The Un-Sexy of Setting up a Product, Putting the Cart before the Horse and a Mixergy Webinar (Plus Progress Report)

Resources Mentioned: andrew warner, mixergy.com, noah kagan, okdork.com, corbett barr, catherine caine, webex, mindnode pro, mailchimp, ejunkie

This post is large part update on the progress of the business, large part reflection from a webinar on “launching a product” I recently listened to over at mixergy.com from noah kagan (mint.com, Facebook) limited to 20 members. It includes mindmaps, documents you can use as templates, review and reflection.

Mixergy “Product Launch” Webinar

I listened to a webex webinar recently, (I’m on Andrew Warner’s mailing list and found it through that) and I got some awesome butt kicking advice, unfortunately, a few things I’ve heard before came up…”what do you do? get more specific. I’m looking at your site, what’s the problem you solve?” Mannnnnnnnn my brain went. I thought I tackled this already, I’ve spent a year picking a niche and specific problems to solve, what I thought was a core set of technical hurdles all online entrepreneurs deal with.

I’ve paid for help on my tagline. (catherine caine)
I’ve paid for personal coaching. (corbett barr)

Both were great. How is this not already obvious?…this should be solved.

Point: You can never be too specific.

I wear a lot of hats, I want to solve a lot of different tech problems…do I really have to be the “Mailchimp E-mail Campaign” guy, or the “Speed Up your WordPress site” guy?, why can’t I be the tech guy for online entrepreneurs that does a workshop or training on those. I’m a stubborn son of a gun I guess because I still think I can be…the service is clearly needed, appreciated, and paid for in my freelancing work now. Why can’t this be turned into something more turn-key?

So I didn’t get a whole lot of info on how to launch these upcoming services per say, but I did get a useful smack in the head to have more clear objectives, validate quickly, start acting faster. I think Noah might say that was info on how to launch, it certainly wasn’t the “write guest posts, offer something free” stuff I was expecting though. I think it was more valuable in reflection.

Bullet Points on Webinar

be able to explain exactly what you do in two sentences
validate quickly with cheap fast tools. don’t even make a website. use craigslist to get people quick
have specific objectives for launching anything
your marketing needs to be predictable and repeatable, like a webinar, or partnership.
find where people with the problem you’re trying to solve go to complain. get them.

Noah knows his stuff, he’s raw and has great advice. I got a lot out of it, and he really wants to see entrepreneurs succeed. He has an incredible background including mint.com and Facebook. Check out his site at okdork.com. If you’re interested in hearing the webex, you can try signing up at mixergy.com http://mixergy.com/how-to-launch/ I have no idea, but Andrew may still let you in.

So I came back to looking at my IT Arsenal site and all these services I want to provide, and I questioned myself.

I’ve already done a survey with good feedback, should I launch some mini service for each of these to validate further and get quick “test” business?
Does each thing I want to provide need to be it’s own separate mini site?
Should I really just pick one thing? It feels like my all around knowledge and how everything works together goes to waste!
Maybe I should eliminate the blog at IT Arsenal and just make it a bunch of buttons for solutions to the essential online entrepreneur problems?

Those might be great solutions, I don’t know, it’s not clear.

What is clear? The need to act. Get this stuff up, go out there and see if it works. Re-validate from my survey months ago. I’m inspired to do just that with continued investment in all the working pieces. Correct course if need be, really nail articulating the exact problem I’m solving on my homepage. Sound familiar?

Progress Updates

I completed all my Feb 27th goals over the last few weeks. I was pretty happy with the progress, but getting there taught me a lot as you’ll see below. I broke down the un-sexyness of creating the framework to sell services and products (it’s a lot of hard work), became mindlocked over if I should start a mailing list for each product/service so I could have auto-responders follow up and ask for feedback, and produced a good bit of sales content and intellectual content on the services I’m putting together.

In reflection to the webinar above, I should have just made some bare bone documents and forms, offered stuff up for free via a templated e-mail, gone to craigslist for feedback on if it was useful and corrected course if need be. My actions were a little cart before the horse. Still, good systems experience in my recent progress, and I’m going off my survey results and current freelance clients that these are useful services to package up, I’m not completely in the dark.

The unsexy business of setting up a service or product. A mindmap.

This is what it takes in cold unappealing work to make IT Arsenal capable of selling a product or service. The end of the trees are where a lot of the work takes place, sales-pages, setting up links, payment gateways, e-mail campaigns, branding on all those things. Looking at the scope for ITA, I see how nuts I am for trying to offer so much. I’m only starting out with a few, and now urging myself to validate more often. I think I tend toward offering everything because I like doing a lot of things and feel like being a jack of all trades is a strength. It’s also the nature of tech “stuff” to bleed over into a lot of areas. Yet another reminder there’s not a ONE thing I do. Hmph.

If I can’t make the totality of what I’m offering crystal clear, the bigger picture of “I’m your tech guy”, my skills will be washed away.

Generic Flow (click to enlarge)

IT Arsenal Flow (click to enlarge)

Build with MindNodePro

Core Actions

website setup
- -blog posts on each topic
- -imagery
- -formatting
- -social media links
create social media accounts
sales-page contents for each service or product
- -images
- -sales-copy
- -formatting
- -forms
- -supplemental tools like scheduling
- -payment gateway
  - –create product in payment system
    - —link payment processor in payment system
    - —link e-mail list in payment system
      - —-set up autoresponder to follow up, get feedback, or increase engagement
    - —create welcome e-mail in payment system
  - –test purchase flow
create list in e-mail service provider for newsletter
- -create list for each service or product you want to set up an autoresponder to or link to payment system for managing who has purchased your product
  - –create and style autoresponder letters
newsletter signup form
- -customize newsletter opt in e-mails
- -create and style newsletter welcome letter
- -create 1-3 autoresponder e-mails for engagement
professional domain e-mail set up
- -filters to catch some of these automated responses and label/folder them
create branded documentation for any reports, agreements, or proposals
affiliate linking if applicable in post or site wide sidebar, uploading, including, linking images
create deliverables for any products.
create any template documents to supplement services.

√ come up with 5 business goals for 2011 and post to physical wall

earn 20k through my online business
earn $1000 in truly front loaded or passive income (not trading time for money directly)
launch 3 products/services
read 5 business books
go to at least one large tech convention
2000 person mailing list

√ write up a launch strategy for publicly “releasing” services

write relevant post (or 2) on each service/product topic (drafted until relaunch post) so free, recent content is waiting on site on each service topic being launched.
write relaunch post, a simple post outlining new services, get connected information and teaser for coming report “what entrepreneurs want from technology” or “what online entrepreneurs want” or ?…announce that launch prices will last until ____
“make me your IT guy” and get this free report “event” will be the next post. teaser content from what’s in the report. re-iterate services and filling the needs of what entrepreneurs want. action call to make me your IT guy by asking me a question, following on twitter, or checking out my services, and downloading the free report. (include newsletter form and get connected buttons).
co-post or ask a different partner on each service for a shout out in the next two weeks, (separately) include subtle call to action for people to buy service or product in each post or make me their IT guy. offer a specific discount, or bonus.
corbett reviewed, said launch idea was too centered on me, give more value…re-working along with revalidating

√ build “selling a product” options page, and start options salespages

http://www.itarsenal.com/selling-product-online/
- http://www.itarsenal.com/selling-product-online/service/
- http://www.itarsenal.com/selling-product-online/optimizer/
- http://www.itarsenal.com/selling-product-online/trainer/

√ create branded “proposal” and “agreement” documents for the contracted services (vs the info product ones)

See it (credit corbett barr)

√ create “selling a product” options in ejunkie

√ integrate mailchimp list auto add to ejunkie products for management

reflection: geez, all my services/products together = about 10 different items to create (and maintain) a separate mailchimp list for. why? so i can send automatic welcome information (auto-responders), then a few days later automatic info to provide additional value and hopefully engagement, and then weeks later, follow up and ask for feedback.
the benefits are that these things are automated, and built to scale, is it necessary to set up now though? i’ve spent a lot of time trying to weigh the pro’s and con’s. Should customers only get a one time welcome e-mail with some access and next steps info, which can be done through the payment processor most times, or the website form, or should they get the full e-mail list treatment?
Do I legally have to run them through the “double opt in” thing if I only plan to use a few auto-responding e-mails, NOT an e-mail campaign with regular content? … the alternatives leave me exporting lists from the payment processor to capture and connect with my customers, and sending group or individual e-mails. I think, for now I’m going to set up each service with it’s own list so I have an overview in my e-mail service provider, if nothing else just to view the e-mails.
It will take a bit of up front work, but provide experience, and scale. I suppose it seems overwhelming because i’m setting up 10 items. Ultimately my hope is that it will provide value to the end user by following up appropriately with an autoresponder, getting valuable feedback to improve, and gain experience in setting up systems that scale.

√ create mailchimp auto-responders for each product & service, to say thank you, ask if they’re happy or can suggest improvements, or would like to do a testimonial. likely 7 days after purchase.

decided not to waste my time until products and services are being bought through the site.

√ a round of website visual updates and edits

added welcome text
updated header
updated social media buttons to look less like a sketch
added follow on twitter, and like on facebook buttons
still working on e-mail newsletter call to action

√ print and post up these goals in front of my face

This stuff was great from a system mindset, with the caveat of validating more often, the framework is filling out for work to generate through the business, the website, the text, the visuals and system…not outside the business from me alone. It’s time to pull the trigger in next months goals.

LDP/ITA March Goals

Re-validate what I want to offer so far. Create limited, time sensitive launches to capture a few people, provide service, get feedback. Decide what’s next…to launch bigger, change, abandon that service.
- Mini launch with simple tools (no website, capture, checkout) for two services. Get feedback. E-mail me if interested.
Revisit how my homepage can present a crystal clear message.
- Convey “I am your IT guy”. I train, troubleshoot and set you up.
Choose 5 business books to read
Choose convention to go to
Complete report documentation for productivity assessment
- Complete form/questionnaire for productivity assessment
Complete report documentation template for virtual tuneup
- Complete form/questionnaire for virtual tuneup report
Complete instructions e-mail with wordpress backup service
Create e-mail template for wordpress troubleshooter
Complete wordpress and websites “build me one” proposal and agreement
Complete selling a product “set me up” proposal and agreement
Finish “pitch page” text for all 10 products/services.
Write one great post on each service topic.
Post re-launch announcement.
Post free report with the launch of the WP trainer (“grey out” services that aren’t ready)
- Go to five places I like (websites, facebook groups, forums, networks, guest blog) and offer specific discounts or bonus.

Photo by emilio labrador