Over the last few months I worked in my off hours to produce video content for my very first product. The product is simply a video series that teaches budding developers how to create a web application using Python and Flask.
Over roughly a month I collected 16 signups, some of which I know to be people that weren't actually signing up for the product.
Yesterday, after completing the last video in my series, and after discussing with some veterans in the content industry, I decided to give my product away for free.
What I learned
If you don't have an audience you're speaking to an empty room. This was my biggest mistake. I'm almost completely anonymous on the internet and people don't want to buy something from a random stranger. That is unless other people are doing it.
To put it frankly, no one cared about my product. Once I realized how difficult it was going to be to get signups, I started trying to give full access to my product away for free to early adopters. This is when I realized no one wanted what I was making, even if it was completely free.
I have no idea what I'm doing. In the beginning I felt like I had a really good grasp on what I was doing. I knew my target market, I knew to validate, and I knew my product had value because it's the same skills I use every day. Once I got half way into creating the series and had little to no interest, I realized I had no idea what I was doing but felt an obligation to finish. Maybe I watched too many "marketing is easy" videos. Or maybe not enough ;)
Positive Takeaways
This project helped me get started building an audience. I'm now consistently writing content and some of it seems to be providing value. One article even made it to the front page of HN.
I'm genuinely proud that I finished my project. I didn't achieve my goal of selling it, but I've gained confidence in my ability to finish and ship something.
I learned that I really enjoy writing and helping people. Part of connecting with my target market included helping them with whatever they were struggling with. It felt good to be able to use my knowledge to help them and also made me realize I genuinely enjoy writing.
I've learned that I know nothing about marketing. If marketing is anything like programming, this is an indicator that I'm learning.
What Next?
So what's next? I'm not completely sure, to be honest. I have a few ideas but I am very hesitant to commit to any one of them. I've learned how much time you can waste walking the wrong path, so this time I want to spend more time validating and researching before I pull the trigger.
I know one thing for sure. I'm happier having tried and failed, than to have never tried at all.