have this same problem. Have you talked to them and shown them your Etsy listing? Have you even considered that?

Hope that helps.
 
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Sole

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But to MJ's point, who's going to value this? Who are you looking to reach? People like you?
Yes, people like me and the ones already buying on etsy.
why are you even bringing up Twitter ads?
It was an example. I'll take any free ad credit I can find to bring initial traffic. I haven't used paid ads before so I think I should test a bunch of platforms first.
You said you're not on Etsy. So what makes you think that your customers are on Etsy?
I found a version of my product selling on etsy with decent success.
You probably know people like you who have this same problem. Have you talked to them and shown them your Etsy listing? Have you even considered that?
Don't have an etsy listing yet, but sure, that's a good idea which I will consider.
 

BizyDad

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I haven't used paid ads before so I think I should test a bunch of platforms first.
do you just want to sell digital products?
Stop trying to think you have to learn everything. You're not in this to build 17 skills.
You can always smell someone who is money chasing when they don't start with a product, they start backwards with a channel or a preferred method of distribution.

I don't think you're hearing the feedback. It's cool, I'm sure the light bulb will go on at some point. :bulb:
 

Xeon

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they start backwards with a channel or a preferred method of distribution.


IMO there's nothing wrong with this. Getting traction early is important, he can then refine that product to fit a target audience better. Digital products have value. They're used by people to print out to frame in their houses to beautify their homes in the case of digital wall art, or in the case of digital planners, they're functional and used by people too.
 
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Sole

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ACTION TODAY

  • I published a 1,500-word post to share on Facebook later when the product is ready. Also the site doesn't look empty anymore. I'm part of a FB group related to the product and gathered some popular questions to address in the article.
  • Made a list of other groups and applied to them.
  • I wrote all the material for the lead magnet, just need to polish it.

Tomorrow I plan to work on the product and set-up the autoresponder. I already have an account at MailCheat(Chimp) that I don't use, so I wonder if I can add another domain and go from there instead of starting from scratch.
 

Sole

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I finished the lead magnet. I wrote an email sequence and worked 5 hours on the product today. I think it'll take more days (maybe even a week) to finish the product. Since this is my first digital product I will put some love into it.

I also created the first draft of the plan broke down into goals. I realized that a 5-month deadline is too long, so I have to succeed in 4 months instead of 5, or it'd be too risky.

So my main goal is to reach 1k/mo in 4 months. This is an amount that allows me to pay the bills (although I was earning 2.5K/mo with the website before). I will definitely push forward and make a scaling plan after I get myself out of the rut, but for now this is it.

I broke down the goal into smaller goals over the 4 months. So I have the big goal, monthly goals, weekly goals and daily goals. It feels more achievable for sure. Let's go!
 

Lex DeVille

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I finished the lead magnet. I wrote an email sequence and worked 5 hours on the product today. I think it'll take more days (maybe even a week) to finish the product. Since this is my first digital product I will put some love into it.

I also created the first draft of the plan broke down into goals. I realized that a 5-month deadline is too long, so I have to succeed in 4 months instead of 5, or it'd be too risky.

So my main goal is to reach 1k/mo in 4 months. This is an amount that allows me to pay the bills (although I was earning 2.5K/mo with the website before). I will definitely push forward and make a scaling plan after I get myself out of the rut, but for now this is it.

I broke down the goal into smaller goals over the 4 months. So I have the big goal, monthly goals, weekly goals and daily goals. It feels more achievable for sure. Let's go!

If you have to succeed in four months, and you already know your audience is on Etsy, then the only thing that makes sense to achieve this goal is to focus on Etsy. Publish on Etsy. Run ads on Etsy. Try not to get banned from Etsy.

All of that other stuff will cause you to fail (and lose money in the process).
 
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Sole

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If you have to succeed in four months, and you already know your audience is on Etsy, then the only thing that makes sense to achieve this goal is to focus on Etsy.
Surely a good idea to focus on etsy in the beginning. Do you have any ideas how to also grow an email list from etsy directly?

I think I have a market on fb as well. I just talked to some people in the fb group and they're interested.
 

Lex DeVille

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Surely a good idea to focus on etsy in the beginning. Do you have any ideas how to also grow an email list from etsy directly?

I think I have a market on fb as well. I just talked to some people in the fb group and they're interested.
Give them a checkout link and tell them to prove their interest or else they're not interested.

Growing an email list with Etsy is easy. Just offer the customer something valuable for free that they can only get by subscribing to your email list. Send them a message in a DM after they buy your product on Etsy.
 

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