Why You Should Start Small

The year was 2003. It was the year that I did something you might find silly, but it was also when I finally started figuring out how to sell info online.

In September of that year I started the first official Turbulence Training site. And I launched TT at the measly price of just $9.95.

“Why so cheap, silly?”, you might be asking.

The answer?

To get the sales snowball rolling.

Doing so gave me MOMENTUM.

It was a LITTLE bet.

A little step.

And it generated small victories…

…plus customer feedback.

And so I learned from that feedback.
I improved the product and the copy and made more sales.

You should follow in m footsteps.

Start SMALL.

Think BIG.

But start SMALL.

Listen, for every Joel Marion that comes along and does $300K in 4-days with his first product release, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of folks that start small and eventually win BIG (just like me, ol’ CB).

So what should you price your entry-level product at?

Well, months ago Mike Geary found out that $9 worked as well as $7. Then he tested $10 and found that was even better. That adds up and is very important when you are buying advertising.

We just recently did a test of $7 vs. $10 and found the same. It’s added a lot to our average cart value.
 
NOTE: I don’t guarantee that $10 will beat $7 in your business. You’ll have to test, but you should always be testing something anyways.

Recently, one of my Publishing Partners, Shawna Kaminski, a Certified Turbulence Trainer, experimented with $9 vs. $19.95 in two separate launches. Here are her results for her $19.95 Challenge Burpee workout product launch and her $9 Challenge Jump Rope workout product launch.

Challenge Burpee results:

Initial sales 1489 = $9279
Upsells sales 437 = $3086
Conversion 3.8%

Challenge Jump Rope launch:

Initial sales 1479 = $5140
Upsells sales 563 = $3008
Conversion 7.2%

Note:
1) Her Jump Rope program was only $9 while the Burpee program was $19.95. That’s probably why her conversion was lower with the Burpee product, but also why her initial sales made so much more money for the Burpee program. Very interesting!

2) She had more affiliates promoting the Burpee product and therefore had more traffic. That’s how she was able to make as many front end sales despite the lower conversions.

So if you want more sales, go with $9. If you want more profit (and possibly more affiliates because it will be easier to recruit them with higher priced products), go with $19.95
There is a lot to test and learn online.

It’s exciting.

This is info that is actually useful.

And you won’t mind learning.

So keep on taking action.

Start small.

Make little bets.

Win big.

Keep going,
Craig Ballantyne

“Get your idea out there as fast as possible even if it’s not quite ready by setting must-hit deadlines. Let the market tell you if you have a winner or not. If not – move on and fail forward fast! If it’s got potential – then you can make it better.” – Yanik Silver, Maverick Business Rule #10