It took me 9 months to get past $1000

It took me 9 months to get past $1000 selling a digital product.

9 months.

Passive, yes. Income…no.

Today, we’re embarking on a new series on Selling Digital Products. I’ll be reporting back on some real tests I’m doing here and on my podcast. Follow along and come join us for a livestream this month or next. More on that below.

Travel back in time with me to October 2022.

A time when sugar plum passive income dreams danced in my head. With the inflated self-confidence of NFL player Travis Kelce, I launched an audio course called “7 Steps to Getting More Leads.”

From then until June 2023, it made roughly $1000.

To explain what you’re looking at above:

• This is my Thrivecart dashboard for 7 Steps

• Some people got this product as a free gift

• Some people got discounts like during Cyber Monday

• The refund was a Growthtracker who purchased it and did not need to

In June 2023, I decided to take this more seriously. I used to help companies get to their Series A for God’s sake. Surely, I could sell a digital course!

I moved it to Gumroad. Renamed it. Dropped the audio course. Dropped the price. Added better social proof. All in two hours.

As you can see, that faired much better. Above is the Gumroad dashboard from June of last year until now.

This product is now called The Stay Booked Roadmap.

If you’re thinking, wow Lex, that just is not that impressive. I am unimpressed by these numbers. I would agree. However, there’s a ton to learn here, and a much improved signal. I am determined to put it to work.

My top five learnings so far that I’m taking forward to future products:

1. Naming has a big impact

2. Social proof (especially volume of people) is persuasive

3. Discounts drive action

4. Fast action discounts drive action when there’s less trust

5. Affiliates are underutilized

In today’s episode of Low Energy Leads, I explain how this product came about, what I messed up on first launch, why I failed to correct it for so long and how I eventually did improve the sales. The rest of this series, I’ll be putting these insights into action with fresh tests on a brand new product. Come along for the ride!

P.S. Do you have lessons learned about digital products? Good or bad, I want to hear ‘em! Come be a guest on next Friday’s live (February 23) or just hang with us in the comments.