Gimme Gimme I Want! After 1 Month

Hello Folks!

My current project, GGIW (www.ggiw.com), has been up and running for just about a month now and I've got a few milestones to report. First, I set off a small Google AdWords campaign to test the waters a bit. So far, I'm are seeing a very good 10% conversion rate for sign ups. I've also been getting a lot of feedback from our early adopters which has allowed me to really pin down the changes for the next release.

For all of you out there hoping to get going on your own project or working on one today, here are the key take aways from the first month of service.

1. Get together a core group of users to start is critical to getting the ball rolling.

No one wants to hear shills, or paid evangelists, push your site on all corners of the net. Do your legwork and get some real users that care about the site to start using it before launch. GGIW's small group of happy users helps to bring in new users by word of mouth.

2. Test advertising on a small scale.

This is basic advice for online advertising in general, but here goes. I was able to tune the keywords and ad content by casting a wide net (lots of variations on ads) with a pretty small budget ($20!). I setup each ad variation to hit a different landing page so I could easily track it in the logs. Trading a little time for money here, but it definitely helped out when I dialed the ad budget up.


3. Watch you logs!

I have been watching the logs very, very carefully since the site was launched. I have to admit that this is a lot easier to do if you have some Unix/Linux/scripting background, as breaking down logs can be a bit arcane otherwise. Even if you don't have access to scripting talent, reading these logs regularly can really help you understand what people are doing.

4. Use Google Analytics if you use AdWords.

This is an amazing product. If you are paying for ads via AdWords, then you are probably wasting a lot of your money without taking advantage of it.

5. Users are (still) your best advertising.

I said this before in 5 Actionable Tips for Getting Free Traffic to Your New Site, but it's especially true in this context. Most of our new users have come through direct referrals. Every hour I invest in building the user community is worth many times more than time spent tuning and tweaking Google ads or other marketing efforts to date.

I'd like to take a second to thank any readers who may have joined up. We are definitely off to a great start.

5 Actionable Tips for Getting Free Traffic to Your New Site

There are a lot of books, articles and sites out there geared towards marketing a small business. That's great stuff! you may need them someday, but how do you get that initial traction from ZERO hits? A word of mouth marketing program is perfect to get the ball rolling! But how do you begin?


1. Introduce yourself to the influencers.

The web is full of vocal people that will evangelize what they love and campaign against what they hate. They have blogs, podcasts, LiveJournals, MySpace pages. People really do follow recommendations from influencers.

It's not hard to get great results here if you do your homework. Browse communities, forums, podcast directories and seek out the people with the best audience. Introduce yourself as someone who is working on your own to making something that you think is pretty great, but you need a little help getting the word out. It never hurts to ask if there's anything you can do to help them out. You'd be surprised how many bloggers and podcasters could use a bit of web work, for instance.


2. Become a direct member of the community.

This one is dead simple. If your site targets the MySpace crowd, join MySpace and start connecting. If your site sells BMW parts, post to BMW repair forums. Participate in commenting on successful blogs in the subject area.

You will become an influencer in your space as well as convince other influencers that you are worthy of their praise. It's extremely hard to be effective in your space without making those direct connections.


3. Blog and Submit.

If you have the talent and the time, writing about your subject area can prove to be and effective source of customers. In the same vein as #1 and #2, you will increase your influence by becoming a trusted source of information in your area, or one closely relate. What's important is that you produce truly valuable content for your target audience.

You can driving some traffic to your blog by submitting your articles to social networking sites such as digg, del.icio.us, etc. Dig in a bit and see what social bookmarking sites best serve your blog. Of course, don't be afraid to promote your articles on the forums, newsgroups and other blogs that you are participating in. As long as your content and posts are relevant to the subject matter, you'll do well.


4. If you have a little money, do some hyper-targeted advertising.

This can mean a lot. For instance, when I launched Gimme Gimme I Want (www.ggiw.com), I signed up for a two day run of "Facebook Flyers", targeting schools that were a good fit. The click-through rate on the ad was excellent to say the least. That click-through success came from one simple fact: I put something highly appropriate in front of the right eyeballs.

If you can do some highly targeting advertising like this, it may help you out. Bear in mind, however, that people clicking ads are really not your best audience. Word of mouth will always do better. For GGIW, for instance, we saw about 30x higher sign up rates based on evangelist LiveJournal posts when compared to the Facebook ads.


5. Take care of your new users and make them evangelists.

Once you have some folks sign up for your service or buying products from you, treat those first few people like they're made of gold (because they are!). Reserve something special for them. Send them surprise schwag in the mail. Give them a free premium service. Don't be afraid to ask them a question or thank them directly, personally, via email. These are the folks that already believe in your product, so make them feel special (because they are).

So, you can use these tips to help generate traffic to your site, and will definitely show them that it is worth taking a closer look. It is one thing to get folks to come to the site, but it's another to make them really buy in. If you can become a trusted adviser, or can convert some to your cause, then getting off the ground will be a whole lot easier.

Gimme Gimme I Want! Personal Fund Raising Site Launched

I'm happy to announce that we have officially launched our social fund raising site, Gimme Gimme I Want! (www.ggiw.com). Well, that's our official description anyway. Fund raising actually seems a bit of a stiff term to describe what people are doing on GGIW. People are raising money for all sorts of things like books, digital cameras, hair irons, vacations, etc. Roommates and clubs are even using it to easily track expenses.

It's a great way to connect with friends and family around fund raising for things you really need on a personal level. Please take a look and spread the word if you like it.

Going Solo on Your Web Idea

Have you ever had a great web idea that just begs to be built?

You muse about what it would take to build it, how much they will love it, and (OF COURSE) how much money you'll make off of it. What happens next is what might separate you from the exclusive club of successful entrepreneurs.

That club is made up of a lot of people with serious financial and social connections. For these people, they can pull together resources to make just about anything happen. I'm going to gather that you are not one of them, though. You are probably, like me, a busy working person with some useful core skills. And, since you don't have gobs of time, money and influence, you'll probably be doing it almost entirely solo. That's fine, because it's possible for the RIGHT IDEA.

You should ask yourself the following questions before you begin.


What is the smallest I can make this?

Since you're doing this on your own, how can you shrink this down to the absolute core of what is necessary to deliver a working product? I recently read a post call 3 People for Version 1 on 37 Signals, which definitely summed it up perfectly: "It’s better to make version 1 half a product than a half-assed product."

I could not possibly agree more with that point of view. You're going to have to accept that your first version is going to be less than you envision. It has to be most of the way there, and be appealing to use, but cannot draw all of your time to complete.

Set the goal for success for your first version with this in mind.


Do I have the skills?

If you don't have all of the skills necessary to build your idea, you will have to become an area expert fast. You'll be googling, reading books and asking questions to gain the expertise that you lack. Remember, all of that time spent acquiring new skills is time you have not spent on building your idea.

You may consider bringing in another person or two to help round out those skills. While this is usually a very good idea to do this for starting a small business, it might not work if the vision is yours alone and you have little extra time to coordinate work across other people. Managing the partnership may take more time than you have available. If you really aren't prepared to build a business out of it from the start, it may be best to stick to the solo approach in the beginning.


Do I have the time?

Now that you've distilled your grand idea down to it's essential core, you should figure out if you actually have the time to build it. For me, I have found I can scrounge up about 5 hours every week, and often more. It's all about getting time back.

Try to increase the size of that bucket by cutting out stuff that isn't really productive (TV, web browsing, dishes??). If you want to see this to success, you should try to be more efficient in general. Personally, I have nothing but great things to say about the book Getting Things Done by David Allen. GTD can help organize your work on your project as well, so give it a chance if you haven't already had a look.

One suggestion I feel I need to make here is to be very careful about allowing your project to impinge on productivity in your day job. I set some hard limits on even viewing my site during work hours. In some cases, even mentioning your side project can produce unintended side effects for your career and work relationships. Best to keep them separate in my view.


Do I have the means?

Your idea will cost some money. Whether it's something as simple as $30/month for a basic web hosting service (remember: think small in the beginning!), some books, or even advertising later, you're going to spend a little money. If you can't afford to pay out a few months ahead for the expenses, then you should consider raising a little money among friends and family to cover costs.


Is it Legal?

This is an excellent question! Some of the most profitable business ideas are not legal, surprisingly enough! For this, you're going to have to do your homework. I wouldn't suggest being a jerk about it, but you may be able to get a free consult with a lawyer specializing in small business. They can at least help you to know if you are on OK footing. If your idea gets anywhere, you will probably be coming back to them for paid advice.

The same goes for accountants and insurance. In some cases, you might need some kind of liability insurance to cover you. Terms of Service are often very legal sounding, but they don't protect you from getting sued.

In general, if you don't have access to these services for free (or very cheap), then you should at least pick up a book about incorporating a business in your state. You almost certainlyl don't need to incorporate right away, but you will need some groundwork to know what you need to do. You may want to call up your state's attorney general to find out what you need from the point of view of business licenses as well.


Answering these basic questions should help you to focus in on ideas that you can actually implement. I will be tracking similar ideas and offering tips that I have found to be successful. I will be looking at free marketing, finding what customers want, and related topics. I've managed to release Gimme Gimme I Want!, my current web project, in a few months under these conditions, so I know there's some value here for you.