Welcome back to my launch diary!
If you missed Part 1, I’m documenting the process of creating and launching a brand-new digital product on WarriorPlus, from the initial idea right through to the launch itself and, hopefully, some decent sales!
In the first instalment, I explained how the idea came about after one of my email subscribers asked whether I had anything to help with rebranding PLR products.
That got the ball rolling, and by the end of my first brainstorming session with ChatGPT, I’d decided it was an idea worth pursuing and had an initial plan.
So, what happened next?
Well, over the following days, I’ve been busy developing the product, figuring out the sales funnel, creating the upsells and generally trying to turn the initial idea into something people will hopefully want to buy.
Here’s how things have been progressing…
Day 2 – Turning the idea into a product
Okay, so I already knew that I wanted the main frontend product to be built around an AI master prompt.
If you’re unfamiliar with these, a master prompt is essentially a very detailed set of instructions that you give to an AI tool like ChatGPT to help it carry out a particular task.
In this case, the idea is to help people use and rebrand their existing PLR and White Label content.
I wanted to make the process as straightforward as possible, particularly for people who aren’t especially experienced with AI.
So, I went to ChatGPT and started working through exactly what the master prompt would need to do, how it should guide the user through the process, and what the finished results should look like.
One thing I was particularly keen on was making the prompt interactive.
Rather than simply dumping a load of instructions into ChatGPT and hoping for the best, I wanted something that would guide the user through a series of steps, asking questions and getting their input along the way.
That way, the user would have much more control over the finished product.
Once we’d worked out the general approach, I got ChatGPT to produce the first version of the master prompt.
I also got it to help me outline the accompanying training, which would explain how to use everything.
At the end of this, I had the beginnings of my main product.
But I was a long way from having something ready to sell!
While I was in the mood, I also got Chat to flesh out some sales materials, ecover graphic ideas and banners.
One thing I have learnt over the years is that when you get into a ‘flow,’ the ideas keep coming and it’s those times you should really push and work hard to progress your project.
Other days, I don’t have the ideas… So keep going when you are feeling energised and productive!
Day 3 – Testing, tweaking and creating the first upsell
Saturday was largely spent testing what I’d created the previous day.
And this is something that’s really important when you’re creating prompts, software or app-type products with AI.
It’s very easy to get ChatGPT to produce something that looks fantastic on the screen.
But does it actually work?
Does it do what it’s supposed to do? Are the instructions clear? Does it ask the right questions? And, most importantly, does it produce results that somebody would genuinely find useful?
The only way to find out is to test it.
So that’s what I did.
I ran through the master prompt, looked at the results, identified things I wasn’t entirely happy with, and went back to ChatGPT to make improvements.
Then I tested it again.
This took a bit of back and forth, but that’s pretty normal when I’m creating something like this.
I never use the first thing ChatGPT gives me without making changes.
And I think that’s an important point to make, because there’s a misconception that creating products with AI is simply a case of typing in a request, clicking a button and having a finished product ready to sell five minutes later.
You can certainly produce something that way. Whether it’ll be any good is another matter!
Anyway, once I was happy with how the main prompt was developing, I started creating this as a document and worked on the introduction, instructions, conclusions and other content to go into the product.
Next, I turned my attention to the first upsell – the one-click upsell.
I think we all know what an upsell is, but it’s worth covering anyway. They are essentially just additional offers that somebody sees after purchasing your main product.
For example, somebody might buy your $7 front-end product and then be offered a complementary product for $17.
They can accept or decline the offer, and either way they still get the original product they purchased.
Now, when I’m planning a funnel, I always try to make sure the upsells are closely related to the main product.
I don’t want to offer somebody something completely unrelated just because I happen to have it lying around!
Ideally, each additional offer should help the customer get more value from their original purchase.
So I spent some time discussing possible upsells with ChatGPT.
And we came up with an idea for the first one that I really liked.
I won’t go into the precise details just yet, but it complements the main product nicely and gives buyers something additional that I think they’ll find useful.
We also started working on how it would fit into the overall funnel.
And then I got it to draft out this first upsell.
By the end of Saturday, things were beginning to take shape.
I had a working version of the main product, a draft of the first upsell, and a much clearer picture of what I wanted the finished offer to look like.
Day 4 – Absolutely nothing!
Yep, that’s right.
I did precisely nothing on Sunday!
No product creation, no ChatGPT, no sales copy, no graphics.
And that’s absolutely fine.
One of the nice things about running your own business is being able to decide when you work and when you don’t.
Besides, I’d made some decent progress over the previous couple of days, and there was no particular reason to spend my entire weekend glued to the computer.
So Sunday was a day off.
Back to work on Monday…
Day 5 and 6 – Building out the funnel
After taking Sunday off, it was back to work on Monday!
I’d already made some decent progress on the main product, so the next job was to start putting together the sales funnel.
And the first thing I decided to tackle was the sales page for the main front-end product.
Now, I’m a copywriter by trade, so writing sales copy is something I’m pretty comfortable with.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t use AI to help me!
In fact, I find ChatGPT incredibly useful for getting an initial draft together, exploring different angles and fleshing out ideas.
So that’s exactly what I did.
I explained what the product was, who it was aimed at, what it would help people achieve, and the sort of approach I wanted to take with the sales page.
ChatGPT then produced an initial draft for me to work with.
And I do mean work with.
Because although there were some useful ideas in there, I ended up editing the copy quite extensively.
I rewrote sections, added plenty of my own copy, changed the order of things, removed bits I didn’t like, and generally reworked the whole thing until I was happy with it.
That’s how I tend to use AI for copywriting.
I’ve been writing sales copy for years, and I’ve got a pretty good understanding of what makes people buy. So I prefer to use AI as an assistant rather than handing over the entire job.
It helps me get ideas down on the page and speeds up certain parts of the process, but I still want to be in control of the final result.
And I think that’s especially important when you’re writing copy for your own products.
Nobody knows your product, your audience or what you’re trying to achieve quite as well as you do.
Building the actual sales page
Once I’d got the copy into reasonable shape, I started building the sales page itself.
I use WordPress for my sales funnels, along with Elementor, which is a visual page builder that makes it fairly straightforward to create sales pages without having to mess around with lots of code.
And rather than starting from scratch, I used the sales page from my previous launch as a template.
This saved me a fair amount of time because I already had a layout that I liked, along with the various sections and design elements in place.
So it was largely a case of replacing the existing copy, adjusting the layout where necessary, and starting to make the page fit the new product.
That’s something I’d definitely recommend if you’re planning to do regular launches.
Once you’ve created a sales page you’re happy with, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel every time.
You can reuse the basic structure, change the copy and graphics, and adapt it to suit your next offer.
Of course, there’s still work involved, but it makes the whole process considerably quicker.
A change of name!
While working on the sales page, I also made another decision.
I decided to change the name of the main product.
We’d already come up with a title during the initial brainstorming stage, and at the time I was reasonably happy with it.
But the more I worked on the product and thought about what it actually did, the more I felt the original name wasn’t quite doing it justice.
It didn’t really communicate the full value of what I was creating.
Your product name is often one of the first things a potential customer sees, so ideally it should give them a good idea of what the product is about and why they might want it.
It doesn’t necessarily need to be particularly clever or catchy, but it should be relevant and appealing to the people you’re trying to sell to.
I’m going to keep the final title under wraps for now, but I’ll reveal it when I start sharing more details about the finished offer.
Deciding on the final funnel
With the front-end sales page underway, I turned my attention to the rest of the funnel.
Now, I already knew that I wanted to have a one-click upsell, and I’d worked out what that was going to be during my earlier planning.
But I also wanted to include two further upsells, each with its own sales page.
So the final funnel will consist of four offers:
- The main front-end product, priced at $5 initially.
- A one-click upsell, which buyers can add to their order without having to go through a separate sales page.
- A second offer, with its own sales page.
- A third and final offer, again with its own sales page.
The challenge now was deciding exactly what those last two products should be.
As I mentioned earlier, I think it’s important that a sales funnel has a logical flow.
Each offer should complement the others and give customers the opportunity to get something additional that helps them achieve their goals.
I don’t want to throw a load of unrelated products together just for the sake of having more upsells!
So I went back to ChatGPT and started exploring some more ideas beyond the ones I already had.
I explained what I’d already created, what the first upsell would include, and asked it to suggest some additional products that would fit naturally into the funnel.
And this is where things started getting interesting…
Creating the next upsell
One of the ideas ChatGPT suggested immediately caught my attention.
It was closely related to the main product, would help customers get more value from their purchase, and seemed like a natural next step.
So I decided to run with it.
We started by working out exactly what the product should include and how it would work.
Then I got ChatGPT to help produce the various components, including the master prompts, accompanying content and instructions.
We also worked on the sales copy and the graphics that would go with it.
By the time we’d finished, I had a fairly complete first draft of the product and the materials needed to sell it.
Of course, there was still work to do.
I needed to go through everything, check it, make changes where necessary, and start turning the content into proper downloadable products.
But I was happy with the overall idea and felt it fitted nicely into the funnel.
The final upsell – back to the drawing board!
Next came the final upsell.
And this one wasn’t quite so straightforward.
I asked ChatGPT to suggest some ideas for another product that would complement everything I’d already created.
It came back with several possibilities.
But the trouble was, I didn’t particularly like any of them!
They weren’t necessarily bad ideas, but none of them felt quite right.
And I didn’t want to include an upsell just for the sake of having one.
So I spent some time thinking about what else somebody buying my main frontend product and first upsells might want to do next.
What would be a logical progression? What could I offer that would be genuinely useful and add something different to the funnel?
Eventually, I came up with an idea of my own.
And the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.
So I explained the concept to ChatGPT, and we started working on it together.
Just as we’d done with the previous upsell, we worked through what the product should include, how it would work, and how it would fit into the overall funnel.
Then we got to work producing the first drafts of the product content, the accompanying materials, the sales copy and the graphics.
And by the end of all this, I was feeling pretty pleased with how the whole funnel was coming together.
What makes a good sales funnel?
Let’s take a step back for a moment and talk about what actually makes a good sales funnel.
I’ve touched on this a bit already, but I wanted to cover it off in a bit more detail – because your funnel is EVERYTHING when doing a launch like this.
Firstly, I want the front-end product to be an absolute no-brainer.
By that, I mean something that’s priced low enough to make the buying decision easy, but which delivers far more value than the customer might reasonably expect for the money.
For this launch, I’m aiming for a price somewhere between $5 and $10.
At that sort of price, I want somebody to look at the offer, see how it could help them, and think it’s well worth giving it a try.
But here’s the important bit…
Just because it’s inexpensive doesn’t mean it should be some half-hearted product that’s only there to get people into the funnel.
Quite the opposite!
I want the front-end to be a genuinely useful, complete product that provides tons of value in its own right.
If somebody buys it and decides not to take any of the upsells, they should still feel they’ve got an excellent deal.
And if they finish using it and think, “Blimey, that was good for five bucks!”, then I’ve done my job.
Because that first impression is incredibly important.
You’re not just making a sale. You’re introducing somebody to your business, and you want that experience to be a positive one.
Next, the funnel needs to make sense.
This is what marketers call congruency, which is really just a fancy way of saying that all the different offers should fit together logically.
There’s no point selling somebody a product about building an email list and then immediately offering them an upsell about creating YouTube videos, unless there’s a very clear connection between the two.
Instead, I try to think about what somebody might need next.
They’ve just bought the main product. Great!
But what else could help them achieve the result they’re looking for?
Could I offer them something that makes implementing the main product easier? Something that saves them time? Perhaps a more advanced solution, or a complementary tool that helps them take things further?
That’s how I like to approach my upsells.
For a WarriorPlus launch, I’d generally recommend having at least two or three additional offers after the front-end product.
And ideally, each one should increase in both price and value.
So you might start with a $7 front-end, followed by something at $17, then $27, and perhaps a final offer at $47.
Those are just example prices, of course. The actual figures will depend on what you’re selling and the value of each offer.
But the general idea is that each product builds on the previous one, giving the customer the opportunity to get more help, more resources, or a more complete solution.
And there’s something else well worth remembering…
Each upsell should be a natural next step, not something that makes the original purchase feel complete.
I don’t want customers feeling that they have to keep spending money just to get the result I promised them in the first place.
The front-end needs to deliver on its own promise.
The upsells are there for people who want to go further.
But why give away so much value for such a low price?
Now, you might be wondering why I’d go to all this trouble creating a genuinely good product, only to sell it for five or seven dollars.
Surely I’d be better off charging more?
Well, that brings us back to something I talked about in Part 1.
For me, the biggest benefit of doing a launch like this isn’t necessarily the money I make during the launch itself. It’s the buyers I add to my email list.
Don’t get me wrong, I certainly want the launch to be profitable!
But I’m thinking much further ahead than the next few days.
Every person who buys my product is somebody who’s demonstrated that they’re willing to spend money on the sort of things I create and sell.
And assuming they’ve agreed to receive my emails, I now have the opportunity to build a relationship with them.
I can send them useful content, share what I’m working on, recommend other people’s products as an affiliate, and introduce them to more products of my own.
Some of those people might buy from me again tomorrow. Others might not buy anything for six months.
But over time, a good list of buyers is the most valuable asset you’ll ever build in your business.
And that’s why I love this business model.
Rather than spending all my time and money trying to find new customers, each launch gives me the opportunity to bring more buyers into my business.
And if I’ve made a good first impression by delivering a product that exceeded their expectations, there’s a much better chance they’ll want to hear from me again.
Of course, none of that is guaranteed. You still need to look after your subscribers, send them things they’re interested in, and continue providing value.
But that’s the long-term thinking behind what I’m doing here.
I’m not just trying to make a few hundred sales from one launch. I’m trying to build a business that can keep generating sales for years to come.
And that’s why I put so much emphasis on creating good products, offering genuine value and making sure the whole funnel fits together properly.
A quick word about using AI to create products
Something else that’s become apparent over the last few days is just how useful AI can be when you’re creating digital products.
But I think there’s a huge difference between using AI to help you create something and simply accepting whatever it gives you.
Take the final upsell, for example.
ChatGPT came up with several ideas, but I didn’t feel any of them were quite right.
So I came up with something myself, and then used AI to help me develop it.
The same goes for the sales copy.
I could have taken the first draft ChatGPT produced and stuck it straight onto my sales page.
But I didn’t, because I knew I could make it better.
And that’s really how I think AI should be used.
It’s brilliant for brainstorming, helping you organise your thoughts, producing initial drafts and speeding up the creation process.
But you still need to bring your own experience, ideas and judgement to the table.
And you certainly need to check and refine what it produces.
Ultimately, the quality of the finished product is your responsibility, not AI’s!
Ok, so back to the diary…
Day 7 – An unproductive day!
Not every working day is a productive one… and Wednesday was ‘one of those days.’
I also had some personal stuff I needed to sort, so I ended up doing pretty much nothing on my launch, aside from tweaking one of the ecover graphics.
Day 8 and 9 – Work days
I also have a part-time job, and I did no work on my launch.
Where things stand as of Day 10 (Saturday)
So, that brings you up to date!
After a couple of fairly productive few days and a couple of not so productive ones, I’ve now done a substantial part of the product creation, and I’ve got the structure of my sales funnel worked out.
The main frontend product has a new name. I’ve drafted the product, tested it, and produced most of the sales copy, and I’ve started building the sales page in WordPress.
I’ve also settled on my one-click-upsell + two additional upsell offers and used AI to help create the first drafts, along with their sales copy and graphics.
There’s still quite a bit of work ahead, particularly when it comes to going through all the material, editing it and turning everything into properly finished products.
But it’s all starting to come together.
And that’s a nice position to be in, because I can now get each product finalised, and the sales materials to go with them.
I’ll share how that goes in the next part.