Confession: I built my online business in a very backward way. And I'm here to share my dirty tale (and the definition of truth of a small working product) so you don't make the mistakes I did.
I want to save you from years of frustration, months of faltering, and days full of stumbling through the fog.
If only I had this knowledge when I started!
But it brings me comfort to know that he will have it. That you will not need to experience the painful process of childbirth online business ideas the same way i did.
Let's start with what not to do.
Overachievers Anonymous, our meeting has begun
Back in late 2009, I signed up for Copyblogger's Teaching Sells course.
I have been running my own design and marketing company for almost 20 years. I was looking forward to a change of pace and a new challenge.
And creating an online business based on the knowledge I had built up over decades seemed like a great idea.
So I held a full Teaching Sells course out of curiosity everything. And it delivered everything I needed, and more.
I took many pages of notes, elicited ideas from other students in the field, and listened to Q&A sessions.
I was inspired.
And I decided, in all my over-the-top glory, that I needed to build something similar to what I was getting at Teaching Sells.
I wanted to create an Interactive Learning Environment to teach my area of expertise: product development through a combination of good design and strategic marketing decisions.
And that was my first mistake. I bit off more than I could (or should) chew.
He wants us to do so
measure your traffic?
For the first time, Copyblogger's methodology is now available to a select few clients. We know it works. We have been doing it since 2006.
Definition of a small viable product: check the idea first
You see, it turns out that it's not a good idea to build a detailed, complex, extremely thorough membership site about a topic you haven't researched.
He stopped laughing. I know this is obvious! At least, now I do.
But at that point, my tendency to overachieve took over, and I found myself pouring my 20 years of experience into courses, complete with text, audio, video, printable PDFs, and a platform.
All without knowing for sure that people would be interested.
Technology was not my friend
It turns out that the worst part of the process was getting the axe. The membership software that was available at the time was … um… clunky.
I work here.
It was badly. It is very difficult to understand. Flawless online help. It takes time to set up.
And that was part of the problem.
To get my site up and running, I had to not only learn how to use this crappy membership software, I had to pay and figure out how to use the shopping cart software.
Should I get the two pieces of software to connect so that when people sign up and pay, they will be automatically added to the membership site.
For a non-engineer, this was a daunting task.
And remember, I didn't know the definition of a small working product yet…all this before testing to make sure this idea will fly!
You see the depth of my delusion now, don't you?
Thankfully, it was not fatal
I finally launched my plan after five months of pregnancy. I had a few lessons ready to go. As my members learned, I was always in front of them, creating new lessons before they were ready to use them.
And it wasn't a complete failure.
Some great people joined in, and we had great conversations both on the forum and in my monthly webinars.
But boy, was it a lot of work.
The most important thing I learned from building my membership site was a life lesson.
And thankfully, a life lesson I had to learn the hard way is now part of how Copyblogger guides people through building a business around their technology and passion.
What does Minimum Viable Product mean?
Copyblogger Academy covers the Low Cost Product approach to building an online business and selling your expertise.
The MVP approach suggests a few important ideas:
- Before you create a big product, test your idea with a small product
- Deliver real value in a cost-effective and easy-to-build format
- Focus on gathering knowledge, not making millions
This agile approach is the best way to build an online business, because before pouring time and effort into an untested idea, you get solid information about what will work (and what won't).
That means you can move forward with confidence that you have an idea worth investing in… before you invest in it.
Accept the true definition of a small product that can work
Are you overachieving? It's time to adopt a small functional product.
Small functional products come in many forms. And they are the perfect antidote to the “I-have-to-create-the-greatest-of-this-product-idea-ever” syndrome that plagues many of us overachievers.
They can be as simple as:
- Video tutorial and downloadable worksheet
- Ebook with audio recording
- Quick start guide
- Individual training sessions (these are especially easy to put together)
- Access to a weekly teleclass with you, which includes a Q&A session
They are quick and easy to put together, and they allow you to provide value in exchange for market research.
Your customers give you feedback, and you use that feedback to create your high-value, time-consuming product.
My internet business was built backwards. I started by building a tedious, time-consuming online membership site without knowing if it would work.
Since then, I have embraced the true meaning of a small product that can work. It's a less painful way to develop new ideas.
And it's fun! You go from idea to finished product quickly — you get useful feedback quickly.
If you'd like to learn more about the time-tested strategies that make you a highly successful content entrepreneur, sign up to stay in touch with Copyblogger via email.
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