Hey all,
I’ve now made over 10 products on AppSumo:
SumoBusinessBlueprint
SumoBusinessBlueprint LIVE: CASE STUDY EDITION
Kopywriting Kourse
Kopywriting Kourse Kase Studies
Autoresponder Kourse
Social Krash Kourse
Sumo Diet Kourse
Course About Building A Course
Behind The Scenes of a Muse
Those are the courses 100% made by me.
I’ve also helped sell (or create) a bunch of AppSumo email template products and even a last-minute-but-well-selling course about hiring with Noah Kagan. And I even did 3 products before all the AppSumo stuff that were sold to someone else.
I’ve also done a bunch of these Sumo Dojo things too.
Now I can easily keep making products, and intend to continue….but there’s a major problem:
I ONLY KNOW SO MUCH SHIT.
It’s one thing to teach about things I know….and am good at, and have a proven track record at doing successfully (like kopywriting), but it’s NOT cool to hastily research a subject then teach about it.
It’s not fun for me.
And it’s a disservice to anyone buying that information.
I think most people would agree they’d rather be taught by someone EXPERIENCED in something.
Now on another note…..I’ve had the opportunity to occasionally “take over” the production of some of our products at AppSumo that were botched in some way or other (poor planning is usually the main reason).
And when I take over, it usually becomes a better product. I say that in a NON-humble way….and am OPENLY bragging.
My obsessions with being on schedule and conveying information in the LEAST painless way (usually by making it FUN) kick in when being in charge of the product.
The interesting thing is, I actually LIKE doing this! I thought the term for this was “directing” …but my video guy told me my role is a “producer”.
Whatever.
I guess I enjoy “producing” ….as much as I enjoy being in front of a camera, being behind it seems almost MORE important (think Steven Spielberg).
I enjoy when someone takes a course of mine and says, “Holy crap….after watching your course in two hours I now…” ….and then they gush about the benefits and actions they got out of it.
I LOVE the feeling of changing a persons life in a small way (plus I even get PAID for it).
So I might move more into producing some of these products, rather than starring in them.
Producing has a few drawbacks and some advantages.
DRAWBACKS OF PRODUCING PRODUCTS:
- I have to find talented and knowledgable people to use as the star of the product.
- I have to share percentages of the product with those people.
- If the product is a flop, I get more blame (before…I was the only one disappointed. Now other people have chips on the table too).
ADVANTAGES OF PRODUCING PRODUCTS:
- I can crank out products MUCH faster (it normally takes me a full month to do my products….and usually by the end I’m killing myself working too much).
- I can produce products in areas where I’m NOT an expert…..but I know people who are.
- I can bring in people to produce awesome products that help the world….and me, and AppSumo.
- The star of the product makes monthly income for the lifetime of that product and has to do little or no support work to keep it live.
- I can comfortably make 2 products a month…maybe even 4 if I’m feeling ballsy.
So as with anything in it’s infancy, I’m not absolutely CERTAIN this will work out well, but it seems to have a shot.
With this course of action in mind, I’ve started going on the hunt for internet-famous people to star in these products. And since I live in Austin, and since I have cool friends who know other cool people……I think my first product might be made with Ryan Deiss as the star of the product.
Ryan’s got a $30,000,000/year company selling digital products (actually….the VERY FIRST QUESTION I asked him when he said he was interested was, “Why the fuck would you wanna make a product with AppSumo and not yourself??)
….his answer was, “To be exposed to a new market.”
I figured in this economy, and with a lot of people hating the sh*t out of their jobs….a lot of people would want to know how Ryan would start from scratch.
Even I’m kinda curious how he’d do it.
….anywhoozle, I’m still wondering what the topic of this new product should be.
Would you mind selecting which topics you’d be MOST curious to have a guy who built a $30,000,000/year digital products company teach you about?
Thank you!