Today I want to tell you a personal story about a huge mistake I made because I was trying to create the “perfect” product.
The year was 1992. Before the internet. Before email marketing. Heck, before most people even had a computer. I was playing around with the online services: AOL, Compuserve and Prodigy. I had accounts on all three. Back then you could share text files with other users (there was no PDF, no HTML). And in the text files you could promote stuff but you had to take payments by mail because there was no Paypal. No ClickBank.
(That just reminded me: I have a 13 year old nephew and he has never known a world without eBay. Weird!)
Anyway, it was basically the Dark Ages of Online Marketing. But people were selling stuff. And people were buying (I know because I was one of the people buying) So, I came up with the idea for a product. It was based on a product I had bought through the mail and it was called something like 999 unusual ways to make money. I ordered the book and it was crap.
But, it planted the seed of an idea in my head. I thought the concept was great. It was just the end product that was bad. So, I decided to improve it.
The biggest problem I had with the book was it only had a paragraph or two about each idea. So, I decided to expand on the ideas and create a massive body of work that would be like an encyclopedia of unusual business ideas.
Over the months I worked on it sporatically. I would go on binges where I would put in 60 hours of work and then I wouldn’t touch it again for months. The months turned into years and before I realized it 10 years had got behind me.
And I still wasn’t finished.
I did at one point have enough sense to create a free ebook out of some of the ideas and I started giving away this ebook in return for an email address and permission to send more emails.
I think I started collecting email addresses in 1999. It wasn’t until 2002 that I finally decided that I would never get the stupid thing finished and it was good enough as it was.
So, I finally emailed this list I’d been sitting on (I hadn’t sent a single email to it before — some of the addresses where 3 years old) and offered a product called Secret Underground Business Ideas for $14.99. And then I went to the park because I couldn’t stand the thought of sitting around waiting and hoping for an order to come in.
When I got back from the park a couple of hours later I was shocked to find orders in my inbox. Not just one or two but dozens. After the first day I had sold over 100 copies of that ebook.
The day was Jan 13, 2002. The day I knew I would never have to work for anyone else ever again. (and I quit my job on Oct 25th, 2002 but that’s a post for another time)
But, you know what? As happy as I was I also realized what a fool I had been. That was 10 years of profit I should have made from that product. 10 years of experience I should have gained from marketing. That product has gone on to sell thousands of copies plus has had 10 or 12 more spin off products that have sold in the thousands.
You’ve heard the saying, “Good is the enemy of Great”?
Look, that’s true to some extent but only after you’ve had some success. When you’re first starting out and you’re struggling to make your mark in this world good is good enough!
I’ve got another saying that I live by: “Perfection is the enemy of success.”
Terry Gibbs and I have been talking about what it takes to be successful — specifically what it takes to be successful marketing on the internet. We realized that we started having successes when when stopped trying to be perfect and started doing only the things that have to be done.
Basically, we figured out how to succeed by being Slackers.
Do you want to be a Slacker too?
Terry and I are going to do two teleconferences explaining how you can finally start making money on the internet by using our Slacker Methods.
The price to attend both sessions is $47, BUT you won’t be charged until after the first session. In fact, we won’t even ask you for any payment information until AFTER the first session.
Only 200 people can attend the sessions, and we will not be offering transcripts or recordings of these two sessions. We also will not be selling anything during these calls — pure content.
If you’re interested go here and sign up:
http://www.slackerprofits.com/
Remember, there’s no fee until after the first session so if you don’t find it helpful it costs you nothing.
James