I guess I haven't really used any distraction-free editing tools and honestly I was pretty skeptical while reading the post about the quality of feedback and value the product might have.... until I got to the mockup.
If the product looks & works as well as the mockup suggests, I'd buy it at the price mentioned, and I'm someone who only writes a half dozen or so posts a year.
38 willing to pay customers isn't quite the same as 38 paying customers. Instead of spending a week getting ~$400 worth* of obligation-free commitments it would have been better putting the time towards a working prototype. Then find a small beta group -> iterate -> release & sell -> iterate & update.
Soliciting opinion on a problem you want to solve can be extremely valuable, but it sounds like the author already knew more than enough to put together a 1.0 version.
This is a problem I've had for a number of years. While working on personal projects, commercial or otherwise, I always had a tendency to allow all the peripheral matters (names, websites, logos, mailing lists, teasers) to take time away from the only one that was really important - building the thing and getting it into the hands of testers and users.
Nowadays I make it my number one priority to build a minimally working prototype of whatever I'm trying to solve. By the time I have that then it's usually clear whether the idea will go anywhere, and if it does I have a prototype to iterate on and give to small number of people for further feedback. If your idea and implementation are good this can generate far more interest and potential sales than showing around a mockup with a vague release date.
(*I'm sure that blog post is an attempt to garner interest, much like posting it on HN, so of course it may have more extrinsic value than just 38 potential purchases.)
I feel that you should get at least 10 people to agree they are willing to pay for your product in order to validate it. It might not be true for all scenarios, but it definitely seems valid for the idea that is presented in the blog post.
I find that there's a very big difference between people saying that they'd be willing to pay something and getting these people to actually pay for that thing.
The rate of false-positives in people indicating they'd buy something before being pressed to buy it is very high. This is speaking from first-hand experience. Sometimes having 0 customers and seeing whether people will actually buy it is worth more than asking people if they'll buy something without putting it to a real test. In fact, you might come to different conclusions about what is important and not if you go based on what people say they will pay for vs. what they actually pay for.
People might initially be excited about your idea, but after 3-6 months of you building it and not hearing from you, that excitement might die down or be tempered.
I'd say you need to do a couple of things. First, provide progress updates while building. Once you're done building and you decide to approach them again, re-iterate the pain points and benefits and try to build back that initial excitement. Also, read up on the principle of consistency in sales (for example pick up the book Influence by Cialdini). The idea is this: if you initially got a written and public commitment from the prospects, then those prospects will keep their word. They may also be less willing to flatter you given that kind of a commitment.
> Artsy Editor was a little idea I had 2 weeks ago. 9 days after that, I showed 1000+ people my mockup, validated with 109 people personally, and 38 of them were already ready to pay for it.
While, by default, this would definitely not be my mindset, ("how can I take money from these people since I don't have anything to give them right now?") this is a good question.
This is probably a good idea:
- to validate your idea with real customers,
- motivate you to actually finish it
- and get a growing list of people who can give you feedback.
I'd be interested in hearing your approach to it. Sounds something like Aloha Editor, and it's a PITA problem to solve w/ all the cross-browser inconstancies.
One of the most comprehensive and informative idea development posts I have read. The hard work that you put into gathering customer feedback as well as in assembling this post, clearly shows. I look forward to some follow up posts where we find out how many willing-to-pay customers actually convert. Best of luck.
Awesome idea! This is exactly the reason why I made QuietWrite. I also have an integration with WordPress, but having a plugin is awesome too. I'd definitely use this.
Also, WordPress is going to be integrating a fullscreen clean editor in an upcoming release (from what I hear).
22 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 49.7 ms ] threadPlease keep updating as you go. Hopefully this actually gets made since it's a great idea.
$10 to install on unlimited domains and unlimited updates? If you want to offer quality support you'll need to be charging more for the product...
Yes, I'm currently working on it and I'll keep everyone on HN with my progress.
Meanwhile, you can also join the mailing list: http://artsyeditor.com
If the product looks & works as well as the mockup suggests, I'd buy it at the price mentioned, and I'm someone who only writes a half dozen or so posts a year.
Soliciting opinion on a problem you want to solve can be extremely valuable, but it sounds like the author already knew more than enough to put together a 1.0 version.
This is a problem I've had for a number of years. While working on personal projects, commercial or otherwise, I always had a tendency to allow all the peripheral matters (names, websites, logos, mailing lists, teasers) to take time away from the only one that was really important - building the thing and getting it into the hands of testers and users.
Nowadays I make it my number one priority to build a minimally working prototype of whatever I'm trying to solve. By the time I have that then it's usually clear whether the idea will go anywhere, and if it does I have a prototype to iterate on and give to small number of people for further feedback. If your idea and implementation are good this can generate far more interest and potential sales than showing around a mockup with a vague release date.
(*I'm sure that blog post is an attempt to garner interest, much like posting it on HN, so of course it may have more extrinsic value than just 38 potential purchases.)
I feel that you should get at least 10 people to agree they are willing to pay for your product in order to validate it. It might not be true for all scenarios, but it definitely seems valid for the idea that is presented in the blog post.
This is an excellent article that lists some valid points why you should start marketing the day you start coding. http://www.softwarebyrob.com/2010/10/14/startup-marketing-pa...
Hope you're able to make it compatible with http://wpml.org as we use this plugin extensively.
The rate of false-positives in people indicating they'd buy something before being pressed to buy it is very high. This is speaking from first-hand experience. Sometimes having 0 customers and seeing whether people will actually buy it is worth more than asking people if they'll buy something without putting it to a real test. In fact, you might come to different conclusions about what is important and not if you go based on what people say they will pay for vs. what they actually pay for.
I'd say you need to do a couple of things. First, provide progress updates while building. Once you're done building and you decide to approach them again, re-iterate the pain points and benefits and try to build back that initial excitement. Also, read up on the principle of consistency in sales (for example pick up the book Influence by Cialdini). The idea is this: if you initially got a written and public commitment from the prospects, then those prospects will keep their word. They may also be less willing to flatter you given that kind of a commitment.
So why didn't you take their money?
This is probably a good idea:
- to validate your idea with real customers,
- motivate you to actually finish it
- and get a growing list of people who can give you feedback.
Something I can get done in a weekend, I'd release it free and Open Source. Plus, lifetime commitment? (for something supposedly dead simple?).
Also, WordPress is going to be integrating a fullscreen clean editor in an upcoming release (from what I hear).
Yes and no. Sometimes, with something as simple as this just try scratching your (most urgent) itch.
You can always build on that.