
How I launched a profitable minimally viable product in 3 hours - amirkhella
http://blog.amirkhella.com/2010/09/21/the-story-of-keynotopia-how-i-launched-a-profitable-product-in-3-hours/
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rcavezza
I was really looking forward to learning how the product was built, how the
payment processor was set up so quickly, the tools used, and how he was able
to build the product so fast.

Most of the post was actually about dealing with the uncertainties of
launching a product before you're comfortable with it and being pleasantly
surprised by the results.

There's very little information on the process of how Amir launched it in
three hours except using paypal and buying a $35 theme from themeforest - I'd
like to hear more about this in a feature post.

~~~
amirkhella
Sure. If enough folks want to dig into this much detail, I'd be happy to put
together an in-depth write-up.

~~~
patio11
You'd be surprised how often nuts&bolts issues stop people from starting. I
was mildly mystified by "Set up website, collect money, deliver software"
prior to starting, too. Turns out it is trivial, but that was not obvious
prior to doing it. (Relatedly: taxes, bookkeeping, accounting, and government
regulation were all walks in the park. Marketing is hard. Who knew?)

~~~
lukev
This has always been my impression. But when I've actually looked for
resources on how to get those nuts & bolts set up, for someone who knows
nothing about them, it's been non-obvious.

You wouldn't by any chance know of some resources related to getting over the
initial hump of getting paid for software/services, would you?

~~~
paulsingh
Actually, I've been trying to write a little bit about this here:
[http://www.resultsjunkies.com/blog/category/back-office-
expo...](http://www.resultsjunkies.com/blog/category/back-office-exposed/)

HTH!

~~~
lukev
Thanks! That is indeed useful...

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shazow
Sounds more like "How I built, refined, and publicized a free trial of my
product for months, then released the paid version in 3 hours."

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Which is also a pretty effective business model!

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cloudkj
Looks pretty similar to the Four Hour Work Week muse model touted by Tim
Ferris and co. Attractive product page (Wordpress theme), informational
product (software templates), outsourced commerce pipeline (e-junkie). Only
thing is that he didn't need to use paid ads to drive traffic, since he led
with a blog post that led to subscriptions, which meant he already had a
customer base. Cool stuff.

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kwellman
You seem to be referring to the web site as the "minimally viable product" not
including the actual product that you're selling on the site.

You don't mention how long it took to actually build the templates that you're
selling.

Three hours is still impressive and inspiring, but I imagine there was a lot
more work leading up to that point.

~~~
amirkhella
Correct- The product itself has been created over time, as a byproduct of my
day job. But it wasn't a product until I put together that MVP website.

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please
but did it only last for 30 minutes? Error 500 - Internal server error

An internal server error has occured! Please try again later.

~~~
amirkhella
Sorry about that - 1and1 is totally unreliable as a host, and is collapsing
under the HN effect.

Reload it a couple of times and it should work.

~~~
jhuckestein
If a server cannot handle the "HN effect", you should probably host nothing
there. Unless of course it's not only the server's fault ;)

~~~
amirkhella
That's probably another lesson I should add to the post: Never use 1and1 as
your host.

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IgorPartola
WP SuperCache?

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amirkhella
I just got it installed and activated, and deactivated most plug-ins on the
blog and website. Hopefully that will solve it.

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bvi
The blog post says nothing about _how_ you launched your product in 3 hours.

Slightly misleading, perhaps?

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rada
You have an error on your link building website:

 _We never buy links or use links farms. We find relevant, diverse links and
build them nauturally._

nauturally -> naturally

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sahillavingia
How much time was spent working on the project afterwards though? I built an
app "in a week" (<http://oneweekapp.com/>) which went on to generate a decent
passive income for me, but since then I've spent far far more than a week on
it.

I'd be really curious to know more details, specifically on the payment end
(doesn't that take more than 3 hours by itself to set up?).

~~~
golgo13
The app looks cool. Looks like you deserve more than 3 stars (as of
2010-09-21)

~~~
sahillavingia
Thanks, it's mainly cause it crashes a lot. The update I just submitted should
fix a lot of it.

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rcavezza
Can someone post a text summary or the post in its entirety? I found the site
url on google, but couldn't cache it from before the site went down.

~~~
nopal
Coral cache is working: [http://blog.amirkhella.com.nyud.net/2010/09/21/the-
story-of-...](http://blog.amirkhella.com.nyud.net/2010/09/21/the-story-of-
keynotopia-how-i-launched-a-profitable-product-in-3-hours/)

~~~
amirkhella
Working on creating a static HTML file for the post

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allenp
Can you comment on the impact the affiliate program has had on your sales?

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amirkhella
Help me put together a useful in-depth follow-up post by leaving a reply to
this comment with a couple of questions that you'd like me to answer.

~~~
paulsingh
I'd love to write a blog post about this, but you don't have any contact info
on your profile or site. You can contact via me email (it's on my profile) if
you're interested.

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unohoo
have you tried pricing variations ? You might be leaving money on the table if
there's such an incredible demand.

~~~
amirkhella
That's a very good point. I had some pricing variations in the beginning and
the one I have now is at the sweet spot.

One of the most interesting moves was to add a company license (a friend
suggested it and it took less than 10 minutes to add it. It sold several
copies to date.

I am planning an update that should position the product at the right
value/price point.

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dangrossman
That's a nice looking site for a $35 template. Any chance you're willing to
share where it's from?

~~~
amirkhella
The theme is called inFocus. I purchased it from ThemeForest.net

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madridorama
what plugin are you using to handle ejunkie requests inside of wordpress? does
ejunkie manage sales through paypal and google checkout? do they provide good
tracking?

I am curious how viable ejunkie + wordpress are as a basic and simple
ecommerce platform

~~~
amirkhella
No plugin. Just their HTML script for each shopping cart item that I embed in
product pages.

They manage sales through PP and GC, and they even hold delivery on eCheck
payments until they are cleared.

I think eJunkie + Wordpress make a great duo for eCommerce platforms.

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danielnicollet
Are you still growing the product and company, and yes, as shazow says, sounds
like you put a lot more than 3 hours into it... Don't take this the wrong way
but are you baiting us because your traffic to Keynotopia is falling?

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barfoomoo
Any quick SEO tips?

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curtisspope
Thanks man, I know what this is like

