Over the coming months I’ll outline every step of the process. From picking a topic, to how frequently you should write, to figuring out a way to generate some income from your site. I’ll also break down the technical aspect of creating a killer site layout that will help you dramatically boost your subscriber base. It’s time to finally follow through on your plan to build an audience and do something that will permanently change your life for the better!

If you want to follow along, I suggest signing up for email updates via the form to the right.

A 20 Percent Response Rate

For those who aren’t aware, Holler was an iPhone application that we developed for facilitating ad hoc meetups. People could broadcast out to their friends that they were interested in getting together (e.g. grab lunch, have drinks, etc) and their friends could reply directly to them.

When we first launched Holler there were all types of problems with the product. Aside from glaring bugs that needed to be fixed, there were some fundamental issues with how the product was developed. As we started contemplating what we were missing we began adding features that would smooth the on-boarding process (the process through which new users become active) and bolster our invite response rates. What do I mean by invite response rates?

Every time a user registered for Holler, we prompted them with a screen that suggested they “Holler at your friends” at which point they would select their contacts from their phone’s contact list. Once they selected their friends and typed in an activity that they wanted to participate in (e.g. grab lunch) it would literally text message their friend and say “Nick O’Neill wants to grab lunch. Click here to join them: http://holler.com/somelink”

Our response rate on our initial invite system was approximately 20 percent. For email marketers in the audience, you may be thinking “that’s an awesome response rate!”, however only a fraction of the people who actually clicked converted into users.

Achieving An 80 Percent Response Rate

We thought about this process for a couple days and quickly came to the conclusion that the flow was too broken. I looked through our Twilio logs and noticed messages like “Who the hell is this?” and “New number?” and one of my personal favorites “Who dis?” It was obvious: the foreign phone number was a serious problem. Yet something was interesting about this phenomenon: the users weren’t ignoring the message. Typically when you spam someone, you’d expect them to ignore the message, but because this came from a friend, they replied.

So how could we enable a conversation to occur in which the user of Holler explained to their friend that they were testing a new application? We came up with a solution: add private messaging so the invitee could reply directly to their friend and make the message more personal. The message would now look something like this: “Hey John, it’s Nick O’Neill. I’m going to grab lunch. Interested?” Immediately our response rates jumped 400 percent. Success!

Things Aren’t Perfect

Despite the huge surge, things weren’t incredible. Despite the improved communication, people weren’t getting together. By analyzing an anonymized log of communication among users, we were able to figure out that many people didn’t get together. For those who did, their subsequent hollers weren’t receiving responses. Additionally, users who didn’t broadcast invites to their friends and chose to broadcast invites to public Holler users were subject to far lower response rates.

Unfortunately, a non-response in Holler is a powerful motivator to stop using the service. Out of 6,000 people who registered for Holler (this is without any substantial marketing), we had less than 50 relatively active users. There was an additional 100 to 200 people who were opening the app following a push notification from a public group. The bottom line is that the numbers were pretty abysmal. For social applications, you want to get much closer to Facebook-like engagement levels where 50 percent of your monthly active users are returning daily.

While we had close to 25 percent of monthly active users returning regularly, the vast majority of users (well over 90 percent) were not returning to the app. As a result of these numbers I figured it was a good time to pull the app because in the events space, generating a highly active user base is something that is insanely challenging. If you have any feedback or questions, don’t hesitate to post them in the comments!

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How It Will Happen

Yesterday while grabbing coffee, Paul McKellar, entrepreneur in residence at SVAngel, presented a great idea when I brought up the concept of Twitter bootstrap themes: serving up CSS files on a per-request basis. It’s a model that Typekit has been using for a while now: charge people based on the number of pageviews they get to their site. It’s a significant contrast to WordPress Themes which have historically been priced on a per theme basis.

Clearly WordPress themes have a much greater audience: millions of people use wordpress to power their blogging activity. However there are countless startups that are using Twitter Bootstrap as a quick way to get up and running without having to wait on a design team. Take Swole.me as an example. I found them through Twitter last night and immediately recognized the design. If you want to know other sites that leverage Twitter Bootstrap, you can check out this blog which is dedicated to covering all the sites built with the framework.

By charging on a pageview basis, theme creators could quickly start generating revenue without much risk to the developers who simply want to get ideas out there. Obviously there’s always the opportunity to charge a flat-fee, but this market is not yet as large as wordpress. I wouldn’t be surprised if it became just as large though: developers and hobbyists are the ones responsible for the success of WordPress.

The market is definitely similar: people who want to quickly get a nice-looking site up and running without a lot of configuration. Granted, Bootstrap doesn’t exactly have a powerful back-end to power their system but that’s also the beauty of the product. With the rapid adoption of Twitter Bootstrap, I’m willing to make a significant wager that we’ll see a emergence of a cottage industry built around Twitter Bootstrap themes.

If a person receives and email and clicks a link from within that email, you should have special login settings that enables them to instantly manage their email settings. While I’m on this subject, let me throw in one other big no-no that I’ve seen over the past couple days: PR people and journalists will put you on BCC and don’t let you opt-out from their emails. Now I find myself emailing those people back and asking to be unsubscribed from their list.

If you are concerne that making unsubscribing easy will reduce your subscriber base, just use this trick to keep people on your list for longer.

For the past 36 hours I’ve been unsubscribing from practically every product email and it has dramatically reduced my inbound email volume by well over 50%. While it’s still the weekend, I’m pretty confident that as I go through next week, my time spent in the inbox will have decreased a ton thanks to clicking unsubscribe. Yet clicking unsubscribe only gets you part of the way to an empty inbox. So how do you get the rest of the way?

All too often the remaining emails are messages that result in tasks being put on your todo list. Rather than simply responding to all the emails I decided to write down every type of email that I found in my inbox while cleaning it out, and here’s what I came up with:

• Newsletters – This was the vast majority of my messages and unfortunately I had to just click unsubscribe. If I really like the newsletter I’ll set up a filter in Gmail that has the newsletter skip my inbox and go to a folder that I can “read at a later date”.
• Email reminders to myself – This is unfortunately a common behavior of mine. I end up shooting myself a quick email to add tasks to my todo list or quickly complete the next day. The reality is that there are more activities that we can possibly accomplish in a day so at some point I’ll need to find a way to store a personal “wishlist” of tasks that I’d like to complete some day if I have more time.
• Scheduling meetings with unknown people who I want to meet – Many of the messages that I receive are scheduling requests. However I’ve concluded that meetings with people who you don’t know need to have a more efficient filtering process. This post on Quora highlights a few interesting models to filtering requests. For me the process is pretty simple: I block out a set time on my schedule during which I’ll do Skype interviews. I then provide a link for people who want to meet during those time slots so they can schedule it. It’s quickly out of the inbox.
• Scheduling with unknown people who I don’t want to meet – Sometimes there’s people who want to get together and chat, but if you have too many items on your schedule it become pretty difficult to fit them in. The Quora thread I posted in the last item suggests that you get people to jump through hoops in order to meet with you. However at some point you have to simply filter people out. I just archive the message and if they keep being persistent I’ll eventually move them up to a Skype meeting to make things more efficient.
• Party invites – I wish I received these more often! While my inbox gives me the false feeling of being popular, the reality is that I rarely get party invites. Send me one and make me feel happy and I’ll try to do the same!
• Scheduling with people I reached out to – Sometimes I actually request meetings with other people … gasp!!! This is how you can tell who truly cares about you Just as I’ve devised my own filtering mechanisms, so have most other people. However when they reply, we typically go on this back and forth process of finding when we’re both available. I’m in the midst of perfecting a system to deal with eliminating this back and forth process, however in the meantime, I think it’s best to immediately send over a list of potential time slots.
• Invoice payment requests – Bills suck, but you have to pay them! Pay them and get them out of your inbox. Somebody should seriously come up with a system where you can forward a bill and set a payment date for those that can’t pay immediately (or don’t want to).
• Contract agreement signatures – This one is annoying as hell but I’m currently exploring solutions like Docusign to make this process easier. Printing a document, signing, and scanning it takes too much time and wastes paper. It’s far easier to review an agreement and fill in any information on the computer. As such if I receive and agreement I ask the person if we can use Docusign or some other form of e-signature service to get this done quicker.
• Automated product inquiries – Some services that I’ve subscribed to send me automated emails in an effort to make my life more efficient. I can’t begin to describe the irony in this. The bottom line is this: if you want to make me more productive, don’t keep me in my inbox as I become immune to daily messages. I’ve since unsubscribed from all of these.
• Interview requests – This really doesn’t happen as often as I’d hope. However all the other emails previously prevented me from replying to these. Any opportunity for getting free promotion should always be taken so long as it doesn’t take an excessive amount of time to respond to the inquiries.
• Introduction requests – This one’s pretty self explanatory and to be honest, I haven’t come up with a perfect solution for this. Sometimes people want a single intro which is typically fine but other times they send me a list and ask for tons of intros. I feel like that’s a guaranteed way to get a non-response. Two things: don’t ask people for high profile intros without a strong working relationship. My relationships with high-profile people are probably not very strong and there’s no way I’d use up an intro or favor for someone I don’t know very well. I’d be curious to hear how people approach this problem.
• Speaking requests – This is also extremely rare. I know, I know, you probably think I get these requests all the time Seriously though, if you need to fly somewhere to speak, it’s typically not worth the effort unless they are paying you. However if you have a nearby event that someone asks you to speak at, I typically take the opportunity because it’s nice to support any local community event. Aside from that, I’ll leave you to figure out how to handle these as it’s not really a problem for most people.
• Domain bids – I own way too many domains (like over 150) and I forward them all to Sedo to let people bid on them. I receive bids a few times a week but most don’t amount to anything. These don’t take long to reply to however!

So after going through all these emails, I’ve come up with a few key problems that I run into: scheduling requests, payment requests, introduction requests, and contract signatures. Developing a system to handle these requests efficiently can save you A TON of time and get you out of your inbox quickly. Additionally, if you want to keep people on your email list for a longer period of time, you should give them the option to get weekly or monthly digest emails just like AppSumo did. Once I come up with my own solutions to these tasks that take time, I’ll be sure to post a follow-up post.

Unsubscribe button image found via Damian Saunders who also found out the satisfaction from clicking unsubscribe.

Yesterday afternoon I had coffee with a local startup that is preparing to release the public version of their iPhone app. Almost four months ago the company was demoing their product to investors and was on the verge of launching. Today I got to finally see their app in person on the founder’s phone which still hasn’t launched. It has been four months and the company still has no data on how the market will receive their product and is still making miniscule changes to the app.

I sympathize with the founder, I was in his shoes months ago when we were building Holler. We spent months perfecting the flow, adding features, and making everything look beautiful. While you can read about the story here, we implemented a new policy once I started programming the iPhone app myself (after firing the original developer, etc): we were going to strip down all the features and push out a first version within five weeks come hell or high water.

The app launched with a critical bug that was quickly removed. We started testing things and adding features that we originally wanted to. We started perfecting some of the flow through minor changes and then hit a wall: we’d have to go through a reorganization of the app that would take months to push out (my guess was 6 – 10 weeks on the low end). That’s when I decided that this business was not for me. Coming from a world where you can develop and launch something in days (the web), spending months to test a hypothesis was absolutely unacceptable.

What I’ve since learned is that we could have performed numerous tests prior to investing so much time in building an app. As Vinicius Vacanti, Founder of Yipit, published the other day, performing small experiments to understand demand for your product before you build it is critical. In other words: stop living in your mind. We all do it.

We all experience the world through our own eyes and assume that others (or a lot of them) see things the way that we do. We then proceed to build a product completely around that vision in our head. It’s a guaranteed way to burn a lot of your money. Perform smaller tests that validate your concept before you consider making the investment in that genius mobile app idea that has been bugging you for a while. It will save you a ton of money and a ton of pain.

Additionally, ask yourself this question: could I build a web version of this first? If a web version would solve most of the pain point that you’re attempting to solve, build the web version first … it’s too expensive to jump right into mobile (unless of course you’re an incredible mobile developer, in which case: congrats!). Also, don’t ask yourself whether a web version would solve the problem, ask others as there’s a good chance you’ll want to build a mobile app right away.

Social Rises To Power

Over the past decade Facebook has grown to become one of the largest players on the web, sucking up the greatest percentage of internet users’ attention of any other site. Enabling us to connect with one another, and peer into each others’ lives, Facebook has literally sucked up a significant portion of the internet, a task which happens to be one of Google’s publicly stated objectives (index the world’s information). As the power has shifted toward social, tensions have mounted, climaxing in the latest event which appears to be an act of desperation.

Google is strong-arming users by forcing them to have a social search experience built around one “social” service provider: Google. Not only is it anti-competitive, but it goes against the users’ best interest. The company has effectively co-opted your identity by encouraging you to join Google+ and placing it at the top of their search results when your friends search for you. Google isn’t the only one battling to be your center of identity though. Facebook and even Twitter would like to serve as your primary online identity, but as far as I’m (and you should be) concerned: it’s not up for them to decide.

We Deserve Control

Ironically, in the past few years, some of the greatest open-web advocates have been snatched up by Google and Facebook in an effort to claim “openness”. Being open is a word that has been manipulated over time to appear as though the company is giving users the option, and more importantly, control, of their own data. We all know that’s not the case though. Facebook lets you export your data, but it’s not in a way that makes it efficient for others to import (there’s no way you are going to download a file then upload it to another site just to register). As for Google, I’m not sure about their exporting practices.

In all the discussion about Google determining what social service provider should serve as your identity, nobody that I’ve seen has suggested that the user should have that control. Why is that? If I want my identity on Google to show up as nickoneill.com (which it does for me), then I should have control over that. I shouldn’t have to go through a tedious search engine optimization process that extends beyond the skills of an average internet user, I should simply be able to select it.

Facebook doesn’t deserve to make that decision for me, nor does Google. Yet in launching the ‘Search Plus Your World’ product, Google has essentially flipped their middle finger at you, the user, to tell you one thing: “we are now your identity, take it or leave it”. I understand the benefits of social search as I’ve been raving about its potential for years now. Yet Google’s latest maneuver is a sign that things are going to get ugly before they better. As the web giants duke it out, the users, not the companies, will be the greatest victims because nobody with any significant voice is sticking up for them.

As an addendum, I should add that I believe the benefits for consumers gained from both companies has been radical. Yet, it’s important that as the web evolves, the users have control of their identity. Unfortunately, actions like Google’s, the government’s (e.g. SOPA), and even previous actions of Facebook, have shown that the concerns of individuals are by far the last thing taken into consideration.

Post image was found at Blazomania.

I have a couple friends who run businesses and it’s pretty much the same trend over and over when I talk to them: they discover another need in the same market that needs to be fulfilled and they try to go after it. All the while they neglect to truly execute on the opportunity they were first working on (trust me I know because I’ve made the mistake).

Traders (and more specifically: arbitrageurs) are one group of people who know better than this. When there’s a price discrepancy in the marketplace, they focus all their efforts on taking advantage of the gap. Talk to any trader who comes up with a good trade (stock trader, advertising arbitrager, the list goes on..), they will keep milking that trade until it stops printing money for them. They won’t move on to the next trade until the first one is complete (unless of course they have additional capital to do so).

Many entrepreneurs suffer from ADHD-like symptoms and pull their business in different directions before they’ve fully exploited the original opportunity that they were focused on. I’ve written about it again and again, but it deserves additional attention because I still see this problem so often.

We all have our reasons for following the shiny object (new business ideas). Yes, there are a few excuses that are actually valid:

Valid excuses

• You’re passionate about something else – There’s more to life than money. Spending your entire life doing something because it makes lots of money is not a great way to become happy. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider the economic impact of all your decisions. If starting a business helped you discover your true passion though, awesome! Don’t spend your life pursuing something that you don’t love.
• There’s no demand – If the demand dried up or doesn’t exist, it’s time to pivot.
• You have a self-sustainable business – If you have a business that is supporting itself (and possibly even growing), there’s nothing wrong with expanding your operations beyond the initial product or service you were offering.
• Massive explosions – These are things that force you to question your purpose in life. A founder quits, you go broke after taking out three mortgages on your house (time to get a job), and other major events of this nature. Sometimes you are forced to step away. Often times that break will be exactly what you needed to regain your footing and go back at it.

Now let me list the reasons that are most common (and not great excuses):

Weak excuses

• They’re shiny – We all love shiny things! We also often have this false perception that there’s a business model out there that we can put in little effort and generate huge returns from. Here’s the reality: all businesses take an immense amount of work to support. That other business you see is going to take just as much work (or more) than the one you are working on.
• Entrepreneur gets tired – Oh are you really tired of working day in and day out for something that isn’t paying you really well? Go cry on someone else’s shoulder because you have got to hustle to make businesses work. Less vacation, more work, more hustle, more focus … that’s the only way.
• Family or lover to support – This is actually a great source of motivation: if you don’t hustle people who are relying on you will suffer. You are going to have an incredible amount of stress from this though. My suggestion: go to the gym and work it off.
• There are serious hurdles – At this point I feel like I’m beating a dead horse: either you are an entrepreneur or you aren’t. If you are going to complain about the challenges of staying focused, you shouldn’t have signed up for entrepreneurship in the first place.

If you have a business that is performing and growing, you have a duty to that business: continue to water it and help it grow. Don’t go watering another one when the first business is still thirsty (pardon the metaphor)! Seriously, don’t do it. I’m tired of hearing about entrepreneurs that make this fatal mistake. Get someone in place who will stop you from doing this: a girlfriend or boyfriend, a parent, a friend, whoever. Otherwise you are at risk of killing your business.