Launching my bootstrapped start-up. Please cross your fingers for me.
Launching my bootstrapped start-up. Please cross your fingers for me.
I just launched my start-up and am a little freaked out. Everything works (so far) but I've been so focused on getting the app up and running that I'm feeling a little lost on what to focus on next and second guessing some early thinking/research.
Anyway, I could use some advice (and/or moral support). 1. Does this app have legs? 2. Do I need to tweak/change anything? 3. Where do I go from here?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Link: https://www.TheWisdomofOthers.com
37 comments
[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 95.3 ms ] thread-Books of advice for the people in your life
-Books filled with the advice and wisdom of family and friends
-Books of wisdom from family and friends
Any ideas would be much appreciated!
I'm really glad you like the design but I can't take any of the credit. I lucked out and got Colleen Palmer from 12 Spokes to do it.
A few suggestions: 1. It wasn't clear to me what you do right away. The book image is what helped me. Then I still wasn't sure if this was a digital book or not till I read the "How it Works". 2. I think having an example for a wedding book would be useful.
Good luck!!
Edit: Just found the examples :)
Any ideas for what I could do to make what we do a little more clear?
Also, there's a wedding book example but you have to access it via Book Examples on the home page. Is it too hidden?
Thanks again!
(Trying to figure out the best market strategy) Thanks again :)
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.
Link: http://web.appstorm.net/reviews/media-reviews/the-wisdom-of-...
Second, make it a snap, from start to finish. For holiday gifts, I want to make it a quick gift to send to my parents, not have a summer project on my hands.
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 again!
I've see us do a similar thing (but low-tech) at church. A bunch of parents contribute stories or advice and then copies are handed out to each graduating student. Or I think we've done something similar with a collection of a bunch of favorite Christmas traditions, then copies were handed out to the whole congregation. Or it's similar to recipe books where a couple dozen families contribute their favorite recipe then copies are sold as a fund-raiser. Not quite the same as what you're doing but it could be an easy follow-on product.
Curious why ePub is 50% more than PDF.
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?
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.
Couple of thoughts perhaps on how you could better close a sale.
It wasn't immediately clear to me what exactly I'd do with this. Would I create a book for myself with things other people have told me? Would I put my wisdom in a book and give it to someone else?
Lets say I've got my mind around it and I think this is a good idea that I plan to do. You need to convince me pretty quickly that I shouldn't go and look for other online book publishing sites that are cheaper/easier.
Got any ideas for driving home how a user would use the app? Is it a design tweak or the addition of some copy to spell things out?
We built this with the idea that you would make books to give as a gift, though you could just as easily make a book for yourself. In fact, one of the cool features of the app is the ability to make your own unique URL so you can add it to things like wedding announcements/save the date/graduation announcements/baby shower etc. and have your family and friends add content to a book you're making for yourself.
And lastly, what would need to change about the site to close the sale? (For whatever it's worth, I wanted to stay away from "Free Shipping" or discount codes and instead just focus on a great web experience and product thinking it would sell itself but maybe that's just me being naive...)
Thanks again for your input! I really do appreciate it.
I especially like that you donate some of the profits. I'm looking forward to doing exactly the same.
Glad you like the app and thanks for letting me know. Now please go tell a few thousand of your friends about it. ;)
Maybe you could also function as an personalized news aggregator of other sources such as bloggers: pay them royalty and publish "emagazines"... imagine you could have emagazines on sports, coding, medical topics, politics etc...I would be your first customer.