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Making your first dollar from a SaaS project

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Re: Making your first dollar from a SaaS project

#71

Post by fapjacks »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #42
hoodoof wrote: post #22

In 1998, before people had much of clue about what represents success and how big things can get given time, I built a software product and posted it to the net. Within a week or so there had been a handful of sales at $100 each. That looked like failure to me at the time - "that's a trickle of money - extrapolating maybe $25,000 per year? Not enough to pay my bills. I need to get a job". Today that sort of start loo…

Man that last paragraph is the kind of success to keep in mind. I have loads of regrets on businesses and opportunities missed since 98 as well, but a huge number of them would not have lead to my family today. A more spiritual approach to the decades is how I am hoping to live in the future - that and still plenty of coding.

Very apt comment combined with your username.

Re: Making your first dollar from a SaaS project

#72

Post by codingdave »

dangero wrote: post #2

I've crashed and burned on SaaS enough that I'm very into the landing page approach -- don't build the product, but convince people you have so that they can click the "buy now" button. That way you feel more confident that the market exists while you're actually building it. After all the projects I've failed at, nothing is harder for me to do than spend 200+ hours on something without having a clue whether it will…

That was known back in the day as "vaporware". Somehow today that concept evolved into "marketing".

Re: Making your first dollar from a SaaS project

#73

Post by dereknewsom »

nametube wrote: post #40
czue wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be the case that if you pay for a template you get a preview link where the PDF has a watermark on it, and the only way to remove that watermark is to pay. I agree it's way too many steps and am trying to figure out how to make it easier and more seamless without delivering people something they don't actually want.

Maybe having the cards on the front page might help. You've invested a lot of screen realestate on explaining the product. You could probably make this https://www.placecard.me/try/ your homepage, have the instruction in the banner and have the product in front of the user right away.

I'll second this. I wasn't exactly sure what you were selling until I got to the "try" page.

Re: Making your first dollar from a SaaS project

#74

Post by iakh »

mercwear wrote: post #66

You don't have any hosting costs listed, are you hosting the site for free? If so, where?

"You might be wondering where my server costs are, and I’ll admit that I’m cheating a bit on that one. I host all of my projects on the same server—one that I’ve been paying for for more than five years—so I’m not including that in the budget for this project specifically. In reality I should probably include a portion of those costs here."

Re: Making your first dollar from a SaaS project

#75

Post by czue »

nametube wrote: post #40
czue wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be the case that if you pay for a template you get a preview link where the PDF has a watermark on it, and the only way to remove that watermark is to pay. I agree it's way too many steps and am trying to figure out how to make it easier and more seamless without delivering people something they don't actually want.

Maybe having the cards on the front page might help. You've invested a lot of screen realestate on explaining the product. You could probably make this https://www.placecard.me/try/ your homepage, have the instruction in the banner and have the product in front of the user right away.

good thought, will A/B test this soon!

Re: Making your first dollar from a SaaS project

#76

Post by crispinb »

roel_v wrote: post #61
crispinb wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I clicked on that button and received that response, everything I could find connected with you and your domain would go on my blacklists. Misleading people is a poor way to build trust.

Really? You maintain a 'blacklist' somewhere on Dropbox or so, and every time you make a purchase you look through who is somehow connected to it, and cross check your 'blacklist'? I think it's much more likely you're showing some internet outrage here, but when you actually run into it, you won't even remember a week later.

Yes I do maintain a blacklist. The main vehicle is: when I see something I find unconscionable from a company with I'll add an Adguard rule to block their domain name. It's hardly water-tight, but what is?

Your "I think it's much more likely" is a bit odd considering what you know about me (ie. almost nothing). "Outrage" is also pretty exaggerated. There are millions of commercial outfits out there in the world, the vast majority of which I'll never have anything to do with. There's a low bar for me to exclude just one more from consideration.

Re: Making your first dollar from a SaaS project

#77

Post by crispinb »

grwthckrmstr wrote: post #53
crispinb wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I clicked on that button and received that response, everything I could find connected with you and your domain would go on my blacklists. Misleading people is a poor way to build trust.

Yes you're right on your count, but you have to consider this scenario (which involves thinking beyond yourself) - - it's only you, and 20 others - - who would be mildly mislead (considering you actually didn't pay anything) Now the dev can go build a working version putting in 200-500 hours into the MVP and find the next set of 20 people who are ready to use that software, with validation at hand. However, I agree t…

> but you have to consider this scenario (which involves thinking beyond yourself)

I'm not denying that poor behaviour can net more customers -- on the contrary, it's by far the easiest way of doing so. My response was in the domain of ethical, not commercial, calculus.

Re: Making your first dollar from a SaaS project

#78

Post by asadlionpk »

crispinb wrote: post #45
dangero wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually just do believable screenshots and a call to action like, "Request a trial" or "Buy now" it depends on what it's for. I never take any money I just log the actions people took on the site. If it's a buy button, then you can just say, "Thanks for your interest. We are launching soon."

If I clicked on that button and received that response, everything I could find connected with you and your domain would go on my blacklists. Misleading people is a poor way to build trust.

Respectfully, there is plenty fish in the sea.

I would have validated the viability at the cost of losing one customer. I think most would be willing to take that loss.

Re: Making your first dollar from a SaaS project

#79

Post by crispinb »

asadlionpk wrote: post #78
crispinb wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I clicked on that button and received that response, everything I could find connected with you and your domain would go on my blacklists. Misleading people is a poor way to build trust.

Respectfully, there is plenty fish in the sea. I would have validated the viability at the cost of losing one customer. I think most would be willing to take that loss.

Only if you take a point of view that ethics can be shelved in the interests of business. It's a common point of view, in fact pretty clearly it prevails. It doesn't happen to be mine.

Re: Making your first dollar from a SaaS project

#80

Post by mindhash »

alexpetralia wrote: post #25
dangero wrote: post #2

I've crashed and burned on SaaS enough that I'm very into the landing page approach -- don't build the product, but convince people you have so that they can click the "buy now" button. That way you feel more confident that the market exists while you're actually building it. After all the projects I've failed at, nothing is harder for me to do than spend 200+ hours on something without having a clue whether it will…

Any recommendations for quick and effective landing page solutions? I assume something like MailChimp for email sign-ups?

landbot.io is interesting. Try it out
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