30×500

The 5-part 30×500 Taste Test

The Product Revolution is Coming!

Hey there, sexy.

As you probably know, I’ve got a launch on right now for the 4th round of my 30×500 Launch Class — aka, the coolest, most bullshit-free, most hilarious, most systematic way ever to start & launch your first product.

You also probably know that I’m not just into all this *waves hand at entrepreneurship stuff* for the money. I’m on a mission.

So, when I think about how I should market 30×500, I ask myself:

How can I market and reach my ideal audience, while also furthering my mission in general? How can I market in such a way that even just my marketing will help smart, creative people learn how to create products? How can I use my marketing alone to help folks break free from being used to create wealth for the people with money — bosses, clients — and use those crazy skills to create wealth for themselves?

The answer is obvious:

Give some of the awesomeness away. Give it to the world — for free.

Which, I’m gonna be honest with you, is fucking scary. On several levels.

But I didn’t go through everything I’ve gone through to create my business, and my life, just to shy away from doing something good just because it’s scary. If I lived every day just to maximize every penny, I would be a miserable, miserable girl. Luckily, in my experience, doing what I love (helping people!) with a mindset of “I can afford to give” makes everything better.

Now, there’s so much of 30×500 that I can’t give away. 30×500 is an intense project.

I spend a huge amount of time each class helping you, my student, personally with your product concepts — and the pitches you’ll use to sell ‘em. (And occasionally dispensing a corrective kick in the pants.)

That level of personal attention simply doesn’t scale beyond the folks actually in my class.

But what I can do is give away a few lessons. In the hopes that you’ll find them useful even without the structure of a regularly scheduled class, group chats, and lively mailing list.

So here they are! Free stuff abounds.

Your Tasting Menu: 5 lessons, 1 video

First, start with what the Austrians call “a greeting from the kitchen” — a little pre-appetizer appetizer. Then the appetizers. Followed by the first main course, second main course, and dessert.

Taste away:

Setting the Stage: the first 3 lessons from 30×500 (a manifesto, if you will)
Worldviews Rule, Niches Drool: why marketing is sooo much more than niches, and a workbook that’ll help you bake that understanding into every aspect of your future product (words, colors, design, features)
Pain Killers: an intense workbook to help you identify rich opportunities to “mine the pain” — to figure out where your customer hurts, and how to help him
Stacking the Bricks: can ruthless pragmatism rev you up? this video will prove it to you — the premise is that 8 years ago, 37signals had no products, & now they have millions in revenue (a month!). This video’s about the path they took, and how you can apply that to your path.

Yummm.

One Last Word: Before You Dive In…

Don’t just right-click this stuff and let it rot in your Downloads folder.

Oh yeah. I know you do that. I do that too. Get all excited for the smorgasbord of delicious content. So excited you gorge on it like a hyperactive hummingbird, jumping around from PDF to PDF without ever settling down long enough to absorb & use it.

That’s a huge part of why, when you take 30×500, the lessons are metered — they come out on a schedule, and there are deadlines for homework, and regular group discussions.

But seriously. Don’t waste this stuff.

Download it, and take the time to carefully read it. Ideally more than once. Print the workbooks out. Actually do them. Actually watch the video, in its entirety.

These lessons will help you kick total ass, if you’ll just give yourself the time.

Finally: The Goodies!

Download away, friend! I’ve broken the goodies up into the sections (appetizers, first main course, second main course, and dessert) I joked about above.

Enjoy.

Appetizers: Get Psyched, Get Your Head Screwed On Right

First, the first three lessons from 30×500. They’re all about the mistakes & missteps & suffering that we all suffer on the rocky path to profitable-product-owner-hood.

You know, that whole cycle: you wake up energized, eureka! You’ve found your great idea. It has such promise. You know that this time, it’ll work. You’ll make money. You’ll achieve your financial goals. You’ll be able to build the life you want.

But it never works out.

Why not?

Read these lessons — and you’ll slap yourself in the forehead and wonder why you didn’t think of it before:

It’s kinda obvious in retrospect, isn’t it?

Worldviews: Everybody’s Got One & You Need to Know Em

I hate niches. When you get into business, you can’t swing a cat without being told you have to find a niche.

What the hell’s up with that?

Obviously you know what a niche is: a group of people defined by slots and numbers, like middle-aged housewives, young men with disposable income and technical skills between the age of 18 and 35, white Republicans with an income of $70,000 to $100,000, new mothers, cat fanciers, Rails developers, web designers. Blah blah blah.

And there’s the problem. Those people may share a demographic, but they don’t think the same. They don’t value the same things. They don’t look at the world the same way. They don’t buy the same way.

Niches-ism doesn’t respect the way people actually buy.

On the other hand, Worldviews — and the 3 Laws of Customer Physics — do. Learn to spot Worldviews, and you’ll save yourself so much heartache, like when you try to sell to people whose worldview will prevent them from buying. (So sad!)

And your understanding of Worldviews will also answer that age old question: Does design matter? (The answer is: it depends on what worldviews your potential customers have.)

In short: this lesson is vital. Don’t miss it. Download it now:

Lesson 21 & 22

(This taste test lesson also includes a lot of background on the other stuff you’ll learn in 30×500. As you’ll see, the lessons build on each other.)

Pain Killers: Everybody Hurts… So Make & Sell a Soother

You know that REM song, “Everybody Hurts”?

It’s not that different from that Buddhist saying, “Life is suffering.” Which is, if you ask me, is a sentiment with an unfairly bad rap.

To be human is to hurt. That’s just kinda the way it is.

And one of the best ways to make a profit while helping people is to kill their pain. Either take away the pain, or transform it into enjoyment and even joy.

But… other than just trying to spot a “problem” to solve, how the heck do you know which pains exist? Which pains to tackle? Which pains you can fix most awesomely? Which would be profitable?

That’s what this next lesson is about.

When you take 30×500, there are a bunch of lessons between the beginning 3 I already sent you, and this bad boy.

First off, you learn how to pick an Audience to investigate. Then how to find them, and learn from them. Figure out if they’re your ideal customers — or not. How hard it will be to sell. What they need.

You collect all kinds of crazy raw data.

Then you do THIS lesson, lesson 13. (And lesson 12, which is similar, but about money.)

This lesson guides you through, step-by-step, sifting thru that data and squeezing insight out of it. And what do you get at the end? Delicious juice?

No! An infinite number of potential product concepts. As many as you could ever want.

Lesson 13: Pain Killers

This is part of the awesome process that is 30×500: pick, gather, apply rules, apply a system, apply effort, and BAM!! Results.

Dessert: From Lowly Peon to Rich & Famous

You know 37signals? Of course you do. You know how many products they had when they started out 8 years ago?

Zero.

You know how they got from zero, to millions of dollars of revenue a month? The same way you will get from zero to the income you want.

They did it by Stacking the Bricks. So did just about everybody else you see who’s successful. In this video, I dissect the product career paths of 37signals and 4 other smaller companies (including moi). And turn it into a lesson you can use.

Watch Stacking the Bricks

Other Things You Learn in 30×500

I’m not joking when I call this set of lessons a tasting menu. They are only a taste. There is SO much more.

Take 30×500, and you’ll learn:

how not to fail (based on my outline of 14 failure patterns!)
how to start with an audience
how to find your audience’s watering holes so you can:
understand & analyze them
market to them
how to do guerilla market research — for free
what to look for:
how can you ensure you don’t fail before you even start?
how do you pick an audience that you can easily sell to?
who will be good customers?
and how to mine that raw data for product concepts — as many as you like
and then how to turn those product concepts into persuasive pitches you can use to market your product before you make it
how to pick the best product concept for your needs (AND theirs)
how to flesh out a tiny product concept with great detail
how to break down that concept into a tiny, shippable atom
how to plan to build that atom with the time & resources you ACTUALLY have (you know: on the side, after your day job!)
how to combat & conquer featuritis
how to speak your customer’s language
how to price for value… and conquer pricing fear
how to write your sales letter
how to launch

This is meaty stuff. It’s theory and it’s practice. It’s actionable. It’s in-depth. It’s ways to think about biz that you can use forever, and in many different kinds of projects.

(Alumnus @adambrault recently told me he used 30×500 concepts to organize his first conference! And LOTS of alumni have used the 30×500 principles to improve their freelance or consulting businesses. Yeah! It’s good stuff.)

That’s what you’ll learn in 30×500. And you won’t be alone.

What Else You Get: A Recipe for Kicking Ass

Okay. Take all that stuff above. Think about it. Think about what you want. Do you want to create financial freedom for yourself? Do you want to be able to say “no” to a day job, or client work — possibly even forever? Do you believe that creating value, & selling directly with the folks who benefit from that value, is the way to do that?

Awesome. We’re totally on the same page.

Now ask yourself, What if I could have…

Step-by-step help implementing this system?
Personal advice from someone who’s been there, & done it, over and over? (hint: me! and I don’t pull punches!)
The support of a lively community of nearly 300 people who’ve taken the class before me… and another 64 taking it with you?
Access to all those goodies… fooooreeeeverrr?

Oh yeah. I haven’t really mentioned that last part, have I?

30×500: You can check in, but you can never leave! Just kidding.

You get access to the alumni group – forever. The lessons – forever. Free updates to those lessons (and new lessons!) – forever. The custom courseware – forever.

Plus, if you ask nicely, I’ll answer your biz questions even after class is over Just ask @edavis10 how often we’ve talked about his products since he took the first class nearly 3 years ago.

You really can’t beat this package for structure, sense, and support — certainly not at the price of half a class at a serious university.

APPLICATIONS OPEN: Friday the 13th, 3pm Eastern

That’s TODAY! So set your alarms now!

This time around, we’re doing things a lil differently. You have to apply. Here’s why:

In short: I’m selfish. I want more awesome success stories, and that means helping ensure everybody in 30×500 is ready to be there and make the most of it. Thus the application process.

Want to apply? Awesome! Here are the questions so you can prepare in advance. This isn’t a pop quiz, this is real life

Want to know more? This page has ALL the details — dates, prices, how it works, how 30×500 got built to start with.

Oh, and, how about some numbers from my business? I wrote a lil retrospective from 3 years of bootstrapping** — and include a huge list of 30×500 alumni kicking ass. Cuz it ain’t just about me.

Not Sure?

Remember: if you aren’t sure if the class is for you, drop me an email. I’ll do my best to help you decide. And yes, I tell people “No.”

That’s the reason I offer a 100% money-back guarantee: I want you to succeed.

And, thanks

Thanks for sticking with me for all these words. I hope you enjoy the sample lessons. Use them in good health!

I’ll see you in class.

30x500 — No Comments
6
Apr 12

Why You Gotta Apply for 30×500 & Why You Should LOVE it

SoooOoooo.

I put together a little video for ya, all about the 30×500 application process. If you’re planning to apply, you should definitely watch it. For starters, it gives you a lil taste of the Amy Universe. And who doesn’t want that?

Also… inside, I spell out exactly why you have to apply (hint: I’m terribly selfish), and why my character flaw is awesome for you.

Finally, if you wanted the nitty gritty inside details of how the application process works (do you have to dance? sing? do me favors? buy me pineapple jalapeño margaritas?), this video is for you.

Lastly, you’ll hear a very compelling reason for you to prep in advance and apply at your very first chance.

Applications open on:

Friday the 13th, 3pm Eastern

View this time in other time zones.

Like to get organized? Download this handy .ics file for your calendar (should respect time zones)

You wanna prep in advance? I like your style! Here are the questions you’ll face.

See ya in class!

30x500 / Pricing — No Comments
3
Apr 12

My Smart, Generous, Very Attractive Students Teach You Stuff

I’m a little occupied with the launch of the new 30×500 class. In terms of launching the brand spanky new application process, we-eeeell… let’s just say my mouth wrote some checks my butt couldn’t cash. Still working’ on that.

(Pssst. If you want to attend, you better get on the list now.)

On the upside, this gives me an excellent opportunity to pass the blogging torch to my smart, generous, attractive and eloquent students:

Jarrod Drysdale on premium pricing strategy

Jarrod and another designer happened to both launch design ebooks on the same day, to very different results. Why? You’ll have to read on to find out:

The coincidence that Sacha Greif and I both launched our design eBooks (Step By Step UI Design & Bootstrapping Design, respectively) on the same day presents a unique opportunity for a case study. We employed significantly different pricing; at launch, my book cost $39, and Sacha’s cost $3-6.

The difference in our numbers is astounding. Sacha achieved more than six times as many sales but still earned less money.

What was the difference between the two??

Read the rest of Jarrod’s post to find out. (And if you don’t already read Jason’s blog, where Jarrod’s guest posting, you should consider starting! It’s one of my faves. That’s why he’s in my sidebar!)

Brennan Dunn on his first round of billing

Brennan launched Projector just over a month ago, which means that in the world of 30-day trials, he’s just made his first product dollar:

590 sign ups, 2,584 tasks created, 2,943 comments posted, 10 paying customers, and 37 days later, my first SaaS product is profitable. Okay, so just upwards of $100 is less than my hourly consulting rate, but this is a long-tail game.

Read the whole post over on the Projector blog and learn why we should “cheer for the turtles.” (A great phrase that you’re going to see me use over here on UF!)

Dimitri on why he’s building PhotoCouch

When you attend 30×500, one of the things that you’ll hear, see, experience, and practice over & over again is what Brennan recently called “pain, pain, PAIN!”

Don’t get me wrong, we don’t love pain. In 30×500, you focus on killing pain. And to kill pain, you first have to understand what kind of pain it is. Then you have to show your potential customers that you feel their pain.

Dimitri is doing a fantastic job of this in his first 2 serious blog posts, aimed at his potential customers, which have turned into a kind of manifesto:

When you are ready to go back to business you need to pick-up where you left. You are exhausted of the creative work and you have to switch back to the ‘business’ mode.

Have you been overwhelmed after a shoot when you jump into the business seat? Do you immediately know which business tasks to handle during the time your photos are uploading to your Macbook? Do you know what to do next when waiting for models?

Read Part 1 & Part 2 over on the PhotoCouch blog.

Bonus: Brennan reviews 30×500

What’s the one thing I love to see in a review of my own work? Initial skepticism. (I’m so serious here. Not joking.)

Brennan doesn’t disappoint:

My background is in lead generation and advertising, so I’ve been exposed to my fair share of “money making systems” or products that promise to help get me out of the rat race. Having worked for myself and for others in various roles, I’m not sure how free of worrying about money you can ever be, short of having an anonymous benefactor or winning the lottery. And I don’t pretend I’ll ever be asking, like old lady Grantham from Downton Abbey, “A weekend? What on earth is a weekend?” But I do think there’s an extraordinary amount of freedom in being in complete control of how your bank account is filled.

So I bit the bullet and signed up… And started getting PDFs sent to me. I’ll admit, at first I was a bit turned off by this. After all, what makes Amy’s PDFs any better than that $9.99 ebook promising the same results? As somebody regularly in charge with needing to weigh and assess purchase decisions at work, I started questioning if this was really worth it.

AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED? Did the hero get the girl? I mean… err… read the rest of the review to find out.

Join the 30×500 Announce List

Free mailing list. Free goodies. You’ll be first in line to apply for 30×500… which is great cuz there are fewer seats than last time, more folks on the list, and it’s first come, first serve.

What do you have to lose? Nothing, but maybe a kilobyte or 2 of your inbox.

30x500 — 2 Comments
31
Mar 12

3 Years of Bootstrapping – Half a Million Dollars A Year Later - and 30×500, Redux

Hello, Q2 2012!

I meant to do one of these retrospective posts in January, but you know what? Tax season seems like as good a time as any.

3 Years of Biz – The Numbers!

In case you don’t know the story of my business, here’s the short version: in 2008, I married my rockstar JavaScripter husband Thomas, and moved to Austria. That summer, before our wedding, we built some fun projects together which attracted interest from big name Fortune 50 clients who wanted a piece of the action.

There was just one problem: despite fun projects and checks in the mid-five-figs, I was sick of being deployed as a tool for other people’s economic gain.

So I persuaded my man to help me build a subscription software app. (He was pretty skeptical at the time!) Thus was our joint consulting-and-product biz born:

In 2008, we had $0 revenue from products. We built Freckle over the second half and launched in December. We launched our first ebook in January.

In 2009, we had $85,000 in revenue from products & classes.

In 2010, we raked in $240,000.

In 2011… well, I had estimated we’d hit $600,000/year in revenue in 2011. I was wrong, alas.

In 2011, our little product empire brought in $549,142.41. We missed my goal by a margin of 8%.

Shock! Awe! Meh?

I’m still kinda shocked by my reaction to these numbers.

On the one hand, meh. I’ve adjusted to these numbers. I made a lot of mistakes. We didn’t meet my goal for 2011. Boohoo. (Yes, really, that’s exactly what I thought when I read that P&L sheet. (I know how obnoxious that makes me sound… and I’m okay with it. Honesty on the internet!))

On the other hand, holy crap!! I grew up going to school with holes in my clothes, with the power and phone turned off on a semi-annual basis. “We can’t afford” is the phrase that most comes to mind. And 7 years ago, almost to the day, I accepted a job offer for $55k/year with NO benefits and thought that was pretty great.

Sooo, when it sinks in, more than half a million dollars a year… wow. We spent more on developers & other outsourcing in 2011 than I ever made as an employee. (Nearly $200k on this alone! I spent over $200,000 last year!!) Staggering.

Meh and holy crap. Contradiction? What contradiction??

As Whitman so famously wrote,

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Not only is only entirely possible to hold both these reactions in a single head at the same time, it’s hard not to.

This applies just as much to business as life as a whole. (Thanks, Walt!) Which is just one of the many, many startling and redonkulous things I’ve learned on my Epic Product Journey.

All this hedonic adaptation doesn’t mean that my life isn’t awesome. It pretty much is. It just means I (and you!) have room to Learn & Grow. Lots and lots of it.

Business is a microcosm of life as a whole, with all the good parts and bad parts.

Starting and running a product business, especially, is a crash course in personal development

Which is why I’m sooo delighted to have field alumni from my 30×500 Product Launch Class who are just beginning their Epic Product Journey in earnest:

Jim Gay (Summer 2011) just launched his beta ebook, Clean Ruby, yesterday. He’s already made five figure sales. (More than double the price he paid for the class, not a bad ROI!)
Brennan Dunn (Summer 2011) is marketing up a storm for Projector, and he’s getting the signups to prove it.
Jarrod Drysdale (Summer 2011) is selling his Bootstrapping Design ebook like hotcakes.
Adam Brault (Fall 2010) is recovering from a few stumbling blocks, and about to kick some promo ass with his innovative app &! (AndBang).
Eric Davis (Spring 2010 & vet of the very first Year of Hustle call in Dec 2009!) is about to join the SaaS club with Chirk HR, his 3rd product (he made two others: Refactoring Redmine & Redmine Tips and bought one more).
Matthias Meyer (Summer 2011) who, with the help of 30×500, cut down his monstrous & impossible project to the slim, sexy, shippable and profitable Riak Handbook. And who made pretty great money doing it.
Brad Pauly (Summer 2011) who definitely wins the Sexiest Landing Page award for Realview.

And there are so many more who are on the verge: Dimitri with PhotoCouch, Brook with ReadySetRails, Noah with Rebuilding Rails, Thibaut Barrere with WiseCash, Sarah with Faster Founder (no link yet), Brett Bibby with his Polygon Reduction Plugin, Phil DeJarnett with Pinup.

The list above are just a handful of folks who are top of mind for me at this moment, when I wrote this blog post. There are more who deserve to be here, who I’ll probably add when they tweet me “hey, why not me?”

And there are ever more who haven’t yet finished the course, returning alumni who write me things like:

The lessons and nuggets that I picked up from the first few lessons have made quite a difference in our consulting work already, and have made this class more than worth the money we’ve spent on it.

And…

30×500 has been huge for me because it’s cut away all of the bullshit ideas I’ve picked up over the years about making products and businesses and shown me a realistic plan for getting from where I am in life to where I want to be…

It’s been worth every penny, even though I haven’t yet launched. Best decision I’ve made in a while and a “path to freedom” for when the day job gets me down.

And…

We’re doing some interesting things in class: defining success, taking time to consider failure, realizing what we’re doing, being honest with ourselves. This has floored me about every other day. It’s a dialog with myself and with you guys that can get to the core of things quickly. That’s how it should be.

All this right here? Better than any pay day. By an order of magnitude!

I Love Money… But Love Being a Human Lever Even More

Let’s be honest: I love me some money.

I like nice things, and I love knowing that I don’t have to think about it. I love that I can feel comfortable giving 10%+ of my personal income to charities I believe in, and that I can afford to work with awesome people. I love knowing that, fates forfend, if I’m incapacitated by illness for 3 months (again), I can relax and recuperate knowing I cannot be fired and that my business (and income) will just keep on truckin’.

There’s also the touchy feely side:

I love getting emails from Freckle customers telling me how much more money Freckle helps them earn, how it helps them be less neurotic about their time & work and enjoy their lives more. I love getting to chat directly with people who use what I make instead of committees and clients who obscure the relationship between my work and their end user.

But what I really, really love is this:

Watching my students kick ass in the 30×500 Product Launch Class. Watching them learn what I’ve learned, and experience the joy of working directly with the people whose lives they touch. Disintermediating away clients, committees, and bosses, and getting straight to the quick. Watching them feel, for the first time, the joy of realizing they can choose how much they want to earn.

And watching them get letters from their customers as they help them kick ass.

Then seeing them give the same great advice and encouragement — sometimes even better! — to their fellow alumni.

There’s nothing better.

So while my accounting paperwork this year reports that I indeed started a business which brought in nearly $550,000… I know that, every year, I’m helping my students launch businesses which, in toto, will multiply that by ten over the next few years.

I get to be a human lever for awesome. And train new human levers for awesome!

Some day, if there are enough of us, we will move the world. Even if we only move the world a little bit, for a hundred people here, a thousand people there, we’re still moving the world. Which amazes me anew every single day.

This is why I designed 30×500 the way I did:

30×500 is a pretty decent money maker for me, but it’s not as profitable as if I’d pour that time and effort into growing Freckle and Charm. On the other hand, it has a much bigger impact on a smaller group of people (my awesome, awesome students). And that’s what I love.

Which is why I don’t try to maximize my personal 30×500 ROI, but rather my student’s ROI:

When you join 30×500, you join for life. Shit happens. Sometimes you can’t finish the class you’re in “on time.” I know it. As an alumnus, you can retake the class any time you want or need.

You also get a lifetime subscription to all the updated, improved and expanded lessons. (And I don’t rest on my laurels; I’m always trying to make 30×500 better, more effective, for you. I’m not perfect, but I’m always trying.)

You’re also invited to the weekly Office Hours chats, as long as I hold them. (Which over 2 years have grown from sporadic now and then, to twice a month, to once weekly. And I foresee doing this for a long time.)

Perhaps best of all, you have access to the alumni mailing list — an awesome, involved group of motivated people, like yourself, who are there for you, to answer your questions, poke holes in your mistakes, point out things you’ve overlooked, and generally help you kick your own ass. Who are there, sharing their successes and trials, to inspire you and show you that you’re so very far from alone.

The quality of this alumni group cannot be overstated:

Right now, some 30×500 alumni are organizing a study group for those who are “behind” the official class schedule. This is amazing to me. And brilliant.

And every week (or more!) we get emails like this one from Brennan:

I just pushed a few updates based on the awesome feedback I’ve received. (Once again, this class has paid for itself and then some!)

[Later] … I pushed [changes based on your feedback] last night, and am already now getting 8% conversion rates (instead of < 2%).

I have pages and pages of quotes and comments like this.

Together, we’re building a bootstrap army, inspiration delivery network, and support group all in one. And it kicks ass.

Would you like to join us?

30×500 Summer 2012 is Opening Soon

If you want to be a part of the next 30×500 class — if you’re really ready to make this enormous change and you’re willing to put your time & effort where your mouth is…

Join the mailing list for first dibs, details, and early bird discounts:

This time, I’m doing things a little differently… in the hopes of continuing this awesome trend of ever-increasing quality, and ever-increasing student results:

You’ll need to apply, so I can help ensure the class is right for you right now
I’m reducing the number of seats
I’m supplying self-guided learners with 100% of the materials before the class starts (after applied/accepted/paid, of course)
I’m throwing out the crappy over-designed software I created, in exchange for working the way people really want to communicate with each other and me
I’m making the Office Hours weekly, instead of twice monthly
I’m adding more structure to help you actually get shit done (and cuz I am famously structure-sucky, I’ve arranged expert help)
and I’m heavily enhancing the lessons & expanding the curriculum (everything’s a bit theoretical right now, and I want to round it out with timelines, checklists, templates, case studies and successful student interviews)

It’s almost time to open up the application process. This will be first come, first served for the 65 seats available. Here are the questions, if you want to prepare. (NB: they may change slightly, based on my “beta testers.”)

The price is also going up: $2,450 (Early Bird) for the 3+ month long class, all the awesome new lessons, structure, weekly chats, and alumni group for life.

This may seem like a lot, until you compare what you get to the cost of a single class at a business school: This is not lecture-and-test-and-forget-it. This class is not taught by a TA, it’s taught by a veteran (me!), with over 2 years of experience teaching this stuff, and backup from alumni who are making it happen. You are not alone, you are surrounded by people who are striving to succeed, who have a common vocabulary, and who care.

And you get to be a part of this forever.

What else can you get for $2,450? A 5-day vacation somewhere moderately luxurious and tropical? That’s nice, but it doesn’t last, and it won’t ever pay you back.

On the other hand, Jim Gay’s revenue from his very first beta product launch has paid him back handily. Brennan recently calculated that at a reasonable (10%) rate of growth, his new SaaS will be earning $96,000 a year by the end of 12 months. (This is after starting at just under $100 for his first billing cycle, three days ago. That’s the maddening beauty of subscription income.)

And Jarrod just informed me that he made 242 sales of Bootstrapping Design — $8,753 — in his first 48 hours. All without being even remotely famous! He exploited the 30×500 recipe, and his own sweat & tears, to make something that people want so bad that he could get those kinds of results without fame.

Several alumni have used 30×500 to improve their consulting practice, or launch an in-person training workshop, which has paid for their tuition. One alum wrote the mailing list to explain how she’s using 30×500 to slowly revolutionize the company who bought her employers — from the inside out, by spoon-feeding them the lessons she learned in my class.

30×500 is built for products, but it’s really a way of thinking which can change the way you look at everything you touch that has anything to do with money.

In short: I believe this is the absolute best investment you can make right now for your future success.

Unless… you just wanna maybe learn something and explore the idea of making a product because it sounds like a fine thing. In this case, I hope I’ve priced 30×500 out of your comfort zone. I don’t want you to waste your money, and I want the class to be full of people who are really motivated to be there.

On the other hand, if you’re seriously ready to learn, to change, to implement, and to ship, there’s no reason why your investment couldn’t pay you back with your very first product.

And if you are, now’s a great time to join my mailing list so you get first dibs on the application process, and the seats:

Funmail Guarantee: Obv there’s no obligation whatsoever. You can unsubscribe at any time. And I promise to send you nothing but information on the class, free goodies, stories, samples and discounts and awesome stuff like that!

There are only 65 seats available (a nearly 15% reduction over previous classes). I’ll be making them available first come, first serve, for those who apply. There are 900 people on this mailing list. Not everyone on there is really ready to make that commitment and shell out that cash, but… you do the math

See you in class.

30x500 / Fear / Launching / Psychology — No Comments
14
Dec 11

Dealing with the Emotional Turbulence of your Launch

The voices in my head have reached a fever pitch. It must be launch time.

Launching is an emotional game.

It’s so easy to construct elaborate stories about how this or that detail will lead to terrible failure or runaway success. It’s constant. Fully detailed worlds erected by nothing but imagination.

I’m in the midst of launching Hiring Gold. Hiring Gold is an infoproduct that teaches founders & small business owners an 8-week system for hiring awesome people.

My official ship date is December 19th.

It feels like I’ve been working on this forever, but it’s been about four months in reality.

Self-Sabotage, the Launcher’s Lament

I’m confident that Hiring Gold is a great product. I know it works because it’s a process I’ve used a bazillion times.

And yet… I keep sabotaging my progress. It’s like I have a secret hope for failure so I can go back to my humdrum existence!

Here’s an example of a boneheaded thing I did last week. I nearly published a landing page written in the “royal we.”

You know that thing, when micro-business owners try to pretend they’re bigger by saying “we”? I almost pulled that douchebaggy move myself. “We” did this and “we” did that, so listen to “us.”

I’m embarrassed to even mention this. I don’t know what I was thinking. My business is me. It’s just a lie to make it seem like anything different.

And here’s where I have to thank Amy for pointing out the big giant unicorn in the room. This is what she wrote to me:

Little companies don’t get anywhere by pretending to be big companies. There’s little worse than deciding to go with a little guy only to be treated as if you were going with a big guy…impersonal language, posturing, etc.

Most people WANT to buy from people they can know and understand. So by shielding yourself behind fake “we” you are undermining your message.

And you know what? She’s right. I KNOW this.

I wasn’t thinking, after all. That poor decision I almost made? ALL ABOUT FEAR.

Fear of taking the full responsibility for what I’m putting out into the world. Fear of the failure or success of Hiring Gold being on my shoulders alone. Fear of letting people down. Fear of being vulnerable. Fear of playing too small.

The Lizard Brain at Work

This is why launching is such an emotional game.

It’s so easy to construct elaborate stories about how this or that detail will lead to terrible failure or runaway success. Fully detailed worlds erected by nothing but imagination.

When you’re pinning your livelihood on a product, the lizard brain rears its ugly head. The lizard brain pleads for the safer option. It tells you to forget all this launch stuff and go take a nap.

But then where would you be? Without a launch. Without a product. Without a business.

A Plea for Balance

I’m learning that the trick to keeping an even keel is keeping those conversations with myself to a murmur.

Here are three things that are keeping me sane, tips I have to repeat to myself:

Persevere. It sounds simple but just keep going. Don’t abandon your product. You’ll want to stop and go hide in a hole somewhere at least once a week. Be methodical about ticking off small to-dos, one at a time, and keep going even when you really really REALLY don’t want to.
Keep good people around. Value people who tell you the truth (like Amy). Keep them close throughout the launch process. Having people you trust who are forthcoming (even if it hurts) helps to prevent self-sabotage and will hold you accountable. As soon as you tell others your plans, it is exponentially more likely that they’ll actually get done.
Ignore the muck. Know that all the emotional stuff flying around your brain is just that: stuff. It’s meaningless. What matters is the doing. Getting your product out there will be different than any scenario you can imagine, good or bad, so put a cap on the dreams and get to work on your launch!

As I launch Hiring Gold, and as I get started on my next product for founders, The Underground Lab, the conversations in my head are beginning to feel less urgent. As things go on, I find it easier to resist the imaginary trip my ego is leading me on.

Does this mean I’ll have less emotional muck to contend with as I get more comfortable with the launch process?

Probably not. After all, you can’t run a meaningful business without actual meaning.

Editor’s note: This is a great cliffhanger! But from my experience, launching definitely gets easier. Thanks, Scott!

This guest post by Scott McDowell, an expert on designing organizations and a 30×500 alum (Summer 2011). His first product, Hiring Gold, is designed to help you hire awesome talent… and not have to learn the (very very) hard way.

30x500 / Selling — No Comments
25
Oct 11

Why I Pass Up $1,450 – & Turn Away Prospective Students

Believe it or not, I turn away students for my 30×500 Product Launch Class all the time.

That sounds kinda crazy, doesn’t it? Here I have somebody trying to give me a fistful of hundreds, and what do I tell them? Oooh yeah, fork it over!? No. I tell them to keep it.

Why? It’s in my best interest — and theirs.

Case Study: Consumers are Death?

Today I got an email from somebody who’s interested in taking my class. He wrote:

Hi Amy!

Your 30×500 offer is really good. My web developer said it’s the best copywriting he has seen.

One thing that stood out for my case.:

(NOTE: It is not for you, however, if you are in love with & committed to serving a consumer audience, such as hobbyists, yoga teachers, musicians, etc! That way danger lies, and 30×500 is about skirting around the danger & ensuring your success!)

My blog [redacted] is about proactive health for concerts and travels. I will offer some guides and classes etc…

I understand that Musicians are a tricky target to go towards. (I will be going especially to all creatives involved in that world)

But to the point for you to exclude anyone who is thinking about taking your class!

Could you explain to me why?

Yep, as you guessed, I could.

Here’s what I wrote back:

Yep: Consumers Are Death

Here’s the reason: selling to consumers is the second best way to kill your business. The first best way is to never start your business to begin with.

Selling to consumers requires a zillion other skills that most people simply don’t have.

You cannot sell simply, based on value — e.g., “pay x and earn y!” — because consumers aren’t going to earn money from what you do. You cannot charge a lot, for the same reasons. And consumer support is worse — they are pickier, more demanding, and less professional.

On the other hand, if you can master cool, and sex, and fashion (or maybe manipulating fears & guilt), then you can sell to consumers easily. But…

The people who most reliably, comfortably, & happily pay are businesses. That could mean anybody from “a person who makes and sells custom jewelry” to “a freelance developer” to “a 5-person consulting firm.”

The point is, they have an upside. They are constantly thinking about money, and about earning more money, spending less, and having a smoother, more enjoyable time — 40 hours+ a week.

I’m not saying it’s impossible to sell to consumers — but it is a major strike against you from the outset. It’s like deliberately picking a bad hand when you play poker. Who would do that on purpose?

That’s why I don’t “allow” my students to do it: my job is to give them as many chances for success as possible.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t try to nip that in the bud.

Footnote: It’s Possible

Of course, many folks have made a great living selling to consumers.

But that can be like a selection bias. Obviously, if millions of people are trying, some will succeed. But most won’t. It’s far more fool-proof to sell to business.

When you sell to consumers, you have to be better at writing and design — because consumers hold more tightly to their hard-earned cash. It helps, too, if you’re especially talented at capturing the zeitgeist and spotting trends.

And in case you were tempted to say, “But APPLE…” — well, Apple is special. I wouldn’t bet on any plan that requires me to be Steve Jobs.

Do you love tough love? Do you wanna make a product you can sell easily to small biz? Welllll, you might enjoy my 30×500 Product Launch Class. Just don’t try to use it to sell to consumers!

30x500 / Bootstrapping — 5 Comments
24
Oct 11

The Truth about Success – Brick by Brick

Scene: Last Thursday, at a big round table in a — no joke — Portugese-Chinese fusion tapas joint, sealed off from the rest of the room by beaded curtains made of brass. At the table, a bunch of geeks eating finger food and shootin’ the shit.

It was, in a way, a business round table. (As well as an actual round table.)

The folks I was dining with run a hybrid consulting/product business, like Thomas & I did before we quit consulting. (Though these guys are a hundred times better at consulting than we are.)

Now, what you need to know is that these are great guys. Guys I’ve chatted with before about products. Guys who’ve inspired me.

One of them told me that I am brave — brave for what?

For putting our biz numbers out there. For talking about this stuff. For my dedication to drawing back the curtain.

I thanked him, of course. What a compliment.

I’m Not Brave…

But, the fact is, I’m not brave. I’m angry.

I’m angry that the vast majority of tech biz content is so much tabloid nonsense.

I’m angry that the stories we’re assaulted with every day are statistical anomalies and nothing more.

I’m angry that it’s become an assumption that “success” means getting a big fat investment, not turning a profit. That success means founding your own company in order to determine your own destiny, then happily become an employee again when some megacorp snatches you up.

I’m angry that nobody is willing to point out the obvious, dirty truth: when you can’t fund your own projects, you are at the mercy of the money men. And the money men do not have your best interests at heart.

Most of all, I’m angry that because of all of this, it’s almost impossible to learn what it makes to build a business from nothing, on the side, to profitability.

Don’t Get Mad… Change Stuff

So, I’ve decided to do something about it.

I aim to remind everyone that successful, bootstrapped product businesses are far more common (and far more natural!) than hockey sticks and big exits. And to show folks how it’s done.

So, I blog. I give interviews (see that sidebar). I name numbers. I tweet.

And I teach a deep, involved, pragmatic 3-month course that encompasses just about everything I’ve learned from launching my own successful, profitable products.

Stacking the Bricks

Below is a video lesson from my 30×500 Product Launch Class.

It’s called Stacking the Bricks, and it’s a no-nonsense look at how 5 businesses got started, and how they grew — including a couple famous businesses, a couple nascent ones, and mine.

This video lesson is part reality check, part battlecry, part kick in the pants. It is ruthlessly practical, and it’s an investigation of patterns and systems.

Based on feedback from folks who’ve watched it, I can tell you: It’s worth your time. Make it happen. (And let it load, because it doesn’t stream.)

Watch it now, here, or download it. Rip the audio and listen to it on your commute. Just don’t fave it for later, because we both know that means never.

Click here to download the MOV file

It’s 43 minutes long, and there’s a blip in the audio part way through. (Sorry about that, but it’s too important to get out there, rather than waiting forever to re-record.)

Ready to Make Your First Brick?

If you’re a designer or a developer who dreams of having an independent income made by selling products directly to the people who use them…

…if you’re not sure where to start, or how to get over the problems that have plagued you every time you have started…

… if you’d sleep easier if you knew how to drum up customers before you ever put pencil to paper or code to git…

Then my 30×500 Launch Class may be just the kick in the pants you need.

A kick in the pants followed up by sensible, actionable advice and a process (with workbooks! so many workbooks!) you can implement yourself. And, when you join, you get access to a community of nearly 200 alumni as well as your fellow students.

This video is just one of many useful, butt-kicking, inspiring lessons in my 30×500 Product Launch Class… and I’m adding more all the time. This lesson, specifically, is an accompaniment to the heavily action-oriented, workbook-based lessons. 30×500 helps you understand the why as well as implement the how.

Tickets are on sale now. (As of writing, there are just over 20 left.)

Oh, and: the price goes up by $100 in just a couple days.

Learn more now. Grab your seat before the price goes up.

30x500 — 2 Comments
13
Oct 10

Tickets are now on sale!

Yep, that’s right: it’s 6:30pm in my neck of the woods and the 75 tickets for the 30×500 Launch Class are now on sale.

You’ve read the details page, right? That lists exactly what the class is, how it works, what you get, how much it costs, and my extremely generous refund policy? Good. As long as you’ve read that, you’re ready!

Ready? Steady? Awesome: Book your ticket now.

I have absolutely NO idea how long it will take these to sell out. So, if you’re committed to the idea, please don’t delay.

Last-minute Super Brief FAQs

Questions I’ve received by email are in bold! My answers are obviously sassy, and brassy, but not bold as such. Not typographically, anyway.

Errr, I have this other thing that will eat up all my time for half of the course. In November, or January. Should I take the class now? No! I want you to succeed. You can’t succeed if you can’t spend the time on it. I’ll run another class in the spring, please wait for that.
Um, I don’t have an idea for a product yet. Is that okay? Absolutely. You’re the target market, my friend. The class is for you.
I already have a product I am very committed to, is the class for me? No. Not unless you’re having such a hard time with it that you’re ready to accept that you may need to scrap it and start fresh. If your product is actually doing okay, then especially no. This is a launch class, not a post-launch class. (I want to do a post-launch class, but it’s not ready yet. Email me if you’re interested.)
I already have an idea I’m thinking about, but it’s not, like, engraved in stone & signed with blood yet. Is the class for me? Yes! The class is made for you. You’ll learn a lot about how to evaluate that idea, and make sure you succeed with it. You may even discover that your idea isn’t going to do the trick to help you create a successful business. That would be a bit hard, but a Very Good Thing, saving you lots of time and pain, and potentially earning you lots of cash.
Following question 3… what do you mean, I might find out I’ve done things the wrong way round, and have to start over? Yeah, it happens. That’s business. You can’t reach the magic of $30 a month x 500 customers if you’re not willing to examine your efforts in light of better evidence. If that makes you vomit with fear or recoil in horror, then the class is not for you.
Do you have a payment plan or a way to pay other than PayPal? Sorry, not this time! Too much overhead for me.
Is this my last chance? Will there ever be another 30×500 Launch Class? There will be more. I’ll start another in the spring/summer. Never fear!

Any more questions? Email me.

Book your ticket now!

30x500 — 5 Comments
13
Oct 10

The deal: 30×500 Launch Class, Splained

So, ladies and gentlemen, deal with the 30×500 Launch Class:

Is the class right for me?

Are you a developer or a designer with developer-y skills? Or are you excited to make a non-software product, like ebooks, templates, or screencasts? The class is for you.

When is it?

30×500 Launch Class is 4-month online class with a 1-month break (December off).

That means class is in session during November, January, February & March.

Wait, I need to be online for FOUR MONTHS?

That would be hell on the metered bandwidth, amirite?

The Launch Class isn’t a full-time online class, it’s a program of razor-sharp lessons, workbooks and diagrams, and support. So you can get into the good stuff at any time of day, and you (mostly) don’t even need broadband.

Tell me what it’s about, exactly!

You know, all that shit you need to know, understand, change your thinking about, conquer, and incorporate into your daily life? Habits, skills, ways of thinking that will get you to success? Yeah, it’s that.

This is what you’ll do in the 30×500 Launch Class:

Get your head on straight. Think about this from the right angle and soooo many things will line up right for you. You’ll increase astronomically your chance of making the magical $30×500 formula work for you.
Develop a product concept that will sell from the get-go. You’ll learn how, from identifying the best places to plant yourself, to how to track specific sources of leads on the Customer Safari.
Plan to win. Take that concept and trim it to the bare essentials. Learn how to avoid and conquer the ever-present fear that leads to featuritis.
Win through planning. Then you’ll learn exactly how to take those bare essentials and turn it into an achievable plan, and work through your plan, in a surprising and effective way.
Panic. Freakout. Burnout. Lack of time. Procrastination. Day Job blues. You’re going to have them — it pretty much can’t be avoided. You’ll learn how to deal with them, with a couple techniques you’ve almost surely not come across before. Quite a few folks have had epiphanies with this one.
Understand why people really buy, using the Laws of Customer Physics. Why niches drool but worldviews rool. How to avoid trying to pitch to the utterly wrong audience, and how to speak to the right one.
Learn how to fix it when you fuck up. Seriously, cuz you will. (I fuck up at least twice a week.)
Price like a badass, because pricing right is the act of a hero. And there’s a logic to it, and the logic is not “my gut quaked when I wrote down the dollar signs.” You’ll learn why your urges for low pricing are not only counterproductive and unprofitable, but unfair to your customers. And what to do about it.
Write your sales page. Yes, this could really be a whole course in and of itself. Maybe soon it will be. But for now, it’s just part of the deluxe package… for you.
Secure customers even before you launch. You may not be able to launch your product before the course is out — sometimes these things need more time — but you will leave the course knowing exactly how to launch to immediate sales.

You will, in short, be excited, armed, girded, and ready to rumble!

Do I need to already have a product or product idea?

Nope. That’s what the first part of the class will help you with.

How’s all that goodness delivered? What do I get?

Here’s how the class works:

Power-packed, hilarious, and brain-mushing lessons are delivered semi-weekly by email in PDF form. Think of each lesson as an entire book on that topic, boiled down to the one, essential, groundbreaking chapter.

Each lesson comes with its own workbook. You will not only work on your product, but prep yourself for success by analyzing other businesses and incredibly useful things of that nature.

Lessons are semi-weekly because some lessons take more time for you to complete them successfully than others. Some lessons will come right after each other, others give you an extra week in between to get stuff done.

You get to keep these lessons and workbooks forever (compiled into a single PDF for easy portability), so you can come back to them when you need a refresher, or use them anew for each new product you create.

During the class, and for 2 months afterwards, you’ll get access to an always-on forum, patrolled daily by yours truly and helper elves, and my personal email for bouncing ideas & butt-kicking. (No patrolling in December, though, and the patrolling won’t be daily for the 2 months post-class. You can always email me, though!)

We’ll have five live group phone calls (one every month — yes, even including December!). These are perfect for Q&A.

There are 6 audio lessons, narrated by yours truly, in MP3 format, 3 in November and 3 in January. They are more story than the written lessons: what I’ve done, what’s worked for me and what hasn’t, what my plans are and why, how I’ve fucked up and how I’ve fixed it. Don’t worry, they’re not sob fests or long-winded In my day rambles. If you love a shot of inspiration with your matter-of-fact teaching, concrete real-world examples to anchor ideas, these are perfect for you.

Dude, how much time does this take?

The first month and a half will take between 3-6 hours of your time each week. More, if you’re super-dilligent (and I hope you are!).

From then on out, it varies a lot — many of the lessons are geared towards you learning, but spending most of your time on actually, you know, building your product.

Then there are a couple intense ones right at the end, like writing your sales page.

For the absolute best results, plan to dedicate at least 10 hours a week to the class/your product, over the whole course. (Remember – December off is a great opportunity to work hard!)

Remember, if you won’t make the time commitment, the work won’t get done… and you won’t have a business you can count on. I can’t do the work for you!

Can I do the whole lesson in my pajamas? (PS – that’s code for naked)?

Yep. You will never have to appear on video.

Super, anything else I need to know?

Yep — there are only 75 seats available. Small is good, small is personal, small is effective. I like big dreams and small classes. The last class sold out, and this one will too.

What else? Oh yes. I am a cruel task master.

You are expected to do the work, and the workbooks. In fact, Veil Ve Haff Vays Of Talking You Into Doing Ze Vorkbook — I am a persuasion ninja — but if you don’t have full intentions of doing the work, you’re not going to get half as much out of the class.

I’ve made the lessons as useable, fun and non-douchey as possible. To call them “no-fluff” would be an understatement. They are, in fact, the anti-fluff.

Also: I am happy to answer your questions and provide advice by email.

Also: people with Tippy Top Secret plans need not apply. Everybody in Launch Class is on the honor system, and nobody is interested in stealing your idea. More importantly, stealing an idea is the least thing you have to worry about, as ideas are worthless and common as dirt. If you aren’t up for discussing, if you won’t try to conquer that particular anxiety, you’re not going to get as much out of the class as somebody who is more brave and less precious about her thoughts.

Can I really be sure the course is for me?

The two biggest things you need to bring to class are:

Willingness to work it — the desire to change your life, especially your professional life, but really, all of it, because there’s no such thing as work-life separation, and
Skills to create. That’s why this course is perfect for developers and designers with developer-y inclinations. That doesn’t mean you have to be a world-class at anything. If you developer-y at all, but you’re willing to kick ass with video, with writing, with teaching, then you should be good.

You’ll notice that nowhere did I say “You have to be a perfect worker. Procrastinators and flakes need not apply.” That’s because of the magic of love. If you are really willing to work it, we can work on your procrastination. There’s a whole section for that. If you feel you’re more desperate than normal, I’ll send you the lesson in advance and we’ll talk about it.

Interesting, you haven’t mentioned the price yet.

Of course. That’s because I wanted you to see how amazing the class was before I told you, cuz it’s a little bit expensive: $750.

Keep in mind that $750 is less than one-credit hour (1/3rd of a class!) at most business schools. And it’s going to earn you a lot more money in return than half of the cheapest new 3D television. Or, heck, the 60,000 mile maintenance on your Toyota.

Maybe you’re not used to shelling out for your own life-changing training. I get it. But think about the other things you’d spend that money on, and what they get you in return, really.

Freckle made more than $1,000 in its very first month of billings, with all the same kinda stuff I’m about to teach you. Our ebook made $6,000 when we launched it.

If you do the legwork and you follow thru, the lessons practically guarantee you’ll earn back the cost of this class. The marketing stuff alone will do it for you. This stuff pays.

Oh yeah, did I mention only 75 seats? That price premium means I get to keep the class small so I can give you personal support.

Sooo, what if I don’t like it?

If at any time you feel like you’re not getting your money’s worth, I’ll give you a full refund. Yes, that means if you’re halfway through the Class and you decide it’s not helping you, you get a full refund. All I ask is that you put in the effort on the workbooks before giving up, and if you’re stuck, give me an opportunity to help you first.

Can’t get less risky than that.

Sign me up.

Yes ma’am, yes sir.

UPDATE: Tickets are now on sale! Book yours here

As of writing (Oct 14 at noon, CET), nearly half are sold, in under 18 hours. Woo!

Questions?

No worries, here’s a list of FAQs, drawn from real emails potential attendees have sent me. And no, my answer is not always “You should definitely come to the class.” I’d rather have a class full of people who will kick butt and use what they learn, than have a full class.

Still got questions? I got answers! Email me direct.

See you in class!

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