24 Hours of Pre-Launch and 3 Sales - Story of my Upcoming Chess Product

3 Days ago I published an article about 4 Income Sources for Titled Players Other than Coaching on Lichess and within the first 2 days, I got thousands of visitors.

Then I thought, wait, why I am not publishing a chess product? Who is stopping me? With this mindset, I took a notebook and pen and started writing about the product ideas and target audience.

Why Opening Repertoire?

Everyone needs some opening knowledge to play chess game. This is why opening repertoires is the most demanded product. Just look at the number of opening repertoire chessable publishes in a year. Even top sites like Modern Chess, and The Chess World release opening courses only.

This is why I thought let’s start with Opening Repertoire.

Also, it was clear that I would recommend those lines that I still played or played in the past. Because of this, creating a course is a bit easier for me and I don’t have to research everything from scratch. I know the practicality of some openings.

Why not on Chessable?

Chessable is a great site, no doubt about that. They handle everything and market your course. But they take 60% commission. If I sell the course for $15 on Chessable, they will take $9 and I will get $6.
If I publish the course by myself, I only have to pay a 5-10% processing fee and I could offer it at a cheaper price. Also, I get to keep all the rights for myself.

Sales and Marketing

Pricing a new course was a real challenge! I wanted to make it accessible while still offering good value. I finally settled on $15, which I think is a fair price, maybe even a bit on the higher side.
To generate excitement and encourage early sign-ups, I decided to launch a pre-sale with a 50% discount until September 24th. The official launch will be on September 25th.
I shared the pre-sale link on LinkedIn and was absolutely thrilled to get my first sale within the first 10 minutes! Today, I've already secured two more sales, bringing my total to 3 in just 24 hours.
While it might not seem like much compared to larger creators, it's a huge deal for me. Someone is trusting me to provide value.
Now I am not playing any tournament before 25th Sep, I am going to do a promotion by myself (Because who else will do it?). I will learn about marketing, sales and even if I don’t make enough sales, I will learn so much from this (And will share it with you guys)

Expectations

As this is my first paid opening repertoire, I am not expecting much from it. The only thing I want to gain is experience. Meanwhile, I will be happy if I cross 25 sales before pre-launch. (22 more to go)
When I told this to my student he told me something - Hard work does not always pay off, but the payoff always comes with hard work.

About the course and offer

Pre-launch special: Get 50% off by using code PRELAUNCH50 before September 24th!
Launch Date - 25th Sep 2024
What's included:
- A deep dive into proven openings
- Downloadable PGN files for easy analysis and practice
- 100+ Variations
- 40+ Carefully Selected Games
This repertoire is useful for 800-2100 Lichess players and is specially created for online/OTB rapid and blitz games. Some of the lines are going to be more practical even if the engine doesn't like it. Most of the variations and lines are played at some time and you will also get model games.

Buy Now from here for $7.5 - https://nikhildixit.gumroad.com/l/e4

Your Opinions

I have a few questions and I really needed answers from players.

• 100+ Variations and 50+ Games (Some of them analyzed. What should be the fair price? (The current price is $15 but want to understand different perspectives)
• This course is specifically for Rapid and Blitz games. Some lines can be practically very good and playable but the engine will not like all the ideas. Is it something fine?
• If you are going to purchase this course, what is the one thing you will see and immediately buy it?
• Do you want me to write an article about how pre-launch went? (Marketing and sales-related article)

Thank You for reading this blog!

---

My upcoming 1.e4 Opening Repertoire - https://nikhildixit.gumroad.com/l/e4

Because of my blog, many chess brands generously agreed to provide me with a coupon code that will give users a special discount. I have created a resource page. Check out from here - https://nikhildixit.com/resources/

Interested in learning chess? (Currently accepting +1600 FIDE/USCF players) - https://nikhildixit.com/coaching/

Get Chess Tracking Sheet for FREE (670+ Players using it) - https://nikhildixit.gumroad.com/l/Chess-Tracker