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Fun learning about this stuff from Pingdom (OP here.) I'm working onsite with a client this week and just saw someone submitted this to HN. Working on getting the site back up now.
While I was reading this, especially in the beginning and again towards the end, I kept getting this feeling of this is a "long-winded sale of nothing at all". You know those websites, where this wonderfully crafted copy leads you on and on and on about selling you something special and magical without ever really revealing what it is. Typically, at the end of the nothing-sale will be a heavily-priced video or ebook…
So, I'm not selling anything in this post. There is a CTA for my newsletter, but that's it.
In this post I...
* Talk about how I identified a "cash flow" (customers of X, in my case - Infusionsoft.)
* Ran a simple ad campaign that was meant to help me find other customers of Infusionsoft.
* This ad campaign drove people to an email course that covered why it's a good idea to show variable content to someone depending on where they are in your company's sales funnel.
* I talked with each new subscriber to make sure that I didn't waste my time writing something that was only my problem.
* Went on to create a very simple product that solved a very specific pain point, and how I then delivered this new product to the people I was talking to.
Not sure what's scammy / whatever about that. I've seen a lot of people — especially engineer types — who dive head first into building some massive SaaS only to get demoralized along the way and give up because it doesn't end up becoming some huge success right away.
My goal was to try to make a case for building a very simple product for a very specific pain point, get customers who have this pain and want it solved as quickly as possible, and then (possibly) add complexity and scope from there.
While I was reading this, especially in the beginning and again towards the end, I kept getting this feeling of this is a "long-winded sale of nothing at all". You know those websites, where this wonderfully crafted copy leads you on and on and on about selling you something special and magical without ever really revealing what it is. Typically, at the end of the nothing-sale will be a heavily-priced video or ebook…
I think the key takeaways from this article are: 1.) Advertise knowledge but give away for free 2.) Use knowledge (e.g. 5 day course) absorbers (users) to create an e-mail list. 3.) Create and sell product that addresses a pain point relevant to the people signing up for the knowledge.
While I was reading this, especially in the beginning and again towards the end, I kept getting this feeling of this is a "long-winded sale of nothing at all". You know those websites, where this wonderfully crafted copy leads you on and on and on about selling you something special and magical without ever really revealing what it is. Typically, at the end of the nothing-sale will be a heavily-priced video or ebook…
OP here. So, I'm not selling anything in this post. There is a CTA for my newsletter, but that's it. In this post I... * Talk about how I identified a "cash flow" (customers of X, in my case - Infusionsoft.) * Ran a simple ad campaign that was meant to help me find other customers of Infusionsoft. * This ad campaign drove people to an email course that covered why it's a good idea to show variable content to someone…
Please understand that I'm not putting you down, on the contrary.
With all the specifics you provided, this is still a very non-specific article. It's a beautifully written description of a technique that provides a lot of detail and yet gives very little away that could actually be used to learn something off you. And again, that's perfectly OK.
I absolutely agree with you about engineer types, and I'll be the first to admit I'm a prime example of that group. In between those two extremes, there is a spectrum of course.
> My goal was to try to make a case for building a very simple product for a very specific pain point, get customers who have this pain and want it solved as quickly as possible, and then (possibly) add complexity and scope from there.
I'm not sure I agree about the pain point being the most important thing in that strategy, but that may be because after reading the article I still lack the information to judge what it actually is you solved.
I ended up building a WordPress plugin, but what I built and how I built it is
immaterial here.While I was reading this, especially in the beginning and again towards the end, I kept getting this feeling of this is a "long-winded sale of nothing at all". You know those websites, where this wonderfully crafted copy leads you on and on and on about selling you something special and magical without ever really revealing what it is. Typically, at the end of the nothing-sale will be a heavily-priced video or ebook…
At first I felt the same way, but by the end I was actually very impressed: Their MVP for their product was a simple course on solving the problem, a course that wasn't written when the first advert went out! They wrote the course and the product pretty much on-demand. I felt stressed just reading it, but it's a story I'll be re-telling.
I think the key takeaways from this article are: 1.) Advertise knowledge but give away for free 2.) Use knowledge (e.g. 5 day course) absorbers (users) to create an e-mail list. 3.) Create and sell product that addresses a pain point relevant to the people signing up for the knowledge.
So, for myself as a generalization, I'm writing it down as prime your target with something accessible (free knowledge, free feature-set, etc...) and engage them early in the funnel so you can iterate the lead-gen and the resulting product early.
While I was reading this, especially in the beginning and again towards the end, I kept getting this feeling of this is a "long-winded sale of nothing at all". You know those websites, where this wonderfully crafted copy leads you on and on and on about selling you something special and magical without ever really revealing what it is. Typically, at the end of the nothing-sale will be a heavily-priced video or ebook…
Then I reached the bottom.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
OP here. So, I'm not selling anything in this post. There is a CTA for my newsletter, but that's it. In this post I... * Talk about how I identified a "cash flow" (customers of X, in my case - Infusionsoft.) * Ran a simple ad campaign that was meant to help me find other customers of Infusionsoft. * This ad campaign drove people to an email course that covered why it's a good idea to show variable content to someone…
Hey. I'd like to re-iterate that I think you're doing a great job, something which I and many others don't have the skills or the talent for. But yeah, it sure looks like you are selling something. Not in the "act now, buy this" sense, but still. Please understand that I'm not putting you down, on the contrary. With all the specifics you provided, this is still a very non-specific article. It's a beautifully written…
This blog lays out a very clear framework you can operate within, so I dont really understand where you are coming from.