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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

#61

Post by rushabh »

bdunn wrote: post #54
amix wrote: post #53

Let me present another view why I dislike this kind of selling. I think this author sells a story of how they got rich and how you also can get rich (and how you can do this easily) It's a common scheme and I think the only people that are getting rich by this are the people that are selling this kind of knowledge. The problem (at least based on my experience) is that building anything successful takes a huge amounts…

Going to disagree. I think the level of likelihood for failing when you're shooting in the dark with your idea dú jour is SUBSTANTIALLY higher than when you mine audience pain points and build products around what people are asking for. That's all I'm doing. There's nothing that I'm doing that someone else can't.

You must also consider that most people do not have the kind of talent for writing that you and patio11 possess. Hats off to you guys for pulling it off and showing the way and inspiring other people. For most normal folk, it will take years of effort to reach this level in writing skills where they can build an audience on that strength.

On a slightly different note, there are SAAS products like SalesForce, Quickbooks and the lot that are going to get the market by the brute force of their marketing budget. On the other extreme are people like you and patio11 and 37signals who take the effort to nurture an audience and generally pro-bootstrap. I think both strategies should work if executed well.

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

#62

Post by righyeah »

amix wrote: post #53

Let me present another view why I dislike this kind of selling. I think this author sells a story of how they got rich and how you also can get rich (and how you can do this easily) It's a common scheme and I think the only people that are getting rich by this are the people that are selling this kind of knowledge. The problem (at least based on my experience) is that building anything successful takes a huge amounts…

You've nailed it with your first paragraph.

That is the scheme. It's old. It still works. The web, like TV, is absolutely perfect for this scheme. The audience that includes people who would pay for this sort of advice is the one that watches TV at odd hours, and they are now increasingly surfing the web.

It is the rough equivalent of the infommercial.

While it may be theoretically possible, no one is going to make five figures per month except the person selling advice on how to make five figures per month.

I don't know how these sellers sleep at night. Certainly they can do well. But they are _deliberately_ preying on the weak. If that's the type of "business" you want to run, go for it.

But it has always been pure sleaze and will continue to be so for the forseeable future.

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

#63

Post by bdunn »

scorpioxy wrote: post #59

I've been thinking about trying one of the mentioned courses because I am trying to transition from side projects just to scratch an itch to services that people would actually use. So figured that learning from the experience of people who've done it before (Amy, Patrick, Brennan...) would cut down on the trial and error phase. But how would I shake the feeling that these exist as part of the marketing scheme that t…

Let's look at a few examples:

* Amy Hoy's 30x500: An alternative to the "pick an idea, build, then sell" mentality. She's poured a LOT of research (trust me on this one) into her course, along with what's obviously worked well for her.

* Patrick McKenzie's latest course: A distillation of the stuff he usually advises his consulting clients to do. Read through his blog, it's knowledge he's accumulated over years of trial and error.

* My book or workshop: I've consulted for a while, and bootstrapped a fairly successful consultancy ($1mm+/year), and I also spent months reading through ridiculously boring CXO-level books on pricing tactics and strategy. I've distilled this down into something easily consumable for a freelance consultant.

You're buying our expertise (largely the result of our trial and error and the losses we incurred) and any ancillary research we did.

If you value your time, and think - you know, that spending $49 on a book that in 2 hours covers strategies and tactics related to pricing freelance services is better than the alternative - namely, cobbling all that information together yourself - then you're a good candidate to be a customer.

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

#64

Post by herval »

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.

This is quite common in any area of work, not just programming: the more you become "the man", the less time you'll have to do the thing you love, since you're likely to spend it administrating and coordinating a lot of people to keep the ball running. I guess the trick is getting to also enjoy this other side of things - or have the luck to start off with a partner whose main passion is the business side of things...

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

#66

Post by adrianhoward »

righyeah wrote: post #62
amix wrote: post #53

Let me present another view why I dislike this kind of selling. I think this author sells a story of how they got rich and how you also can get rich (and how you can do this easily) It's a common scheme and I think the only people that are getting rich by this are the people that are selling this kind of knowledge. The problem (at least based on my experience) is that building anything successful takes a huge amounts…

You've nailed it with your first paragraph. That is the scheme. It's old. It still works. The web, like TV, is absolutely perfect for this scheme. The audience that includes people who would pay for this sort of advice is the one that watches TV at odd hours, and they are now increasingly surfing the web. It is the rough equivalent of the infommercial. While it may be theoretically possible, no one is going to make f…

But it has always been pure sleaze and will continue to be so for the forseeable future.

I disagree. It's like condemning all 'learning to program' products because of the terrible 'Learn Java in 3 hours for idiots' books.

Sales, marketing, running startups, etc. are teachable skills. Learning those skills helps enormously. Figuring out what's a good source of learning is, like in any other field, a job of research and reference chasing.

I wish some of these things had been around ten years ago so I didn't have to learn stuff the hard way ;-)

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

#67

Post by fauigerzigerk »

drusenko wrote: post #55
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That defeats the purpose. If I have a great idea for a product and I want to work on it, why would I go work for somebody else instead? A much better idea would be to join forces with a marketing guy or girl or hire one.

Doesn't this sound oddly like the often reviled "I have a great idea, now all I need is to hire a programmer!"

I don't think so. If I have an idea _and_ I am able and willing to develop the product, I have more to offer than just an idea. Product development is a job. Having ideas isn't.

I see no reason why software developers and marketing people shouldn't start a startup together. Both have something valuable they can contribute.

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

#68

Post by fauigerzigerk »

orangethirty wrote: post #51
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That defeats the purpose. If I have a great idea for a product and I want to work on it, why would I go work for somebody else instead? A much better idea would be to join forces with a marketing guy or girl or hire one.

Life is not so simple. A lot of people don't have the option to develop their ideas. That is why joining people who are building something similar ends up being a good option for them. They might not get the same financial benefit, but they may get other intangible benefits from it (pride, sense of accomplushment, experience). Saying that joining a marketing person or hiring one is not the recipe for building a busin…

So are you saying that developers and marketing people should never start a startup together? Is that really too simple to be "life"? I don't believe that. Sure there are more entrepreneurial functions than product development and marketing. That doesn't preclude some division of responsibilities.

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

#70

Post by ryanwaggoner »

larrys wrote: post #57
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real problem with consulting right now is that it's so freaking lucrative that the opportunity costs for building long-term recurring revenue projects like AR are not insignificant. It's just much more of a gamble, and I too often fall prey to the allure of the large check in the next six weeks, rather than the hundreds of small checks over the next six years, even though the small checks may eventually add up to…

"The real problem with consulting right now is that it's so freaking lucrative" I suggest for anyone doing consulting or building an app that they build into the price a monthly maintenance fee as a residual. We have an app that was written for us about 6 years ago (+-$65000) and we pay $6000 per year just to have the developer make minor changes and answer emails quickly. Very little work on his part but it gives us…

I love this idea...I have a long list of clients who email me occasionally for little updates and enhancements. I should definitely include some kind of retainer arrangement for ongoing maintenance and updates.
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