Marketing - Written by Bob Walsh on Friday, February 15, 2008 18:32 - 14 Comments

MicroISV Sites that Sell!

Tags: microISV, MicroISV Sites that Sell

Why do so many microISVs sell less than their products deserve? That’s the question I set out to find the answer for six months ago as I started researching my second book for microISVs.

MicroISV Sites that Sell! - Creating and Marketing your Unique Selling Proposition ($19 USD) covers the six mistakes small self-funded software companies make, and how to use a robust design pattern to avoid them.

You see, marketing is in more ways than most people realize a programming language, with its own rules, syntax, conventions and proven solutions. Thanks to the help of five successful microISVs, MicroISV Sites that Sell! explains developer-to-developer how to use the USP pattern to make your web site sell more.

Writing and publishing and making sure this ebook is well worth your time and money was a daunting task, which is why I asked people I respect to review the manuscript and tell me what they thought.

[Update]
Like Joel Spolsky:

“The smallest software startups rarely have in-house expertise in marketing, and they end up making common mistakes that scare customers away. You see this again and again among the small ISVs: no contact information on the web site, laundry lists of features without explaining the benefits, bad graphic design, and more. If you’re a MicroISV, Bob’s ebook will pay for itself with the first extra sale you make.”

[/Update]
And Eric Sink:

“The latest from Bob Walsh offers concise advice on some key things every microISV needs to do, complete with a discussion of real examples. Recommended.”

And Mike Gunderloy:

“If you can program, you can write marketing copy. You just need to learn the right language. Bob’s a great teacher, and the exercises here will give you a roadmap to creating your own winning ISV web site.”

And Pamela Slim:

“Finally, Bob has written about what I consider a HUGE hole in the ISV market: sales and marketing advice for a technical person by a technical person. If you are highly technical and get revolted by marketing hype that has nothing to do with who you are and what you sell, you will really appreciate the advice in this ebook.”

You’ll find more about MicroISV Sites that Sell! - Creating and Marketing your Unique Selling Proposition on this page, and you might notice it says ebooks not ebook. That’s because this is the first of a series of no-nonsense ebooks I’ll be researching and publishing this year to pick up where Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality left off. That is, if this one sells!

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

14 Comments

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Invoice Place blog » ‘MicroISV Sites that Sell!’ - Creating and Marketing your Unique Selling Proposition
Feb 15, 2008 21:55

[...] Walsh at 47hats.com has published ‘MicroISV Sites that Sell! - Creating and Marketing your Unique Selling Proposition’, ($19USD) the ultimate ebook for anyone who has suffered the frustration of having built great [...]

Scott Carpenter
Feb 15, 2008 21:56

Congratulations on the launch Bob!

Web Worker Daily » Archive Weekend Coffee Break: MicroISV Marketing, Calendars & Coworking «
Feb 16, 2008 6:43

[...] 16th, 2008 (6:43am) Mike Gunderloy No Comments Marketing help for MicroISVs - WWD contributor Bob Walsh has released a new ebook, MicroISV Sites That Sell!, that should be of [...]

Rudolf F. Vanek
Feb 16, 2008 9:54

Congratulations!
Just ordered a copy.
I’m really eager to read it this weekend.
Thanks and good luck.
Rudolf

Kumaravel Somasundaram
Feb 17, 2008 15:53

Excellent book for MicroISVs like me. I wish I had this book before I released DesignerVista product last moth.

Thanks Bob.

Regards,
Kumaravel Somasundaram
http://www.designervista.com

47 Hats - Why microISVs fail to sell.
Feb 18, 2008 5:44

[...] following is a free sample from my latest book, MicroISV Sites that Sell! - Creating and Marketing your Unique Selling Proposition. You can get the rest of this ebook designed to substantially improve your software/SaaS sales for [...]

Chris Thompson
Feb 19, 2008 3:48

Bob,
Any chance of putting a verson on lulu?

bobw
Feb 19, 2008 6:05

Chris - Based on your suggestion, I’m looking at that as a way to go… will let you know.

bobw
Feb 19, 2008 8:58

Re Lulu - the good news is they have a slick way of creating on-demand physical books at reasonable cost. Bad news - I’ve been talking with their tech support this a.m. and I’m going to have to reformat to fit their sizes.

I can do it, but how much interest is there?

47 Hats - The Top 6 MicroISV Design Mistakes
Feb 19, 2008 9:57

[...] My new ebook, “MicroISV Sites that Sell! - Creating and Marketing your Unique Selling Proposition” is out and for sale for a mere $19 USD. Joel Spolsky, Mike Gunderloy, Pam Slim, Pat McKenzie and [...]

Chris Thompson (Midnightrange Software)
Feb 19, 2008 10:19

Bob ref the lulu. I will pay up front through paypal if that helps!
I have purchased a few books from them now and they are good.

I can’t speak for anyone else but I think a book is 100 times better than a pdf.
I still open microisv and clear blogging from time to time. If I just had a pdf I would have forgotten I had the files by now.

Chris Thompson (Midnightrange Software)
Feb 19, 2008 10:23

Ref Kumaravel Somasundaram
I still think your site undersells your application.

I know advice is free but… once you have made some cash get a great website. I love your product and still think you can sell to higher end B2B.
Although the site is better than when I last looked.

FollowSteph.com - How to Generate Traffic for Your Website
Feb 26, 2008 9:01

[...] marketing. What really brought this thought forward was buying and reading Bob Walsh’s ebook MicroISV Sites that Sell! It convinced me that I needed to finish it sooner than [...]

MartinWood.org » A New Micro-ISV Is Born
May 26, 2008 6:13

[...] Micro-ISV : From Vision to Reality is still the mISV bible - I guess now I better start reading this in [...]

RSS

Subscribe Subscribe via Email