Mark The Fourth

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That I discovered this forum at all is bizarre. From a travel forum to a bodybuilding blog to a copywriting blog via a comment in a post about writing books. But I read TML yesterday and I agree with almost all that is written there. The calculations in the fastlane chapter looked like something out of an email I wrote last year.

I am making a B2C product.

Initial conditions:
- 3D model is done and I have had it successfully printed several times.
- Electronics work fine.
- Software only supports a small subset of devices.
- Did market testing on craigslist. Eight responses in four hours, which is underwhelming. Variation: I asked the people to tell me why they want it. One guy said instead of giving them away for free I should make a bunch and start a business

I am implementing a sort of "auto" functionality in the software and I am spending a bit of time on it. It is hard but this is the feature I envisioned when designing the device. My talks with owners of companies who would use this for their business say they do not want or need the "auto" functionality. But I have only asked three different such owners.

I am not sure how to determine pricing. There is one competitor who produces a much more sophisticated version for 30k. It costs me about $80 to build one (less my own labor, R&D, fixed costs, etc.). The plan is to build half a dozen and try to sell them at $350 and up. That number is chosen because after selling six I would be in the green. I should have the needed parts by the end of the week.

 

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Yesterday I read a few dozen pages of Ca$hvertising, since I figured I would be writing copy for the emails today.

Over the course of the day, the craigslist post sent me just under thirty emails. Spent about a half hour writing email replies around midnight. If you want to hear about the next run, I said, sign up for this email list. Wish I had a blog and a free ebook to entice them with. Also added some callback humor or references to the emails. Here is my mailing list so far:


yeahbabyyeah.jpg

I wrote too many variations with too small a sample size. This makes it hard to nail down what went wrong. Next time: design theory, allegedly what farmers use to test combinations of strains of crops. A special case of that is AB-testing, which you guys are probably familiar with. And a larger sample size. I planned to copypaste only one email and add one line of flavor, but the more email I wrote the more principles from ca$shvertising I was able to squeeze in. My one subscriber above was the one where I wrote the most. However I am pretty skeptical these leads will convert.

I will have to come up with a name for this thing eventually. Putting that off as long as I can because it is dumb.

The majority of today was spent writing a new "2x2" version of the software which is much clearer to visually interpret than the old one. I have a new idea now for the auto algorithm, based on the data visualized by the "2x2" software. In short, do what the postal service does for zip codes.

 

[BlakeIC]

Are you now listing it on craigslist for $350 or which ever price?

Seeing when fastlaners sell products that result in 100+ per sale always interest me because well I never buy 1 single product for that much on the internet (besides software, well i still don't buy software)

This product of yours, did you have the idea then decide to buy a 3d printer and make it?

 

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Good progress today.

• Finished chapter 2 of cashvertising. Really eye-opening, I've already used some of it.
• Wrote the 'auto' code.
• Software supports all devices now.
• Made an ebook, about 1000 words and ten figures for a topic closely related. The plan is to give it away for free in exchange for email subscriptions. I might also list it on amazon for some small price.

PM me if you have some knowledge and are willing to take a look and make some brief comments on how it is presented. It is very basic, but it has plenty of figures (which most books on this topic sorely lack).

The rest of the parts I need will arrive on Saturday.

Also. OH MAN seven subscribers. I was expecting about three. 7/30 is 23.3% conversion.

Are you now listing it on craigslist for $350 or which ever price?

Seeing when fastlaners sell products that result in 100+ per sale always interest me because well I never buy 1 single product for that much on the internet (besides software, well i still don't buy software)

This product of yours, did you have the idea then decide to buy a 3d printer and make it?

I've taken down the CL post. It was an offer for a free device. Once I have more devices I will go meet with some of these people and demo the device.

Most people in this niche, when they buy online, they spend more than $100 per sale. It is a really common niche (I hesitate to call it a niche) but somehow very overlooked.

I used 3dhubs.com to source the 3D printing and fiverr to make a model. I ordered one part on the website and then negotiated, the printer refined the model for free. 3D printing is a nightmare, it takes 2-9 hours and you need to be highly skilled.

 

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[BlakeIC]

Good progress today.

• Finished chapter 2 of cashvertising. Really eye-opening, I've already used some of it.
• Wrote the 'auto' code.
• Software supports all devices now.
• Made an ebook, about 1000 words and ten figures for a topic closely related. The plan is to give it away for free in exchange for email subscriptions. I might also list it on amazon for some small price.

PM me if you have some knowledge and are willing to take a look and make some brief comments on how it is presented. It is very basic, but it has plenty of figures (which most books on this topic sorely lack).

The rest of the parts I need will arrive on Saturday.

Also. OH MAN seven subscribers. I was expecting about three. 7/30 is 23.3% conversion.



I've taken down the CL post. It was an offer for a free device. Once I have more devices I will go meet with some of these people and demo the device.

Most people in this niche, when they buy online, they spend more than $100 per sale. It is a really common niche (I hesitate to call it a niche) but somehow very overlooked.

I used 3dhubs.com to source the 3D printing and fiverr to make a model. I ordered one part on the website and then negotiated, the printer refined the model for free. 3D printing is a nightmare, it takes 2-9 hours and you need to be highly skilled.

Well looks like you have a higher barrier to entry which is really good in terms of niche saturation

 

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Yesterday. Yesterday I was very depressed. I'd been working 14-16 hr days...alone with no social contact...for eleven days. It hit me hard and out of nowhere. So I was generally unproductive, only solving one bug and reading a few sections of cashv.

Today I added anonymous cloud monitoring and made the final software changes. I sat back. It was 2:15pm. And I said...OK. this is it. I'm done with the product.

Then.

I had a meeting today with a customer who was pre-sold on the product. It malfunctioned part of the way through. Moreover he was very confused by the layout of the app which is apparently quite technical. He had imagined something totally different! Game over.

So I picked his brain for about an hour and made a few big takeaways...the biggest one being....get out there and sell!! Just take whatever crap you have, and if it doesnt fit then ask them what they want. And listen. What he wants is radically simple (the uvp big bold and foolproof...also shiny advanced graphics) meanwhile today I wanted to add more features to the software, make the algorithms more precise...add details to the graphs...graphs which probably I will throw out now. Total redesign. Plan is: Photoshop some mockups and email them to the small mailing list I have, asking them to pick one.

For the record all the features (less graphics) he wanted are implemented already.

Heard from my patent attorney today... I can still apply for a patent but it will be difficult to overcome obviousness and, effectively, it will not be useful for enforcement. Too much prior art.

Tomorrow I am moving from Detroit to Indiana where I will stay until Wednesday. Then I'm driving to California where I have been invited to a mathematical research institute. I have always dreamt of doing mathematics full time no teaching no travel restrictions no paperwork or grants... and the fact that you cannot really pursue this without first making your fortune is what lead me to this forum. I hope to open a math research institute of my own one day, on a giant yacht in the med with plenty of hookers and blow.

Grabbed some drinks with a friend who took the Bar recently...I'm saying to him... Open a law company you have so much experience, hire your classmates who are still in school...write a book (the man has been writing thousands of words a day for ten years) ... No he wants a job...50k lawyers make he says...

Maybe he's right, maybe I'm too aggressive and I push too hard. Maybe one day it will catch up to me. Thing is... if I were less aggressive I wouldn't have kept that guy for an hour drilling him about what he wanted, wouldn't even have met up...at one point I pulled out some paper and said, draw it...he looked at me. Made a funny face. And then? He picked up the pen and started drawing. And we got along better afterwards. Maybe instead...we tell ourselves we can't so that we never face the danger of rejection... Maybe our limits are not cold logical conclusions but protective emotional rationalizations. I am certain this is the case.

I will be in Yellowstone park next weekend and in the bay area the following week. PM me if you want to meet up.

 

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Saturday I spent the morning packing and the evening driving. Then I partied . Sunday I slept in and then spent 3-4hr talking business with my 3D printer engineer. Among other things, he promised better models (which he delivered this morning). Sunday: I partied .

Ergo...Traveling is a problem. I am spending a substantial amount of time on drinking socializing and girls. Not that I dislike the freshmen. Specifically, 2/3 of the time. Tomorrow I have errands to do and then it will be parties again. On wednesday I leave for CA.

Distractions nonwithstanding, on Sunday and today I only worked on layouts and redesigning the app. it takes me about an hour to come up with one render. I have a few but only one I consider a good one so far.

I have posted to CL again (in two cities). I will be using the usual plan.

I am disappointed to be slowing down so much. The hope is that the joy and comfort of this [HASHTAG]#thuglife[/HASHTAG] will prepare me for the emotional hardships of the near future preventing for example another episode of depression like on last thursday.

 

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Just a quick check in. Currently in the bay area.

Building the mailing list up. App redesign is about 20% complete. New 3D printed model is finished
and I have a handful printed: the new design solves a critical issue which was causing the device to fail after sustained usage.

 

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Finished the app redesign. It was painstakingly time consuming.

In a nutshell, I recruited people off craigslist or by cold approach. Used popapp to make a mockup using paper and pen. Asked specific questions and redesign until I reached some metric.

Now I will need to rewrite the software, probably this will take me 1-2 weeks but maybe quite a bit longer.

I hired a few people off fiverr.com to take my popapp render and make realistic app mockups for it. The plan is to put up a sales splash page and take pre-orders (think: kickstarter) using for example tilt while I write the code.

I am also looking into setting up an affiliate system.