The Tim Ferris way of testing ideas and how I did it.
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The Tim Ferris way of testing ideas and how I did it.
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Re: The Tim Ferris way of testing ideas and how I did it.
#2I've been itching to try this for some time. I would appreciate any war stories HNers could share.
Re: The Tim Ferris way of testing ideas and how I did it.
#3I've been itching to try this for some time. I would appreciate any war stories HNers could share.
Like I said in my blog post, it worked pretty good for me.
From here, I basically went on and created a Minimal Viable product.
Re: The Tim Ferris way of testing ideas and how I did it.
#4That seems hard to believe. I did the same testing strategy with my Job applier software (http://fastjobapplier.weebly.com/) and first of all I only got around 30 ad clicks total, and no one filled out the form. (I was thoroughly disappointed.)
Granted maybe I just suck at sales copy, or perhaps there just isn't demand out there for software that helps you apply for jobs.
Still though, a 10%+ conversion rates seems too high.
Do you find you're still getting a similar conversion rate now that you're actually selling the product?
Re: The Tim Ferris way of testing ideas and how I did it.
#5That seems hard to believe. I did the same testing strategy with my Job applier software ( http://fastjobapplier.weebly.com/ ) and first of all I only got around 30 ad clicks total, and no one filled out the form. (I was thoroughly disappointed.) Granted maybe I just suck at sales copy, or perhaps there just isn't demand out there for software that helps you apply for jobs. Still though, a 10%+ conversion rates seems…
yea 10% seems pretty high, I think it might have to do with saying the 1st month is free and you can cancel any time.
Therefore, the 10% rate isn't really a 10% sales rate but more of a 10% willing to try your demo. But 10% is still pretty good for that I think.
Re: The Tim Ferris way of testing ideas and how I did it.
#6There is an ocean of difference between 14% of visitors committing their email address to something, and that same figure actually pulling out their credit card.
A more prudent assumption would be 10% of that 14% will actually pay for your product when it is launched.
I learned this first hand. Your mileage may vary of course, but it's incredibly easy to drive traffic and stimulate interest, enough that people will give you their email address or whatever other personal information you want. The moment you ask them to pay though, you're in another world in terms of conversions :) This MVP-type google ad testing doesn't really translate that well into real world data like purchase conversions. I don't think that's the point anyway.
It's good for seeing what people might be interested in, which is often something that startups aren't sure of :)
Re: The Tim Ferris way of testing ideas and how I did it.
#7I've been itching to try this for some time. I would appreciate any war stories HNers could share.
Email addresses don't covert on a 1 to 1 basis to sales. (If. Only.)
After the autoresponder runs out (6 days in my case) they've only got only a moderately higher chance of conversion than my average trial user. (~5% vs. 2.8%)
I really, really don't like the Put Up Fake AdWords Ad, See Who Gets Suckered minimum viable product. Aside from misleading customers and hurting the AdWords ecosystem (they don't actually get offered what they clicked to get offered, which Google will come down on you like a ton of bricks for if they detect, incidentally), it doesn't test your product. It tests your ability to write AdWords copy.
I could get 14% conversion to stabbing toothpicks under your fingernails, but what does that tell you? The world has weird people in it, and I'm good at qualifying non-weird people out with my ad text and keyword selection? Whee?
Similarly, if I delivered an AdWords campaign that was awful (low CTRs, low conversions), would that tell you the product is awful? Because I've done that before, too -- the first draft of my AdWords campaign for Bingo Card Creator was terrible. It took me almost a year before I figured out how to write AdWords decently. That was not an indication that the product was terrible (I sell it quite successfully), it was just an indication that I needed to adjust to a new way of copywriting.
If it can't tell you if an idea is good, and you can't trust it if it says the idea is bad -- what is the point, again?
Re: The Tim Ferris way of testing ideas and how I did it.
#8That seems hard to believe. I did the same testing strategy with my Job applier software ( http://fastjobapplier.weebly.com/ ) and first of all I only got around 30 ad clicks total, and no one filled out the form. (I was thoroughly disappointed.) Granted maybe I just suck at sales copy, or perhaps there just isn't demand out there for software that helps you apply for jobs. Still though, a 10%+ conversion rates seems…
I am not selling the product yet. I will definately post about my conversion rate once I do.
Re: The Tim Ferris way of testing ideas and how I did it.
#9There is an ocean of difference between 14% of visitors committing their email address to something, and that same figure actually pulling out their credit card. A more prudent assumption would be 10% of that 14% will actually pay for your product when it is launched. I learned this first hand. Your mileage may vary of course, but it's incredibly easy to drive traffic and stimulate interest, enough that people will g…
I agree with you. Maybe a good idea would be to ask for a credit card, but not to charge it. I think this borders on being illegal though.
I am still pretty happy with 10%, since this was my cut-off for going ahead and building the product.
Re: The Tim Ferris way of testing ideas and how I did it.
#10That seems hard to believe. I did the same testing strategy with my Job applier software ( http://fastjobapplier.weebly.com/ ) and first of all I only got around 30 ad clicks total, and no one filled out the form. (I was thoroughly disappointed.) Granted maybe I just suck at sales copy, or perhaps there just isn't demand out there for software that helps you apply for jobs. Still though, a 10%+ conversion rates seems…
yea 10% seems pretty high, I think it might have to do with saying the 1st month is free and you can cancel any time. Therefore, the 10% rate isn't really a 10% sales rate but more of a 10% willing to try your demo. But 10% is still pretty good for that I think.
I agree that 1st month free and cancel anytime might have something to do with it. If I do a test like this again, I will probably leave that out.
I will have these terms in my live product though...