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$22K in sales in 4 weeks

My first info product, Product Toolkit has generated $22K in sales over the last 4 weeks. This was 100% organic (newsletter + Twitter) and fairly under-optimized.

Sharing what I’ve learned about getting sales, monetizing depth, pricing above comfort, avoiding anchors, and listening to the right customers:

85% sales came from newsletter

If I didn’t start writing 9 months ago, none of this would have happened. My newsletter began as personal therapy - processing the good, bad and ugly lessons from working at a multi-billion-dollar startup, but has since become a source of value for thousands.

Here's a thread with more stats on where sales came from.

Readers told me what they liked, and Product Toolkit emerged as an in-depth version of what they found most valuable.

Monetize depth over breadth

People click on breadth, but pay for depth. Especially true for info products.

Free and abundant information is the norm. But specific information that solves problems for people is rare. It can and should be monetized. Why?

Many people are only interested in the TLDR, but still want to follow along. Some are serious about taking action, and want all the nitty-gritty details. It’s hard for any given piece of content to cater well to both groups.

A free newsletter + paid info product is one way of solving this dilemma.

Which wallet are you targeting?

Because I’m solving career headaches for people, there were two wallets at play: company learning budgets, and personal learning budgets.

People who work at companies with learning budgets are in the first group. To make it easier, I drafted a note for people to expense the product.

Willingness to pay for solutions to career headaches is high. Not only are careers a huge source of stress, but the ROI for shortcuts is massive.

Customer goodwill = value - price. If value > price, you generate goodwill, and people are more likely to share with others. If value >> price, you generate a similar level of goodwill, but leave a lot of money on the table.

No matter where you want to be on that spectrum, it helps to focus on places where the ROI ceiling is very high.

Price slightly above comfort level

Expectations scale with price. My early supporters locked in a lower price and showered me with compliments. This felt nice, but it also limited my ability to improve the product.

Once I priced slightly above comfort level, people were far more likely to share candid and sometimes brutal feedback. They showed me the path to grow into a higher price point.

This strategy is more stressful, but crucial if you plan on making a more premium product.

Price is anchored by format

You could be offering the world’s most valuable information in a PDF, yet people will have a hard time paying more than $50. A video course or digital tool has a much higher ceiling.

Instead of fighting inevitable emotions, better to match your value to the right format.

Example: some customers judged the Notion format I used. It didn’t feel “high-production” enough for the price point. They were right. I’ve since moved the content into Podia. It's slicker, easier to navigate, and also gives information on completion rates.

Promoters vs. detractors

As you scale, you will draw promoters (love your product) and detractors (opposite).

Second group is the unavoidable price of growth. Better than getting apathy!

Finding patterns between the two groups will help you figure out your ideal positioning. What do your promoters all have in common? How are your detractors different from your promoters?

Example: my happiest customers are people who are new to product and work in relatively unstructured places. There are happy people who don't fit the profile, but the profile is the best predictor of happiness.

Your detractors will ask for a lot. Sometimes, they are simply not the right customer. Once you figure out your happy profile, you can identify which detractors to listen to. Those who are close to the profile are more likely to ask for things that make sense for you. Refund the ones that don’t, and reposition your product so this happens less often.

Selective filtering of feedback also happens to be the engine for getting to product-market fit.

What’s next?

So far, growth has been 100% organic, and improvements have been 100% based on intuition and qualitative feedback.

Upcoming plans:
• Be more data-driven: use tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar
• Launch on Product Hunt
• Experiment with paid ads
• Help customers share what they’ve learned

What am I missing? Any tips on scaling info products?

Thanks for reading to the end! If you found this interesting, you can follow my journey on Twitter, and read more of my writing.

  1. 2

    Congratulations, Linda! And thanks for sharing, this is very insightful.

    1. 1

      Yay glad you found it helpful!

  2. 2

    Very impressive numbers! What was the price point?

    1. 2

      Started at $50 to gauge demand before I made anything, now at $129 for version 2.0 of product.

      Was easier to charge this because it’s a career-related product

  3. 2

    Great achievement @lindaxyz! Wish you all the best for further success!

  4. 2

    Very good point about Price being anchored by Format - not considered that before.

    1. 1

      Learned the hard way through feedback!

  5. 2

    Awesome, congratulations! Out of interest, how many people do you have on your newsletter? Asking as I'm also trying to build a news letter for jobs with 4 day work weeks (https://www.fourdayweek.io/)

    1. 3

      Thanks! I had about 3500 readers when I first validated demand, now have 4600.

      Heard a podcast recommending 5000 before launching something, but don’t think that’s necessary if you have an engaged base and you’re making something that’s valuable to them.

      1. 2

        Thanks Linda - I'm at 600 so a bit of a way to go (!)

  6. 2

    wow Great! 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

  7. 2

    This is awesome! Congrats Linda and thank you for sharing your insights!

  8. 2

    Wow, you’re impressive! This is quite the accomplishment, so congrats to you! Go celebrate 🎉

    1. 1

      Aw thanks! Had some great 🍷 tonight

  9. 2

    Thank you for sharing Linda!

    1. 1

      No problem, hope it was helpful!

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