Why aren’t people buying my course?

Software developer Jesus recently launched a course on the Ruby programming language.

He asks:

I was wondering if you had any tips for keeping sales coming in after a product launch.

After my launch the result was a total of 17 sales, resulting in $677.73 of net income. I have got 0 sales since then.

Yesterday I sent an email (220 subs now) and I tried dropping a:

“P.S. If you want to boost your Ruby skills you should check out my new Ruby course if you haven’t yet.”

at the end of the email, that got some click but no sales.

First of all, Jesus, give yourself a pat on the back.

You’ve officially “broken the seal” — you launched a product and made some money from it.

That’s a HUGE accomplishment. Most people give up long before they get there.

Now the advice I gave last week was to follow up relentlessly with your list.

There are many reasons why any given person may not have bought yet—but might buy in the future.

This next tip might seem to contradict that, but stick with me.

In any list, there’s only so many people who are likely to buy your product.

And that number may be smaller than what you’re expecting right now.

I see this a lot in entrepreneurs who launch their first product.

You start off with a tiny list—maybe 200 people who signed up to hear more about the product you’re working on.

And then you launch, and you see 10%, or 20% or maybe even as high as 50% of those people buy your new book or course.

You see those percentages and the little abacus beads in your head start flipping back and forth furiously…

“I probably won’t sell this course to 40% of my subscribers, but if I can get a conversion rate that’s even half as good, I’m going to make $1,000 a month on this!”

You’re setting yourself up for disappointment here.

Trust me, I’ve done this to myself many times.

Everything always converts WAAAAY better during a launch than afterward.

So setting your expectations appropriately is really important.

Otherwise you’re going to get discouraged and give up.

I can’t say for sure what percentage of your subscribers will end up buying your course.

But for a $49 product, a good general guideline is 3-5%.

You’ve already sold 17 copies of your product to a list of 220 developers.

That’s fantastic!

Now it’s time to settle in for the long haul.

Expect that there will be days when you’ll send an email and get a few dozen clicks and NO sales.

Most people won’t buy. A few will.

That’s totally normal.

In fact, it’s a law of nature.

You can actually predict how many people in a given group will eventually buy your product.

You can even anticipate how many people would buy if you launched a more expensive course as a follow up.

Understanding this was a huge mental shift for me.

It helped me keep my expectations in check—and spot places where I was leaving money on the table.

It’s all mapped out in 80/20 Sales and Marketing.

Critical stuff for any entrepreneur.

Get it here: http://joshuaearl.com/8020