

Lessons from My Almost Failed Launch - jkulmala
http://www.happybootstrapper.com/2013/my-almost-failed-launch/

======
SMrF
Usually these "lessons learned" posts are very hand-wavy and hard to relate
to. But this post has some great tips and the author sounds like me, just a
regular person trying to sell a product.

I also think that building something beyond your authority is a really common
failure pattern more people should be aware of.

~~~
toumhi
Congrats Jaana on the launch and the transparency you're showing here!

I agree about the last lesson indeed (not having enough authority). Also,
something that was discussed on the 30x500 alumni list, was that the trust you
have to inspire to your followers in order to sell a product at $300 is much
higher than if you sell a $20 ebook. Hence, all other things being equal, it's
better to start with a lower priced first product.

That's also something explained very well in the Book Yourself Solid book
([http://www.amazon.com/Book-Yourself-Solid-Reliable-
Marketing...](http://www.amazon.com/Book-Yourself-Solid-Reliable-
Marketing/dp/0470643471/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376493841&sr=8-1&keywords=book+yourself+solid)).

You first need to build trust with free stuff, then cheap education products,
then more and more expensive products or services (in the case of the book's
author, 1-to-1 coaching). Very few people are going to buy something expensive
from you if they don't know you. Most often they'll consume the free stuff
first, then move on to your cheap product, etc.

~~~
jkulmala
Thanks! You are SO right!

I had some extra challenges on authority all along since I didn't pick an
audience that I'd belong in myself. I just couldn't see myself writing
technical tutorials for Java developers - and I didn't want to pick
accountants either.

And I did a huge amount of little mistakes! I consider myself lucky in that I
eventually reached the launch goal at all.

~~~
ahoyhere
_And I did a huge amount of little mistakes! I consider myself lucky in that I
eventually reached the launch goal at all._

It's not luck, it's because you got the core thing right: You are killing a
real pain people with money have. :) If you get that core right, you can make
tons of mistakes and still help people and make money. It buys you the chance
to improve and fix and grow.

~~~
jkulmala
Thanks, Amy!

I can honestly say that what you have taught me in 30x500 has sliced years off
the learning curve of online business!

------
nhangen
"I didn’t stop to think if I had the authority to actually sell the product."

This, IMO, is the line that best encapsulates the launch's performance.

The problem with courses like the one the OP took is not that they offer bad
advice, but they get people thinking about what they can sell instead of a)
what problems they can solve and b) what problems they have the authority to
solve.

Sounds like the OP got the first part right, but maybe jumped too early on the
2nd.

I'd encourage anyone looking to sell a product like this to spend just as much
time, if not more, becoming an expert on said field before selling advice.

I don't know the OP, so I apologize if this comes across as presumptive.

~~~
miscmktg
"The problem with courses like the one the OP took is not that they offer bad
advice, but they get people thinking about what they can sell instead of a)
what problems they can solve and b) what problems they have the authority to
solve."

I took the same course as OP. You're making a lot of assumptions here. I have
to chime in, because 30x500 is almost the exact opposite of what you've
described.

1\. We spent an overwhelming amount of time learning how to find, identify,
and dissect pains and problems. Importantly, all of this was done well before
we spent any time about thinking what types of products we should sell.

(Side note: Check out this free lesson from 30x500 to get an idea of how we
approach "pains"... [http://unicornfree.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/10/Lesson-12-...](http://unicornfree.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/10/Lesson-12-Pain-Killers.pdf))

2\. The problem with OP wasn't that she wasn't "expert enough" to solve the
problem SaaS Compass addresses. (There's no question that her product benefits
SaaS owners.) It was a matter of her perceived authority, and that's something
that can - and, knowing Jaana, will - be established over time. (e.g. through
content marketing, publishing helpful, free information on her blog, etc.)

"I'd encourage anyone looking to sell a product like this to spend just as
much time, if not more, becoming an expert on said field before selling
advice."

3\. "Expert" is a very broad term, so this is wishy-washy advice. At what
point is someone considered an expert? Can I teach 3 year olds to play soccer
even if I'm not an expert soccer player? Hmmm, I think we're on to something.
On top of that, what type of expert does one need to be? "Said field" is
equally vague. Fields are BIG. You don't need to be an all-round SaaS expert
to sell to SaaS owners. You just need to be an expert at one particular slice
of SaaS, and know more about that than most SaaS owners do. (For instance, you
can be a CRO expert and sell CRO advice that's targeted and tailored to SaaS
owners and their CRO problems.)

~~~
nhangen
Read my comment again:

'The problem with courses like the one the OP took is not that they offer bad
advice, but they get people thinking about what they can sell instead of a)
what problems they can solve and b) what problems they have the authority to
solve.'

This has nothing to do with what the course teaches, but with the perceptions
of the students during their time in the course.

I haven't analyzed the OP's business success, so I can't say whether or not
I'd feel comfortable taking her advice, but I can tell you that were I to buy
something like this, I would expect that it should come from someone with a
good reputation and a volume of experience in the field (authority is a
function of this).

I'm not damning the course or the OP at all, merely stating an observation
based on my own experiences in the field of info-products.

~~~
miscmktg
Okay, I read it again :)

No, 30x500 doesn't get people thinking about what they can sell instead of
what problems they can solve. This goes for the material, and the student
perception of it. I'm making this bold claim because beginning by "thinking
about what problems you can solve instead of thinking about what you can sell"
(i.e. the opposite of what you've stated) is one of the major premises of the
course.

If you're talking about other courses, and you just assumed 30x500 was
similar, fine. I just wanted to point out the differences, and how what you
said was so far away from what we learned in the course (that includes the
material, and our 'perceptions' during our time in the course).

"Courses like the one OP took" <\--- (You said this without knowing anything
about 30x500...???)

~~~
nhangen
Amy doesn't remember but her and I have had many conversations at various
conferences. I know many of her peers, and I know several people that have
taken her course. Her husband and I discussed my sunburn at lessconf. I know
that she/he are good people.

My reference to courses like that is to any course that teaches someone how to
make money on the internet, whether they sell ebooks, software, tools,
downloads, or anything in between.

My comment is not an indictment of her course, but of the many get rich quick
seekers that take courses like these.

Amy and I spoke about this today and mentioned that she markets so as to avoid
this type of person. I think that's great. However, I'm not going to back away
from my comment just because her students don't like what I'm saying.

~~~
jkulmala
You are totally entitled to your opinion, but here's what happened from my
point-of-view:

1\. You read/skim my post

2\. You _assumed_ I'm selling advice (or info-product)

3\. You _assumed_ I didn't know my topic

4\. You _assumed_ I would be stupid enough to tell people "gee, I don't know
anything about this biz optimization thing" while selling advice on the topic
via the same channel

5\. You _assumed_ I was a "get rich quick seeker" out of my depth

6\. You _assumed_ that Amy's course somehow was responsible for this

7\. And now it's not Amy - it's us students, who the courses like this attract

I'm not offended though, I'm just amused. LOL. And I can see how my
communication and not being native english-speaker are partially responsible
for this.

The funniest thing here is that many of us "get rich quick seekers" in Amy's
course have spent years building online businesses. Yeah, we definitely don't
like what you are saying :D

------
tzaman
SaaS Compass is also a poor choice if name IMHO. To me it looks like another
CSS preprocessor or the like (Because Sass and Compass both are)

~~~
dc_ploy
I was confused on the same thing as well. The name "SaaS Compass" may even
confuse your target audience with the actual service you want to provide if
they try to find your organically.

~~~
jkulmala
Yes, you are right. I found out the name conflict only week before launch and
it was too late to change it for this particular launch.

Maybe later...

~~~
dictum
SaaS Sextant? SaaS Map? :)

A product's name is a reflection of its marketing (and just as the rest of
marketing, naming seems easy, but it's actually hard to get to good results
without overthinking it). Perhaps your experiences with the launch are
mirrored by the naming conflict, which you only learned about when it was too
late. Anyway, it's better to launch with an imperfect strategy and learn from
the mistakes early.

Congratulations on the launch.

------
KeyBoardG
"It was 8 hours after the launch and my launch had failed."

I know plenty of people who don't open emails until 8 hours later.

~~~
troels
Yeah, but in all fairness, he did have some traffic to the site in those 8
hours.

~~~
ahoyhere
The name: Jaana. The photo: A woman. "He"?

~~~
troels
OK, but I don't really think it's relevant which gender they are.

~~~
ahoyhere
Relevant to business? No. Common courtesy requires not mis-gendering people
though.

~~~
troels
I really think you're making a big thing out of nothing. The image didn't show
up because I read the text on my phone and the name is foreign to me, so I
didn't make the connection there either. Of course I could have found it out,
but since it's completely irrelevant to me, I didn't bother. I suppose it does
say something about me that I default to assume she was male, but
statistically speaking I probably would be right.

~~~
ahoyhere
Is simply pointing out a mistake "making a big thing out of nothing"?

I don't understand why you claim I'm "making a big thing" and write a
paragraph explaining yourself instead of just saying "Oops! So it is!"

------
liveinoakland
Follow-up: lessons from my almost failed lunch.

~~~
ahoyhere
"Om nom noooo!"

