Thread: Smash-hit launch! (Partial) Story & Advice needed

Hi Fastlane community!

First, I would like to say I am sorry for not writing in awhile. I've had intentions of being more active and sharing things on here, but have been extremely locked down over this year.

The purpose of this is 2-part. First, I want to give everyone here my official "hello" and description of a project that I will be sharing with you as it continues to grow!

Secondly, I am hoping to open up the channels of communication for advice, input, and discussion to flow from and to the Fastlane community during the the project's growth!

To give some updates to everyone, in the past year I have been deeply delved into researching, learning, and making the lifestyle changes necessary to transition from my former positions of E (emloyed as chief technology officer of a corporation), self-employed (ran a consulting firm) into the B and I quadrants!

While I've managed to broaden my range of skill-sets in other areas of business, my 15 year back ground in technology (have been coding since I was 9 years old) causes me to gravitate towards things technology.


Background Story

Fast forwarding a bit, I had an epiphany moment about 35 days ago. I've been logging business ideas for the past several months, many of which have gotten attention from investors and other individuals ready to commit themselves to the idea, but THIS one... This one was different!

To be honest, I somewhat stumbled across this idea while I was in the process of working on another. Even though it snuck up on me, I recognized the massive opportunity that stood, blaring me in the face from the tidal wave of demand that had grown for it over a few days. (I promise, I will be less cryptic soon, but I can't give out all the details just yet!)

After the idea's conception, I mentally mapped out how I would meet this demand and managed to locate a person who already had done almost exactly what my idea was as a side-project.

(Note to entrepreneurs: If someone else has already done it, and it saves you time, try to acquire it! Never re-invent the wheel if you can avoid it, plus you can use the wind in someone else's sails to get you going faster)

This particular project worked, but had bugs and was somewhat broken. The original author did not have the time to finish it. The first thing I did was to create a very powerful presentation piece that showed the massive capabilities of this project. (I never knew I had the skills for this, but if this fails, I'm told I could take up a career in voiceovers and presentations )

I managed to leverage some quick capital from someone close to me in order to buy out the existing code, and I got to work with it right away! I had promise of funding which fell through because the guy flaked. I believe he was broke and didn't want to admit it, so I wasted several days waiting because I promised him the opportunity first. So I started off trying to get funding and wound up turning down one offer and abandoning a good one because it was just going to take too long. (Investors seem to like to move slowly, which at this point even a few days was long for me to wait, with this project!) So I started driving forward full-speed on my own!


Within a week or so, I had solved all the users problems and the users began pouring in. We've had several copy-cats that sprung up and have tried to take the idea as well, but despite their level of succes, I am not concerned. The larger goal truly meets the need of this desperately hungry crowd and we will be rolling out with it soon!

I have been doing 100hr+ weeks working on this and finally completed a version that implements the new framework for massive scalability as well as advetising implementation. A month had passed, users were happy, and we were ready to do BIG things!


Where I'm At

It's been a wonderfully exciting ride, and I am in a state of total awe and bliss in watching this project become such a success and receiving all of the thank you notes from our users has been fantastic!

Here's the awesome part. Our project is entirely viral and is growing exponentially. We're now getting more than 2000 new registrations per day, nearly every user who joins chooses to spread the application by invitation to all his social media group friends every time he uses it.

We're SEO'd to #1 spot on google for our specific type and #3 for a broad two-word search, which is AWESOME!

I've also managed to find another coder who is an absolute tech-ninja. He originally emailed me offering to write port my code for another platform. Shortly after, I've recruited him to work with me on the overal project and he's been working tirelessly with me, free of charge. He even matches my 28hr sessions! (I see a CTO nametag with his name on it in the near future, but shhh... Haven't mentioned it yet! )


The only problem with this currently is, I've dumped every penny I have into this as well as poured my every second into it. I know without a doubt that all the sacrifice put in so far is 100% worth it! But as we're growing so massively causing a non-stop demand for more support and better servers (and with my finances dimished), there's no longer any question -- it's time to monetize!

The advertising structure is now in place with the new version just released and has tracking as well (next version implements a laser-accurate targeting system) The one area in which I am currently lacking much knowledge and expertise is advertising!

But here's the good news...

We are currently getting nearly 2 million tracked ad impressions per day!

Judging by the fact that only 1/6th of our user-base has converted to the new version with advertising support. The rest should be converting within the week, and I anticipate us up to 10 million per day within seven days. Though every time I've estimated with this thing, I've been vastly undershooting due to the viral aspect. (No complaints!!! I love being wrong) This number is growing exponentially as well due to new registrations!


HELP!

I need advice!

As you might be able to tell from what I've told you already, I've taken a "JFDI" (see Mark Suster's article here) approach to this whole project. I had to make a lot of tough decisions like turning down funding due to the fact that I didn't like the character of one investor, and the other, while showing great potential, simply would have taken too long.

Also, this thing is my baby and I would get frustrated whenever I'd see someone just not "get it" (despite my completely rear-kicking presentation video) But I've realized that's often how it goes!

(Not all people will see your vision the way you do, because it's not their vision -- it's yours!)

This is why I've had to keep reminding myself, "This is my project. It's up to me to make it happen. It fails only if I let it. Let's do this thing!"

Thus far, I've decided to get this thing up and running with or without anyone, no matter what needs to be done, whether it's liquidating assets or working long hours. (Sunlight is overrated)

That said, however...

Now that it's up and going strong, I realize that it's time to get some outside advice and also start bringing on more people! This is where I hope the faithful community of Fastlaners will chime in!

The Challenge

It is time to launch our initial advertising strategy! I'd love to hear what strategies you guys would do to monetize this situation.

Assumed Scenario: (conservatively estimated figures)

1. Social media type platform
2. 3,000,000 ad impressions per day (growing with user base)
3. 3,000 new registrations each day
4. Two ad spots
   
   1. One 120x120 box (text possible underneath)
   2. One wide skyscraper vertical banner (160x600) width allows up to 250

Rules

1. Family friendly ads, only!
2. NO full page ads
3. NO downloaders
4. NO pop-ups, pup-unders, roll-overs, pop-inbetweens... Basically anything with the word "pop" or a preposition is a no-no
5. Flash ads are ok, but I don't want any type of annoying ads.

(Let's be honest, advertisers, you like them if they're making you money, but when you encounter someone else's annoying ads, you turn the air blue with your sentiments)

So far, my thoughts are the following:

We will need a lot of offers, as while we're still getting over 2000 new signups per day, the majority of ad views will repeat traffic and not "uniques". (Think of a website like myspace whose users spend hours per day on the site)

I'm thinking possibly doing a lot of CPA, affiliates, etc. Our users are your average social networking types. We don't have targeting yet, but will shortly.

I realize that I need to know the honest-to-God pros and cons about CPM, CPA, and CPC in social networking advertising. Most of the information I've found has been from the small-time guys. I'm not really interested in hearing what works for a 30,000/mo uniques niche website (No offense intended, but it doesn't provide me with the answers I need!)

So, guys... Any thoughts, advice, or strategy proposals would be greatly appreciated!


Why No Details?

To be candid, I am really excited to share this story with the community. Though I haven't had the chance to write much on here yet, this has been a great source of information for me and I simply love the spirit of this community. I intend to share with you all the full details of what I'm doing and how I did it, withholding nothing! Why? Because you guys rock, and I love what the PhxMJ and the others are doing here. I've been excited to become a bigger contributer to the community since I really 'discovered' it this past summer.



The reason I can't give you guys more information right now is because I have quite a few hostile copy-cats out there. I caught one guy today who had copied my entire web content word-for-word, image-for-image. (He did, however change the copyright statement to his name ) In a conversation I had with another competitor recently, he informed me he was reversing my code to satisfy his "curiosity".

As I said, I'm actually not worried. All of this will not matter when we get the next version out, as we will emerge as an entirely new platform altogether, thus creating an industry of itself rather than competing on the playground with the kids.

So, I promise guys... SOON!

Until then, please feel free to post your comments, advice, thoughts, questions, etc! Consider this the initial thread, and in a week or two when we have the next version established, I'll reveal more!

RR -[]-

Awesome post! Keep us posted!!

Wow, you sound really motivated and excited. Glad to hear of your accomplishments and KEEP GOING! I wish you all the best.

Thanks, guys! I will be sure to keep everyone posted. Still hoping for some ideas and strategies... Anyone?

Perhaps, I was too long winded in my post. LOL

What does everyone think of Clickbank?

RR -[]-

Originally Posted by Gymjunkie

With that much traffic you should go cald calling big advertisers in your niche and leverage the traffic to get good deals.

Great advice, thank you! That has been my general plan, but to be honest I have been unsure of whether to approach ad agencies or directly approach companies, to start. My biggest concern has been knowing what to quote. Standard CPM prices may not apply as much due to a much larger volume of repeat traffic.

However, I'm going to just plunge ahead and start asking! Better to figure it out as I go, then to get caught in the analysis paralysis, right??

Originally Posted by EastWind

so when are you going to give us more information on what it is? LOL, that's what I want to know.

Definitely soon! And I agree with you. True success is in your execution and overall plan as a whole. This is why I'm not bothered by those who have copied me so far. The nature of viral projects such as this is that the power lies in who does it right the fastest. (with more emphasis on the fastest, I'm afraid)

My competitors are copying my every move, which to re-state, is perfectly fine by me! I've even offered to help out with one who stole my idea, and in return he notified me of someone who had infringed on my copyrights the other day.

(Note to Entrepreneurs: Make friends of your 'enemies' whenever you can. Down the road, it pays.)

One primary edge I have over my competition comes from the fact that they don't know my moves until they're made. I have a powerful strategy in place with a particular order to maximize effectiveness. My competitors will just take something and run with it, so I am being careful (for now) while we're in the delicate stages. Once we're out there, I can't wait to tell the world how we did it.

As I said, this next phase which we are almost ready to release will make us emerge as an entirely new platform itself. We are creating a new industry and doing it the right way.

So I say, "Let them copy you, but never *LET* them steal from you!" (It may happen from time to time, but you'd never willingly go tell your competitor your battle strategy, right?)

I won't let them botch my idea and release it to their numbers before I do it the way I envision and release it properly. No sense in that, right?

That said, though, I thank you for the encouragement! It's good to be reminded that proper execution brings real success, and that's definitely true.

Thank you Biophase! That last story was absolutely great.

It hits very close to home, as I too went through the "stages" he refers to. Ultimately, I came to the same realization, "Ok... Some people stole my idea, but the company vision is totally different now. I'll just be more careful with this part until we launch the real deal!"

Truth is, I've been getting NDAs from everybody who I've been bringing on to work with us. It takes a few extra minutes and provides a lot of legal cover. Anyone who is serious about working with you and your vision has no problem taking those few minutes to sign it. It also sets your mind at ease to focus on other things.

Synopsis: Paranoia brings paralysis, but precaution brings peace-of-mind!

(How's that for some alliteration? )

RR -[]-

Major thanks, Gymjunkie!

Gary cracks me up, but you've gotta love him. This is exactly the approach I needed!

Going 'rogue' today and calling up advertisers. I've also leveraged my ad space to get a girl familiar with marketing and CB to go through and get me 200 of the most successful affiliates conducive to my audience. She should be completed today.

I will be throwing the "switch" today (if all goes well) and enabling advertising. Just in time too, as our userbase grew by 20,000 more yesterday. I love the explosive growth, but it means a lot of work today!

1) Get advetisers
2) Get the ball rolling with several different development teams
3) Stay on top of my lead developer (Now with a deal in the works for company percentage for his hard work!)
4) Breathe* (if there's time)

More updates soon, and I'll let you know what I find in my quest for advertisers. Thanks again, Gymjunkie!

Cheers, guys!


RR -[]-

Originally Posted by EastWind

wow, I hope it goes well. How do you guys handle 20,000 users at once! I mean, when most peeps design a site, we usually design for 5,000 user tops. But when you start having hundreds of thousand -> millions of users and 20,000 joining in a day. How do you manage it? The server load, bandwidth load. Did you envision such growth and design the system to be highly scalable from the get go? I guess a fastlaner definitely has to.

If you think you'll have lots of users it's best to think how to scale from the get go.
This way it will be easier to deal with those issues when they happen.

Advertising is running. For now, I've implemented OpenX open market. The CPM is lower than it should be, but it does what it needs to.

Believe it or not, when I called people saying we're getting over 5,000,000 impressions per day I was hung up on twice and not one call back from the others.

The biggest thing was, people are comfortable with "google ads". That's all many of them know or are comfortable with. Will we get more? Absolutely! But for now, it's best that I get some charts and proof to show people it works.

What we're doing is different. Explaining it to companies has been difficult.

As for the scalability questions, you're absolutely right! It has been a challenge. When we got the original version, the backend was setup on Google App Engine in Java. The original coder wrote it in such a way that it used massive amounts of CPU and quickly began costing me hundreds per month at a rate that nearly doubled each week.

We scrambled and fought to rewrite the whole thing and find a way to cross everybody over. Now, however, with our growth rates getting even greater, I've doubled our server power and will need to again in a few short days.

I have contacts in New York who are in directly with the major server centers, so we are positioning for a contract that allows us to scale up fast. Plug-n-play servers on demand. I was a CTO of a tech corporation several years ago and so I've setup and maintained solutions which served fortune 500s and several campaigns which gained international exposure and one national television campaign.

Fortunately, I'm no stranger to these setups, and I've got access to the right people to get servers for 50% of what you might at Rackspace in what winds up being the same physical server center!

Right now I'm investigating leads and liquidating the last of my things to fund it. Rough going, but on the up-side, even the small amount of advertising we've started is making money!

It's a lot to handle at once but we're pushing through it. Another awesome thing is that we've got an in that will provide us with 1,000,000 new users in about 7 days time as soon as we can support it!

Because of all of this, I've been wrestling with the idea of seeking some funding again. I certainly will not be giving much of the company but I may look into doing a percentage with monthly cap for $50,000 - $150,000 in the interest of getting this done.

Our strategy will put us up to 10,000,000 in January and quite possibly more. That in mind, it doesn't sense to allow a few thousand to stand in the way! But if it doesn't come through, I'm going to keep hustling, liquidating, and doing what I have to. There's no turning back now and the finish line is in sight!!

Hey folks! Back with another update.

I realized that some people might want to know what's happening now... Long story short, good things!

As it goes, things have taken longer and more work than expected, but that's the essence of a startup, right?

For those wondering, I've learned a LOT about advertising and various other new things since the start of this. We now own several trademarks, class C corp is filed, and we're represented by a great law firm who is deferring 100% of the cost (even paying out of pocket for filing fees) until we are bringing in solid revenue. They specialize in startups - it's been a major blessing!

We're up to over 7 million daily ad views now and still growing like crazy. I know you guys want to know what it's all about, and I promise that *is* coming soon. We 'officially' launch on the 7th, and at that point, I'll be ready to post some in depth info. Still looking forward to sharing the whole story.

Keeping things on the DL has been good, however, as I've had some people try to strongarm me into releasing a massive chunk of the company and several trying to steal the idea. But now we're in a pretty solid place! It's been a long few months but we're almost where we need to be!!!

Right now our goal is to optimize our eCPM a bit. I've found that you can't just go with one ad network. You need to compete many against eachother and it can be a full time job keeping it dynamically shifting. I intend to hire a business development / ad net whiz (or partner with a company that does this) to head up that front, as I've realized it is not something you can just slide into.

Tip for entrepreneurs: Sort out all of your monetization methods/relationships as EARLY as possible.

You'd think ~10MM ad views daily would be prime real estate getting fought over, right? Well -- not quite. That's only semi-right. It's like holding an auction by going door to door and trying to get bids. I admit, my mistake was in not investigating this more ahead of time.

That said, we're NOT LOSING money. We are actually making a profit, now! A lot of defaults and low eCPM on one ad network at a time, yet we are still seeing $200+ days.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to optimize and pushing forward at full speed, but I will say that within only a few months, it ain't a bad start! It's always nice to see the dollars start flying in for the first time in a company instead of out (Ok, ok.. Maybe more like quarters and dimes, but the real dollars are on their way)

When we launch and sort out our ad nets to optimize our revenue a bit and stop it from defaulting with other countries, we'll soon see our projected numbers which make $200 daily look quite small. Amazing what a few small tweaks can do when you're dealing with a large audience!

BTW, user-base is up over 250,000 and still growing strong!

Still always open to hearing your thoughts and advice, fastlaners! Thanks for the feedback and encouragement so far.

RR -[]-

Those a really great news!
Looking forward to see the project unfold.
With 7million impressions i think you should be earning a bit more that $200/day, maybe you can try other ad networks who have a bigger CPM number...
keep us posted.