Hey Thanks! I was planning to advertise in High School newspapers around graduation time and hoping to get picked up in some graduation gift guide stories/blogs. Got any other ideas for hitting that market?
Well there are certain websites a lot of people tend to visit before they go to school. Advertising there could be helpful. For example Rate My Professor is really big. As is roomsurf.com Also Bed Bath and Beyond is a hugely popular place for people to go to buy supplies for school.
Thanks ja27 for checking us out! I think you're spot on with selecting the target market. Now I just need to figure out the best ways to get on their radar screens...
There are a few reasons for the PDF/ePub pricing but the biggest one was this: I wanted the PDF to be really accessible so that someone that contributed to a book could buy it just to see what other people wrote without having to spend too much.
What do you think of our pricing? Would you price things differently?
I strongly recommend looking at Patio11's posts on this sort of subject -- also, he did an eBook sort of presentation on how he markets Bingo Card Creator that was sold on AppSumo that will likely apply directly to your business as well that I strongly suggest you find / get.
The gist of it was that he creates a TON of landing pages and SEOs the hell out of them (he talks more about how in the book) so that people searching for things like "custom wedding book" will find your page specifically targeted to weddings, and other people searching for "custom christening book" will find you with targeted copy for christenings, etc.
I think you have a slightly less niche market than BingoCC, and this is definitely a product that people will pay a semi-premium price for given the keepsake / memento vibe to it, so long as the product looks like quality (and it does), but otherwise, I think the two business models overlap more than they don't.
Yes, exactly. He also did a talk about targeting the female market. This might be a big help for you. Here's the thread, talk, and blog post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2371965
I don't know about the price. I'm a cheap bastard so it all seems expensive to me. If you can find a way to A/B test different prices or run special offers that might help figure out the best prices.
Thanks abbasmehdi! I checked out ProfNet and will create an account first thing tomorrow. Great idea!
As for making this a snap, the content of each book comes from a social network (yours or someone you're giving the book to) so the speed with which that network contributes content is likely the biggest driver of project duration. So while it's possible to make a book in a day and have it on your doorstep in a week, it all comes down to how quickly a social network responds.
If you have time, please create an account, take the app for a test drive and let me know what you think.
Thanks plasma. I'd held off on describing my startup to get a better sense for whether I got the execution of the idea right. I wanted to know if users coming to the site 'got it' without biasing things too much. But, that said, here is the gist of what we do:
The Wisdom of Others is an online personal publishing service that makes it easy to create book-store quality books filled with the practical advice and useful wisdom of family and friends.
Think of our books like a personalized Life's Little Instruction Book written for someone you care about by everyone that cares about them.
For example, say you have some friends expecting their first child. You could make a book of parent survival tips and how-to’s by asking their family and friends to answer the question, “What do you know now that you wish you did before having kids?”
Or, maybe you’re heading to a wedding and are hunting for the perfect gift. You could make a book for the new bride and groom that asks, “What’s the secret to having a happy marriage?” and fill the pages with answers from everyone invited to the wedding.
Or maybe you know a recent graduate that's getting ready to launch out into the world. You could make a book filled with advice and instructions for succeeding in life written by their family, friends, teachers and coaches.
Hopefully you're getting the idea. Our books make it easy to give the gift of experience and encouragement to someone you care about. Because life, after all, doesn't come with instructions.
