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Making the first £1

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Sam Kennedy

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I've just finished reading unSCRIPTED and thoroughly enjoyed reading it, I also received the necessary kick up the backside to stop making excuses and get executing!

The purpose of this thread is to show anyone who reads it that it's possible to get into the fastlane/unscripted route through good work ethic and ensuring you're providing true value (not perceived value!).

A very brief background about me: 24 year old Computer Science student in the UK, married, in process of getting a mortgage, exams to study for, about to be working full time.

Here is what I've done so far:
  • Developed a SaaS using Laravel
  • Split test some ads on various platforms, found a way to acquire new users using Adwords at £0.40 per user (on average)
  • Built a small mailing list at very low cost of 8 users
  • Applied for a grant (£150) to cover web hosting fees and initial advertising costs
Here is what I need to do:
  • Re-write the front end
  • Get Laravel working on my web hosting platform
  • Program auto-responder for new sign-ups
  • Make my first £1, this equates to one user using my service once
  • Create a feedback form to begin hearing market echos
Today I have a lot of studying to do for an exam in two days time, however I'm uploading my files to my webserver while I study, so that when I finish studying I can begin configuring my website to work properly. Upload time is about one hour so I can kill two birds with one stone.

Feel free to hold me accountable if I'm slacking or making excuses!
 
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Sam Kennedy

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Yesterday I finally managed to get the files uploaded to my shared host after having the internet connection drop, and then having to reflash the BIOS on my laptop after it got corrupted. I realised that shared hosting isn't the best way of working with Laravel so I looked into setting up an AWS server and I'm going to do that today. This will save on the costs of web hosting, so a bit more can go towards advertising.

I also had a niggling doubt about something which I decided to research into, it turns out a small change in my code would have made me personally responsible for any chargebacks/refunds on my website, rather than the person selling through the site. I'm really glad I noticed this, it could have ended in disaster.

I hope that can be helpful to someone, the lesson is: No matter how small or insignificant a doubt you have seems, you thought of it for a reason, don't stop researching until you're confident you can dismiss it.
 

Sam Kennedy

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Okay my last exam is out of the way, I can put some serious time into this now.

I'm lighting a fire under me, I just received a grant from my university to pursue this, and I've told the person who gave me the grant we can meet in 2-3 weeks time. This means I can't slack off, I need to show results in that time frame.

These are the major steps needed:
-Rebrand and rewrite the front end
-Set up SSL certificate
-Code autoresponder
-Start A/B testing on Adwords again
-Work through the Cashvertising book to improve my copywriting skills

Today I'm going to test and fix the AWS setup, configure the DNS server and set up the autoresponder.
 

Sam Kennedy

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Keep at it bud.
Thank you for the encouragement :)
I'm still working on this, I'm surprised how much I've managed to get done in the last 4 hours. There was a lot more to the AWS configuration than I originally thought, but it's *almost* up and running again. On to the DNS configuration now!
 

Sam Kennedy

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It's 1:10am, I can't sleep despite going to bed at 11pm. I've managed to get an SSL certificate set up for free using Let's Encrypt. I tried setting up a fancy payments page using an animated credit card, but it appears the work required to value added ratio is a bit imbalanced, I'll leave that for later as there are more important things to work on.
I'm trying to get my sleep schedule sorted out, every time I try and go to bed at 10:30pm - 11pm for the last week or so, I feel like my brain is on fire, not painful, just like it's really active. I might be tired enough to sleep now, going to give it another try.
 

Sam Kennedy

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I got up at 6:30am despite only having ~5 hours sleep, I've had a lot harder days on fewer hours than that. I need to work on my morning routine though, it's taken me a while to get ready (about 30 minutes longer than it should).
Today I'm going to sort out the fancy animated credit card form, I already sorted the autoresponder out, forgot to post about that, and then start on the rebranding, hopefully by tonight/tomorrow the site will be ready.
 
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Sam Kennedy

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I've sorted the fancy animated credit card form. Next is the re-branding, however I have some commitments today, so will resume this afternoon.

I guess I should be clear on what it is I'm building: A website which allows freelancers to invoice and receive payments, without the high fees, limitations and strict policies that other services offer. It frees up time so you can focus on growing your business, gives you a free pay increase by lowering the transaction fees, and you will never experience the panic of not being able to pay rent/bills because you violated some "policy" and now your account is frozen.
 

Sam Kennedy

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Finally got back, I can probably squeeze in another hour or so before dinner and two or three after. I've decided to add a short survey after users sign up asking how often they plan to use the platform and what they intend on using it for. I might as well gather some information while I'm rewriting the front end.
 
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Sam Kennedy

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I've managed to get another two hours put in, I managed to break the Laravel configuration which took a while to fix, but I've also added a couple of features for when users sign up. I've sent emails out to those on the list asking for some idea on how they plan on using the service. I just need to fix some domain settings and then I can start advertising again.
 

Sam Kennedy

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I woke up naturally at 5:45am, didn't even need an alarm, so I followed the election until 7am then got ready and started working at about 7:40am. The last four hours have flown by! Despite the fact I absolutely hate doing front end design, and I'm feeling the effects of having a few hours less sleep than normal, it feels completely different doing this for myself, rather than for some coursework.

I've re-written 5 of the pages, which hasn't been a simple process since front end isn't my strength. I also have 5 pages left to do. While the campaign ran yesterday and today, three more people have registered, costing £1.75, which averages out to just over 50p per new user.

If I get the front end finished today, I will start working on refactoring the back end code for new registrations. I can get another 2.5 hours in before I have to go to my solicitor to pick up some paperwork. I'm going to take a short break now to get some food then I'm starting again.
 
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Sam Kennedy

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I've got 2 pages finished, just 3 to go!

I've decided to spend some time thinking about the value array of PayPal vs my service, then I'm going to run a split test on AdWords to see if I can figure out which attribute(s) are the deciding factor in people deciding to sign up.

So far I've got: Convenience, Security, Design, Fees, Copy, Professionalism.

To anybody reading this thread: If you were looking for a way to receive payments online, which factors would affect your decision on the service you decide to use?
 

JCQ

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I've got 2 pages finished, just 3 to go!

I've decided to spend some time thinking about the value array of PayPal vs my service, then I'm going to run a split test on AdWords to see if I can figure out which attribute(s) are the deciding factor in people deciding to sign up.

So far I've got: Convenience, Security, Design, Fees, Copy, Professionalism.

To anybody reading this thread: If you were looking for a way to receive payments online, which factors would affect your decision on the service you decide to use?

Hey I can help you beta test your website if you would like and offer feedback. I want to add value to everyone I can on the forum especially when they are first starting out.

To answer your questions I would say arbitrary holds on the money in the account or just arbitrary holds in general. If there is going to be a hold it should be communicated upfront why and when the hold will be released. This has been an issue for me when looking at merchant accounts and payment processors bank accounts and receiving funds and just being able to move money around in general. As a suggestion maybe work in a way to be able to receive payment in cryptocurrency like bitcoin or ethereum? Receiving money should be as painless as possible. Also having a nice little animation graphic when logging in creates a dopamine in the brain that gets people to keep on wanting to use the site.

Like on all those apps in the smartphones. Try to find ways to gamify it? I don't think it has to be too complicated just adding subtle animations to various repetitive actions that a user would likely do consistently while on the site can rewire the brain to become "addicted" to wanting to use your site at a subconscious level.

Send me an PM if you would like to talk more by email.

Let me know if you would like an on call beta tester to help you out. Hope you succeed.
 

Sam Kennedy

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I've had three new sign ups today. Averaging about £0.80 per user now. I have a meeting with a business adviser on June 29th.
There's been a load of errands to run today, but I did manage to squeeze in an hour of studying 'Cashvertising' and noting down my ideas while waiting for an appointment, and I've managed to set up my website to log identifiers, so I can do split testing and see which ads or sources are actually getting people to sign up.

I've also been implementing my own 2-factor authentication, it's taken about two hours, so all together about 3 hours put into the site today. Not great, but it's all the free time I've had today :\
 
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Sam Kennedy

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D'oh!
I didn't realise that when I moved from x10hosting to AWS, that email to my domain had stopped working. Completely my mistake, should have caught it earlier, it's fixed now. If anyone responded with feedback in the last few days I wouldn't have received it... debating whether to send out another email, or just leave it and introduce an optional feedback form for new users.

I've registered to become a private limited company, I'm glad I noticed the email problem in time, or I wouldn't have received any of the documents I need!

Up to 15 users now, hopefully I'll be able to make the site go live tomorrow.
 

Sam Kennedy

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Officially a LTD company now!
I woke up at 6:30am, got ready, checked email and news and started working at 7:30am.
I've finished converting my front end templates to use the blade engine. I also spent a lot of time rewriting a couple of pages I didn't like the look of. So far 2.5 hours in and I need to go to my solicitors again so that's going to take another hour away.

Today I need to:
  1. Test the payment system and ensure it's robust
  2. Update autoresponder to use the new 2-factor authentication
  3. Test the payment system with real money
  4. Create feedback form
  5. Go live
  6. Increase adwords budget
 

Sam Kennedy

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I had a lot of obstacles in the way of getting the payment system working correctly during testing. But I've got it working now. Only test remaining is to ensure one user can't delete/edi another user's invoice. Then I'm going to run a test using real money, finish the feedback form, create a documentation page, and then go live.
 
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Claude Roy

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Wow you're on fire, that's very nice to see and hear. I'm a software developer as well and it's very inspiring to see you on fire like that. Keep at it and rocking it, I'm sure you are going to crush it :)
 

Sam Kennedy

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Wow you're on fire, that's very nice to see and hear. I'm a software developer as well and it's very inspiring to see you on fire like that. Keep at it and rocking it, I'm sure you are going to crush it :)
Thank you, these types of posts really help keep the motivation going :)
I tested the system with real money, a whopping £2.50, and it worked. Just a few minor tweaks before I add the 'login' button then I need to start researching some PPC strategies.
 

Sam Kennedy

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Woke up at 6:30am, didn't start working until 8am. I worked 8am-12pm, updated my adwords campaign, and fixed a lot of minor UI features. I created a survey that users can fill out when registering, a contact page and I'm currently writing up some help documentation.

I have to admit a bit of fear hit me last night when I made the site go live. What I've created is now out there for people to use and abuse. It handles real money, if anything goes wrong I'm responsible for it.

Out of the 15 people who signed up to the mailing list, only 2 registered full accounts, and nobody has linked their account with Stripe yet. Hopefully now that I've upped my ad campaign budget to £10 per day I'll be able to gather some useful data on targeting the right audience.
 
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Sam Kennedy

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The only word I can think of to describe today's changes to my adwords campaign is 'catastrophic'.
A few variables have changed, and I need to figure out what's caused the shift. I used to get a new user every 2-4 clicks, which cost anywhere from £0.40 to £0.80, with it averaging about £0.70 per sign up. I've spent £10 today for a single registration

Variables changed:
1. I've changed the layout of the landing page, putting the registration form at the top of the page
2. I've changed the delivery method to accelerated instead of standard
3. I've upped my bid to £0.40 per click

I don't think #3 is too relevant, since I've still had a fair amount of clicks. #1 possibly, I'm thinking it's #2. I received a rush of traffic in the middle of the day, but got a sign up shortly after 7pm. If the time of day is a significant factor in determining the conversion rate, then that would explain the terrible result today. So I'm going to go through the time stamps and see if there is a pattern, and if possible do a chi-square or other statistical test.

I'm changing my delivery method back to standard until I can determine what the cause was.
 

Imgal

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Love your action taking!

My advice to you (if you're not doing it already) then I'd really consider jumping into the entrepreneur groups on Facebook. Definitely, don't go in pitching, but do a bit of searching to find the posts around the pain points you're solving and then start conversing and helping out with advice. You're not only likely to get people checking you out (it's worth looking at the people who get a lot of engagement on their posts and offering them free trials etc), but also get a real feeling for the language they're using which can really help with copy.

You might also want to consider adding a Facebook retargeting pixel on your website so you can then start to build up an audience to not only advertise to but also to analyse once it's grown big enough. Just putting out some pretty basic ads that do nothing more than develop brand awareness can help with conversions.

For example, we're done some campaigns in the past that weren't much more than just displaying the logo and basic text. There was nothing to encourage a click and that was never the point... when we did move to more aggressive ads / emailing people were saying they were already aware of us because they'd "seen us around".
 
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Sam Kennedy

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My advice to you (if you're not doing it already) then I'd really consider jumping into the entrepreneur groups on Facebook. Definitely, don't go in pitching, but do a bit of searching to find the posts around the pain points you're solving and then start conversing and helping out with advice. You're not only likely to get people checking you out (it's worth looking at the people who get a lot of engagement on their posts and offering them free trials etc), but also get a real feeling for the language they're using which can really help with copy.
I haven't done that yet, I'll start having a look at what I can find out.

You might also want to consider adding a Facebook retargeting pixel on your website so you can then start to build up an audience to not only advertise to but also to analyse once it's grown big enough. Just putting out some pretty basic ads that do nothing more than develop brand awareness can help with conversions.
I have one set up from a previous campaign but haven't really used it much, I'll get that up and running again.

For example, we're done some campaigns in the past that weren't much more than just displaying the logo and basic text. There was nothing to encourage a click and that was never the point... when we did move to more aggressive ads / emailing people were saying they were already aware of us because they'd "seen us around".
Very interesting point, I'm not sure if my budget would allow for that, I'll see what I can find out from the groups first, and then see about targeted ads just to build awareness.
 

Sam Kennedy

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I found a statistically significant cluster of registrations (<0.0001) between 4-6pm. However that was the time I was advertising today and I got nothing. Maybe I just need to run it more evenly spread out during the day to see if it brings results, if not then I'll tweak the landing page again.

I have to admit today wasn't the most productive, I did do well in the morning, but after cleaning the bathroom in the afternoon my motivation dropped off, then the results of this ad campaign didn't help. I was also writing up documentation which is very dry, maybe I'll invent a way of making it less painful, everybody I know hates writing documentation. I'm not making excuses, I should have worked harder, tomorrow I can try again and do better.
 

Sam Kennedy

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So I woke up this morning and checked my adwords campaign, setting it back to the 'standard' ad delivery option has made a difference, four new registrations. However people aren't following through with registering an account, I'm thinking the process is too long: Enter Email -> Click Link -> Fill Out Registration Form -> Connect Stripe Account. I could just shorten it to: Enter Email -> Connect Stripe Account. I'm also considering sending people to the demo page first, so they can actually experience what their clients will see, then if they like it, they will want to sign up.

I've also gone through the last 30 days of posts on the freelance subreddit, and contacted people directly who have questions about payment options, I'll see if that brings about any results. From being there I've learned that Upwork, which is one of the biggest freelancing websites REALLY sucks. I knew it was bad, but reading some of the experiences people have had there, I'm surprised the website is still allowed to operate. This is a real story: Freelancer finishes work, client pays, client requests refund and bails. Upwork contacts freelancer and says their account is now in negative balance (due to the transaction fees) and wants them to pay. So lets get this straight, you need to pay for getting ripped off? I think I've found a much larger pain point, I just need to figure out a clever solution.
 
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Sam Kennedy

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I've set the bid back to £0.20 on my adwords campaign, clicks are trickling in, 9 so far today, no registrations. I've been unfocused the last few days, I need to get back to putting in the real work. I've been researching more into what makes websites like Upwork and PPH bad, and what makes websites like Quora have a more professional "feel".

I've listed what people complained about and some potential solutions:
Problem: 20% commission on jobs under $500, plus a 2.75% transaction fees
Solution: Don't be greedy

Problem: Lack of support
Solution: Have customer service that 'SUCS'

Problem: Developing countries undercut jobs and push prices lower, bidding becomes a race to the bottom
Solution: Match budgets, people offering to work for pennies an hour are matched with people on a budget, where quality isn't as much of a concern. Also have "managers" which are experienced in their field review jobs and submissions. So people wanting "a website like facebook" with a budget of $25 are removed. Also people offering "professional logo design" while using PowerPoint are removed or downgraded to only be able to bid on jobs with a low budget, and not compete with those looking for quality work.

Problem: People getting charged $8 just to open a dispute
Solutions: Again, make sure the service SUCS

I'm thinking of creating a one-page website (possibly named something like "UPrising", but I'm not sure if going on a direct attack like that is wise), where people can choose from options or submit their own ideas of what would make a good freelancer community. Then feature the best ideas for other people to see, once I get a good enough idea of what people want, build it.

I'm also worried that I may be pivoting too early, and haven't given my invoicing website the chance to succeed yet.
 

Sam Kennedy

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It's been a while since I updated this thread. To be honest I stopped prioritising this, the house completion is getting closer and I've started working full time. Neither are valid excuses for stopping, I just decided to.

I hit my goal of getting 50 people signed up, under budget as well. I also got some useful ideas from a group on Facebook. The problem I'm having is nobody is using the site, I need to figure out why. Is the interface too confusing? Is the effort required to sign up not worth it? (Stripe has a long registration process).

At the same time at my job, I have an idea for some software which would be useful. I work in industrial automation and I can create some software to simplify and speed up the process of programming industrial systems. It will be a large time commitment though.
 

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