Yo Work Fun Nation, 

It's been a hot minute, kapeng mainit! Namiss ko kayo!

Was busy commiserating on the ebook, spit-shining and polishing it, and then sending all the copies to our buyers one by one.

So to kick things off again sa ating emails, I'm going to share what I learned out of this awesomely imperfect and sakit-sa-bangs na manual launch.

Out of our small 861-people list, (yes nag-tanggal uli ako ng inactive hehe) 66 people bought, and out of those only 8 were not members of our list. Because I was delivering the ebook manually, I was able to check the emails. 

I figured the 8 sales came from my social media posts.

Sure 26,334 petot isn’t a large amount by online marketing standards, (we’ve had launches before sa video school namin when we were able to pull in 300k plus months) but, it isn't a small amount either.

That could be life-changing money na for many people, it's probably more than a full-time salary sa ibang local industries.

That means 6.73% of the Work Fun Home Nation are deciding to say yes to our ebook. 

An e-book that we essentially wrote together.

This further reinforces the "old" marketing kasabihan that says: "Don't find customers for your products, find (or create) products for your customers." - Seth Godin

I say old kasi 2008 nya pa sinabi yan, and in internet years that means Jurassic era na. That time, uso pa yung Friendster, and 3G just came out. Wuuut  

And that is also Lesson # 1:

There is gold in listening to your list/audience/prospects. 

We just have to focus on fulfilling the needs and wants of our audience, instead of trying to find customers who will want what YOU ARE already selling. To be fair, wala naman ako binebenta dati, was only planning to sell something eventually. 

Pero ngayon, because of the data we have, meron na. 

Is this relevant to you as a Pinoy Freelancer? 

You betcha. 

This means kung nag-outreach ka, you don't just blindly do it and hope someone buys. You have to really go out there and talk to your prospects so you can listen to what they need.

You have to build that critical mass of conversations, para your info becomes statistically relevant data, and you will know na meron talaga naghahanap ng service mo. 

Just like what we did sa ating list. 

The more replies and conversations over email we had, the more it got validated. I wasn’t even planning to make a book about self-sabotage, but after analyzing your replies the patterns started to come out. 

It was also perfectly aligned with our values at the Work Fun Home Nation, kaya we were able to do this. 

Buti na lang may experience din ako sa self-sabotage, whew pano na lang kung wala. Hahaha kalorkey. 

Lesson # 2

Don’t worry if it’s an imperfect product, what’s important is that you ship on time.  

I actually got bitten by the perfecSHOnist bug na naman, and I was struggling to just ship it. Hindi rin dahil kulang yung nagawa ko, but may mga extra chapters that needed to be taken out. 

I know mahilig pa naman ako mag-kwento.

I really wanted to make it as short as possible while still delivering value. I myself struggle to read anything over 100 pages, so sabi ko pa nga dati around 50 pages lang yung book na to. 

It still bloated up to 69 pages.   

Buti na lang I set a deadline for myself. 

Sure, we all want things to be just right, but sometimes it's more important to focus on meeting deadlines. Being able to deliver your goods or services when promised can make a big difference in business. People really appreciate it when you're reliable and stick to your word. 

But hey, that doesn't mean you should forget about quality either.  

You still want to make sure your product does what it's supposed to do and satisfies your customers. It's all about finding a balance between making something great and getting it out the door in a timely manner.

Pero you know what’s even better? 

Having a different internal deadline for yourself, and a deadline for public release. Dito ako nagkamali, I wrote something na din kasi in draft mode for more than a year (but it was languishing in my drafts folder gathering digital dust), and I thought konting work na lang, okay na.

Kaso lang the problem was, my draft was all about fixing procrastination. It could be a book naman on its own, but the topic has been done to death.

I had only touched on self-sabotage through our emails, and as I wrote more about it, nag-snowball na mga replies. Napasulat ako ng seryoso ng wala sa oras hehe. 

It was nonetheless fun and fulfilling work.

I had fun testing and talking to more people as a result. Kaya yung mga characters inside (kahit fictional sila) feels very real.

Again, that's largely because of you guys. Just compiled it.

It’s been a while since I’ve broken into a cold sweat to catch a deadline uli though, haha 

Lesson # 3

Meron din pala bumibili lang, as in nagpapadala lang ng pera, but will probably not open or read it.

As in out of the 66, there were three who just randomly sent me money but wala sa records or spreadsheets ko. I lovingly call these people my patrons hehe. 

Pst guys, seryoso to.

Before I suddenly hear any comments or posts online na hindi ako nag-deliver ng ebook, please double check your inboxes muna. A few people have already messaged me that they didn't get their copies yet, and we found some sort of glitch happening.

So for those who don't have their copy and nag pre-order kayo, reply lang sa email na to so I can get you sorted. Thanks! 

Lesson # 4

Somebody actually bought several copies of the same eBook for gifting. 

Pwede pala yun, hehe. Ang galing lang. Wala lang di naman ito lesson tbh, but a new experience for me as a person who has sold several eBooks in different niches na. Nobody has bought multiple copies from me yet of the same digital product. Worth mentioning lang. Thanks dito!

Lesson # 5

Automate your product delivery, or else your head will hurt. 

I didn’t anticipate the interest would be this big, kahit may validation na sya. Globally the average conversion rate of emails across all industries is only 1.22%, (or around 10 people) and since konti lang tayo, sabi ko di ko na muna automate.

Basic Google Docs and Google Forms na muna, tapos emails and Gcash/Bank Transfer. 

After all, I’ve paid for coaching na more than 1k$ usd na based off of a google doc lang. Our intro price point of 399 petot should not need to be technical. 

I was wrong. Andami pala bumili hehe. Thanks guys. 

I hit some sending limits on Gmail, (which is 50 per day, apparently) and some people didn’t get my initial sends.

Again, if you are among those, please reply to this email so I can get you sorted. 

I tried to track the emails manually and send them in batches of 18, to comply with the 20 email per hour limit. As you can see, there are people who got it in their inbox but didn’t open pa din. 

So sa next na product, sure na yan na meron probably woocommerce to automatically deploy the product.

And that’s all na muna today, hope you learned something sa launch natin na to.

Crush your week!  

Mail Mondays are sooo back!

Shoden "The Grateful Dude" San

ps 🔗 if you missed the pre-order, pwede ka pa bumili sa regular price, which is still a steal. Get it here:

How To Stop Self Sabotage (HTSSS) For Pinoy Freelancers Ebook

💡 Need guidance and clarity on your own reinvention? I’m opening a few paid slots after several of you messaged me about getting some extra coaching outside of TFMT. Limited lang ito, and first come first served basis. I'm starting with clarity calls muna with a 90-day action plan. Learn more about it HERE.

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