Appointment Reminder at 6 Months
kalzumeus.com
kalzumeus.com
> We ONLY email you a few times a month about our exclusive deals for the best web applications.
There is no opt-out link. Going to my account on their website, there is no way delete my account or unsubscribe. So here's what's going to happen: they will email me. I will curse their name, mark it as spam (because that's what it is), and gmail will learn that they are spammers. But I'm scratching my head: why would they do such a thing? EDIT I've now marked their welcome message as spam, so hopefully that will save me the trouble of seeing their emails in future.
In addition, I can't access the video - it says something about share/tweet, but the buttons don't appear for me. I'm not even interested in doing this thing - just interested in learning what the basic idea is, especially since it's patio's.
Overall, I do not rate this experience highly. :/
Yeah, you have to spam your friends with it in order to get the video.
Had they let me edit the tweet to something more reasonable without BIG CAPS (FREE!) letters I would have happily shared it with my friends and colleges. As it was, it wasn't the type of spam ad I'd like to be publicly associated with.
All things considered, it's not that high a price to pay, but it does feel like a bit of a bait and switch.
I've used SendGrid and MailChimp together before, and while I'd avidly recommend either of them to people needing that sort of thing, my biggest pain point was always in the reconciliation between the two.
I highly recommend watching the videos.
I'd feel more comfortable if this price was stated upfront, before harvesting my email. As it is, it seemed that giving up my email was the "price".
The occasional screw up is not the issue in most cases. It's how you deal with it that matters. In my experience, a screw up can even have a net positive effect if your response is so great that it induces your customer in a state of admiration and renewed respect for your company.
It's the first and most valuable lesson I've discovered as a consultant. That and admitting you don't know when you don't know something (it's a amazing the number of people who'll bullshit an answer instead of just saying: "Sorry, I don't know, I'll get back to you on that")...
Rereading your old blog posts proved to me that a lonely programmer could build a business as a side project which was incredibly motivating at the time.
It is highly likely I will be unable to offer BCC-level transparency for AR, for reasons like this. I'll try to say what I can, but you can totally buy my weak attachment to transparency with a five figure check.
I have some thoughts for a B2B project this year but worry that I vastly underestimate the amount face-to-face selling that will be required to make it viable. Any tips?
Structure your service as something that an individual department of a larger company can get hold of without support from IT, approval from on high, or a mess of purchase orders.
37Signals has talked about this in the past, a couple people within a big company start using Basecamp for some one off thing they're working on, then a few more people get added to the project so they get the departmental credit card (used for buying office supplies) and sign up. A few months down the line everyone in the group is using the service.
Could you explain more about how you handled it?
First step (after getting past the gateway errors): (1) Encounter request for email address with a "we don't spam" reassurance.
(2) "Sure you don't"--let's use mailinator. Receive the email, "hmmm, this description sure meets my definition for spam"--I don't want to hear about exclusive deals, I want to watch Patrick's advice:
"We ONLY email you a few times a month about our exclusive deals for the best web applications."
(3) See video on the page, start it playing, wait for it to buffer, scroll down--"hmmm, what's this about Twitter/FB"?
(4) Watch video (which for me, at least, had major audio sync issues).
(5) Realise the video isn't the video but just an advertisement for the actual video.
(6) Realise I'm being expected to spam my friends/colleagues in order to save $99.
(7) As I value my social network at more than $99 and get annoyed whenever I get spammed by others, close the open window.
(8) Write this comment.
Now, I readily admit, "you" (for whoever is in the financial win/lose situation here) may be happy to not get my Tweet in exchange for content but...
With the business of software video Patrick was in, I quite happily tweeted about it and the content of my tweet got retweeted again by someone much more socially connected than I. I did this because I thought it was good content, that people would benefit from watching and because I like your work.
I happen to think that assuming the quality of this video was at least at the level of that presentation there would've been many voluntary tweets about the opportunity to watch it for free.
But a "tweet for deal" quid pro quo leaves a poor taste for me.
At the least if I was told up front "Hey, if you Tweet/FB this today, then you'll get it for free. Otherwise, you can get access for $99" then I'd know the deal wasn't for me.
FWIW. :)
People often ask me when I'm going to write an ebook for startups. I tell them never. They ask me why, when HN would make such great customers. When I think of great customers, I think "Pays five figure invoices on time and in full", not "Dude, show me the stuff and then maybe, if I like it, I might tweet about it."
That is not specifically aimed at you: I've been humming variants of the same tune for years.
I don't think there's anything wrong with that (indeed, I'm very happy with Rob's book and recommend it to people), but I'm also somehow glad to hear that you see more money and prospects in products than turning around and selling to people who want to emulate your success.
For my part, the trajectory was different: modestly successful product (and ancillary blogging/community participation) lead to lucrative consulting opportunities and gave me enough runway to do a SaaS which will probably eventually swallow any availability for consulting (like it did for 37Signals, FogCreek, etc).
Yeah, I was aware of that when I wrote the comment. :) I agree, I don't think hackers are a great market for a lot of things due to our DIY mentality--I'm happy to benefit from the things you share for no cost and live without the rest.
My concern in this case was that the exercise felt more like a (albeit unintentional on your part) "bait-and-switch" and as such was damaging to the "Patrick McKenzie" brand.
Thanks for what you contribute--it's appreciated.
That said, I trusted Patrick. I figured the content quality in a production with Andrew Warner and Patrick would be high. The relevance to me was high.
Anyone interested in online marketing would likely do well to lend an ear to Patrick's thoughts on SEO. That fits my following well enough. I save $99 and potentially help out followers to get the same content for (nearly?) free.
I'm not sure I'd be interested if the video were completely free. I think they created scarcity that got people to act today and leveraged it into targeted, visible, free marketing. I don't see what there is to complain about. Maybe the deal wasn't meant for you?
Let's say I went ahead with the solicitations and gave a go-live date of two months in the future, then were I to get say, ten small businesses to commit, could I come to you with the reasonable expectation that we could do this?
[EDIT] I think making a white-label version of the demo page would be very helpful.
It seems like AR is different than BCC in that one of the selling points of BCC is the content other people have generated. (eg 'bingo cards with US presidents on them') But AR seems much more like a service that doesn't have any built in content.
Or are you just talking about outsourcing the creating of blog posts and link-bait info-graphics that will drive up your page rank?
Assuming one text and one call per appointment that's $.04/appointment, or $4/month.
So what am I missing? Does your service let you fan out to 5 users per appointment? Or is that you can send multiple reminders to the same person for a single appointment (24 hour notice, 4 hour notice, 15 minute notice)?
I'm have a side project that deals with organizing events, and as such also has some awkward failure modes. Many customers leave preparations until the last minute, and so when issues occur they are very time sensitive.
What might have been a 'Hey this doesn't work right' email a couple of weeks beforehand becomes a much more urgent phone call the day of.
The problem is the potential loss and/or stress to the customer huge compared to what they are paying for the service. 24/7 phone support isn't viable on a $50 product.
Other than trying very hard to ensure there aren't any issues I don't have a good solution to this yet!
I'd be interested in hear what sort of processes/automated testing do you have in place to try and minimize the risk, particularly in dealing with an external API like Twilio.
my second software business, Appointment Reminder.
I can’t be as open with it as I am with Bingo Card
Creator (you can literally see my sales stats for
that one)
I realize that you don't owe us anything and that we're lucky to have seen as much of your businesses as you've already shared. I'm just curious at your use of "I can't" as opposed to "I choose to keep that part private"
Anyone else had problems?
What processes/procedures have you put in place as a result of this to ensure that next time it happens (because with the best will in the world, things run more smoothly?
Just another thought that occurred to me - could you also use this for DR/call tree type notifications? Just a thought.
Prior to April 2010, I worked at a Japanese megacorp. There were a few reasons for that. A sample: I owed my bosses for sticking their necks out for me, it makes visa issues easier (next renewal going to be... interesting), I lacked confidence that I could do this full-time prior to having part-timed it to the point where it was already successful, etc.
In which case, I assume, strictly speaking, you're not supposed to run your own business on it?
Or is there a single type of visa that covers employment and business?
I'm on an engineering status of residence (what Americans would call a visa). In a few months I get to do a song and dance describing why it is in Japan's interest that the examining clerk find that careful application of the relevant regulations requires that my status of residence be renewed. There's a plan B and C, obviously, but it isn't costing me sleep at night.