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Playbook
The first sale is the hardest one. Here's what I'd do if I opened a storefront today and wanted someone to buy from it this month.
Most people who open a store never make a sale. That's true on every site I know of, ours included. It's rarely the product. Usually nobody saw it.
A storefront is a checkout and a place to send people. It doesn't bring buyers by itself. Your first buyers will nearly always be people who already know you: followers, newsletter readers, old clients, friends of friends.
So the work before the first sale is easy to describe and annoying to do. Put one good product in front of the people who already listen to you, then ask them to buy it.
Some things feel like progress and don't bring a buyer any closer. Waiting to be found is the big one. A new storefront gets almost no visitors on its own.
Building something huge first is another. Months on a big course, before anyone has spent €10 on a guide of yours, is a long bet. And a nicer cover won't help a page nobody sees, so get the link out before you polish it.
Pick one problem your audience already asks you about and solve that one. A short guide or a single template is enough. Save the twelve-module course for later.
Put the result in the title. “Build a freelance client list in 7 days” tells a stranger what they get. “Productivity template for freelancers” doesn't.
Stuck on what to make? The what to sell quiz asks four questions and gives you three ideas.
Someone buying from a person they've never bought from has to trust that the product is good and that you're real. A lower price makes that bet cheaper. For a first product I'd stay under €20, then raise it once people have bought and told you what they thought.
Want to see what we'd pay you at different prices? The earnings projector works it out, with our share and card processing taken off.
A free sample does more selling than a long sales page. Take one chapter, or a couple of templates, and put it on your storefront for free, right next to the paid version.
Anyone who liked the free part already trusts you a little. The paid one is a short step from there.
Put the link in your bio. Post about it more than once, because most people miss the first post. Tell your newsletter. Then message the ten people most likely to want it and ask them straight out. It feels awkward, and it works better than anything else here.
Your storefront lives at yourname.aovancy.com, so the link is short enough to say out loud in a video.
You get your own storefront, and we handle the checkout and file delivery. Opening one is free and the Free plan costs nothing each month. It holds up to 3 products, which is plenty for a first sale. Every order is sold by AOVANCY SRL: we take the payment, deliver the file and handle refunds, then pay you 92.5% of the price, before card processing.
Buyers pay by card and get the file straight away, plus a link in their email to download it again later.
Want the whole road from sign-up to first sale? Read how it works, or see what it costs.
Your first sale
Free to start. When it sells, we keep 7.5% and pay you the rest, minus card processing.
Your name becomes your storefront’s address.