Lex's Digital/Physical Product Group Accountability Thread

[Andy Black]

when I introduced myself in the office a few weeks ago, I made a joke about relocating with my ex-wife and that if I didn't show up one day, come looking for me just in case she off'd me lol. Well... since they hadn't seen the resignation letter, I guess they took my dark humor seriously and called the police. Then the police called me and I had to explain how I'm not dead and all is well.

Lol. That's so funny. You must have really spooked them. Imagine the conversations that went on deciding whether to call the police or not.


Where's your Udemy thread Lex? And didn't you post somewhere a big list of disadvantages to Udemy? I know you're going in with your eyes open. What's different this time that has you embracing it?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Lex DeVille]

Lol. That's so funny. You must have really spooked them. Imagine the conversations that went on deciding whether to call the police or not.


Where's your Udemy thread Lex? And didn't you post somewhere a big list of disadvantages to Udemy? I know you're going in with your eyes open. What's different this time that has you embracing it?

There's a ton of disadvantages, but it's basically guaranteed income if you put in the research to find subjects that are in demand that the platform doesn't already have courses on.

All of the disadvantages can be overlooked if the goal isn't to create a Fastlane business. I just need to replace my income so I can focus on how I'll build a Fastlane business.

Nothing is really different. I had to choose an option to create income, and this option offers more predictability and long-term stability when compared with freelancing. Also, there's never a client bottleneck holding things up.

I applied to more towing/spotter/repo positions this morning. If I can land one of those, that's a best case scenario to get the training and experience I need. Udemy is just an emergency back up.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Sales
I turned off ads a few days ago for the main site in this thread. I was about to shut the site down. But then it happened. Nearly $150 in sales across three orders overnight. Two through WooCommerce and one through ThriveCart.




Guess I'll keep the site open and tinker with it some more. I'll still focus most of my efforts on Udemy, but I'll keep going with this site since it's up and running on its own at this point.

 

[Andy Black]

Sales
I turned off ads a few days ago for the main site in this thread. I was about to shut the site down. But then it happened. Nearly $150 in sales across three orders overnight. Two through WooCommerce and one through ThriveCart.

View attachment 54099
View attachment 54100

Guess I'll keep the site open and tinker with it some more. I'll still focus most of my efforts on Udemy, but I'll keep going with this site since it's up and running on its own at this point.

Do you know how they got to your site?

Was it from Google? If so, then do you know what the search terms were?

How can you get more visitors like them?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Lex DeVille]

Do you know how they got to your site?

Was it from Google? If so, then do you know what the search terms were?

How can you get more visitors like them?

As far as I can tell, they came from an ad. I didn't completely turn off my ads, I just turned the ad spend down really low. It looks like they came from an ad using the main search term that I already target. Then they left and returned to the site directly later on. It's possible they've been to the site before, but I don't know.

Don't really know how I would get more visitors like that other than increasing spending on the ad. I could build out some SEO articles around the search term, but I'm not sure how much of a difference that will make since the ad will be at the top anyway.

 

[Taktik]

Okay, I've committed to a decision. I'm quitting the 9-5 tomorrow morning.

After that, I'll focus all of my efforts on Udemy courses rather than freelancing because the goal is freedom.

To do that, I'll start a new Udemy account from scratch, and I'll set it up as a business rather than as a solo instructor so I can make videos without the expectation of my face being on screen, that way I can cover basically any topic.

From there, I'll use a combination of Udemy and Google research to determine good topics that haven't already been covered on Udemy. I'll use ChatGPT to outline the courses and maybe even to provide the script. I'll use Canva and Google Slides to create presentations.

I'll aim to produce at least two courses per month (more if I can make my courses good enough without sacrificing quality) with a goal of adding an additional $500 to $1,000 in revenue each month.

Repo is still on the table, because I still need a Fastlane business.

So that's that. Here we go!

Congrats on your decision. I am looking forward to reading about your process.

I'm currently looking for possible course topics for Udemy as well to generate some additional income for Fastlane ideas but I haven't found any real winners yet. So I was wondering if you could elaborate more on your process for finding/choosing course topics for Udemy.

Thanks.

 

[Andy Black]

As far as I can tell, they came from an ad. I didn't completely turn off my ads, I just turned the ad spend down really low. It looks like they came from an ad using the main search term that I already target. Then they left and returned to the site directly later on. It's possible they've been to the site before, but I don't know.

Don't really know how I would get more visitors like that other than increasing spending on the ad. I could build out some SEO articles around the search term, but I'm not sure how much of a difference that will make since the ad will be at the top anyway.

What's your Impression Share metrics? Are you limited by budget and/or rank?

What can you do to improve ad CTR?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Lex DeVille]

Congrats on your decision. I am looking forward to reading about your process.

I'm currently looking for possible course topics for Udemy as well to generate some additional income for Fastlane ideas but I haven't found any real winners yet. So I was wondering if you could elaborate more on your process for finding/choosing course topics for Udemy.

Thanks.

On Udemy, I use the Marketing Insights page (must have an Instructor account) to determine basic search volume for my ideas.




On this page you search for a topic, and if there are courses on that topic, Udemy will pull up data on those courses.




If there are a lot of courses and if the median monthly revenue is low, then it's probably not a good topic because it's saturated. If there is low demand and low top monthly revenue, then maybe some courses are available but nobody is buying them. I generally want to see medium or high demand, low number of courses, and better median monthly revenue. Top monthly revenue can be a weird metric because sometimes that course is made by an influencer with a huge audience like Seth Godin, so it skews the data.

The marketing insights page provides other metrics including top search terms and related topics. The data here is particularly useful, but if there are no courses around your topic idea then there won't be any data to show.




On my oldest account there is an "Insights" page in the instructor dashboard with business insights. This page doesn't show up on my new account, so I'm not sure if you have to have one or more courses published to see it.



This page shows ideas that are trending, specialized, and or offer a first-mover advantage. Depending on what you want to teach, this page can be useful.




The last page I use is the main search page for the website. Sometimes the marketplace insights don't show any data for courses, but there are courses available on the site. Other times, the marketplace insights show data, but there really aren't any courses on your exact topic. So I search the main page to see what actually shows up on the website.




If there are a lot of results, then I scroll through the first couple of pages to see how many of those results are relevant. If most of the courses on the first page are relevant, then I'm not going to make a course around that exact topic because it probably won't do very well. But a related or sub-topic could still do well.

Google Ads
The only other tool I use is the keyword search tool in the Google Ads console. That's just to see how many people are searching for my topic regularly. Udemy spends a lot on Google Ads, so if a topic has a lot of searches and low bids on the main term, then Udemy will probably promote my course more since it won't cost them much to generate sales. At least, that's my theory.

 

[Lex DeVille]

What's your Impression Share metrics? Are you limited by budget and/or rank?

What can you do to improve ad CTR?

I was limited by budget because I turned the budget all the way down

 

[Andy Black]

I was limited by budget because I turned the budget all the way down

Drop bids to drop spend, rather than dropping budget.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[KJFast]

After reading how things weren’t going well for you Lex and how you turned it around. Really shows how fast you can recover and get the ball rolling again!

I recently realised my business is likely not fastlane (unless I can somehow wholesale to others but these clients rare) and that it’s also a business in the risk area. I’m going to keep it running til stock sold but will possibly restock more depending if I feel it’s worth it.

As an 18 year old with no money but loads of free time and happiness, I’ve now got a job to save for business investments and to learn to drive.

I’m going to either create or through acquisition own a business generating £2-£3k monthly so I can get a place to live and then travel (which I’ll do cheaply).

I aim to do this all by the summer so that when I start 2025 I can say I’ve got out the wantpreneur stage (I have a business but really doesn’t make much money).

Been feeling very low ever since I realised my biz wasn’t really working out and didn’t go how I planned, like your plans for passive income.

I also was going to go “all in” on copywriting til I discovered chatgpt could do it and after setting up on upwork realised there’s not so much work on there plus I felt like I was forcing myself to read the copywriting books I bought rather than something I wanted to do or was motivated for. So this “failed” for me

But im going to keep the ball rolling and taking action.

Thanks for providing value.

 

[NervesOfSteel]

@Lex DeVille is known for his lightening speed execution.

Drop bids to drop spend, rather than dropping budget.

@Lex DeVille you can chop the veggies fast, but you need to give them some time to cook?


I would suggest to wait on it for a little more time before wrapping it all up. @Andy Black provided with golden advice as usual.

After reading how things weren’t going well for you Lex and how you turned it around. Really shows how fast you can recover and get the ball rolling again!

I recently realised my business is likely not fastlane (unless I can somehow wholesale to others but these clients rare) and that it’s also a business in the risk area. I’m going to keep it running til stock sold but will possibly restock more depending if I feel it’s worth it.

As an 18 year old with no money but loads of free time and happiness, I’ve now got a job to save for business investments and to learn to drive.

I’m going to either create or through acquisition own a business generating £2-£3k monthly so I can get a place to live and then travel (which I’ll do cheaply).

I aim to do this all by the summer so that when I start 2025 I can say I’ve got out the wantpreneur stage (I have a business but really doesn’t make much money).

Been feeling very low ever since I realised my biz wasn’t really working out and didn’t go how I planned, like your plans for passive income.

I also was going to go “all in” on copywriting til I discovered chatgpt could do it and after setting up on upwork realised there’s not so much work on there plus I felt like I was forcing myself to read the copywriting books I bought rather than something I wanted to do or was motivated for. So this “failed” for me

But im going to keep the ball rolling and taking action.

Thanks for providing value.

You're 18. Learn sales. Sales is everything. Even for a job, you need to sell yourself!

 

[Earthgirl]

Loving the new ideas and plans - and boldness!
No sales here, but limited investment.
Currently I have a huge amount of work in normal job, and 3rd job, so I'm going to try to get this all completed in 10-14 days, so I can concentrate on this project again. I need short term goals for motivation!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[jarvisdiego]

2nd Product:

Got my first sale Tuesday! I created the whole product with chatGPT and it's a 14-pg PDF.

I've got 53 clicks and 1 sale. Now, since I got 1 conversion, I'm thinking of making one change to the website (CTR is good so I'm not going to mess with the ad copy right now) and giving it another 50 clicks and see what type of results I get.

I had to kill 2nd product since I didn't get any more sales.

3rd Digital Product:

Just launched 3rd product and it's under the same domain as the 2nd product. I set the price at $4 because it's just a list with short descriptions for each item.

Some thoughts: I've been quick when it comes to research and have created products without too much effort put into them.

Next product I launch will be $100+ and I will put more effort into the research and finding a product that solves a bigger problem.

I will have product ready to launch by the end of the week.

 

[jarvisdiego]

oh wow, I guess my store got suspended.

Interesting because I provided all my info and have added the policy pages as well.

I can't log in to it, then I reached out to support and said they were going to get back to me and got this email...

 

[NervesOfSteel]

oh wow, I guess my store got suspended.

Interesting because I provided all my info and have added the policy pages as well.

I can't log in to it, then I reached out to support and said they were going to get back to me and got this email...


View attachment 54213

For such possibilities, I suggested this:

I suggest you buy a domain name separately and then open your shop on Shopify or WordPress using your domain name. That way they might be able to take down your shop/web store/website from their servers and in that case you can rebuild your shop with another host, and use the same domain name, and now, all the traffic will start landing on your website instead of their server. That's the reason they offer the "free domain with XYZ pack" trap!

I am not sure 100% though, but it's supposed to work that way!

Rule no. 1: Promote your OWN link in the ad. It can always redirect to your own store (That looks exactly the same as your Shopify store Page) ... whenever you want!

Been there Done That!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Lex DeVille]

Course I
Finished recording the 34 video lessons today. I'll start edits shortly. Even though I'm not doing this under my own name, I recorded talking head videos instead of using a script. Scripting takes way too long for me. I'll add bullet points during edits.

The main search term for this course has over 12,000 searches per month on Google. Nobody has made a course on the topic. There's a secondary search term in the course that has over 30k searches per month. As long as I do well on the promo and preview videos, the course should do okay.

I used ChatGPT to fill out all of the main text sections (landing page description, course objectives, etc.) and Canva to create the cover image. I'll use ChatGPT to create most of the content for PDF downloadable resources. I'm using OBS (free software) to record videos, and Microsoft Clipchamp (free version) for edits.

Course II
I have audios recorded for about half of a second course. I may re-do those since I'll probably do talking head videos from now on. I didn't like the scripted process, and I come across more naturally confident and knowledgeable when it's unscripted .

 

[jarvisdiego]

For such possibilities, I suggested this:




Rule no. 1: Promote your OWN link in the ad. It can always redirect to your own store (That looks exactly the same as your Shopify store Page) ... whenever you want!

Been there Done That!

yeah I bought it with namecheap, not Shopify.

 

[Lex DeVille]

A couple more thoughts on Udemy for those who might go the course route:

1. Title
When creating course titles, I almost always use the formula: Main Search Term + Core Benefit

For instance, one of my oldest courses: "Start a Freelance Business: Take Back Your Freedom Now"

• The main search term is "start a freelance business."
• The reason people want to start a freelance business is because they want freedom.
• The word "now" highlights the action they can take in the present moment (also the action I want them to take lol)

I do this because of something I'm pretty sure I learned from @Andy Black which is that the landing page/Google Ad should sync up. If someone searches for "Start a Freelance Business" and Udemy is running ads to my course, then I want them to target that search term. When the person clicks the ad, I want the first thing they see to be the exact search term.

2. Subtitle
My subtitles usually follow some variation of the formula Call to Action + Benefits + Overcome Objections

From the Start a Freelance Business Course:
"Earn a full-time income from home with no degree, no experience, and no portfolio."

Goes straight into a CTA (Earn a full-time income) adds a secondary benefit (from home) overcomes objections (degree, portfolio, experience)

3. Selecting Course Ideas
One thing I forgot to mention about course selection. It's a good idea to avoid one-off topics. A good topic should be able to carry the student naturally from one course into another so they have more reason to buy your future courses.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Lex DeVille]

34 Videos Recorded. 30 Videos edited and uploaded to Udemy. Just plugged in headphones to check sound and discovered I forgot to change the audio setting to mono to match my microphone set up. I recorded all 34 videos with audio in only one ear...grr.

 

[Cameraman]

34 Videos Recorded. 30 Videos edited and uploaded to Udemy. Just plugged in headphones to check sound and discovered I forgot to change the audio setting to mono to match my microphone set up. I recorded all 34 videos with audio in only one ear...grr.

I've been there!

Here's how to fix it in the free Audacity software

How to Change a Mono Track to Stereo in Audacity: 2 Easy Ways

A step-by-step guide to changing one or more mono tracks to stereo in Audacity When you record your podcast, your band's lead singer, or other vocals in Audacity, you'll typically wind up with a mono track. When it comes time to save your...

www.wikihow.com

 

[Andy Black]

34 Videos Recorded. 30 Videos edited and uploaded to Udemy. Just plugged in headphones to check sound and discovered I forgot to change the audio setting to mono to match my microphone set up. I recorded all 34 videos with audio in only one ear...grr.

Been there too.

Later on when I had a stack of videos to do I didn't try to batch them. I'd outline, record, lightly edit, upload. Then do the next video. That way I'd catch mistakes earlier.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Lex DeVille]

Been there too.

Later on when I had a stack of videos to do I didn't try to batch them. I'd outline, record, lightly edit, upload. Then do the next video. That way I'd catch mistakes earlier.

I did mine one at a time, but didn't check the sound with headphones until the end. Fixed them all this morning. I'm uploading now, then have to create PDFs, add quizzes, and publish. Should be done today.

I might put these under my name to leverage one of my secondary YT channels. Probably easier to build a following and market courses this way.

Since I'm always trying new things, I can build the channel around that concept. Then, each time I create a course, I make a video covering the subject that leads back to the course.

If a video goes viral, it will be attached to a course so there's always a path to profit and never a bunch of wasted views.

 

[Andy Black]

I did mine one at a time, but didn't check the sound with headphones until the end. Fixed them all this morning. I'm uploading now, then have to create PDFs, add quizzes, and publish. Should be done today.

I might put these under my name to leverage one of my secondary YT channels. Probably easier to build a following and market courses this way.

Since I'm always trying new things, I can build the channel around that concept. Then, each time I create a course, I make a video covering the subject that leads back to the course.

If a video goes viral, it will be attached to a course so there's always a path to profit and never a bunch of wasted views.

Great idea about simultaneously posting to a YouTube channel. Maybe you can still use your main personal branded channel but position yourself less as a coach for freelancers.

If you've already got an audience then maybe leverage it for social proof etc?

 

[Lex DeVille]

Great idea about simultaneously posting to a YouTube channel. Maybe you can still use your main personal branded channel but position yourself less as a coach for freelancers.

If you've already got an audience then maybe leverage it for social proof etc?

The problem with the main channel is it is pigeonholed for Upwork.

YouTube's algorithms won't allow non-upwork videos to get traction. Even related topics like freelancing and copywriting struggle to get anywhere because YouTube knows that's not who views the channel.

I can still leverage the main channel for social proof though.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

The problem with the main channel is it is pigeonholed for Upwork.

YouTube's algorithms won't allow non-upwork videos to get traction. Even related topics like freelancing and copywriting struggle to get anywhere because YouTube knows that's not who views the channel.

I can still leverage the main channel for social proof though.

Ah, gotcha. You could link those channels I suppose, and maybe post something on the community tab letting people know about the new channel.

 

[Lex DeVille]

First Course
The first course is done. Tried to publish. Udemy required ID verification. Submitted that, but it takes 2-3 days to process. Can't submit my course until after they verify.

Sales
The passive site saw a sale of $78 this evening, bringing net sales to $225. Slowly recovering what I invested in ads. The customer was from an organic Google search. I'm starting to think I never needed ads for the site because it doesn't have any competition. Even with poor SEO I show up at the top of search results.

Forgot to mention, $29.97 of the $225 is recurring.

 

[KJFast]

Hey guys, after a lot of journalling and thinking decided I will go for a digital products business. Reason behind this is I feel it’s achievable with my current skill set, low start up cost, low cost for testing etc.

Already have an idea of the niche I want to target as I know people who are already successful in this niche and big into this niche myself

I’ll post updates as I go through my journey. Starting the research phase now

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[KJFast]

Hey lex, you still moving forward with your digital product sites from the original thread? Just wondering haha, found so much value in it.

A day or so ago my mind was empty with ideas and now I fully understand what to do and am taking action. Already begun researching my first market, just gotta do keyword research etc. Etsy sellers are doing £3-7k. The more niche ones about £3k. Potential issue is they have 300-600 listings which’d be hard to replicate for me. So may look at something easier to make multiple products.

My mind is now full of knowledge of what to do, simply a matter of taking action which I’m pretty good at. Sometimes action faking I do admittedly but I’m quite conscious of whatever I am doing.

Mainly in the past it was not really knowing where to start. Now I know exactly where to start.

 

[Lex DeVille]

I'm not running the original one any longer. I have a different site now that I'm not currently advertising until I find the right angle for it. So far, it has generated around $300. I also just launched a new course on Udemy. So far, it hasn't generated anything. I'm waiting for Udemy to run a promo to see how well it does (or if it's a big flop).

I'm glad you have a starting point. Feel free to share your progress here if you want. Everybody will be rooting for you.