How I Made $4000 Selling A Product I Didn't Have
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Re: How I Made $4000 Selling A Product I Didn't Have
#2Launching early is certainly a good thing. Launching a product that is only a proof of concept so people can really see what you're trying to do is also a good idea. But taking people's money under the banner "WE'RE A COMMUNITY OF ENTREPRENEURS THAT HELP EACH OTHER." when no such community exists seems borderline dishonest.
When 5.5% of your initial customers feel scammed and are are upset about being deceived it may be an "acceptable loss" from a business perspective, but I certainly don't think that's a "great result". 5.5% is a lot. For comparison, an eBay vendor with that many unhappy customers wouldn't last long.
Bootstrapping communities is notoriously difficult, and I'm well aware that the use of "community building hacks" are more the norm rather than exception, but I'm still not going to applaud this behavior.
Re: How I Made $4000 Selling A Product I Didn't Have
#3That's seems immoral and just wrong.
The angry customers you get can ruin your reputation very very quickly. Angry customers are the ones that usually go out of their way to write bad reviews.
Re: How I Made $4000 Selling A Product I Didn't Have
#4This is specifically what services like Kickstarter were designed to address. And there is plenty of evidence to suggest that crowd-funding services are viable funding models, especially for low budget projects like this.
This feels like deception for the sake of deception and I would have been among those who were pissed had I signed up.
Re: How I Made $4000 Selling A Product I Didn't Have
#5That's seems immoral and just wrong. The angry customers you get can ruin your reputation very very quickly. Angry customers are the ones that usually go out of their way to write bad reviews.
I love this from Abraham Lincoln: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/281050-you-can-please-some-o...
The reality is: Yes, angry customers are never good for business or brand building. Neither are bad reviews. Trust me when I say that I hate the fact that I had angered even one individual.
That said, I interacted with every one of the angry customers and explained the rationale behind the decision. I managed to resolve the emotion to the extent that they were appreciative of my explanation / reasoning and would even consider becoming a customer in future.
Re: How I Made $4000 Selling A Product I Didn't Have
#6I have mixed emotions about this strategy.
On the subject of deception, Adii hasn't yet replied to my comment about this section from his previous article:
"So I took the testimonials that they had left on my Clarity profile, reworked them (for the purpose of my book) and sent it to the individuals (along with a sample chapter of the book) for approval."
http://publicbeta.co/how-to-validate-your-idea-with-a-landin...
Re: How I Made $4000 Selling A Product I Didn't Have
#7This is specifically what services like Kickstarter were designed to address. And there is plenty of evidence to suggest that crowd-funding services are viable funding models, especially for low budget projects like this. This feels like deception for the sake of deception and I would have been among those who were pissed had I signed up.
You'll see in the article that Kickstarter or crowdfunding would not have validated this idea, as the difference between backing / pre-ordering / investing in a product versus purchasing a product is significant. To validate an idea, you need to know that you can actually sell it in a repeatable fashion. Kickstarter or crowdfunding is generally a once-off process, so doesn't give you that validation.
(I know that many Kickstarter projects that were successful have turned into longer-term, sustainable businesses.)
Re: How I Made $4000 Selling A Product I Didn't Have
#8That's seems immoral and just wrong. The angry customers you get can ruin your reputation very very quickly. Angry customers are the ones that usually go out of their way to write bad reviews.
I love this from Abraham Lincoln: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/281050-you-can-please-some-o... The reality is: Yes, angry customers are never good for business or brand building. Neither are bad reviews. Trust me when I say that I hate the fact that I had angered even one individual. That said, I interacted with every one of the angry customers and explained the rationale behind the decision. I managed to resolve…
You can't use a pithy quote to excuse bad behavior.
Re: How I Made $4000 Selling A Product I Didn't Have
#9Launching early is certainly a good thing. Launching a product that is only a proof of concept so people can really see what you're trying to do is also a good idea. But taking people's money under the banner "WE'RE A COMMUNITY OF ENTREPRENEURS THAT HELP EACH OTHER." when no such community exists seems borderline dishonest. When 5.5% of your initial customers feel scammed and are are upset about being deceived it may…
"taking people's money under the banner ..."
He didn't actually charge people before the product was finished and they were able to opt-out after they knew what happened. Would have been a whole different story if the cards had actually been charged.
Re: How I Made $4000 Selling A Product I Didn't Have
#10I have mixed emotions about this strategy. On the subject of deception, Adii hasn't yet replied to my comment about this section from his previous article: "So I took the testimonials that they had left on my Clarity profile, reworked them (for the purpose of my book) and sent it to the individuals (along with a sample chapter of the book) for approval." http://publicbeta.co/how-to-validate-your-idea-with-a-landin...
Responded to your comment on there now. :)