Have You Failed?

Just like all businesses, only about 1 out of ten will work. Most of the failing products/sites flopped due to marketing, competition, and changes in the marketplace. I think the best thing to do is accept the flop, learn from it and move on to the next product or continue working on what is working and build upon it.

Wow!!!

I just posted a plea for help the same time you posted this question
As I stated in the post I just made, mine was due to a lack of proper marketing.

First off, I am a product developer. For myself (zero flops, but some poor performers which became useful as freebies {lead generators}) and for other people.

One company spent well over 65 thousand dollars on a product they asked me to develop (and paid me very well to boot). It took almost 9 months. The product was great.
The promotion was good. The MARKET was hot to trot and identified and reachable.

The "Can't Miss", great product I was paid to develop never saw the light of day. Why?

The "boss" got bored.

It happens.

Another FLOP. Again, paid a handsome fee to help develop a product. The owner "retired" half way through the contract. Still paid me, I sat around his office and surfed the Internet.

One reason I personally haven't had many flops, is, because of the Market Research done on the front side. I probably spend more time than most finding a market and figuring out how to reach them with an effective promotion.

As mentioned above, I've used a couple of UNDER performing products as "loss leaders" to get names on a list, or to identify prospects with a definite interest in the product.

I think we learn more from the flops than the winners, that is, if we go about a methodical testing procedure and make sure of the

Market
Promotion
Product

It is usually one of these three things which produces a flop.

Good question.

gjabiz

Thanks Gordon for your imput! I think it's very interesting! Anyone else have any experience in creating products that flopped or didn't sell the way you had planned?

I started a small web design store when I was only 16. I literally put about 1 week's work into and only around $30. I would not say it failed because I took that $30 and turned it into $400, but it REALLY fell short.

Here is why it made practically nothing:

* All I did was advertise on 3 forums in my signature.
* I only put one week's work into it.
* The .psd files I sold were not organized.
* My site was programmed rather poorly.
* I knew nothing about SEO, article marketing, blog commenting, or any software that could help me get visitors.

For my next web design store, I will have an extremely diverse marketing campaign. It will include; article marketing, social bookmarking, blog commenting, social networking, on page optimization, RSS submission and much more.

I also will be giving out a high quality design if people sign up for my newsletter. In this newsletter, I will give out on advice on how to take that free design and turn it into a profitable website. Some of the advice is using free programs like social marker and some info is about paid programs with my affiliate link. Having a list will make my profits grow much higher than before.

According to some people, ALL of my products are flops.

It all depends on how you define "flop." I've had products that didn't sell as much as I'd like, sure, but they've all sold SOMETHING.

What makes it a "flop" is all relative.

There is never a failure because you can learn from any experience even when it doesn't meet your expectations.

Look at the great Product Launch Guru, Jeff Walker. His story is one of great struggle, but with each launch, he perfected his system which he has used to help many people.

My theory? If something flops, it doesn't necessarily mean that you or your product is inherently bad. Maybe your copywriting needs improvement. Maybe your title needs some tweaking. A whole slew of factors can be modified. Hell, the market may not be ready for your product (you could be ahead of your time).

Quick Examples:
- Dr. Seuss was rejected by the first 27 publishers he approached...he sold over 100 million books.
-The Office received the lowest test audience score in the history of the BBC...it went on to win multiple Emmy's.
-John Grisham's first novel was rejected by sixteen agents and twelve publishers...this novel turned out to be "A Time To Kill" which was subsequently made into a film.

Keep your head up. There is only failure if you don't learn.

Hi Scrofford,
I am not sure why is there a flop with a new product created.

For me, when I first created my product, I focus most of my time on my salescopy.

Salescopy is what determines how much sales you are getting.

The quality of your product will determines how much refunds you will get and building credibility.

I bought courses like Jason Fadlien, Stopwatch Copywriting and from there I learn how to craft a highly converting salescopy.

My salesletter converts at 3% for my first time. (not bad at all)

Oh yes, I am in the IM niche.

Hope it helps,
Winson

It all depends on what a flop is to you... I have had lots of products that will only net out a thousand or two a month and they just arent worth my time... so it either sell them or give them away or just shut them down... But I know that is not the situation for most right now. So I have plenty of flops but its because i need it to really be a hitter for me to want to spend the time and resources to fully develop and support it.

My first online product was a total flop - zero. Here's why I think I failed: I didn't really put my head into it. I was more concerned with the numbers than the real work. I read more free ebooks than anyone I know, so I just spent time reading and doing nothing.

There were many distractions, but the real killer was I didn't stick to one thing to do it well. I tried forums - I think about 2. I wrote articles but not enough, I was a total newb, fascinated with the idea if making money online that I didn't really make anything.

Now, I realize I need to do something I love and enjoy. So I stick with freelance writing. Maybe in the future, I'll create another product and just outsource everything except the writing.

That's my story. I hope newbies learn from this. Action and consistence is the key to the castle.

I've had flop product. But not in the online world. I've printed large batches of t-shirts that I thought would sell, but didn't.

I didn't research the demand properly, nor did I pay enough attention to the actual design of the shirts. I basically threw a shoddy product together for a market I created in my own imagination! This was in my younger years, lesson learnt!