My new “weekend side hustle”
A few days ago during the long holiday weekend, my wife turned to me and said playfully: “This is “off” for you? You love this, don’t you.” I was on my laptop, typing away and probably grinning, working feverishly on my “Investing as a Catalyst” bumpsale pricing experiment. I was in my element.
I’ve raised and generated millions of dollars the past 7 years, invested in 200+ companies, and spoken in front of tens of thousands of people. But I get the most joy out of working on smaller, impactful “projects”.
You may have noticed that over the past year and a half, I’ve had a few limited-time “bumpsales”, where a digital course of mine is priced at $1, and then goes up by $1 or $2 incrementally each time someone purchases. I’ve tweeted about my success with this and even recorded a deep-dive podcast episode on Your First Million.
It’s a super easy process to set up. All I needed was the ability to copy and paste three or so lines of code, a digital product (although other types work, too), a Stripe account, and a landing page. I was sold on giving it a try as a customer after one visit to the website. And now, 18 months later…
It is my delight and honor to announce that I have acquired the website and tool I used for these, Bumpsale.co (previously owned by a Black man named Rodney:))!!
All tolled, as a customer, I generated more than $82,000 over 6 bumpsales totalling approx 60 live days the past 18 months. Each time I use it, I think it can’t possibly do big numbers again. Each time, I’m wrong:)
Last weekend, I generated another ~$13,300 from Thursday — Monday. This is real talk: with that money, I was able to pay for a university scholarship for an incredible student (!!), my health insurance, some groceries, and a business-related flight! Plus I’m balling outta control on Candy Crush. That’s real, incredibly impactful money in 4 days.
I want as many people as possible to know about Bumpsale.co which is why I’ve been evangelizing it for 1.5 years without any kickbacks or anything. I imagine people using the earnings to do things like:
- go on a well-earned vacation
- cover rent during a lean month
- pay a utility bill
- splurge on clothing or shoes
- put a down payment on a car
- attend a career-changing conference
- take family/friends to a big game or concert
- pay for the LLC, co-working space, and laptop to start a company
- Hire Runner to level up your company’s operations! (shameless plug)
- have an extravagant meal
- go on a cruise
- surprise your child’s classroom with school supplies
- donate to your favorite charity
- add a cushion to savings
- invest in startups
- and the list goes on and on!
Need no more convincing? Here’s how you can get started today:
- Visit bumpsale.co and use the calculator to see how much you could generate for your project
- Carve out an hour or so to review this invaluable tutorial from the original owner
- When you’re ready, sign up for a bumpsale.co account ($49/yr)
- Get creative!
- Set a realistic goal starting out. Think of something you want to use the earnings towards, and aim for that amount.
Here are two examples of what you could do in 1-week (not a guarantee in any way) —
Let’s say you have 1,000 people on your mailing list, and are followed by a total of 10,000 people on Twitter and Instagram. You already have a digital course that costs $300. You start the bumpsale at $1 with $1 increments and sell 50 seats in the course. You generate approx $1,000 net after Stripe’s 3% fee, the $49 you spent to open a bumpsale account, and $100 you spent on SaaS (zapier, etc).
Here’s another example. You have 10,000 people on your mailing list, and are followed by a total of 100,000 people on Twitter and Instagram. You already have a digital course that costs $1,000. You start the bumpsale at $1 with $1 increments and sell 200 seats in the course. You generate approx $20,000 gross. You do this once per quarter, 2x per year, or once per year.
You’ve mixed things up, involved your audience, given them a fantastic deal, and generated some cash flow. It works REALLY well with brand new courses or products, and keep in mind how you’ll present this when thinking about previous customers who have paid more for the product in the past. This is why the tutorial I link to above is so important to read.
I can’t wait to see the projects you launch. Keep me posted!
- Arlan
P.S. Please note that my success using bumpsale.co is not a guarantee that you’ll have the same results. Results will vary and depend a lot things within your control and in some cases out of your control. Think of this as a pricing experiment, and detach yourself from the results until you see what they are. I want you to win, but I want you to stay solid in the process:)
