I'd like to pick apart this post as a piece of really brilliant marketing. It gets so many things right:
* Link to a review
* Reviewer puts book in context of things I've already read. Gains trust.
* Incentive to evangelize -- the product is like this awesome book I've read, but easier to read. Everyone should read that awesome book, but it's too hard. Maybe I can convince them to read this.
* HN is the absolute perfect, laser-focused market for this. By definition, I want to read this book.
* The pricing sheet looks like a 37signals page--it's comforting and familiar
* DRM-free instant delivery.
This is actually the fastest (other than maybe at a grocery store) I have ever made a purchasing decision. It was under 60 seconds.
-Release an ebook now, ask for feedback, improve and add content, and perhaps release a physical book and get paid again.
-The fact that Eric mentions that this book is heavy on customer discovery and less so on the other parts leaves plenty of room for expansion on this book or new ones from scratch.
Very happy to see a 4 steps like book aimed specifically towards startup founders, I learnt a lot from 4 steps but it always had its feet in the enterprise sales side of the line.
Will also be nice to have a well finished / properly printed book, Blanks insight and advice is amazing, but the microsoft word diagrams left something to be desired.
There are two versions of the book. The Bootstrapper version is 75 pages, and The Startup/Enterprise Versions are 90 pages (include a presentation about CustDev that evangelists can use internally at their orgs).
* Link to a review
* Reviewer puts book in context of things I've already read. Gains trust.
* Incentive to evangelize -- the product is like this awesome book I've read, but easier to read. Everyone should read that awesome book, but it's too hard. Maybe I can convince them to read this.
* HN is the absolute perfect, laser-focused market for this. By definition, I want to read this book.
* The pricing sheet looks like a 37signals page--it's comforting and familiar
* DRM-free instant delivery.
This is actually the fastest (other than maybe at a grocery store) I have ever made a purchasing decision. It was under 60 seconds.
Damn, I wish I had marketing skills like this.