Make a Product Faster than You Ever Thought Possible
Myth #4 is that making a product takes a long time. FALSE. I have written a 23-page e-book in one afternoon, launched it, then recorded the videos that night.
Fact: Jason Fladlien and I filled out a DAILY membership site with one year of content (all of 2009) in just a couple of months.
Fact: For our second webinar class, Product University, we filled up 25 hours and 3 gigabytes of content in only four weeks, and that was a "side project" ... in addition to our usual product launches.
Think for a second about what it would be like to have 25 hours of content. You could have articles written based on that content. Cut it up into a 52-week fixed term membership site. Spliinter some of those products as upsells or downsells.
Have you seen the movie Swingers with Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn? There's a scene where Jon Favreau doesn't know how to introduce himself to a cute girl, and Vince Vaughn says:
"That girl over there is like a little bunny. And you're the big giant bear. And you say, I don't know how to kill the bunny with these big giant bear claws!"
That's the exact position you're in when you have a ton of content to repackage. You've already done the hard work, so all you have to do is throw some stuff together and attack "the bunny" -- your prospects.
The only way to do that is to focus on one project at a time, so if you're the kind of person who has 5 or 10 half finished or 95 percent finished e-books... yes I'm talking directly to you individually... choose just one of those almost-finished books, get it finished as soon as possible (TODAY), and get it published.
Even if you think that's tough, the solution from me and Lance Tamashiro is coming in just a few days. Maybe you won't be able to crank out content as fast as I can, but even just a couple of shortcuts can reduce your product creation time by 50% or 75%.
Leave 10 comments below to get access to myth number 3 about product creation...
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Robert,
How true your words are!
how long does each product take you? do you have a maximimum timeframe for a project? like “I give myself a maximum of four hours to launch this product?”
I assume you do… do you?
Just HAD to add a great Dan Kennedy Quote for ya:
“Lack of action is often shown in two different ways.
One is perfectionism. The other is procrastination.”
Inspiring. Seriously. The amount you’ve accomplished these past few years is amazing Robert.
I definitely don’t think that a new product takes a lot of time.
You speak of shortcuts which is extremely important for people to consider. Everyone needs to develop things that make life easier.
That’s one of the major differences between newbies and IM pros. They have shortcuts developed…
Great article!
Brad Spencer
Hi Robert,
Many Greetings!
Congratulation on the 100th post.
Yes i agree completely when you say FOCUS is the key to success….
Right now i am trying to focus on my seo activity. It tough for me… as i have a short attention span.
Also, i had over the years brought couple of PHP learning product from you… but i never got around to learn anything…. i plan to learn atleast one of those this year.
Thanx
Anish
Robert — right on. Even those of us who crank out products have some half-finished stuff we could get out the door. Or, maybe that’s just me. =:)
I wrote an article called, “Writing An Ebook By Accident” which is a process I’ve used several times. http://jayjennings.com/writing-an-ebook-by-accident.html — no opt-in or anything else required to read it.
Jay Jennings
No way I can create product that fast.
Yet.
I’ll follow along, though, if I can even cut 50% off lead time that would be superb. I may not have quite enough base content in valuable market either.
Back to the salt mine…
Unfocus I think the bigest issue… before people finish with one project they start another project..
Semmy
OMG, I didn’t realize…
Congrats on the 100th post!!!!!!!!!!!!
so where’s the 99% off sale????
😀
@Izzy: Maybe in honor of me having 100 posts you can finally retire those silly keyphrase-based comment names and use your real name instead. I’m tempted to delete or rename a bunch of those comments when I see them too often.
To answer your other question, I always to start and launch a product within 7 days.
@Jay: I like the writing an ebook by accident idea and that’s how I’ve written most of my stuff. Heck the table of contents of my first paid e-book said “Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc.”
Hi Robert,
Great post, and very true. I for one always try to run before I can walk. My thinking if I work on many projects one of them should get finished and then I can work on the rest.
But that never happens. Very good post.
John
Excellent posting – and thank you for reminding me. It really is a case of too much plate spinning – hey, but then I’m female………….and generally have 7 things on the go at the same time.
When it rains and were I to have a broken leg [unable to get out and about] I am sure I could turn out the info………….but I’d still like to know and have all the help I could get:-).
Serious and genuine congratulations on turning out all this work and remaining so focussed – which is certainly the answer.
Shirley
First time posting, … I think. Absolutely Great Stuff you’ve got here.
I opted in last night to your new Productivity series and watched Video #1, twice, and one thing REALLY caught my eye (although nearly EVERYTHING on the page applies to me) from the Sales Page: How Creativity Is My Enemy.
I have way too many ideas. And I get distracted by everyone else’s ideas which give me more new ideas. Every new idea spawns at least one more new idea. And I love research and writing more than I love what comes next. (Not to mention all the attendant fears.) And I probably have the equivalent of several Paid Reports I’ve written sitting in forum posts (on other peoples websites!) that of course I will not be paid for. Do I pay attention and act when people tell me it’s great stuff and do I go ahead and write for profit instead of fun? … No.
Every time I think I’m less than a week or so away from being able to Go Live with a Paid Product, I let something else get in the way, or figure out a **BETTER** way to do something. … NOT. (Even if it is better, it’s probably not worth the lost time.)
And it IS true: Perfectionism kills, unless you’re on a renewable government grant.
So I have way too many things undone. It is driving me crazy, and broke. … Yet I am hoping that if I can channel myself correctly, I can turn that creativity into an asset. … But we’ll see.
I’ve right now got one report open on my screen, I’ve re-edited it twice already, and I’m thinking of starting with that ONE THING. … I’m also considering buying Time Management on Crack, but I have bought so many things, including time management systems, over the last few years, the thought of just one more product drives me nuts. … It’s a good thing you had the one dollar tryout option.
But you certainly do force a person to re-think how they think. … And the accountability partner idea is something I did years ago that worked pretty well.
I am now going to re-read your sales page for TMonC.
Take Care, Robert,
David
I took you up on your challenge and fleshed out a mind map I had languishing on my hard drive and recorded 53 minutes of killer content that I’m getting transcribed for $40 and my e-book is good to go.
Thanks for the kick in the pants.
It was well and truly needed.
Gavin
I agree, my biggest problem was wasting time trying to complete 10 projects at once instead of actually trying to finish one. Time really does disapear when you lose your focus.
Robert, where do I need to go for a simple Dummies-style tutorial on encrypting PayPal buttons?