I don't advocate dry testing that misleads. I do look back at many products I created in the past, few of which sold, and realize how silly I was to create a product first, and then market it.

Market failure is the principal reason products don't work out. So marketing should be addressed first.

I am wondering how many of you have created copy for products in dry testing phase. I think copywriting is different because you have a lot of blue sky but don't have the product to refer to.

My specific questions:

1. your experiences in dry testing?

2. how did you accumulate testimonials?

3. how did you write copy before you got testimonials?

And regarding ethics of dry testing: I'm talking about an order form that says "available in 4 - 6 weeks" or something, then extrapolating the number of orders you *would* have gotten. Running the numbers in other words but never misleading consumers.

Thanks!

Dry testing in this fashion is not only dumb and
a waste of time, but could also be illegal if you
don't word it very carefully.

Instead of dry testing anything, just sell someone
else's product as an affiliate and see if it sells.

This way you accomplish 2 things...

1. You find out if the market is a buying market
2. You get paid for your efforts.

Wasting your time writing a letter that has no chance
of actually selling anything real is probably some of
the worst time management ever.

Just write a letter as an affiliate.

And if you say there is no other products to sell as an
affiliate, then 99% of the time your market is a dud.

You DO NOT want to dry test.

Instead, you can be totally legal and ethical
by doing a... PRE-PUBLICATION OFFER.

With this kind of offer you risk very little time
and effort. Why? Because it should be done to
a house list. That's how you test one of these
offers. You tell the prospects the product will
not be created for up to four weeks. Or whatever.
Give them a discount off the price because they
are buying it as part of a pre-publication promotion.

Doing it this way you cover all bases.

The prospect knows the product won't be ready
for shipment right away. You've discolsed this to
them. Best part: Since you are testing the offer
on a house list your chances of success are much
better than testing with a cold list.

You might want to take a serious look at your market research process.

The whole idea of creating a product first is fundamentally flawed...what if the market wants a service like consulting instead of a product and will NEVER buy an information product of any kind?

Glenn Livingstone has a fantastic course on market research that has several elements...
1. Analyzing data
2. Interviewing real, live prospects.

Nothing beats talking to real people.

You have to know where your hungry markets are and what they really want to buy before you create your product.

And with a good piece of sales copy costing MORE than a ghostwriter to write an information product a "dry run" isn't necessarily good economics.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh
Free 58 minute how to find a hungry market online and discover exactly what they'll buy

i like this idea... First find out how good your offer/copy is with actual sales figures, and then sell it. Not even interviewing people will give you those hard numbers.

If I were to do this I'd go with a shotgun approach: using small samples of 300-500 and canceling any orders I received. If an offer didn't perform then I'd drop it completely without any further analysis and move onto something else until I find a good performer. Then build a more reasonable list to test and tweak variables up to top performance.

Do you realize how much of a waste of time this is?

Haha, canceling the orders! Are you insane?

Just sell some affiliate stuff, and guess what...?

YOU ACTUALLY GET PAID FOR YOUR EFFORTS!

Imagine that!

Think more long term... selling an affiliate product may not carry the same response rate as whatever the OP is planning on selling. IMO no better way to test the offer than to sell the same offer.

that is the case here...there is no affiliate program that sells this product and I want to test the product I have in mind rather than some other product.

The beauty of this approach is that I can design titles, bullet points and content to address where the market is.

I do like the "pre publication offer" aspect. I don't do dishonest things and this makes it honest. I knew I'd be getting some good ideas here. Thank you!

Wow, read my responses from above and thought
I sounded like an ass. Must of woke on the wrong
side of the bed.

Here's my thinking...

You only sell the affiliate product until you know it's
a money maker. Then you go make your own.

And when you sell that affiliates product, you do so
with your hook, your angle, and your offer. Maybe add your
offer as a bonus, or something. But you can get creative
and get paid for your efforts.

Eliminate their copy entirely make up one of your own.

You should definitely do a bit more searching and see
if there is a similar product. There just has to be.

And if there isn't, then that's a HUGE red flag right
there.

No need to start inventing a bunch of stuff unless you
seriously have the goods and can prove it.

As far as thinking long term, yeah that's all fine
and dandy.

But why not let the short term tell you exactly what
you need to know in order to prepare for the long
term?

So Richard,

Are you saying there are NO competitors around?

Or just none with affiliate programs?

Try typing in the niche in Amazon.

See if there is anything in there. Then try to sell
a few of those. That will give you an idea on whether
or not the particular niche is a winner.

Or maybe you have some great invention like the Slinky
that nobody's thought of yet.

Hey Richard,

Sorry for saying "dumb" and a "waste of time".

I should of gave your post a bit closer read.

It's obvious you are trying to be delicate
with this and don't have dubious intentions.

I just don't want you to waste time and effort if
you don't have to.

Good luck.