13 lessons learned from running a free online challenge

NOTE: Some of the tools and resources I mention in this article are affiliate links. That means when you click the link to create an account, start a free trial or make a purchase, it won’t cost you any more but I may receive a commission for introducing you to this game-changer. One thing I want to stress is that I would never recommend anything I haven’t successfully used myself or trust unconditionally.

I love giving raw and honest behind-the-scenes tours of my live launches and marketing strategies. And today I’m giving you my totally transparent lessons learned from my recent free online challenge About Page Blitz.

If you’ve missed it, About Page Blitz was a free 4-day not-so-live event (thanks, Michelle Pontvert for sparking this idea with your workshop) I ran from 1-4 August 2023. It was all about giving your about page a HUGE makeover so you can show up with confidence and GET. IT. DONE.

This was the first time I had run an event like this, so I really had no numbers to base my targets on.

In my mind, I wanted to reach 100 attendees.

And it quickly became apparent that I was going to smash this goal.

So I upped it to 150 attendees… and exceeded that as well.

How did I raise awareness for my free online challenge?

2 emails to my list of just under 1000 people at the time (nudging away at it consistently)

1 Instagram post

1 Instagram reel

1 Facebook post

I also invited the About Page Blitz Pullapart volunteers to promote the event to their list, and featured them in my social media promo to get in front of their audiences.

And I provided promo material to my 20 affiliates at the time so they could jump on board, promote and earn 30% commission of the paid product to follow. Not everyone did, and that’s to be expected!

(Join my cheer squad here to help promote my next event)

Now let’s talk hard numbers and stats:

Registrations:

161 registrations TOTAL

14 of those registered AFTER the first event date and missed out on daily reminders

81 of those registered through affiliate referrals and were new to my list

(8 affiliates sent anything from 1 sign-up to a whopping 25 sign-ups my way)

Cart conversion rate:

46% for affiliates

41% for cold traffic

I officially announced the free event on 18 July and doors were open until 31 July but I kept them open for the duration of the event so people could still participate and catch up on all the content in one go.

Here’s a snapshot of when those 161 registrations rolled:

About Page Blitz was the launch event for a special LIVE version of my About Page Toolkit. The product in itself was only a few weeks old, and I wanted to build up hype and excitement via this ‘challenge’.

So how did About Page Toolkit LIVE sales look?

5 sales of The About Page Toolkit LIVE

3 of those were new students (never bought from me before)

2 of those had found me via bundles (and had never PAID for my product)

1 of those also invested in the order bump

Sales conversion rate:

3.1% of Blitz students joined the LIVE round of About Page Toolkit

(which is lower than I had hoped for, but I’ll get to that in a second)

Here’s a snapshot of how those 5 sales rolled in:

Other flow-on effects:

1 affiliate Blitz registrant bought my Audience Success Formula (this person also bought the order bump and the tripwire for this offer)

So…what did go well?

💖 I have 161 people who have now experienced my style of teaching, who might invest to work with me on a paid basis in the future

💖 I got to support 5 amazing humans on their journey towards the about page of their dreams as part of the About Page Toolkit

💖 I have fallen in love with hosting not-so-live events, and I’m already dreaming up my next one

💖 I had AMAZING feedback from participants who managed to radically transform their about page ONLY with the content covered in the free About Page Blitz challenge

💖 The not-so-live format of this event meant I could schedule EVERYTHING in advance (emails, tech tools, content, pullaparts, etc) and actively earn income with 1:1 projects while the event was happening

And that’s where I transition to what didn’t go so well:

⚠️ I gave away far too many strategies for FREE, which meant people who actively participated in the Blitz did not feel the need to invest in the next step

⚠️ Nobody took me up on the Videoask Q&A opportunity on day 4. Which means either I didn’t promote it well enough or, again, I gave people everything they needed to take action in their own time

⚠️ My email automations somehow removed 10 participants from the flow, which meant they never received the daily prompts. I still haven’t worked out why that happened.

⚠️ My course platform and sales page host Thrivecart went down just as the deadline to close my cart hit. Cart close for the About Page Toolkit LIVE was at 8pm on a Friday, and I had a sleepless night knowing that I didn’t stick to my originally promised cut-off time.

What I’ve learned from my first free online challenge experience:

🧠 I need to be more strategic about the content for my next event, and create more hunger for the next step

🧠 Affiliates are my best friend (just over 50% of Blitzers came from affiliate referrals. Just WOW!)

🧠 You don’t have to launch LIVE, not-so-live works a treat (especially if showing up live gives you major anxiety attacks or you’re an introvert)

🧠 Next time I’ll close my cart at a more suitable time of day so I don’t have to suffer panic attacks when there’s a system outage

The first BIG action step I have ticked off:

I turned About Page Blitz into a free evergreen challenge to reflect the AMAZING value inside. It’s now always open on my Everything DIY page for people to join when it suits them. And if you’re keen to suss out my setup, then I invite you to sign up.