How long did it take? What keywords did you target?
What tools / approaches were most helpful?
4,647 karma · joined August 8, 2011
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/mijustin
My blog: http://justinjackson.ca
My podcast: https://saas.transistor.fm
What tools / approaches were most helpful?
http://www.selfstarter.ca/1916-2/
https://improvingsoftware.com/2009/05/19/programmers-before-...
What else should I add?
Making an untrue statement, this publicly, would mean Uber's lawyers would have a strong civil case to sue her for defamation: http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/california-defamation-law
Susan was brave to share her story. There's very little upside for her, and tons of potential downside.
But after observing successful founders, the commonality is they were all focused on making people's lives better.
Understanding people's problems is hard. Instead, come up with a way to make people better. Everyone wants to be better.
You should definitely send that email. I try to reply to every one I get.
(BTW - one of the things I include with M4Devs is a secret podcast RSS feed where I read the chapters for you. Perfect if you're having a hard time getting started)
The problem is that it's hard to compete with momentum. People use Twitter because it's where all their friends, followers, and interesting people to follow are.
If you're going to create an alternative, it has to be able to hit critical mass.
I'm really proud of it for a few reasons:
1. It was a response to an observed need. I was getting daily emails from devs asking me about product marketing. I believed that devs who learned marketing could be unstoppable when it comes to launching products.
2. I created it on the side, while working full-time.
3. In its first 3 months it did $28,433 in revenue. This allowed me to go full-time on my own projects this January.
If you build an audience, and earn a good reputation, selling your expertise is a good option.
1. Identify why you're building the project. Do you want to earn $100,000 in revenue? Build a public profile? Grow an email list for future projects?
2. Determine who exactly your project is for. Is it for investors? Aspiring startup founders? People spying on their competition?
3. Clearly articulate what that audience's major struggle is. Why would they visit transparentstartups.com? How does your site make them better? How does it improve their lives?
4. Cater all your landing page copy to your audience, their primary struggle, and how your site makes them better.
5. Figure out where those people hang out. In your case it's here on HN, Product Hunt, certain Reddit sub-reddits, Slack groups, etc... Find those communities, join, and share your story (you're actually doing a good job in this thread already). Look for ways you can answer questions on the topic of startup revenue, and point people to your site when appropriate.
These 5 initial steps form the foundation for everything that comes after.
If you understand: your motivation, the people you're looking to help, how you're helping them, and where they hang out, you'll have everything you need to start promoting your project.
“Great. It sounds like you get it. I know that you can do better.”
Giving folks a chance to communicate what they learned, and then encouraging them to "do better," is the best way to lead.
However, I think they're missing something deeper. Before you get more traffic you need to have answers to these questions:
1. Do you have a well-defined target market? Who are they?
2. Is your target market reachable online? Where do they congregate?
3. Do you know their primary struggle? What is it?
4. Do you know how your product helps them make progress? How does it help?
5. Do you have product/market fit? What proofs do you have? Examples: high NPS score, large number of pre-orders)
- Opportunity Overload: http://opportunityoverload.com/
- FE International is a broker that does this: http://feinternational.com/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10538970
I just checked the stats: it's sold 2,442 copies, and earned over $60,000 in revenue.
Patrick's comment is poignant:
"If you give a number in response to this question, that’s going to immediately cap your negotiator range. If you say “My current salary is 90,” then they know that anything above 90 is an improvement to you. Even if they would have been willing to pay, let’s say 110 to the right candidate for this position, they’re probably going to offer you 95 and then walk it up to 98, 100."
The employer is incentivized to pay you as little as they can. We know that many employers pay different people doing the same job different salaries. If you can get them to give their number first, it seems (to me) you're in a much stronger position.
"The minute you’re labeled a billionaire in this country everyone takes everything you say as bible. It’s like you can do no wrong."
Nowadays, the average web page is bigger than that. That's insane.
I think we're going to see a return to lightweight websites. Simple. Focused on the words.
Have you seen http://tomstrucking.net yet? ;)