This year marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of my first-ever book. Well… book might be a bit grandiose.
It was more like an 85-page pdf. And by publication, I really just mean I put it up on Clickbank for sale.
The title of this thing was the Salary Negotiation Blueprint. The background was this:
10 years ago, I was a dissatisfied office drone working at an IT company. Day after day, I’d sit at my computer, drumming my fingers on the desk, looking out the window as the sun set at 4pm. “And I still have to sit here and pretend to work for 2 more hours!” I wanted to get free.
And then I heard about Mike Geary. Mike was making a million dollars a month selling his own 85-page pdf, The Truth About Abs, on Clickbank.
How could I do the same?
Fortunately, the same source who clued me in to Mike Geary (Tim Ferriss) also clued me in to that most highly revered and valuable guide to direct marketing:
Gary Halbert’s Boron Letters.
Being the bookish type that I am, I got the Boron Letters and I read them. At the time, I wasn’t sure what exactly was so great about them. But I did get one thing from Gary, and that’s when he talks about how to create an info product:
1. Pick a topic
2. Read 5 of the best books on the topic and take notes
3. Write up your own book/85-page report with the best information taken from those other books
4. Make millions!
And here we get to the crossroads.
Because in an unusual move for me… I actually put the Boron Letters down… stared at the void for a bit… and then took a hesitating, first step forward.
In other words, I stopped reading and actually did what Gary was telling me to do. I followed his steps 1-3.
The outcome was the Salary Negotiation Blueprint. I put it up on Clickbank. And then, I rubbed my hands together in anticipation of step 4 aaaand…
Total sales? 0. Total money made? $0. Total learning experience?
Well, with 10 years of hindsight and about 6 years of working as a direct response copywriter, let me highlight a few of the mistakes I made with this first project:
1. Name. I went with Salary Negotiation Blueprint just because every other info product at the time was “something something blueprint.”
But what exactly was the promise in my name? That with my blueprint, you could… negotiate? Not very tempting.
2. “Affiliates will love it!” No, they won’t.
You can see public lists of what Clickbank affiliates love to promote, and salary negotiation guides are not it. This was a lesson I could have learned from the Boron Letters — sell to a starving crowd.
3. My market. What profile of person is going to buy an ebook on salary negotiation?
I can’t say, because I never managed to sell a single copy. But my guess is, these aren’t exactly players with money. More likely to be schlubs on a budget — much like me at the time.
6. The back end. What can you sell to somebody who bought a guide on salary negotiation? A course on networking over the water cooler? Or a guide on Slack tips and tricks, maybe? It feels like grasping at straws.
Ultimately, salary negotiation is a one-time need. Which is bad — because the profits come on the back end.
7. The price. I can’t remember the price. I think I started out at $37, and when I failed to make any sales there, I moved it down to $17, where I continued to fail to make sales.
But whether at $37 or at $17, my price was completely disconnected to the value of my offer. There was zero thought or strategy to it.
So there you go. Maybe you can learn a bit about direct marketing from my mistakes above. Or maybe you knew all this simple stuff before.
Either way, you’re in a good place.
Because there are mountains of people out there who don’t know even these basics of direct marketing and copywriting.
And not all these people are as clueless and unsuccessful as I was 10 years ago. Some of them have working businesses — even thriving businesses — in spite of awful, self-defeating marketing.
But you’ve probably heard this claim before.
I know I heard it for a long time. And all I could say is, “Well, where are all these mountains of business owners who could benefit from my growing marketing knowledge? I’m ready to help them out!”
The perverse truth is, they seem to pop up the most when you no longer need them.
A part of it is simply your level of skills. But a part of it is the exposure you give yourself.
In other words, you can shortcut the process somewhat, by giving yourself more exposure. Which brings me to my ongoing offer:
You can get a free copy of my Niche Expert Cold Emails training.
This training covers two cold email strategies that got me in touch with a couple of business owners, one with a working business, and the other with a thriving business.
All in all, these cold emails led to $16k worth of copywriting work. Not Mike Geary money, but an important step on my journey away from office dronedom. And I’m sure I could have gotten more work from these emails, had I just used them more consistently.
The training is yours free right now, as part of a promotion I’m trying out. For the full details, take a look here: