pkenjora

10 lat temudiscuss

Python has always been under attack because people using it are busy making things instead of wasting time with language debates.

Just because Python doesn't have zealots doesn't men its dying.

pkenjora

13 lat temudiscuss

LOL, well as long as we're being funny:

Nah, this is the most passive aggressive pitch you ever saw:

https://www.awarelabs.com/signup/?website=http%3A%2F%2Fminim...

MiniMaxir gets a 41% Interactive Marketing Score.

pkenjora

13 lat temudiscuss

What pitch would you have gone with?

pkenjora

13 lat temudiscuss

The man only missed 22 days in 5 years! He worked for 15 years before that in media and wrote 5 books before he even started blogging.

Lesson learned: Blogs don't take off on their own.

pkenjora

14 lat temudiscuss

The broad answer is depends on your product. However, there is a general formula that answers your question. But first...

With first time founders, there's a temptation to rush ahead and capture the low hanging fruit. They read articles and watch interviews about tactics and strategy that works for others. So they rush ahead to imitate those actions. More often than not, underlying principles that are key to a strategy's success are skipped, leading to less than satisfactory results.

For example, take "press releases" or "email bloggers". On the surface it seems like one should pay for PR Web or simply email the Scobalizer ( a blogger ). Have a good pitch is the most common advice. Easy enough right? Nope.

In reality, having a good pitch means prep work. What happens after the blogger or reporter Googles your name or product? Will they find a good back story? Are bios, head shots, and screen shots easily available? Do you look like you have traction, a fan base, twitter followers, any kind of momentum? Do those things improve your odds of being picked up in a story... absolutely. Reporters and bloggers want to see momentum and hop on board.

It's not all gloom and doom. The point is not to rush ahead and accept the fact that there is a formula and steps should be taken in the right order. Especially if its a founders first rodeo. One must set a pace and grind through the necessary tasks. Its not glamorous, thats why the magazine interviews leave it out.

So what's the formula...

Knowing the formula is the trick. It saves time and keeps one focused to execute to a steady cohesive strategy. First time founders, when learning from mistakes, are actually discovering the formula and burning the idea. Seasoned founders know the formula, thats why they launch and sell startups like PEZ dispensers. A track record and connections help too, but thats a different article.

In a nutshell the formula for getting the word out is the process of building an echo chamber from your website outwards. Setting up a larger and larger online footprint that reinforces and multiplies marketing efforts as they get more advanced. For example, before pitching TechCrunch, have a CrunchBase profile, before that have a social media following, before that have a shareable site, before that have the right message, before that have the right branding, etc... There are many paths and variants on the theme but the idea is to build up, not jump ahead.

Waaaaaaaayyyyyyyy oversimplified formula:

  Phase I - Button Up Your Website
  Phase II - Positioning And Branding
  Phase III - Messaging 
  Phase IV - Create Credibility
  Phase V - Serious Online Presence
  Phase VI - A Few General Press Releases
  Phase VII - Get Listed As An Expert
  Phase VIII - Hit The Press Directly
  Phase IX - Paid Advertising
  Phase X - Pitch For Funding

Keep in mind that the list above is meant to occur in tandem with the development of a product and is iterative. Founders are meant to learn from the process ( not learn the process ). As founders complete phases, they will go back and tweak prior phases. Those adjustments are a product of learning from the customer base and achieving minimal viable product. If on the right path, the founding team will make fewer and fewer adjustments further back. The trick is to complete each phase as fully as possible and learn as much as possible before beginning the next. This is second nature to seasoned founders.

No doubt there will be debate about the order or necessity of some of the phases. Every product and founder is slightly different. This approach has helped get me from zero users to 16K signups and sustainability in a few months. Of course partnerships and connections were a huge part of my success, but the phases above helped me get those. If you are a first time founder go through all the phases and learn.

I have written an essay on this topic because I am the founder of AwareLabs and a subject matter expert on this. All of the phases above are broken down into individual tasks within the AwareLabs Marketing Task Guide:

http://www.awarelabs.com

AwareLabs started as an excel spreadsheet, I'm glad to share it as a product. For the first time founders out there I hope the guide is as helpful to you as it has been to me.

pkenjora

14 lat temudiscuss

I'm tired of wasting time spinning my wheels on PR. Theres this dead zone between startups ( bootstrap ) and PR agencies.

The 80/20 rule has to apply to this, because it applies to everything else. So I figure I can capture the 80% of PR tasks anyone can do because they're not complex but are important.

My hope is that by the time people complete the PR task guide on AwareLabs they will be in a position to pay an agency to complete the last 20% that may require special connections or access.

So far its a theory I'm in the process of evaluating. Anyone with experience in this arena is welcome to provide expertise, I'd be thankful if you saved me some time going down the wrong path?

pkenjora

15 lat temudiscuss

Free is an option. You could also slap a big "Or Buy This Better Thing" button generated by PayPal somewhere on the signup page. Thats a better option.

Why?

Because, its a great way to A/B test if what you're hoping to sell will get traction even with one person.

Set the expectation for payment early, Dan Martell wrote a solid post on why this has worked for him in the past. If you give it away free with no expectations of payment, it de-values your product. So set the expectation of payment, slap a "Buy This" button ont there.

I sold 6 tea kettles once before knowing where to get them myself. I sent an email to 3 saying sorry were out of stock (fairly true). Then I searched the web for kettle distributors. Sent the email to other 3 asking if its ok if they are a few weeks late. All 3 sold, and several dozen since then. All from a Buy Now Button on a landing page.

pkenjora

15 lat temudiscuss

Just use PayPal, especially if you bootstrap.

Set up a recurring payments button and drop the HTML into a page. The IPN does the rest. Its simpler than you think:

http://blog.awarelabs.com/2008/paypal-ipn-python-code/

If within your first month of operation you have customers changing subscription plans then worry about how to deal with it.

Don't solve problems you dont have yet. If you don't have customers yet you've got more pressing concerns.

Having gone through this recently, Im hoping to save you pain.

pkenjora

15 lat temudiscuss

We use PayPal. The solution we found was to cancel the subscription and create a new one. Sure this isn't atomic but we haven't had anyone drop mid flow yet.

It looks and feels atomic to the user.

PayPal could go a long way to document their API better. The number of customers with PayPal accounts is large enough that we're willing to deal, especially since setup is a one time cost.

PayPal does not support monthly recurring billing between Germany and United States. Thats no good.

I think someone can displace PayPal but not enough payers are comfortable using services other than PayPal, especially on a startup site.

Hope this helps someone.

pkenjora

16 lat temudiscuss

This article is dear and near to my heart. I've spent the last 3 years working on solving the issue of the SEO crap chute.

The problem with SEO is that it requires content and links. Content should be the only metric. Unfortunately then we'd have no way to distinguish crap from gold. So links are needed as a popularity gauge. Unfortunately links have become a currency more important than content.

If we somehow had the ability to build our own community of bloggers? People from our blog roll, or colleagues we write with, like building relationships on Twitter. Then we could take the focus of links and put it back on content.

We'll thats now possible, like I said, I've spent the last 3 years working on this. The answer to your SEO problems is something called Arkayne. Here is what you can do with it:

Arkayne: http://www.arkayne.com/arkayne

1. Register, create your profile. 2. Create your own community of fellow bloggers. 3. Outrank any of the SEO Gods in days. 4. Live life as a happy blogger writing good content.

Absolutely leave me and my team a comment, now that we can, shifting this game is fun.

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