The 1-1-1 Formula — Jason Fladlien’s Info Product Creation Method Explained

If you have spent any time researching how to create and sell digital products online, you have almost certainly come across the term “1-1-1 Formula.” It is Jason Fladlien’s core framework for product creation — the method he has used personally since 2007 and that underpins everything taught inside Product eClass.

This page explains exactly what the 1-1-1 Formula is, where it came from, why it works, and how to apply it. If you want to see Jason teach it himself, the free training linked at the bottom of this page covers it in full.

What is the 1-1-1 Formula?

The 1-1-1 Formula stands for:

• One Problem — focus on a single, specific problem your audience has
• One Solution — provide one clear, actionable solution to that problem
• One Sitting — create the product from start to finish without stopping

That is it. Three ones. It sounds almost too simple — and that simplicity is precisely the point.

Jason developed the formula after observing that the vast majority of people who try to create information products never finish them. The more complex the product, the longer the timeline, the more likely someone is to abandon it. The 1-1-1 Formula removes that failure mode entirely by making completion the non-negotiable constraint.

Where the 1-1-1 Formula Came From

Jason Fladlien first applied the 1-1-1 Formula on November 12, 2007 — a date he still references specifically when teaching it. He sat down with a blank screen and wrote a 7-page ebook called “How to Write an Article in 7 Minutes or Less.”

The product was not perfect. There was a typo in the very first sentence. At just 7 pages long and priced at $4, it sold 268 copies in less than 24 hours after a $20 ad spend.

That first product launched a business that has now generated over $100 million in sales. Jason has since created over 100 information products using variations of the same formula — and has taught it to over 10,000 students through Product eClass.

He describes it as “the E equals MC squared of the information marketing business” — a simple formula that once understood, changes everything.

Why the 1-1-1 Formula Works

Most product creation advice focuses on making something comprehensive — a complete course, an exhaustive guide, a definitive resource. Jason’s insight is that this approach is backwards. It is harder to create, harder to finish, harder to sell, and often less useful to the buyer than something shorter and more focused.

The 1-1-1 Formula works for four reasons:

1. It forces completion

Jason is direct about this in his training. If you give yourself a month to create a product, you will almost certainly never finish it. If you give yourself a week, the odds are still against you. The one sitting constraint — starting with a blank screen and not getting up until the product is done — removes procrastination from the equation entirely. You either do it or you don’t. There is no middle ground.

2. It produces better products

Counter-intuitively, shorter and more focused products are often more valuable to buyers than comprehensive ones. A 384-page book on parenting takes eight hours to read. A 10-page guide covering the four specific steps that make the biggest difference takes 20 minutes — and produces results faster. Buyers do not pay for volume. They pay for outcomes. The 1-1-1 Formula forces you to identify the single most valuable thing you can teach and deliver only that.

3. It creates products people actually buy

Hyper-specific products are easier to find and easier to buy. When someone searches for a solution to a specific problem and finds a product that addresses exactly that problem — and nothing else — the decision to buy is almost automatic. Broad, comprehensive products compete with everything. Specific products have almost no competition.

4. It scales

The 1-1-1 Formula is not a one-time hack. It is a repeatable system. Once you have created one product in a single sitting, you can create another. And another. Each product targets a different specific problem for a specific audience. Over time those products compound — each one bringing in its own stream of buyers, each buyer potentially interested in your other products. Jason built a nine-figure business by repeating this process hundreds of times.

The Four Keys to a High-Selling Product

The 1-1-1 Formula is the creation framework. Alongside it, Jason teaches four characteristics that determine whether a product will sell well:

Better than Free

Your product should save the buyer more time or money than it costs. If someone could spend 10 hours researching a solution themselves — at a cost of $150 in their time — and your $9 product gives them that solution in 20 minutes, buying your product is the rational choice. Jason’s principle: it should literally cost people more money not to buy your product than to buy it.

Pain Before Gain

People act faster and spend more to relieve existing pain than to achieve future gain. Someone with a toothache will pay almost anything to stop the pain today. Someone who wants a whiter smile will think about it and maybe get around to it. When creating products, focus on problems people are experiencing right now rather than future improvements they might like to have. Stop the hurt first — gains can come later.

Instant Gratification

The most valuable thing you can offer is a result sooner. Not necessarily a bigger result — sooner. Jason’s example: take any best-selling non-fiction book on Amazon, identify the single most important page, and build a product around just that page. A 10-page guide covering those four steps can be read in 20 minutes and implemented the same day. The 384-page book takes eight hours to read and weeks to implement. Smaller results sooner beat bigger results later almost every time.

Hyper-Specific

The more precisely your product speaks to a specific audience, the easier it is for that audience to find it, recognise it as relevant, and buy it. Jason uses several examples in his training to illustrate this. A Hare Krishna vegetarian cookbook — not just vegetarian, but specifically for Hare Krishna practitioners who also avoid onions and garlic — is a tiny market. But within that market, it is the only product of its kind. Big fish, small pond. Jason’s rule: jump up and down in puddles, not in oceans. There are infinite puddles and only four oceans.

Real Examples of the 1-1-1 Formula in Action

Jason uses several student examples throughout his teaching to illustrate how the formula works in practice:

Sherman — Storyboard Artist

Sherman created a product teaching people how to make money as a storyboard artist for cartoons. An extremely specific niche. The product spoke directly to a small, underserved audience who recognised immediately that it was made for them. The result was strong sales in a niche with virtually no competition.

The Live Roach Seller

Jason came across an article about someone selling live roaches on eBay — a genuine business generating $90,000 a year. His observation: that person would make far more money creating a guide teaching other people how to sell live roaches on eBay than they would continuing to sell the roaches themselves. One specific problem. One specific audience. A product that practically sells itself.

Maddi

One of Jason’s earliest students. Maddi spent 8 hours total on product creation and marketing materials. Within 24 hours of launching he had made $4,500. His conversion rate was 20% — one in five people who saw the offer bought it. The product followed the 1-1-1 Formula exactly.

Jay Boyer

Jay enrolled in an earlier version of Product eClass and had made over $10,000 by the second week. He later scaled that to $45,000 in a single month from products he could create in a day.

Watch the 1-1-1 Formula debated:

Common Mistakes When Applying the 1-1-1 Formula

Jason identifies several ways people get the formula wrong:

• Choosing too broad a problem. “How to make money online” is not one problem. “How to write a product description for Etsy that converts” is one problem. The more specific, the better.
  For a complete guide to finding and validating the right niche before you start, see how to find a profitable niche for your digital product.
• Breaking the one sitting rule. Stopping mid-creation and coming back the next day is how products never get finished. The sitting constraint is non-negotiable, especially for your first product.
• Overcomplicating the solution. The instinct is to add more — more chapters, more modules, more content. The 1-1-1 Formula requires you to do the opposite. Remove everything that is not essential to solving the one problem.
• Pricing too high at the start. Jason is specific about this — start low. A low price removes the buyer’s risk, gets you your first sale, and gives you proof of concept. You can scale up from there.

The 1-1-1 Formula and Product eClass

The 1-1-1 Formula is the foundation of Session 1 of Product eClass V5.0 — but it is only the starting point. The full programme builds on it across seven sessions, covering how to create products using other people’s expertise, how to build backend revenue from existing customers, how to get traffic without paid ads, how to move into high-ticket products, how to use webinars to scale, and how to use paid advertising profitably once the foundation is in place.

If you want to understand the 1-1-1 Formula in Jason’s own words — with his examples, his reasoning, and his specific techniques — the free training below is the best place to start. It runs approximately 90 minutes and covers the formula in full alongside the four keys to a high-selling product.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the 1-1-1 Formula only for beginners?

No — Jason uses it himself for every product he creates, regardless of how experienced he is. It is a discipline as much as a formula. Even experienced product creators benefit from the constraint it imposes because it prevents the scope creep and perfectionism that kills most product projects.

How long should a 1-1-1 product be?

As long as it needs to be to solve the one problem — and no longer. Jason’s first product was 7 pages. Some are longer. The length is determined by the problem, not by a desire to appear comprehensive. If you can solve the problem in 10 pages, 10 pages is the right length.

What format should a 1-1-1 product take?

Any format works — PDF ebook, audio recording, video, or a combination. Jason’s first product was a PDF. The format should be whatever allows you to deliver the solution most clearly and efficiently. For most beginners a PDF is the simplest starting point — it costs nothing to create and nothing to deliver.

Can the 1-1-1 Formula work in any niche?

Yes — Jason and his students have applied it across an enormous range of niches, from internet marketing to parenting, from storyboarding to selling live roaches on eBay. The formula is not niche-specific. It is a product creation discipline that works wherever there are people with a specific problem willing to pay for a specific solution.

Where can I learn the 1-1-1 Formula in full?

Jason covers it in full in his free training — available on our free training page. Session 1 of Product eClass then goes deeper, covering the specific search technique for finding product ideas, the conversion template, and the best traffic sources to use immediately after creating your first product.