May 10, 2016

How To Know When Your Product Has Become Too Complicated

Daily Writing Blog, How to's and Tutorials for Writers

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How To Know When Your Product Is Too Complicated

I haven’t written about the online course I’ve been building for a while.

It’s not because I haven’t been working on it… in fact, it’s the exact opposite.

My little online course has turned into a monster. Now, there’s nothing wrong with creating a product that’s comprehensive, detailed and suitable for beginners and masters alike. However, there is something wrong with a product that becomes so complicated that you’re probably never going to release it.

As it stands, that’s what my little course has become; a monster. Like a Gothic hero – I’ve realised it’s time to sort this out, otherwise it is game over for this project.

Backtrack

For those of you who are reading along and thinking, “What the hell is the last paragraph even about?” I’ve created this little section. If you’re a regular reader and familiar with my online course posts and my distractible mad-scientist shtick in general, then feel free to skip ahead.

I decided a few months back to create an online course. It’s not in the copywriting or online business niche, so I’ve only alluded to it in passing, but I did write a few articles about online course creation with what I’d learned so far. You can read those here:

What’s The Story With Your Online Course Project Now?

Since I left off at the end of the online course mini-series of articles linked above, I’ve been working on said project every now and then. However, every time I sat down to work on it, I had new ideas. I’ve had more complicated ideas. I thought about adding new features which would require different software.

Ultimately I’ve worked myself into a massive knot which needs untying. That’s what I’m going to do for the next week.

How To Realise Your Product Is Becoming Too Complicated

When I started creating this online course, I had an end date in mind: I wanted it to be ready so I could capitalise on Christmas, where not only are people looking for great gifts, but they’re also willing to spend money.

In addition, my course is an educational/awesome course which should easily attract the New Year’s Resolution crowd.

It’s now October… and I’m nowhere near the launch. Now, I could have been. My goal wasn’t unrealistic earlier on in the year. But I’ve kept modifying the course contents to add stuff, and so where I’d like to launch at the end of this month, I’m not sure I’ll be able to.

Red Flag One: Your Deadline Slips

That’s not the online red flag.

If you’ve got a product which you can’t disseminate into a single goal or sheet of paper’s worth of bullet points, then your product is probably too complex. Mine started with, “You will learn X.”

At the moment, it’s more like, “You’ll learn X, X and X – with the option to try X as well!”

What sounds like a good idea is actually terrible. It means your product is a monster that needs bringing to heel.

Red Flag Two: You Can’t Quickly Summarise The Goals and Contents Of Your Product

Let’s talk about a third red flag.

I bought a Thrive Membership in anticipation of launching this online course and site combo. After all, Thrive comes with split-testing tools, scarcity plugins, page builders and an email list building plugin; in other words, it’s perfect for promoting, releasing and selling an online product.

So, I bought this plugin earlier on in the week.

I’ve been looking forward to buying this set of tools for ages. I’m like the guy in Taken who had to go and check out the karaoke machine hundreds of times before he bought it.

Anyway, what should have been exciting was completely bewildering.

I wanted to get the plugins, learn how they worked in a day and then apply them directly to my new project.

Needless to say, that didn’t happen.

Red Flag Three: If Your Course Is Going To Rely On Complicated Marketing Stuff… You Need To Simplify.

Let me go into detail on that one, because it probably seems weird that a copywriter would say that marketing means a product is bad.

That’s not what I’m saying.

What I’m saying – having learned from spending thousands of hours writing copy – is that the products which sell best do so because they have clear goals, a clear set of benefits and the product itself is uncomplicated in its approach.

It’s easier to write copy for a good product that does a single job well than a product that tries to do ten jobs or teach ten things.

Essentially, if your product has a clear goal, the copy will write itself.

Let’s talk about a wishy-washy, but equally relevant red flag when it comes to product creation.

Red Flag Four: Do You Enjoy Making Your Product?

When I started my course, I was excited.

Not only because I thought I would make a ton of money.

Nor only because I thought I had a great idea that would help people.

But the very fact that I was building something awesome and it was likely to have a happy ending and all the emotional things that go with it made me excited to get up and build the course.

Now, I’m normally a slow starter – I’ll become more motivated as a project goes on. After the halfway point, I’m normally firing on all cylinders; that’s the point where I’ll go without eating and sleeping in order to get a job done because I know it’s close to completion.

With those things said, I realised not too long ago that this project was out of control. The reason was that I’d lost enthusiasm for it. Despite me thinking of endless ways to improve on the project, it’d become less exciting for me as time went on. I started thinking of new things to occupy my time with. I’d procrastinate.

This is obviously a red flag… and if it happens to you, it’s time to simplify, condense and recalibrate your brain and the product so that you can finish it with a smile on your face.

Final Thoughts

This article has been a weird one; the steps aren’t actionable, but hopefully you’ll recognise danger if you notice any of the above things.

With any luck, now I’ve recognised the problem, I’ll be able to write an update soon about how to untangle the “complicated product” knot once you’re tied up in it.

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