Last week, I wrapped up the launch for my birthday product, 1% Writer.

Today and tomorrow, I’ll share a breakdown of the results.

Let’s dive in.

The big idea

I turned 33, so I built a 33-day email course.

It was 33 strategies to help you grow your writing business. With the price of $33, it had a nice ring to it.

I didn’t know how it would go.

New products are always terrifying.

I hadn’t actually created a business-focused one before. My previous cover how to write.

But customers had been asking for more biz related stuff.

I figured this was a nice place to start.

I knew this wouldn’t be a ‘big’ result regarding money due to the price tag.

But the aim wasn’t revenue. It was relationships and reputation.

And things went far better than I expected.

Overall results

Total of customers: 559

Total revenue: $33,146.17

I thought we might get 250-300 students, so I was buzzing about such a great response.

Then, when I realised it meant 559 people taking it once, plus a live training where 140 people showed up, excitement became anxiety.

I always want to overdeliver, so I was pretty stressed out.

I put a tonne of pressure on myself and can get quite self-critical during these periods. Thankfully, the response has been great, but I had to take a few days off to recharge.

Entrepreneurship can be a rollercoaster.

Let’s look at the numbers.

Revenue breakdown

Core product: 1% Writer

Price: $33

Number of customers: 559

Total revenue: $18,315

Upsell 1: AI Vault

Price: $83.33

Number of customers: 153

Total revenue: $12,416.17

Upsell 2: Kieran’s Swipe File Collection

Price: $115

Number of customers: 23

Total revenue: $2,416

The upsells increased the average order value (AOV) to $57.

The second upsell didn’t perform well (I explain why in the lessons learned tomorrow). But it cost zero time to build since it was my swipe files—which I grow during day-to-day life.

Regarding the ‘AI Vault’:

I don’t write with AI.

Writing is thinking… which makes outsourcing it dumb.

But I’ve spent the past 3-4 months integrating AI into my business. I use it to think and complete low-leverage work. It’s a partner in almost every process now.

So I put my best prompts into a database.

Then I built prompts for every lesson of the course. This meant customers had an ‘interactive’ version of every idea. I invited people to ‘hop in on the ground floor’ for just 1/3rd the price (continuing the ‘33’ theme).

When the launch finished, I changed the discount to 50% off.

We’ve already had an extra 6 people pick it up during the first week.

After 33 days, the discount disappears. It’s a nice, low-pressure invitation. And I know this asset will be incredibly valuable over time because I’ll use it daily.

​You can check it out here.

Affiliate sales

Total orders: 48 (7.16%)

I’ve been slacking on affiliates for my previous launches, but I reached out to a few friends for this one. It was a nice reminder to keep up on this side of things. A good win-win.

Let’s discuss the marketing.

Marketing breakdown

The launch officially started on my birthday (3rd May).

But I spent 3-4 weeks building the waitlist through social media CTAs and my newsletter (mainly running ‘ads’ at the top and bottom).

1,247 people signed up.

I emailed the waitlist the night before the launch to let them know the product was ready. This led to 41 people buying, which meant I could breathe easy at my friend’s wedding/my birthday knowing it wasn’t a flop!

Sales page conversions

Total page views (unique visits): 3,316

Sales page conversion: 16.86%

This was my 4th ‘major’ sales page. When I submitted it to my copywriting coach, Andrew Gould, he said it was the best I’d written.

…Then told me to delete 80% of it.

Why? Because I spent a lot of time waffling on with stories (as usual).

But he said $33 for 33 strategies was such a compelling offer that I should be direct. Something I hadn’t done before. It was fun to write and nice to see the copy getting better (I still find sales pages like black magic. I’ve considered outsourcing in the past, but I learn so much each time I write one).

Traffic sources

Email: 2762

Social media: 221

I sent 12 emails for this launch.

We posted multiple times per day on social media, across 4 platforms.

I have 34,000 people on my list and 255,000 followers.

This is a clear reminder: email is your top priority. And why you must learn to write :)

Social media is great for awareness and outreach.

But email is predictable, and story-driven emails are powerful. Even if people don’t buy, every email advances your relationships. It’s a great long-term approach to business growth.

I offered an ‘opt-out’ for the launch at the top of each email:

I know some email marketers say this is pointless because if people don’t want to buy they should get off your list.

But there’s a missing word there:

If they don’t want to buy… yet.

The opt-out made me feel like I was giving a better experience to everyone. Perhaps it reduced the guilt of sending so many emails, too.

Anyway, hope you found this interesting (I’d love to hear from you if so!).

Tomorrow, I’ll share 5 lessons from the launch.

If you have any questions or thoughts, hit me up.

Love to chat more about this stuff,

Kieran

P.S.

My birthday course was a great test for my new 5-step system for building quality products quickly and reliably. I’ve been working with 7 clients to help them build theirs too. Soon, I’ll release the blueprint. You can join 1,043 people on the waitlist for Productize Your Knowledge here.