Last week, I wrote about my journey of developing an idea into a product in one day. I got a proof of concept working, but the product is not launched yet. I put in more work over the past few days to make it more user-friendly and of higher production quality because I have an ambitious goal: selling it for $1!
I shared a few screencasts for the workshop kit on the website. The newsletter format won't allow me to embed videos. Check it out if you are interested: https://startup.wentin.net/The-Rule-of-99-Effort-5157bdad843c41e68f3fbf1f735dfa65
I was initially planning to launch the Notion workshop kit today. I want to put it out in the world to see the responses: is there an appetite from startup founders to workshop their brand this way? I am eager to see. However, a new problem comes up: marketing.
I took a look at Gumroad and search for Notion Templates. There is more work: I need to put together a good marketing page! I check out some competitions; every product is presented with a well-written sales pitch and a detailed description of what buyers will get. Then it hits me: I never did this part before. I usually offer things for free, and I would just share the link with the world. Whoever needs it will take it. But selling things are different; even for $1, the game is fundamentally changed.
I could hush together a few paragraphs to put it on Gumroad, so I can check the checkbox of launching a product today. I decided against it. I thought of how many people will see the product page vs. how many people will see this Notion workshop kit I made; the ratio is probably 100:1! For every 100 people who visited the product page, only the few who paid $1 will see the Notion workshop kit. I have spent almost a week on the workshop kit. Do I really want to under-represent my effort? The disproportional effort I put on the 1% won’t be worth it if I don’t work hard for the 99%.
That is the lesson I learned today. I need to know how to sell! I can’t put 99% of my effort into something that only 1% of site visitors will see and 1% of effort into something 99% of visitors will see. It is disproportion.
The journey continues! Thanks for tuning in! If you like my content, be sure to sign up for this newsletter.
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This post is also published on the 30DaysOfStartup project website:
https://startup.wentin.net/The-Rule-of-99-Effort-5157bdad843c41e68f3fbf1f735dfa65