The seven-dollar sale
How a tiny ebook taught me the difference between getting Pinterest traffic and having a business that makes sales while I'm busy living my life.
My phone buzzed at a soccer game
I was sitting on the sidelines of my son's soccer game, watching a pack of little boys chase the ball up and down the field. Parents were yelling from their folding chairs. Half the kids had forgotten which goal was theirs.
Somewhere in the middle of all that noise, my phone buzzed. I glanced down.
I smiled, put my phone away, and went back to the game.
I hadn't done anything to make that sale happen. At least, not that morning. I hadn't opened my laptop or written a promo email or spent an hour on social media. I'd gotten the kids ready and gone to a soccer game.
And it kept happening. A sale would come in while I was pushing a cart through the grocery store, or sitting down to dinner with my family. Two dollars here. Seven dollars there.
That wouldn't impress anyone scrolling past income screenshots on Instagram. To me it felt enormous. I was a single mom raising two young kids and building a business in whatever hours were left over. Time was the thing I never had enough of. If every dollar needed another hour of my attention, how much freedom was I really building?
okay. maybe I'm finally
figuring this out.
Back when I thought traffic was everything
When I first started using Pinterest, I was obsessed with my analytics. Another hundred visitors. Another pin taking off. I'd check the numbers, then check them again an hour later, as if something magical might have happened in between.
And people were coming! They found my pins, clicked, read the post they came for, and went about their day.
That was the problem. I'd written the post, made the pin, figured out the keywords, waited for Pinterest to pick it up. Then the visitor left, and I had no way to reach her again. I was inviting people in, handing them exactly what they came for, and watching them walk right back out.
For a while I didn't even notice, because the traffic reports looked great.
traffic reports don't pay
the electric bill.
A free course and a $7 shortcut
Around that time I made a free 10-day Pinterest course. Sign up, and a new lesson shows up in your inbox every morning. I just wanted to help beginners get started and grow my list a little.
People signed up, and for the first time I had something better than a visitor. I had a way to show up again the next day, and the day after that. Over time, more than 1,600 people went through that little course.
Then I had a thought. What if someone didn't want to wait ten days? The lessons were already written. So I bundled them into an ebook and offered it for $7. Take the free course, or skip the wait and get everything right now.
It wasn't a grand strategy. I just gave people a choice. And some of them were happy to pay for it.
The seven dollars was the smallest part
Here's what I didn't expect. Some of the people who bought that $7 ebook went on to buy other things from me.
I didn't have to introduce myself all over again. They'd already found my business, trusted me enough to buy something small, and liked what they got. When I had something else that could help, some of them bought again.
That changed the questions I asked. I stopped asking how to get another thousand visitors. I started asking what the people already coming to my site were trying to do, and what they'd need from me next.
I didn't need every Pinterest visitor to buy something. I needed to give the right visitors a reason to take the next step.
When someone finishes reading your most popular post, what's the next step you'd love for her to take?
No need to write anything down. Just notice whether an answer comes to mind.
Here's what I didn't understand yet. The people finding me on Pinterest weren't looking for me at all. So what were they looking for?