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Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

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Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#21

Post by manmal »

thibaut_barrere wrote: post #19
manmal wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you actually contact people to ask for this? Emailing people? Or making a signup page and see who clicks on the (faux) "buy" button?

For my coming SaaS product ( https://www.wisecashhq.com ), I created a signup page back in september 2011, then tweeted regularly when I worked on it and mentioned it around (shipping end of september 2012). It gradually got around 200 "pre-signups", and I used the list to contact people as well and verify my assumptions. I will write a blog post about that soon!

That's what we have done either (but with an Adwords campaign, to see how much traffic there is to be had from Google), but I think that's no commitment to cash, just "I'm interested". I once read here on HN that bootstrappers should actually ask people whether they would pay X$ for that - but now being in this situation, I wonder how to actually do that, knowing none of the future audience in person.

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#22

Post by thibaut_barrere »

manmal wrote: post #21
thibaut_barrere wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my coming SaaS product ( https://www.wisecashhq.com ), I created a signup page back in september 2011, then tweeted regularly when I worked on it and mentioned it around (shipping end of september 2012). It gradually got around 200 "pre-signups", and I used the list to contact people as well and verify my assumptions. I will write a blog post about that soon!

That's what we have done either (but with an Adwords campaign, to see how much traffic there is to be had from Google), but I think that's no commitment to cash, just "I'm interested". I once read here on HN that bootstrappers should actually ask people whether they would pay X$ for that - but now being in this situation, I wonder how to actually do that, knowing none of the future audience in person.

Ahh I see. The thing is I picked an audience where I know some people in person and asked right away if some would pay.

In all cases, I would contact people (by email/phone/whatever) to engage a discussion and ask the "True Question" :)

I do agree that "I'm interested" is absolutely not the same as "I'm paying for this, here's my CC number".

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#23

Post by xyzzyb »

danso wrote: post #15

Great post...it also introduced me to this book, Exceptional Ruby: http://exceptionalruby.com/ Buying it right now.

Exceptional Ruby is indeed fantastic. If you like it, you may be interested in Avdi's current book project "Confident Ruby": http://devblog.avdi.org/2012/06/05/confident-ruby-beta/

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#24

Post by lifeisstillgood »

bdunn wrote: post #3
brackin wrote: post #2

Impressive stuff, although the book promotion page looks slightly off. Reminds me of those 'free make money' ebook pop-up's I got in 2005.

I'll followup with a post on why I used the sales letter format to sell the book, but I can tell you this: it converts 3x better than the alternatives I tried.

Well I am sold - but I cannot pay outside the US it seems (unless I make up a zip code)

Edit: You have my hard-earned now, after I saw the "which country are you in" - that was embarrassing, but in my defence its a terrible interface.

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#25

Post by Sodaware »

The lesson here: The best way to sell stuff is by selling stuff.

Look at what's involved:

* Guest posts / articles to become known as an expert

* Emailing a list of interested parties

* AdWords, preferably in a campaign that can scale

* Twitter and other social media

Learning to write good copy, or finding someone to do it for you, will have an impact on your business. I still get a trickle of traffic (that converts well) from an article I wrote over 6 years ago. I'd much rather spend time adding "one more feature", but a few hours spent writing quality content will have a much larger impact on the bottom line.

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#26

Post by bdunn »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #24
bdunn wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll followup with a post on why I used the sales letter format to sell the book, but I can tell you this: it converts 3x better than the alternatives I tried.

Well I am sold - but I cannot pay outside the US it seems (unless I make up a zip code) Edit: You have my hard-earned now, after I saw the "which country are you in" - that was embarrassing, but in my defence its a terrible interface.

Thanks! Yeah, I'm stuck with PayPal at the moment, which I know has issues internationally - I'm sorry, and thanks for supporting the book.

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#28

Post by tnorthcutt »

manmal wrote: post #18
thibaut_barrere wrote: post #13

"Money – cold, hard cash – on the other hand. That’s the ultimate form of validation." This is priceless especially considering how much effort goes into writing a book or creating a SaaS product.

How do you actually contact people to ask for this? Emailing people? Or making a signup page and see who clicks on the (faux) "buy" button?

Brennan made a signup page, and let people click on the real buy button. That's what he's saying - true validation is when people will pay for it before it's even available.

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#29

Post by ky3 »

manmal wrote: post #21
thibaut_barrere wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my coming SaaS product ( https://www.wisecashhq.com ), I created a signup page back in september 2011, then tweeted regularly when I worked on it and mentioned it around (shipping end of september 2012). It gradually got around 200 "pre-signups", and I used the list to contact people as well and verify my assumptions. I will write a blog post about that soon!

That's what we have done either (but with an Adwords campaign, to see how much traffic there is to be had from Google), but I think that's no commitment to cash, just "I'm interested". I once read here on HN that bootstrappers should actually ask people whether they would pay X$ for that - but now being in this situation, I wonder how to actually do that, knowing none of the future audience in person.

> knowing none of the future audience in person

I'd seriously think about that 30x500 course if I were you. (Thibault is alum.)

The biggest chunk of the course is devoted to making sure there's a "commitment to cash" BEFORE spending a dime. And that includes $$$ adwords.

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