From a family problem to a paying product.
How we turned the method that taught our kids to read into a print-at-home product, a 42,000+ person audience and a landing page built to sell.
Overview
Early Reading is a set of phonics workbooks with video lessons that help parents teach their children to read at home. I took it from 0 to 1: from a personal problem to a product, an audience and a working sales funnel.
Where it started
During COVID, our son missed school and started grade one unable to read. His teacher suggested he could repeat the year.
We tried the decodable reading method instead, where children only read words made from sounds they already know. Within one month, he was reading. We used the same method with our daughter at age 4, and she reads now too.
We realised many parents face the same problem with no simple way to solve it at home.
The opportunity
Parents want to help but don’t know where to start:
- Reading apps add more screen time.
- Tutors are expensive.
- Most workbooks aren’t decodable, so children guess words instead of reading them.
Product decisions
- A proven method. Every lesson uses only sounds the child already knows, so they succeed from the first page.
- PDF, not an app. Print it, or use it on a tablet. No new app and no account.
- Print, mark, reuse. Children write on the pages, and parents print again anytime.
- A video in every lesson. A QR code opens a short video, so parents know exactly how to teach each step.
- Short lessons. A few minutes a day fits into family life.
- A clear path. Book 1 (23 lessons) teaches all letter sounds. Book 2 (39 lessons) takes children to reading a full story alone.
Building the audience before selling
We started with trust, not ads. Our daughter teaches reading in short videos: real lessons with a real child. Parents followed to learn for free, saw the method working and came back when they were ready to buy.
The sales funnel
- Free value: daily reading lessons in short videos.
- Sales videos: a problem parents recognise, the method in action and the result.
- Landing page: turns interested parents into buyers.
- Free lessons: parents not ready to buy can get 6 free lessons by email.
- Payment: PayPal for now. Card payments on the site come next.
Designing the landing page
Most parents arrive from a phone with no time. The page has one job: make a worried parent feel they can start today.
- Hero
- The parent’s doubt, not the books
- Tap for sound
- Tap a word, hear it split into sounds
- Sound familiar?
- “Dog?” when the word says pup
- How a lesson works
- Print, scan the QR code, read together
- Proof
- A dad who taught his own two kids
- Where is your child?
- They choose by level, not by book name
- Six free lessons
- For parents not ready to buy yet
Each one answers the next question a parent would ask, which is why the price only appears after they have already seen their own child on the page.
Pricing and conversion decisions
- Bundle as the main offer: each book costs $17, and both cost $25, saving $9 and marked “Best value.” Most parents choose the full path.
- Choose by level: “Where is your child today?” removes the fear of buying the wrong book.
- Low risk: a 30-day guarantee.
- A free first step: 6 free lessons turn “not now” into an email we can follow up with.
- The same call to action everywhere: “Get both books” repeats across the page, so the next step is always clear.
- Real photos, not stock, because proof matters more than polish.
Results
What I learned
The strongest products start with a problem you’ve solved yourself. Building an audience first meant people already trusted us at launch. This project taught me to design beyond screens: the product, the content, the funnel and the landing page all work together to make one sale.