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How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

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Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#31

Post by bdunn »

lysol wrote: post #6
bdunn wrote: post #4

As always, available to answer any questions or share any metrics.

What were your first steps? What would be your first steps now that you've learned from all of this?

The first thing I did was find an audience of people where there was a consensus about a specific set of pain points (in this case: client project scope creep & transparency.)

I then just reversed their pain to derive a solution. If the pain is "they're cold and wet because it's raining", the solution would be "then shield yourself from the rain."

From there, I derived a product. In the above example, an umbrella; in my case, a product that showed clients how scope relates to budget.

This all came from taking Amy Hoy's 30x500 (which I really recommend.) It's the way successful products are generally born - at much less riskier than ideas you think up in the shower.

If I were starting over, I would have focused more on immediately cultivating my mailing list.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#32

Post by bdunn »

joshcrews wrote: post #30

on getting out of consulting-- wouldn't that slowly age your relevance on marketing products/workshops/ebooks as an expert on running a consulting company? Why not keep some consulting business to stay 'in the game'?

I don't think there will be any breakthroughs in managing cashflow, value based pricing, and similar topics anytime soon.

If I were writing ebooks and workshops on something technical - like Ruby - then yes, it would be a bad example to withdraw from Ruby.

Also, I doubt I'll ever stop consulting altogether. But my days of writing code full time for clients is drawing to an end.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#33

Post by masanqi »

bdunn wrote: post #31
lysol wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What were your first steps? What would be your first steps now that you've learned from all of this?

The first thing I did was find an audience of people where there was a consensus about a specific set of pain points (in this case: client project scope creep & transparency.) I then just reversed their pain to derive a solution. If the pain is "they're cold and wet because it's raining", the solution would be "then shield yourself from the rain." From there, I derived a product. In the above example, an umbrella; in…

Could you explain how you found that audience? How can I find a reasonably sized group of people who will just tell me what their problems/pain-points are? I don't know where to start.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#34

Post by johnrob »

The depressing truth about the software business is that most of the success stories take the form "and then I started spending all my time on marketing, and my business took off!".

I say depressing because most software developers didn't choose their profession out of a burning desire to become a marketer.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#35

Post by davidw »

johnrob wrote: post #34

The depressing truth about the software business is that most of the success stories take the form "and then I started spending all my time on marketing, and my business took off!". I say depressing because most software developers didn't choose their profession out of a burning desire to become a marketer.

Nothing depressing about that - it's part of what needs doing. The thing I sometimes find a bit depressing is that there's more money to be made selling tools to the miners than there is in the actual products. For instance, I bet patio11 could make way more money from consulting/seminars/books/courses/motivational speaking (haha, just kidding, sorry Patrick:-) than from AR, from how he's describing it.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#36

Post by bdunn »

johnrob wrote: post #34

The depressing truth about the software business is that most of the success stories take the form "and then I started spending all my time on marketing, and my business took off!". I say depressing because most software developers didn't choose their profession out of a burning desire to become a marketer.

That's sort of like saying "the depressing truth about relationships is that you need to go out and meet people to get involved in one."

I take a lot of pride in promoting my products. Marketing is just storytelling, and when your story aligns with the needs of someone else, a transaction occurs.

Honestly, if you want to just write code all day (and there's nothing wrong with that) don't create a product - work for somebody else.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#37

Post by 31reasons »

johnrob wrote: post #34

The depressing truth about the software business is that most of the success stories take the form "and then I started spending all my time on marketing, and my business took off!". I say depressing because most software developers didn't choose their profession out of a burning desire to become a marketer.

"most software developers didn't choose their profession out of a burning desire to become a marketer."

I agree, if you choose to be a pure software programmer type then of course you can be just that. You can work in a core team or do research in academia. But if you have an entrepreneur itch you have to learn marketing and sales. In fact its pretty fun once you begin to realize that marketing also has lot of intellectual fun in it. A/B testing, human psychology, data analysis etc.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#38

Post by antidaily »

johnrob wrote: post #34

The depressing truth about the software business is that most of the success stories take the form "and then I started spending all my time on marketing, and my business took off!". I say depressing because most software developers didn't choose their profession out of a burning desire to become a marketer.

It's like working out or writing. Do a little every day. And if you absolutely can't, delegate. Find someone who can.

Re: How I’m Making Five-Figures A Month Off Bootstrapped Products

#40

Post by Deinos »

bdunn wrote: post #36
johnrob wrote: post #34

The depressing truth about the software business is that most of the success stories take the form "and then I started spending all my time on marketing, and my business took off!". I say depressing because most software developers didn't choose their profession out of a burning desire to become a marketer.

That's sort of like saying "the depressing truth about relationships is that you need to go out and meet people to get involved in one." I take a lot of pride in promoting my products. Marketing is just storytelling, and when your story aligns with the needs of someone else, a transaction occurs. Honestly, if you want to just write code all day (and there's nothing wrong with that) don't create a product - work for s…

I couldn't agree more with this posting. I would take it a step beyond the story aligning with the needs of someone else and the transaction. If it is something you truly believe in, it becomes a story you enjoy telling over and over, regardless of the outcome. People enjoy spreading passion, and when you are spreading passion, it ceases to become marketing in the "traditional sense" of a self-serving corporate activity, and it just becomes the act of sharing interest and excitement.
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