It’s been about six weeks since I released my first ebook, “MicroISV Sites that Sell!” - and I’ve got some very good results to report. No, not the money I’ve made (although that’s been very nice, Thank You! ), but the results people are getting with this ebook. In two words: more sales.

First up, have a quick read of these short posts Keith Alperin (Helium Foot Software) put up at his blog about the process of working through the ebook’s exercises:

• They are Always Right: http://www.heliumfoot.com/blog/42
• Quintessence: http://www.heliumfoot.com/blog/43
• The Hook: http://www.heliumfoot.com/blog/45
• Helium Foot Site++: http://www.heliumfoot.com/blog/46
• Helium Foot Site++ plus: http://www.heliumfoot.com/blog/48 (this one has a cool graphic that overlays a screenshot of his new homepage on top of his old one.)

Put another way, here’s his home page before and after Keith completed the exercises and did the hard work:

Bottom line?

So, how’d we do? Well, it’s a little difficult to tell since we’re in the middle of our Daring Fireball promotion. However, the preliminary results are pretty good. From Monday to Thursday two weeks before the site changes (as well as before the DF promo) we had 101 visits and 18 downloads. The same period this week (post site update and during the DF promo) yielded 485 visitors and 91 downloads. That brings our conversion percentage from about 17.5% to 18.5%. Even more important, sales are way up for this week (from 0% of downloads to 10% of downloads!). None of these are really statistically valid results, but they are certainly good news. Stay tuned for an update in a few weeks when i can collect more data.

Speaking of exercises…

A week or so after releasing MicroISVs Sites that Sell!, I added a new fixed-price item on my microISV consulting menu: Fixed price MicroISV Sites that Sell consultation. I’d asked for 3 brave volunteers to let me beta test this consultation methodology on them in exchange for half-off the price; I got nine.

Now that I’ve finished (except for the 30 day revisits) those nine microISV consults, here’s what one of my beta testers - Mark Gladding, founder of Text2Go - had to say about the experience:

When Bob Walsh offered a fixed price consultation to review the exercises that accompany his recently launched eBook, ‘MicroISV Sites that Sell’ I didn’t hesitate to take up the offer. Not only would this force me to follow through and complete the exercises for my microISV, I would then get to have the results reviewed by an expert. There are lots of eBooks and blog posts out there on how to improve various aspects of your online business. The problem is that if you don’t act on the advice or implement it correctly, then they’re actually just a waste of time.

Bob’s consultation consists of two parts. He first provides a review of the exercises by email and then follows up with a Skype call to drill into his responses in more detail. For me the most beneficial part of the consultation was the Skype call. It was clear that Bob had done a fair amount of preparation leading up to the call. He had a really good understanding of what Text2Go was about, who the likely customers were and how they would use Text2Go to solve their pain. He had even taken the time to read my blog!

The call lasted about 45 minutes and included a lot more than just a review of the exercises and the identification of my Unique Selling Proposition. Bob did a really good job of explaining the importance of marketing to specific types of customers with specific problems. I finally think I’m starting to grasp this concept.

During the call Bob also generated a lot of ideas on who the potential customers of Text2Go are and how they would benefit using it. He also came up with a simple, repeatable marketing plan to generate a lot more traffic to my website and hence sales. On a technical note, Bob recorded the entire call and made it available as an mp3 file, so it wasn’t necessary to take notes.

Finally Bob has offered to check back in 30 days to see how the plan is proceeding.

Overall I felt that Bob provided a wealth of clear, actionable advice that was specific to my microISV. To those other microISVs out there who are struggling with marketing, I strongly recommend you book in for a consultation with Bob.

Regards,

Mark Gladding
Director
Tumbywood Software
markgladding@text2go.com
http://www.text2go.com

These are the kinds of results I’m interested in. What results do you want?

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