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ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

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Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#41

Post by nathanbarry »

dangrossman wrote: post #9

I loathe cold sales e-mails/calls myself, but this almost makes me want to hire sales people for Improvely.

I think it depends a lot on how specific you are. I hate generic cold emails as well, so I've always struggled with this. My theory is to just personalize as much as possible. And more importantly, only reach out to relevant potential customers.

Though anyone who sends the third email after no response with something like "did you get squished by an elephant or eaten by an alligator? Because I can't think of any other reason you haven't replied" is instantly dead to me.

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#42

Post by jacquesm »

nathanbarry wrote: post #38
jacquesm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost every company ever took two to three years to establish themselves. It's not all that incredible. That simply distinguishes every successful business ever (with a few lucky exceptions) from the ones that failed because their owners gave up too early. Two years is about a minimum that you should be prepared to dedicate to your newborn business if you are at all serious about it. I've written a bit about this he…

Love this. I think early on I had the same idea as the commenter above—that 2-3 years without results is the anomaly and means it's time to move on. Hopefully we can tell more stories to show that two years really should be your minimum commitment to just get traction.

Just tweeted your link, let's see how fast we can get your from $600K to $1M and up ;)

Best of luck!

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#43

Post by vram22 »

sixQuarks wrote: post #17
karambahh wrote: post #3

«Bootstrapped» with 55k$ and an already succesful business is not exactly boostrapping to me. This achievement is very impressive nonetheless. Growing a business even in a known environment is very hard, I know it first hand. It's especially interesting that he shares numbers, some I'd love to be able to do but money is particularly taboo in my field. Having your accountant and banker tell you that your numbers are a…

are you kidding me? This guy is the definition of bootstrapped. How do you think he got that $55K? He was bootstrapping design courses - I've been following this guy for a few years.

In fact (don't know full facts, but I too have been reading his blog for some time), I think he was a designer (of mobile apps and web sites, maybe had dev skills too), then wrote a few books for a while (on areas where he had skills, like design, later on other areas too), then used the earnings from that to start Convertkit. IIRC he even mentions this approach in one of his blog posts. Bootstrapping all the way, seems like, to me :)

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#44

Post by vram22 »

jacquesm wrote: post #40
vram22 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, what was your product?

I pioneered streaming video to the browser, so the primordial 'webcam' server software (initially SGI only, later also on the PC), a piece of software to 'reflect' a single stream to many users (which you could cascade, sort of a primitive CDN for video) and a module that allowed pay-per view and a system to do the actual pay-per-view transactions. All this happened between 1995 and 1998, at which point the product b…

Fantastic.

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#45

Post by wwalser »

jacquesm wrote: post #10

Very clever, this is actually a sales pitch for the product more than a 'news story'. Props for using the success to further drive success.

If you're reading about the founder of a company, chances are you're reading content marketing for that founder's company.

If you're listening to a podcast with a company founder as a guest — you're listening to content marketing.

If you're attending a free event, webinar or watching a youtube video where company founders are talking about stuff — you're watching content marketing.

I'm not saying this is bad. Content marketing basically converts at some rate relative to the value that consumers get from it so there is some merit to that. As long as people realize what their consuming, seems fine.

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#46

Post by GuiA »

scardine wrote: post #21

I love his book "Authority" (not affiliated with the author, just got a lot of value from it). It states that one of the best moves to make a claim of expertise is writing a book, and contains a framework to write a book about something you know in ~3 months. http://nathanbarry.com/authority/

The fact that you can't buy the book alone for $20 or so - but instead have to buy some sort of premium package that starts at $179 - is a definite put off for me, and also makes me wonder whether the content of the book is that deep/interesting, or if it's a trick to get the buyer so involved emotionally with the purchase that they'll end up believing it was absolutely worth it.

I get that by selling $300 book bundles, he only needs to sell 1/15th of what he'd need to sell if the book were $20; and that of the people who would buy the $20 book, there are probably more than 6% of them who will buy the $300 book; but it's still pretty offputting.

I'm certainly glad that I didn't have to buy K&R's C book as a $200 package complete with "file templates" and an "audio book" and "an exclusive skype session with the authors who will give you personal feedback on your C program"!

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#47

Post by nathanbarry »

csallen wrote: post #32
thebiglebrewski wrote: post #24

Wow, this is pretty astounding. Congrats Nathan. Personally though, I don't get how this kind of marketing strategy works. I unsubscribe SO FAST from things that seem like mass emails that it just wouldn't work on me. I suppose I'm a huge exception to the general public? I'm even surprised when I look over at my girlfriend's gmail how many promotions she has (not in a separate tab).

ConvertKit targets professional bloggers, podcasters, and other content creators. Generally, people who subscribe to these types of newsletters are there for the content. Getting it automatically via email is a huge perk compared to having to remember on your own and then proactively go out and find it. For example, Indie Hackers (the site that hosts this interview) has grown to about 8000 email subscribers in the pa…

Yep, like everyone is saying ConvertKit is about following content creators you get a lot of value or entertainment from. We tend to get better open rates and deliverability across the board because we exclude a lot of the traditional businesses that would use email marketing poorly (purely for sales).

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#48

Post by GuiA »

artursapek wrote: post #15

I had no idea "professional bloggers" were such a lucrative market.

It is; the trick is to sell expensive shit to the "aspiring professional bloggers" demographic.

Just like the best way to live off a 4 hour work week is to write a book about how you too can live off a 4 hour work week.

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#49

Post by zem »

scardine wrote: post #21

I love his book "Authority" (not affiliated with the author, just got a lot of value from it). It states that one of the best moves to make a claim of expertise is writing a book, and contains a framework to write a book about something you know in ~3 months. http://nathanbarry.com/authority/

i was interested, so i clicked through to the page ... and there's no way to just buy the book! the best i can do is a $180 package with the book and a bunch of other stuff i do not want. so i went to see if it's on amazon, and there is a hardcover edition there, but no kindle edition, despite the packages on the author's site all including ebooks. not sure if it's a deliberate barrier-to-entry (as in, "if you're not going to take the time to go through the video courses etc. too the book will do you no good") but it seemed like an odd set of decisions to me.

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#50

Post by karambahh »

charlesdm wrote: post #36
karambahh wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am absolutely not claiming he didn't work very hard to start his company or earning his money. I am neither claiming he's bad or wrong or anything like that. Like jacquesm said it's probably more of a problem of definition between a dominant one and mine (in other words, looks like I am wrong ). I have seen people starting companies with nothing, not even a roof on their heads. I started a company with the amazing…

Given how easy it is these days for a developer to make €50k (e.g. by contracting on a day rate fee for a company), there really is no need to eat noodles for years. You do work for 6 months, save up €50k, and live frugally (but not crazy frugal) for a while.

Let's say 500€ daily rate (which is probably average in France with a very large standard deviation between Paris and deserted zones and factoring varying daily rates which are domain specific and experience related. No way a junior RoR freelance would make 500€ in Massif Central for instance. Likewise, 500 is low for an experienced data science freelance working in banking in Paris). 206500=60k€ gross

After social contributions, 30k€ net revenue in France (actually a little more but I take the liberty to round that down).

In large cities, 33% of revenue for housing is not uncommon. We're left with 20k€, of which we have to substract revenue taxes (rule of thumb in that revenue range, about 1 month revenue per year) so here 5k€. 15k€ for 6 months. living frugally you can probably save 2/3 so you can save 10k€ in 6 months.

Assuming these ratio, it would take 2.5 years of steady, near fulltime employment as a contractor to save these 50k and go all out on your project.

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