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I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a product launch expert. I’ve read a lot on the topic, but action – which breeds experience – is far more important than knowledge. Since I make most of my income with affiliate marketing and promoting other peoples products, launches aren’t something that I’ve dedicated a lot of time to.
At the end of 2010, that all changed. I spent months working on Cloud Living HQ, which I released for only 72 hours (it’s available again as of today), and managed to make a five-figure sum in a single day. In my state of shock, I convinced myself “You might not think you know about product launches, but you must be doing something right.”
This post is going to cover what I think the things I did right actually are, and the key factors I believe enabled me to make this income.
I would like to preface this post with a little disclaimer about the “make money online” niche. It should come as no surprise when I say that it’s generally easier to make money in this industry than any other online. After all, people are more willing to spend money if they think they’ll make it. However, because the niche is so saturated, it’s far harder to make a name for yourself than any other, so I believe these two factors outweigh each other.
Now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get down to some business shall we. Oh, and Happy New Year everyone. I’ve genuinely missed you.
Utilise the MWF Launch Formula
About two years ago I came across the idea of extending your product launch not just to the day that you actually show it to the world, but to an entire week. I didn’t want to do Monday to Monday like most people, and instead decided to launch my product over the course of 5 days, with Monday, Wednesday and Friday being the days I promoted and sold the product.
With my MWF formula, the job of Monday and Wednesday are to build up hype and anticipation for your launch, with Friday being the day that your product actually goes on sale. It’s very important that you spike the interests and emotions of your audience on Monday and Wednesday, to supercharge the desire people will have towards buying your product on the Friday.
For me, the days went as followed:
- Monday: I told the world I was an asshole, because I talk about making money online but I rarely reveal my own proof. I surprised a lot of people with this, but peaked their curiousity to come back by telling them that I would rectify my wrongs on Wednesday.
- Wednesday: With everyone curious to see real proof of me making money, I delivered on this day. I didn’t however give away everything. I promised to reveal more information in 48 hours, which happened to be Friday.
- Friday: I launch the product and make over $2,500 in the first hour of launch, thanks to the 4-day anticipation I had built.
For a short time while writing about personal development, I was very interested in reading about the “pickup community” online. One thing they say to guys who are worried about being rejected by girls is to “simply give her a chance to give you a chance.” In other words, don’t look at a girl as a prize, but instead look at your interaction with her as an opportunity for her to see real you.
I say this because the same concept can be applied to marketing: give your audience a chance, to give you a chance. I would not implement the MWF process, in all honesty, if it didn’t work so well. I would much rather just promote a product for one day, and then have my launch over with, so I don’t annoy my audience. However, I simply can’t deny that the MWF formula helped massively to boost sales of my product, thanks to the anticipation it built.
Add Scarcity to Your Offering
With some simple scarcity tactics, you can dramatically increase the conversion rates you experience during your product launch. When launching Cloud Living HQ, I utilised scarcity in a number of ways. First of all, I only allowed people to buy the product for 72 hours. I did this not only for the scarcity factor (you must buy it now, because it’s your only option) but because the product requires a lot of time investment from me (I help people one on one). I didn’t want to have more questions to answer than I could handle.
Though it may seem like a 72-hour launch would have limited the number of sales I would receive, I believe the scarcity aspect actually increased sales immensely. I also used scarcity in the pricing of the product, by mentioning that it would shortly be increasing. If you’re going to do this, it’s important to stick to your word. The price is now $10 more (at $47) than it was last month.
The reason I am increasing the price is because as time goes on, the course gets more and more valuable, due to the product additions and community discussions which are taking place. Finally, I also had a bonus in place, where the people who purchased Cloud Living HQ on the first day would have the chance to win one of four domains, which I each value at $1,000. This is not direct scarcity, but they know if they come back to the page tomorrow, they’ll miss out on that opportunity.
Test Like You’re Guaranteed to Have 10,000 Customers
I know a surprisingly high number of people who don’t actually practice any form of testing on their payment process before launching a product. In most cases, this is because they don’t think they’ll get many (if any) sales, and if there are any problems, it will be reported to them directly by unhappy attempted customers.
This is probably the worst mindset you can have when it comes to product launches. If you’ve used a certain payment processor and system in the past, I can understand why you would be confident that it will work without testing. However, the risk you face, based on not going through five minutes of testing, just really isn’t worth it. I push my process to the limit while keeping in mind the idea that I will get 10,000 customers on the first day.
Of course, I really don’t expect that to happen, but the mindset persuades me to take my sales page copy, conversion opportunities and payment process very seriously.
Give Yourself a Deadline from Day One
As I said in a blog post here not long ago, a task will take the amount of time you allocate to it. Meaning, if you give yourself all day to do something, that’s exactly how long it will take. While product launches are often tedious and require a huge amount of work, they don’t actually take as long to pull off as many people would expect.
I put together 90% of Cloud Living HQ just two weeks before showing it to the world. Although I worked all hours of those final 14 days, it’s really not that much considering the amount of money the launch actually made me. The reason 90% of my work took two weeks is because that is the exact deadline I gave myself to get everything done.
I could have put in a few more hours each day, but I did not want to exhaust myself and dread the daily grind. Instead, I looked at what needed to be done, picked a section, and then finished it before stopping for the day. If you don’t give yourself a timeframe in which to complete the creation of your product and all of the marketing aspects a launch entails, then the whole process will take far longer than it needs to.
Trust me on this one, and don’t make things more difficult than they need to be.
Focus on Building a Relevant Audience
There is absolutely no point in launching a product if you don’t have an audience, or at least attempt to build one. You could create the best eBook, membership site or conference program in the world, but it isn’t worth anything if there’s nobody who’s going to hear about it or experience it. I could have done a better job with conversions on Cloud Living HQ, but I also could have done a much worse job.
However, the only thing that brought in the sales was the work I did to build an audience who trust what I have to say, and know I genuinely want to help them. The conversion rate potential of my landing page was a very small factor compared to the following that I have luckily managed to attain.
I’m a huge fan of blogging as a way to build your audience, since I enjoy writing and I can sit for hours, typing away, with relative ease. I certainly don’t get stressed when I’m writing. If you don’t like blogging, you could look into getting JV (Joint Venture) partners who already have an audience, or look to recruit affiliates in other manners. Meaning that you could just be one of the product creators on Clickbank that everyone else promotes.
The benefit of a blog is that the audience is very highly tuned into your offerings, and know what to expect from you. Some will buy your products just based on the idea that they want to thank you for all of the articles you have written. A few Cloud Living HQ customers told me that they didn’t care about the product, but just wanted to give something back because of the value that my articles had given them.
Do not underestimate the importance of having an audience whatsoever. In my experience it’s the most crucial part of having any success with product launches.
Give Away Something Which Doesn’t Have a Price Tag
By this I mean, if you have the time to include something in your product which is invaluable (you) then that can be hugely useful for increasing your conversion rates. If you can offer a form of free coaching or support system that comes with your product, you may get people purchasing your offerings for that reason alone.
I offer free, personal support with this process to anyone who purchases Cloud Living. Without being egotistical, I believe this is worth far, far more than the $47 the course currently costs. I also managed to bring in three friends on board to offer support as well, which only adds more value to my product.
Dealing with every customer personally will not be for everyone. Some people like to just keep pushing products out there. I, however, enjoy creating a very limited number of products, but making them the best they can be.
Product Launch Checklist
Though this list is far from exhaustive in terms of covering every stage of a product launch, I thought it would be a good idea to create a checklist of some of the most important questions you need to be asked before launching your product. This will help you in planning all aspects of your launch before you actually get started. Another crucial tip which will greatly decrease the amount of time your product launch takes to put together.
- Is the price of the product clearly on the landing page?
- Does your payment process work properly?
- Does the sales copy try to create a connection with the site visitor?
- Would a video on your landing page increase conversions?
- Do you want affiliates to promote your product?
- Have you grown a relevant audience you can promote the product to?
- Do you have any scarcity tactics in place?
- How are you going to implement product security?
- Do you make it easy for customers / potential customers, to contact you?
- Are there any bonuses that you could give away with sales?
- How long will your money-back guarantee be for, if you have any at all?
These are just some of the questions you need to answer before you start the product creation process. I’m going to give my personal opinion on each, which will hopefully help you answer them yourself when the time comes.
- Is the price of the product clearly on the landing page?
- Customers will often look for the price of your product before they even read the sales copy. Put it on your site, towards the bottom, and make it stand out enough so that someone could spot it if they were looking for it.
- Does your payment process work properly?
- I personally test this with some friends with actual money and offer to send the costs back to them. I prefer testing in a non-sandboxed version (actual payments) of Paypal, because I want to be 100% sure this part of the system works.
- Does the sales copy try to create a connection with the site visitor?
- I always write about my personal experience with whatever I’m selling. If you genuinely use something, you’ll use words to describe it that your audience will be able to connect with.
- Would a video on your landing page increase conversions?
- I personally believe that this helped me massively, though I don’t have conversion figures to back it up…yet. I don’t see how it can hurt, unless its production quality is low.
- Do you want affiliates to promote your product?
- I do usually, but didn’t for this launch. I wanted to see how big the buying community here at ViperChill actually is. And, I hate not knowing how much money I’ve actually made until I pay out all affiliates
- Have you grown a relevant audience you can promote the product to?
- I always knew having a relevant, happy (you’ve given them a lot of value in the past) audience would help with any product launches I would inevitably do one day.
- Do you have any scarcity tactics in place?
- I have already mentioned the ones I have implemented, but for answer purposes, I used scarcity in the price of the product, and the amount of time the product was available to buy. It’s totally up to you which scarcity tactics you want to use, but I recommend using at least one.
- How are you going to implement product security?
- I track how many people log into each account via an I.P tracking system, and get notified if it surpasses a certain number. You can (and should) also put a form of tracking into eBooks you sell as well as it’s very common for them to end up on torrent sites if they become popular. The most common eBook security tactic is to embed the buyers email address into their PDF download. This deters them from passing it around.
- Do you make it easy for customers / potential customers, to contact you?
- It is fairly easy for people to contact me if they know about ViperChill, and once they are on the product backend. However, I do need to make it easier at the moment on the actual sales page.
- Are there any bonuses that you could give away with sales?
- As also mentioned earlier in the post I gave people the chance to win one of four domains I personally value at over $1,000. Everyone loves a bonus.
- How long will your money-back guarantee be for, if you have any at all?
- Many people worry that a money-back guarantee will lose them money, whereas I personally think it makes me more money. People are more likely to purchase the product if they know there is no risk involved in doing so.
Of course, my way of doing things is only one option that you may choose to follow. Other people take other routes, so don’t let this restrict you into only doing certain things. I want the recommendations in this post to be viewed as simply that; recommendations. Not rules.
The last point I want to make to you all is slightly tongue-in cheek. Make sure you have absolutely no other plans on the day of your launch. No matter how much you test and perfect the process, something is bound to come up which you didn’t expect. Be prepared to act in case something does go wrong.
Finally: Enjoy the process. It can be a very fulfilling and exciting experience, if you allow it to be. It’s good to be back.
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Hi Glen,
Just wanted to comment first on your post. Yet, I still get amazed how you write so convincingly and personally. Great post. Thanks.
Paras
That was quick! You’re welcome, Paras.
Thanks for the kind words.
Awesome article. I actually had a question for you – how did you decide on the 72 hour period specifically? Is there some “magic” number there based on some other observations you’ve made in the past?
Looking forward to the next one!
Not really, it just meant people had the whole weekend to decide to buy the product
Awesome post, Glen. Thanks for sharing some insight into your product launch. It’s definitely something I’ll revisit when I get around to actually launching a product.
- Eric
Thanks Eric,
Glad to be of some use
Just to reiterate what I said at the end of the post, it feels great to be back and writing again. I gave myself a small break over the holiday period, but now I’m excited to get going. Feel free to email me (hq @ Viperchill.com) with any post suggestions you may have.
In the next two days I’m releasing a WordPress plugin called ‘ViperProof’ which will be available for free. I won’t be blogging about it, so check out the navigation bar for changes. It allows you to show all kinds of social proof on your site, with total ease.
If you have any other plugin ideas, please email them to me as well. I have already fulfilled a number of requests for people.
Sweet, I’m really looking forward to this plugin.
Awesome!
That will be awesome and I’ll be sure to grab this one
Nice one
Doing an product launch can be crazy at times..but if you dot your “I’s” and cross your “T’s” then the process become more manageable. One of the best things I have done is to contact every top blogger other who I’m friends with to help me push this thing even further..this is where the power of networking comes in..once you master that then an product launch become second nature.
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
Are they doing that as affiliates?
Yes they are Glen..believe me..they want to make something off the product..
ViperProof sounds cool, will be checking that out.
Good to have you back and writing, I’ve been missing my regular dose of the Chill.
An excellent blueprint for product launch, I will without a doubt refer back to this when the time comes.
Haha “dose of the Chill”. I like that.
Awesome
Hey Glen!
Great to see you in the new year! I am one of the people who bought Glen’s product and everything he discusses here has essentially been part of the reason why I bought CLHQ. But the main reason why I bought it is because Glen has been great with Plugin ID and Viperchill and I’ve always enjoyed his articles.
Of course I was curious as hell to check out Cloud Living HQ. Great job with the post Glen and hope to work with you soon (now that I’m back from vacation!)
Mrs Hussain!
Good to see you getting in the comments early this time
I’m really glad that you are enjoying the site.
Oh, it’s definitely ‘Miss’
And I lucked out today, thanks to Twitter!
Thank you for sharing this, Glenn.
I do disagree with you when it comes to the “make money online” niche. The high amount of competition is a positive, not a negative. Many of your customers were warmed up by some else’s product, or free information.
I don’t believe anyone was warmed up to me by another persons product. Do you have any examples?
To some extent I do agree with Hashim. I found out about this site via Incomediary and I found out about Pat Flynn from one of the other sites in the niche so it does build off of itself. I see no difference why products marketed right could not do the same thing.
This is typical of growing a blog; people are going to talk about you. My point is that it doesn’t just happen in the make money online niche, so it’s kind of a moot point to say otherwise.
Awesome post Glen,
It is undeniable that the value you’re known for had a great impact on the sales you made but I’m just hearing about the MWF formula. It’s really a cool formula and I surely will be using it when launching my own product. I was also amazed at the power of scarcity and as a great procrastinator it was one of the things that made me buy your product.
Thanks so much for the awesome post,
-Onibalusi
Good to see some proof in my examples, thanks Oni
I always think of a product release like a movie release.
If you release a movie with no formal advertising or pre-release “buzz” you’ll still get people to go see the movie, but you’ll get a LOT more when you create awareness and anticipation through an effective marketing campaign.
Same thing with a product release. If you just put it out there, you’ll get some sales. But, if you build the anticipation, as you did, you will significantly increase the number of sales. Well done and Cloud Living HQ is awesome!
Jeff
Thank you Jeff, that’s a great example as well.
Keep rockin’.
Awesome post Glen! You’ve nailed the post bro. Haha
it’s good to give your audience the best so that you can also get the best from them when you need help! Everyone loves your work, that’s why they never hesitate to buy what you offer them because they believe in you. You are a rare gem bro! Thanks so much for sharing. Have fun 
Thanks for the kind words, Samuel.
I’m glad you liked the post!
I was wondering when u were gonna write this post.. Lol Congrats on your 5 figure day, I was one of those who wanted to thank you for all your articles, as affiliate marketing and niche sites aren’t my thing.
Glad to have you back and great post, I’ll be going thru this very same process very soon. I was thinking about the Monday to Monday launch though.
Thanks Glen
All the best
Hector
Thanks Hector, I appreciate your support.
I hope the post helped
A very eye-opening insight, Glen. As one of the people who’ve bought your product, I have to say that the build-up worked very well. In addition to this, if people are convinced that you’ve ‘used’ your product to your own advantage, they’ll believe it’ll work for them too. This is true in your case.
You should do some sort of survey to find out what drove individuals to purchase your product. Next time you could pay more attention to that element of the launch to become *even* more successful.
That’s a good idea, though I’m not sure people always know what really enticed them to do something.
Thanks for the comment
Glenn, I love each of these points, but I am especially drawn to the “Give yourself a deadline from day 1″ section. In Seth Godin’s new book Linchpin, he talks about launching. We can perfect and perfect and trim and try to make sure every piece is wonderful, but in the end, we have to launch it. It’s the only way to crush the status quo. Good thoughts here mate!
Bryan, thanks for the comment and kind words.
I’m a big fan of that book
Your posts are always so honest and full of insight. Thanks for sharing Glen.
Kinda curious though, have you ever calculated your ROI, based on the time invested providing all of this support? I’ve heard alot of good things about your customer service, but 1 on 1 coaching must be a huge investment of time on your part.
I view excellent support as marketing, so for the time I “lose” helping people, I gain in marketing hours.
Product lauches are much easier if you have a big email list. That’s a no brainier. But for those of us just starting out you can use a product to build your audience. I just released by first ebook. It’s been an amazing process because writing the book and asking for help from 100 different other websites has forced me to make connections that I wouldn’t have made otherwise. I certainly wont make $2500 in the first hour but by the time the next book gets written i’ll have a much easier time launching it.
Don’t get discouraged if you don’t have a list- build your list with your product.
P. S .I’ve never heard of ebook security with an embedded buyers email address. How do you do that?
I’ve never actually set it up personally, but I know a lot of people doing it.
I know the author of this guide does it: http://rockablepress.com/books/blog-business/ so you may want to contact them
Excellent post Glen, How does one go about embedding the buyers email address into their PDF download. I did a search on this but the only relevant results pointed back to this post. (top 2 spots out of 12.7 million on google the same day you published)
I’ve never actually set it up personally, but I know a lot of people doing it.
I know the author of this guide does it: http://rockablepress.com/books/blog-business/ so you may want to contact them
Yet another great post Glen.
Glad to hear the product launch was such a success!
Thanks James!
Nice information provided Glenn. The one thing I debate about is the scarcity concept but I do think there is some merit to it since it is a common practice that must work.
That being said the downside is it gives would be customers like me who missed purchasing by a day second thoughts about paying 10$ more even though I am sure the product is more than worth it. I probably will anyway just because I feel like I have already gotten good value out of your free stuff and that should be rewarded.
To be honest, I have a simply “solution” in my mind to people like this: I don’t want them as customers. Really. I know that sounds bad, but I would rather work with people who are excited to work with me, than people who aren’t really feeling it, just for the sake of a few bucks. So, in a case like this, it really wouldn’t matter to me.
Congrats on the launch! The MWF formula is very interesting. Sounds like it generates enough interest without going overboard. Also, thanks for the heads up about the plugin, I’m looking forward to it.
For the launch, I’d add that aside from making no other plans for the day of the launch, it’s a good idea to have no other plans on the day after the launch. If the launch ends at midnight, the next day will be very busy as well. Thanks again for a great post!
Good tip!
Thanks for the comment, Thomas.
Hey Glen.
Congrats on everything that’s been happening for you lately. Its always nice hearing people talk about you because I know you’re one of the good guys.
I have a nasty sounding question for you. Do you think all the hard work and months of set up was worth the final earnings? For example, my family is in real estate and they make $2000 to $4000 a day just doing their job. Do you think the work to payoff ratio online is as good as people say.
Cheers.
Tyrant
Thanks BT, congrats on the recent Problogger guest post.
Yes, absolutely. There’s also no price you can put on the freedom I have in my job, compared to the freedom they have in theirs.
Darren Rowse made $400,000 in 2 weeks from his last eBook launch. Were the 5 years of blogging before that worth it to help him get to that position?
My thoughts exactly. Especially about the lifestyle.
I wonder what a Viper Tyrant product could make?
A lot of rich customers
Win!
Great post Glenn, thanks so much for the insight. Did you apply these princpiple to the Affiliate Skin product and how has that performed versus your expectations?
Thanks a million.
Cheers.
Some of the aspects, yes. Scarcity, for example: The product was $30 cheaper for the first three days of launch.
I’m actually redesigning the website for that product right now, to see how it affects conversions.
It’s good to get another post from you Glen, you certainly don’t disappoint your readers and customers.
About product launches, I’d say to keep free time for the following week; there’s bound to be queries flying in as people start to discover what you’re offering. Just an extra hour a day to work through the e-mails
Looking forward to Viperproof
Thanks Stuart,
I appreciate the kind words.
Hey Glen,
Glad to see you’re back! I was getting worried there for a little while.
I sometimes think the scarcity tactic is old and tired but every time someone uses it I always consider reaching for my wallet (like the 72 hour sale).
I’m planning my own product launch on July 1st, 2011 and I have a plan to get there. Looking forward to more transparency posts like this to apply to my own business.
Thank you Mike, it’s good to be back.
Lots more to come!
Great tips Glen I’m currently in the middle of making myself a e-book that I’ve been working on for about a month because I decided if I’m going to do it then I’m going to be very direct and try to break down everything to the simplest form possible for my readers.
Thanks BTB,
Best of luck with it
Glen,
I am glad to see you back after your (much deserved I am sure) break. Your buildup certainly helped to create a need and desire, i think. Job Well done. Thanks for sharing all the great steps for a product launch, some really good stuff here
You’re welcome Chase,
It’s good to be back. Thanks!
Man, you’re taking a ton of guess work out of this process with your checklist!
Nice to see how you’ve also streamlined the launch to just Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I imagine this time frame would help people you got into heat, stay in heat, without having life interfere with them.
Glad to see you’re crushing it for yourself and I’m grateful for this kicks ass post you’ve shared! Keep killing it Glen!
Thanks NTN,
Glad to be of service
Glen,
Regarding to the launch of Cloud Living HQ, I would like to ask you if there is any way to update the former Cloud Living to the new one. Anyway, provably there isn’t as CLHQ is perhaps a different product. I just didn’t wanna miss a thing!
Cheers mate!
I mean to UPGRADE, not to update…
You learn something new every time
Awseome as always G 
Kick ass post. Nice to see a different take on product launches. I am working on one myself and because I only have a small audience I am focusing on my affiliate recruitment strategy number one. I love it how you break down everything you do. Thx again
Giving yourself deadline from day 1 helps accomplish work in a quick manner Thanks for this useful article
Price of the product should be on the home page so that the user’s who are limited by budgets may decide if they are to purchase the product. Thanks for these useful tips
Great tips Glen.Thank you for sharing this…..Appreciate it a lot…..I hope that you can write more about internet marketing.Enjoy yourself……
Great post glen. Some good tips there that i will be sure to implement. I offer viral video marketing services and think some of the same rules apply.
Ive seen this particular document to be tremendously helpful. Thanks for posting it.
Its a great post.Really you’re writing every articles so much in depth which you could’ve launched as a product…
Hey Glen,
I curated this post when it was published to use for anticipated future needs. Well, the time has come for me to prep and launch a product and this is still seriously helpful stuff.
Have you considered updating it and republishing it with your current thoughts on all the topics you cover? I’m sure they have evolved a bit in the couple of years since this went live.
Regardless, this is awesome and I’m thankful you created it.