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!

What ? What does that mean ? how do you differentiate between the two ? Are any thoughts “internally produced”, don’t they all come from some external stimuli ?
How is that important ?

Exactly.

When you read something or someone says something or you see something someone else has prepared for you to see you automatically starts applying critical analysis.

The guardians of your attention in the entrance hall of your mind size up the new ideas to see how worthwhile they are, probably in order to decide where to store them.

Here is an example that is all over the internet, I am not sure of it’s original source.

It’s cute, but don’t move on from it just yet.

Imagine you’re the guy at the party. Imagine the first three scenarios. Imagine what the power dynamic is, imagine what you would estimate your changes of ’success’ are. Now imagine the last scenario.

It’s qualitatively different isn’t it ?

It’s different because the woman in question is acting on an idea that occurred to her “Hey, it’s that guy I heard about!”, she is acting on her own curiosity.

Most of the value Kentucky Fried Chicken (or KFC as they prefer to be known, as to avoid the fried food association) get from their adverts is not when someone sees a television commercial with it’s white and red images and happy customers and immediately says “I think I’ll go out and buy some chicken”.

Most of the value comes when later the person is walking down the street and they have the thought “hmm I’m a bit hungry, hmm I feel like some KFC”.

The person does not question their desire in the same way they would if I had walked up to them and said “You want to go to KFC”. They thought it, it came from them, it doesn’t need to be analysed too closely.

Actually of course it didn’t come from them, it came from an advert they saw many hours and possibly days ago. Without the advert the idea would not have appeared in their mind but due to the time and space separation between the suggestion and the idea the idea is treated as if it “just occurred”.

I just had a discussion with my girlfriend about the way women are portrayed on television and the values communicated in shows, especially those aimed at young women.

She had switched away from Drop Dead Diva after finding it’s pseudo morality tale distasteful.

I agree that many television shows bask in the superficial and nasty and present it in such a glamorous way that it will have an influence on younger viewers, who are already fascinated with their place in their hierarchy and social-structure.

I’m a little more dispassionate and utilitarian in my analysis.  More of the Geoffrey Miller School.

A lot of the frustrations at emotional manipulation are reduced when you see it as a deliberate attempt to achieve something rather than genuine world view.

“Oh look, a beautiful rich thin person acting selfish, they did that to try and elicit an emotional reaction and make me feel inferior.  Which will in turn make me watch more for the emotional candy and in turn buy things.”  It’s strictly business.

If you are frustrated with the values they see in movies and television here are two points I think you should keep in mind.

The sellers ain’t buying.

Most ministers of Education around the world send their children to private school.  Most left leaning politicians have their personal advisors on non-union easily terminated contracts.  Rupert Murdoch does not get his morning news feed from the Sun newspaper.  Financial advisors earn their money from commissions not the investment growth and dividends they are selling you.

In the moment it’s an easy mistake to assume that the people writing and producing television and films believe in the universality of the value system they are sending down the wire.  I’m sure they don’t.

Don’t look up and shake your fist, look down and dismiss.

If you do want to combat the ugly values you see in the media don’t become frustrated and angry.  If someone mentions a show you dislike and you immediately launch into

“That’s a terrible show, they are all so selfish and superficial. It’s really a bad message to send to young people,  I mean it’s just…”  

you come across and being below and looking up shaking your fist.  The fact it’s inspired such a strong reaction leads people to assume it’s based on insecurity.

Instead, simply dismiss it from above.  “Oh yes, that show.  They really went cheap on that one didn’t they, selfish rich women go shopping.  Yawn.”

The more emotion a thing or person can evoke in you the more power it has.

It’s a rhetorical trick you see often, don’t give up your status by being infuriated, instead step above and dismiss.