Don’t do this…

One of the most important things you can do as an online business person is learn from other folks’ mistakes.

God knows, there’s plenty to go around.

But if you’re careful, you can actually turn mistakes into blessings.

I watched yesterday as someone I was working with made a marketing mistake, at least in my mind. So, I wanted to tell you about it and how it worked out to your benefit.

The Gig Prospector is a little Fiverr automation tool that shortens your search time on the big ol’ Fiverr site…if you use the Pro version (remember, I said Pro version) like I showed in the video above.

After several weeks of working with this tool, I was a believer. And I told the developers, Sam England and Matt Green – two really great guys, that they could count on me to promote this because I loved the tool.

Yet, when the launch started, it was the Basic version that people had to buy first (for about $5) to get to the pro version. I thought that was a mistake, but I didn’t say anything. The power, to me, was in the Pro version. With it, you could search, filter, sort and mark favorites to find Gig contractors fast.

Today, after getting my first cup of coffee and sitting down in my chair with my phone in my hand to check e-mail (pitiful, right…), I saw an e-mail from Mike Beek, one of my valued (as they all are) MyNAMS members.

And it wasn’t good.

“Hi David, I went over to read more about GIG Prospector. I’ve never seen more negative feedback about a product before. I don’t use Fiverr yet (do use Elance), but the comments from Fiverr users aren’t very encouraging. Based on your comment I can see why the upgrade is where the ROI comes in.”

Yikes! I jumped over to the Warrior Forum where the Basic version was being sold through a WSO dime sale. Now, I don’t promote many WSOs. I don’t much like that marketplace anymore because it’s so negative, and the folks over there shoot from the hip without investigating the products.

But Mike was right. The feedback was pouring in – and it wasn’t good. (It did improve later on during the day.) People who were complaining were focused on the $5 Basic version – it was the Pro version stripped down. Gig Prospector Pro Version was just much better and alleviated a lot of issues they were having.

I always give away too much value. Mentors yell at me often about that, but I like to overdeliver.

I texted Sam right away, saying that I knew this product was really good, but I didn’t understand why they decided to make people jump through the Basic version hoop to get to the good stuff?

And I didn’t want to do that to my loyal customers.

After all, this Pro version is only $23, well worth that small investment to cut down on the time it takes to find Fiverr contractors.

It was a clear case of marketers getting in their own way. I recognized the well-worn path that I occasionally beat myself.

This is how a real pro marketer responds:

Within a minutes (actually from the time I drove from town to home – 17 miles away), Sam had a new page up just for my folks with my smiling face at the top and no Basic version. Just a straight link to the Pro version. And none of the upgrade nonsense with a straight $23 price. And no Basic version to jump through.

That’s great for all. We get the good stuff without the WSO madness. Sam made a friend for life. And I’m happy to promote Gig Prospector again.

The lesson learned!

When you’ve got something really good, get it to the people! And don’t put a roadblock in front of it.

If you watch the video, you’ll see that I sort about a hundred providers down to 5 good folks really fast.

Now, that’s been my issue along with Fiverr. The quality can be really hit or miss, but I’ve still spent about $400 there over the past 3 years getting stuff done – for the most part really well and quickly.

I’ve included some samples below of some banners I had created at Fiverr.

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