Experiment: One Million Dollars in Sales with a $1 Product or Service
Greetings from Siddharth Rao’s blog! Today I’m going to write about an experiment that I am getting ready to conduct. I still have some time before I start getting my hands dirty with it. I thought it would be nice to post it here and seek comments and inputs from all you people, my email feed subscribers, and of course - my fellow entrepreneurs.
Okay – So the idea is to do an experiment, with an objective to develop a product or a service and sell it for a dollar (or two) apiece. The aim is to sell it to one million people (meaning customers) within a maximum time span of 365 days (that is, one year)!
For some people this may sound crazy, stupid, great, aspirational, too ambitious, flaky, etc. Quite a few of my readers will react with common notions like: ‘whatever’, ‘yeah right’, ‘ha ha ha’, etc. Well, in response to you all – I can say that I know this is very much possible. I won’t say it is effortless or easy – but it is certainly not very arduous.
Have you ever tried to think – why is it that majority of millionaires out there are not as educated as you are? What do these people do that you are not doing? Or perhaps, what are you doing that they are not doing? How did they manage to go where they are right now and what are they doing to sustain it / grow?
Every human being is limited by some common natural and biological factors. Everyone gets the same 24 hours of a day. Everyone has to take out at least 25% - 35% of that time for sleep. Most of them have diverse likes, distractions, work/schedules, friends, family, etc. However, we see countless cases where a highly educated person (say an engineer) has to follow a more financially restricted lifestyle compared to a person who is a high school pass out; and who is a businessman.
The reason: difference in thinking or mindset. The engineer only thinks about “service” – where he works for 8-10 hours a day and gets a salary for it. He struggles and tries to get further educated with some management degrees, etc. with a hope to push up that salary over time. The businessman thinks about “selling”. He constantly thinks what s/he can make and sell and how much of it; and over and again!
While there is nothing wrong with the way the above engineer thinks – the only problem is that his progress rate is comparable to the speed of a “tortoise”. And yeah – this statement is highly arguable by many people. Most of them say they are “satisfied” with what they have. My reply to them: “oh really? Then why do you get fascinated (or jealous) when you see a guy win a million dollars on ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ TV show or a state lottery raffle?” Well, then you can’t call yourself “satisfied” – a better word is “lazy” or a rather softer one would be “not motivated”.
According to ‘CNN.com’ & ‘National Association of Colleges and Employers’ – here are some interesting key stats and facts about millionaires in the United States:
- Around 1% individuals in the US have a net worth of at least $1 million.
- Around 3% households in US have a net worth of at least $1 million.
- 46% of millionaire households own investment real estate.
- Most wealth of millionaires comes from their earnings (not inheritance).
- The average household income for millionaires is approximately around $240,000
- A millionaire in 1976 would need $3.5 million today to have the same buying power.
So – do you have it in you to make it to that top 1% (or top 3%)? We all are young (most of my readers are still in their twenties) and if we take action now – we can certainly have a nice, secure {and RICH} future!~!
This post was to motivate you all and of course, seek responses from you as what comes to your mind when you think about developing a product or a service – which can sell at a dollar or two apiece; and which can actually attract at least one million eyeballs to remove that dollar from their pocket? Think about it and I’d be glad to know your responses/comments.
While I won’t be making posts on my experiment after every step – I will indeed let you all know when my first experiment goes live and finally let you know about the progress of it in the year to come ahead!
Hopefully, I’ll have some customers ready to buy my thing – right on this blog… 
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Comments
[...] update on the experiment that I am conducting. I posted about this experiment back in May. You can read the full post here. So far – things appear to be on track. I have managed to build my initial set of prototypes, blue [...]
Good! Idea is good but isn’t fresh.
1. First of all this service will cost at least $2 or $3 in case seller likes to be paid online ($1-2 fee will cost just payment processing).
2. If do you have the opt-in list with 500 000+ customers and subscribers, like Ewen Chia has, the project can be done completely and aim to get $1000K will be reached within a 2-3 month.
My opinion: This idea is workable!
Your best bet is to sell “hope”. It has been the hottest thing in the Internet marketers’ community since ages, and it sells like hot cakes.