A better mouse trap.

[amk]

I'm just beginning the actual creation of an online service I've tested and verified people want - at least for free. I thought i would start a progress thread to document my journey and the results produced. Advice or criticism from any of you along the way is welcomed and appreciated! I'll keep this thread going if there is any interest in it, but it seems a little narcissistic to assume people would be interested.

The product will be a subscription service without anything tangible. It is a unique way to solve a basic need. There are other solutions (competitors) out there. Some offer a version of this service for free, but are really, really bad. Some offer it as a subscription, and are better than the free services but, in my opinion, the solution is not as good as the one I have in mind. Basically, I think I can build a better mouse trap. I'll probably just refer to my service as "a better mouse trap." Sorry if that's lame but analogies work for me and that's basically what my service is.

So far, I've tested the idea as simply as possible: Create a landing page, describe the solution, have a "Sign Up" button and when a small form is submitted, display a "Launching Soon" page. In this way, I know I can at minimum acquire non-paying users. I thought about trying to implement stage-2 of testing and have them select a subscription plan, to prove that someone is willing to pay for this, but I don't think I can offer enough credibility/social proof in the landing page to get anyone to actually pull out t
heir wallet out. Poor results may be discouraging. I think it's time to just build the better mouse trap, let people use it, and if it indeed works as I think it could, collect some testimonials as proof to future potential customers, and try and implement a subscription model. The three possible outcomes I see are:

1. My mouse trap really isn't better, afterall. Keep what works with my mouse trap, scrap what doesn't, and try new implementations that I think could make the mouse trap better. See how users react, and repeat until I have a mouse trap that catches more mice, or until I decide there was nothing wrong with the mouse trap in the first place.
2. My mouse trap works about as well as the competition. This will be a hard sell: Competitors have recognized brands with loyal paying users. On top of that, they don't have to re-educate their users how the service works.
3. My mouse trap really is better -- people are using it to catch more mice than if they were using the competitions mouse trap! At this point, I know people have the desire for the service, and I have proof that their desire can be filled with my service. It would then come down to the best copy/sales/method of moving future customers to purchase. I would probably offer a period of continued free accounts to those that were existing on the service when I was proving the method.

The last few nights I've redesigned my landing page to match the direction of design/style/branding I want to go in, and rewrote copy using things I've learned from books (Ca$hvertising, Boron Letters) since my last test.

Next up is database design and then start developing the most simple version of my better mouse trap I can. The idea is to get people using it to see if it works as I intend. If it doesn't, no harm -- they're not paying for anything and I can use their feedback to build it better (outcome #1). I expect it to take me 1-2 weeks to create a basic version.

My timeline to complete a basic version would be shorter, but I have a day job (8-5), wife, and 2 kids (3-1/2 year old and 6 week old). My kids keep me occupied until about 11:00pm at night (3 year old goes to sleep by 9pm, then I've got newborn until ~11pm to let my wife catch up on some sleep. My newborn refuses to sleep without being held and will promptly scream if put down).

In the last week, I've been working on this daily starting at 11pm. Some nights to 12:30am-1:00am, some 3:00am. My wife and 3 year old are early risers, 6am, so if my newborn is up then too, I'm up to help with the kids. My latest morning to sleep in may be 6:30am, but usually closer to 6. My kids are the reason I want more freedom and to better my life and show them anything is possible. My kids and the money/time commitment they need are not an excuse "to not", but a reason "to". I find it's an easy excuse for parents to use the excuse, "I have no time!" To them and the devil on my own shoulder, I say "bullshit." Just stay up later. Read books/study while you hold your newborn. Persistence.

 

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[IAmTheJeff]

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