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

planscope.io

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

#71

Post by javajosh »

bdunn wrote: post #29
nathanbarry wrote: post #19

Brennan, congratulations! It is well deserved. I've had a lot of success selling a book, but now it is time to make the switch to recurring revenue.

They both have their places. You can budget against recurring revenue - it generally just takes time to ramp up. Infoproducts require constant tending (marketing), but when life happens and you need some cash, you can run a sale. Also - mailing lists glue it all together - best decision ever.

> Also - mailing lists glue it all together - best decision ever.

So Brennan, how did you start your mailing list, and how do you keep it healthy and growing? For example, do you allow your subscribers to post to the list, or is it just a newsletter?

Also, have there ever been times when you've wanted to hold back some secret sauce and not share it because it's just too darn good?

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

#73

Post by mingmecca »

orangethirty wrote: post #52
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.

A software developer can be one without being in the software business. No need to market anything, ever. Now, if you want to sell software, then you better learn how to sell. 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!". What's depressing is this line of thinking. You just can't pro…

It's depressing because to a typical cynical programmer (and we're prone to be cynics spending our time looking for bugs) selling anything has a coat of slime on it. Marketing is mostly about deception and half-truths, and promoting a product effectively means maximizing the positives and minimizing/omitting the negatives: "Look at this shiny car!" (engine leaks oil) "Buy our shiny lightweight computer!" (can't change battery) etc...

Good programming is the search for The Right Way to solve a particular problem, Truth if you will. Marketing and sales seem to be about un-Truth. It is little wonder that there are so many programmers who look at sales/marketing with disdain.

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

#74

Post by scorpioxy »

bdunn wrote: post #63
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 tr…

I'm specifically looking at getting into product development. Any suggested reading material for me?

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

#75

Post by ryanwaggoner »

rushabh wrote: post #61
bdunn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, Quickboo…

most people do not have the kind of talent for writing that you and patio11 possess

Maybe most people don't, but many (maybe most) here on HN do. Just look at the comments here.

And even if you don't have the writing skills on day 1, you can improve via advice, feedback, various courses and books, and practice.

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

#76

Post by tuxidomasx »

Selling products to people who have subscribed to an email list may be a great way to get customers. But part of the secret sauce is getting people to be on your list in the first place. I was hoping the article would touch on that a bit more.

Where do you find people who are potential customers who willingly want you to market to them? If I could master that, the sky is the limit.

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

#77

Post by ryanwaggoner »

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…

I find this outlook really sad. I paid $39 for Brennan's ebook (thanks to a $10 off coupon) and I didn't know him from Adam when I bought it. Literally don't think I had ever heard of him, but someone on HN recommended it. I read the whole thing in one sitting and the very next day, sent out two project proposals at a 50% bump in my normal hourly rates. One guy balked, one guy just said ok without comment. That simple bump represented an extra $10k in revenue for me, or 250x the cost of the ebook. All because I bothered to read a book and make a minimal effort to apply the principles.

Not everyone who buys the book is going to get that much out of it, or even get anything out of it at all. But to call it a scam simply because it's information that is being sold under the premise that it can help you improve if you apply it?

That's pretty sad.

EDIT: I should also mention that this was only a couple weeks ago, so the guy who balked might still come back. That's not uncommon in my experience. Regardless, I'm after great rates, not just total revenue.

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

#78

Post by bdunn »

javajosh wrote: post #71
bdunn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They both have their places. You can budget against recurring revenue - it generally just takes time to ramp up. Infoproducts require constant tending (marketing), but when life happens and you need some cash, you can run a sale. Also - mailing lists glue it all together - best decision ever.

> Also - mailing lists glue it all together - best decision ever. So Brennan, how did you start your mailing list, and how do you keep it healthy and growing? For example, do you allow your subscribers to post to the list, or is it just a newsletter? Also, have there ever been times when you've wanted to hold back some secret sauce and not share it because it's just too darn good?

Nope, I like sharing (and, confession: it gets me incidental business. Win-win all around.)

My mailing list initially came from Planscope subscribers. You'll notice I have a "get 8 free reports" opt-in on the blog and when you sign up for a trial. That is rehashing the BEST email reports I've ever sent using an autoresponder. My general freelancer mailing list (non-Planscope specific) is people who came over via Planscope or the book.

Here's an example: http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=ac67336d11c5d745a54e0867...

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

#80

Post by larrys »

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.

Brennan, serious question here.

What have you done and how long have you been doing it for to come along and offer advice which you are now selling to others?

Checking the registration dates of your three domains I find the following:

planscope.io - April 4, 2012

businessoffreelancing.com - Sept 19, 2012

doubleyourfreelancingrate.com - Aug 15, 2012

wearetitans.net (2008) (where you work?) doesn't have an about page so I can find out nothing about your past history or your role there.

This is your twitter:

https://twitter.com/brennandunn

Your HN profile shows very little and so does a search.

So tell me a little more about why your advice is so valuable.

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