If You Make it, They’ll Come

Late last year, I wrote an article on How To Create a Week’s Worth of Social Media Content based on my own struggles, wins and breakthroughs. The article was well received and was shared widely across social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you’d like to read the article, click here.

Although the article doesn’t have a lot of claps, it’s one of my top-earning posts. This is due to the fact that it was curated and widely shared. In fact, Felicia C. Sullivan shared it on her LinkedIn page, leading to a bump in reads and earnings.

Here Comes The Kicker

I’ve always been against online courses after attending so many webinars only for them to fill it with fluff, and leave the good stuff at the end of the webinar where I have to pay for the course at the ‘cheap’ price of a $300. This distrust has also been elevated by watching Coffeezilla on Youtube as he unravels marketing scams masquerading as courses.

So I went ahead and expounded the article as a short course on Gumroad and it’s going for the cheap price of $10. It’s an overview of my process and maybe some of the knowledge there is common knowledge, but I’m learning that what I know may not necessarily be common knowledge to others and that people have different working processes.

What made me create this course is the reception it received and the shares it keeps on getting. I was also motivated by the members of the blogging community on Twitter turning their knowledge into courses and I decided to go for it.

I’m in Marketing, and Marketing This Course is Hard

This is the case of making your first sale and validating your course, product, getting feedback and improving on your product. I’ve now realised why the first sale is so important and how difficult it is for marketers and creators to market ourselves and our products.

At least for me, it is. I have no problem sharing blogposts but it feels a bit icky selling to people and it’s a mindset I’m trying to change. Rarely do people come after you create a product, you have to toot your own horn.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

• Create your product and stop procrastinating. You’ll improve it when you receive feedback from customers.
• Getting the first sale is hard when you don’t have a ready audience.
• Stop overthinking the creating process. Just create.
• What seems easy to you is hard for someone else. Share your thoughts and processes.
• Research ways in which you can launch your digital product to an audience. You can work with someone else’s audience if you’re in the same niche.
• You’re never fully prepared for anything but you can learn, adapt and pivot on the way.
• Just because it’s easy for you, doesn’t mean it’s easy for others and just because it’s hard for others, doesn’t mean others can’t hack it.
• You’ll fail more than you’ll get it right. Make sure the probability of getting it right is high by putting yourself out there and increasing your chances.

If you are a digital marketer, check out my short course on Gumroad. It’s going for a mere $10 and would mean a lot to me if you bought it. As always, input and feedback can be sent to the email address on my bio.

This article first appeared on Medium. If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a tip, or buying my course if you're in marketing!