Even though I’ve been involved in internet marketing for quite a while now, until last week I had yet to create my own info product for sale on the internet.

I’d always had this mind block, trying to decide what to do, was there a market for it, could I actually create a decent product, etc etc etc etc. You know how those arguments go. They’re long on excuses and short on action.

Anyways, I decided last week that I would make a product on writing articles quickly. It’s something that I struggled with initially, and subsequently nearly abandoned my article marketing because of the time it took. Then I figured out that I didn’t need to spend so much time on it, and was able to get my time down to 10 minutes per article.

I figured this information would be valuable to someone, so I started creating my “system.”

It turned into the 10 Minute Article System, and it took me a few days to create. It’s amazing once you sit down to actually create something, and you have a destination in mind, how quickly it can come together. From getting the idea to selling the first copy was under a week.

I started out with a 5 page goal, but it morphed into about 19 pages.

Nevertheless, I did complete it, and to test the viability of the product, I then created a sales page for it, using PayPal, which is simple and easy as the payment processor.

I decided to list it as a Warrior Special Offer, because it was the type of information that would appeal to the kind of people that frequent the Warrior Forum, and it only costs $20 to list a WSO.

Prior to launch, I created a post offering a copy of my product to the first 5 people to respond, in exchange for a review /  testimonial. I got several of those in only a few hours – very nice ones I might add!

I picked a price point of $7, because I’d never done a WSO before and I wanted to see what would happen, rather than try to make a lot of money. I did however mention that I would increase the price $2 for every 25 sales, so that as the product proved itself I could start making a little more from it.

To capture the email addresses of the people who purchases, I setup an Aweber form AFTER the Paypal processing, offering lifetime free updates. I have a bonus or two in mind to roll out soon, so I offered that there as well.

Anyways, once the WSO went live I was very happy to see the sales start to roll in all through the afternoon! It was quite a bit of fun to watch actually.

By the next morning already I had 30 sales, so I bumped the price.

Right now sales have slowed off considerably, but the price has been bumped again, and I’ve hit nearly 65 sales which is really cool.

The opt in rate has been pretty high as well 92% subscribed, with 71% confirmed double opt in already.

All told, I’ve made $500 profit so far, which isn’t bad at all for a first off experiment!

You can see my WSO here.

In the process I’ve learned some valuable lessons, and found areas where I can substantially cut down my product creation time.

Now my plan is to beef up the product itself, add a few bonuses to drive up the perceived value, and then start offering it on Clickbank for $27. If I can get a few affiliates promoting it, it could be a nice little revenue stream.

Lessons Learned?

#1 – Just Do It

Frankly, I kind of surprised myself that I was able to take an idea from nothing to first sale in less than a week, and make $500 while doing so. At the end of the day, ideas do no good until they’re implemented, and you can often get stuff done a lot quicker and easier than you might at first suspect!

#2 – Don’t Aim For Perfection

One of the biggest things that sucked up my time was continually going back to edit and re-edit my ebook. It doesn’t have to be perfect. If you can, send it to someone for editing, but the important thing is getting it done. In university I always aimed for a perfect paper – no spelling and grammar mistakes, at the very least. This report had both, I’m sure, but it made me more money than any university paper ever did. You can always go back later and make the corrections.

#3 – Don’t Waste Time on the Little Things

Due to this being my first product launch and WSO, I really didn’t know all the steps that I needed to complete to get where I was going. I just kind of figured it out along the way. Consequently, I spent too much time on some parts. Like making a nice sales letter, only to realize I was going to need to put a sales letter in my WSO post. I could have easily gotten away with one sales letter in the WSO post, then a link to the PayPal form; however I took the time to create the first page, then later on a second sales letter for the WSO. Because I didn’t want to waste the time I’d spent I kind of used them together, but I could have saved a lot of time there.

#4 – You Probably Already Have Stuff In Your Head That Others Would Gladly Pay For

Perhaps the biggest lesson I learned is that I didn’t need to make a super special, hugely complicated product. That was part of the initial, longstanding logjam in my brain about product creation. The fact is, you probably know something that others would pay for. All you’ve got to do is identify that and act on it. I was told exactly the same thing a year ago, but it didn’t sink in, until last week. Now I understand…

Have you recently launched your own product? Remember your first product launch? Comments are most welcome!