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Little products can be good, too

Hey all! I've been doing more experiments recently, and one has gotten some momentum.

My first indiehack

For quick background, I have a content business where I create screencasts for people learning the Elixir programming language. Many are free, but my paid subscription is more expensive than any of my direct competitors. The material is generally aimed at my peers, not complete beginners.

Retention good, but slow top of the funnel

This business monetized pretty quickly and retention is very good, but growth really slowed down after the first 18 months. I don't think I've gotten any worse at what I do, but Elixir is like the 50th most popular programming language and a lot of my peers make courses of their own!

So, I've had my eye out for other ways to grow. Writing software products probably makes the most sense since that's where my competitive advantage has been shifting over time, and my wrists have recovered to where it's possible, unlike two years ago.

A small, inexpensive product

I've just launched a very small product (comparatively). It's a "mini-ebook" aimed at beginners who just give Elixir a try. I'm writing on my site and pre-selling via Gumroad at a big discount.

This lead to by far the most viral tweet I've ever had: https://twitter.com/AlchemistCamp/status/1330741496228679682

My takeaway

It's good to #chargemore in many ways, but it's also worth building a value ladder. Cheaper products are so much easier to buy on an impulse and so much easier to get support sharing than expensive ones, but they still build more trust and more of a customer relationship than someone just being a subscriber or follower.

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    Just a quick update on the first 24 hours: The mini-ebook sold almost 200 copies, which is more than I expected for this niche topic. I got about 25 new followers on twitter and about 33 retweets.

    Amazingly, one of those retweets was from the author of Land of Lisp, a book I loved and learned a great deal from seven years ago.

    And that's not all! Another educator who's involved with Elixir offered to help me review my book. I had a nice interaction with the writer of Pragprog's new book on Rust. And what really made my morning today was waking up to an email from Chris Pine, the author of Learn to Program.

    I read the first edition of Learn to Program in early 2010 when I was still teaching school kids and looking for my next step. It was a fantastic book that changed my life. I've recommended it to hundreds of other absolute beginners over the years and every single one that actually read it was grateful.

    All of these things could and maybe likely would have happened if I'd launched a large book. But it didn't have to be a large book. I can do something bigger after this one is finished!

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    +1 to value ladder. Look at what you are offering and make an offer below it, and above it to help you capture more value.

  3. 2

    Nice...more people should do this.

    I hope the IH retweet gives it a boost. 😇

    1. 1

      Thanks! If IH had a party parrot emoji, I'd paste it!

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