Sam On Software

I’ve been suprised at how you can notice the effect of pushing content out there.

I spend a week creating articles, tutorials and other content, and a month later I can see the effect.

Admittedly there is a lot of work for a small reward but I guess the theory is that it’s cumulative over time.  The content you put out today is still bringing up qualified traffic in a years time.

However the work required to create content that will draw people in so they can see the benefits of your product does make one thing clear to me :

If you can make a product that is so remarkable or useful that people naturally want to tell everyone else about it, you are set.

People normally don’t tell other people about the furniture shops they go to, but Ikea customers do.  People usually don’t put stickers identifying their PC manufacturer on their car, but mac users do.

So far my guess as to how to create such a product is :

- It has to be different.
- It has to have a character/personality/value system behind it.

I guess it doesn’t even have to be good, it just has to be something people identify with.

I mean for example, PDF editors seem to be popular.  I wonder if you could create a product called “PedantPDF” designed specifically for people who care about spelling, grammar and details.  The top of the homepage could just say
“Details Matter.  Raising quality since 2010″.

Features could be added to check image quality or file size for possible improvements.

I mean, maybe that’s a bad idea, but maybe a core group of people who are proud of being picky would rally around it.

Just a made up example.

* It was deliberate

I’ve been working full time on my software business for 9 months now.

So in theory I could have made a baby by now.*

Sales growth has been slow but steady.

Here is everything that I have learned from first hand experience in that time.

3rd party endorsements can be much more powerful than advertising

Getting a nice review had an immediate impact on sales, in fact it did more than $1000 worth of advertising did.

The power of tools

For too long I didn’t have a calendar and task-list tool that I used every day.  Now I do and it has really upped my productivity.

I use CuteReminder for appointments and tudumo for my task lists.  I find tudumo is shockingly elegant, literally, I was shocked at how well designed it is.  I’m not really pimping these two tools though, just saying that it’s really important that you don’t have to remember things.  It was for me anyway.

Partnering (discount not commission)

I talked to some bookkeepers and accountants about partnering with me to sell my software to their clients.  I was thinking in terms of a “commission percentage”  but they were all talking in terms of  “discount pricing”.  Is there a difference ? I think there is, a commission is money the middleman keeps, his payola. A discounted pricing system means that the middleman is able to offer his clients access to a discount, he is providing value to his clients by being in your software’s partner program.  Many middle men can’t keep commissions due to ethical considerations.

Users are more understanding than your insecurity might make you fear. Self explanatory.

Affiliates can work if they are targeted to your software niche. General “software directories” affiliates don’t work unless you’re selling something with mass appeal  (virus scanner, an mp3 player).

Success is indeed a series of failures without loss of enthusiasm.

“No one is going to buy it!”  “I only sold one this month!”  “Two a month wouldn’t pay for a trip to the supermarket!”  “One a week!! what am I doing wrong!!”  “I can’t live off one a day…

I bet if you were able to ask Steve Jobs or some other mega success guy “How’s work going ?”, if they were open an honest they would give you a list of complaints.  “Damn suppliers can only get us enough parts for 7 million IPads !  Google is busting my balls with this Android crap, geez it never ends”.

It’s kind of cool i guess to realize “maybe this _is_  success”.

You can combine testing and content creation

People, mentioning no names, people who sell bingo software, those people, have said how important it is to have lots of content on your website, so people can find you.

Well if you combine testing and generating web content it kind of fools you into thinking it’s not a testing drudge, and at the end your series of tests you have produced a nice web tutorial or a new section for you manual.  So when testing think, can I document this and make it good content.

5 email addresses are more useful that 1000 ip addresses of downloaders you can’t contact

Got this one from Jason Cohen.  If the software ain’t selling you have to talk to the people who looked at it but didn’t buy.  And one great way to do that is to ask for their email address when they download a trial.  Yes it might reduce the number who download, but if your software ain’t selling, who cares.

That’s all I’ve got for now.

* if the girlfriend had had her way I probably would have!