THE 20-MINUTE DEMAND CHECK
From "Digital Products — Basics", chapter 2
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Before you spend an evening making a thing, spend twenty minutes finding out
whether anyone is already buying it. You are not looking for permission — you
are looking for EVIDENCE that money already changes hands for this.

Set a timer for 20 minutes and answer four questions. Write the answers down;
a check you did in your head is a check you will talk yourself out of.


1 · DOES IT ALREADY SELL?  (8 minutes)
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Search the marketplace you would sell on (Etsy, Gumroad, Whop) for the thing
you want to make. Not your clever version — the plain version.

  What I searched: ______________________________________________
  Listings that already exist:            ______  (0 · a few · many)
  Do any have reviews / sales counts?     Y / N
  Roughly how many, on the busiest one?   ______

  ⚠️ Zero results is usually a red flag, not a gap in the market. It more often
  means nobody is searching for it. A crowded page with lots of reviews is a
  page where money is already moving.


2 · WHO IS ALREADY PAYING?  (4 minutes)
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Read 5 reviews on the best-selling version. Reviews are the closest thing to
proof of a sale you can see for free.

  What do buyers actually thank the seller for? ________________________
  What do they complain is MISSING?             ________________________

  (That "missing" line is your opening — it is the thing you make better.)


3 · WHAT DO THEY CHARGE?  (4 minutes)
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  Lowest price I can see:   £______
  Highest price I can see:  £______
  The most common price:    £______

  If everything sells for £3, this is a hard way to make money. If there is a
  spread from £5 to £40 for similar work, there is room to be the clear one.


4 · THE DECISION  (4 minutes)
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Tick one, honestly:

  [ ] GO — people already buy this, reviews prove it, and I can see a version
          that fixes a complaint or serves a narrower buyer.
  [ ] NARROW IT — demand exists but it is crowded; I need a sharper "who".
  [ ] NO — I found no evidence anyone pays for this. Pick something else. This
          is a win: you just saved the evening you were about to spend.

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  Yours to keep — free, and no strings attached.

  This is one tool from the ePORTS Digital Products series. A worksheet
  gives you the "what"; the three books give you the "why" — the worked
  examples, the reasoning, and the costly mistakes you get to skip.
  This one is from Basics — getting your first product made, listed and sold.

  The full shelf, whenever you're ready:  eports.global/digital-products
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ePORTS — your ecom source. eports.global.