In the article I wrote that there was no guarantee the book would be a success. The reason for that is that I didn't have any validation upfront whether the book is a good and viable product idea or not. I started work on it long before I joined the 30x500 class, and how the book came about is not exactly in the spirit of it, as it takes a whole different approach on finding audiences for products and all that.
The total time that went into the book is hard to put a number on. I'd say at least three months of dedicated writing, testing out theories in practice, editing, proof-reading and building up marketing momentum around it went into the book.
- partner with wedding planners to help grow your community of designers and users
- start subtle (prime placement or pro's choice) advertising relationships with magazines, planners, and other communities
- expand to include other aspects of the wedding "package", i.e photographers, florists, dressmakers/designers
Another point - I agree that adding customer reviews would be a nice addition, but how about a twist - allow for "trip advisor" style reviews to show off the designer's end product. This niche has a large emotional buying component to it and so a story and pictures would lend itself better than a 5 star system.
Good suggestion. As well as advertising, affiliate sales could also work well. In both cases the key point is that people looking at invitations will also be looking or other wedding-related services.
I did a few quick searches and Vancouver would be at 25 on their scale for a single-family detached house. That's using a median listing price of $900,000 and median rent of about $3000/month.
The data is out there and the Canadian real estate sales market could certainly use the shakeup of someone like Trulia.
You might find http://www.leadgenerationbook.com/ useful. It will seem like common sense, but for me the book was valuable in that it showed what a comprehensive sales and marketing program might look like.
Thanks. With this and the other two book recommendations above (Blank, Rackham) I'm beginning to suspect it might be a good idea to share revenue with a sales person after all.
Have you thought about adding a social angle, i.e. allowing users to make comments on or recommend specific seats? Perhaps another heatmap layer to display desirability?
Personal beef - Rogers Arena in Vancouver is "Seating Chart Pending" with no ETA... coming soon?
You could combine IP geolocation and caller ID phone verification. Geolocate the user's IP during the sign-up process and provide the user a code to activate their account through a 1-800. Compare their area code against the location they provided and see if they're close enough to trust.
Now that long distance service is essentially free for everyone and mobile phones (and VoIP) have nationwide networks, more people are choosing not to update their phone numbers when they move.
This means that there's a good chance my phone might have a Chicago area code but I live in LA now.
Thanks for the painfully juvenile replies, guys. I was looking for something more insightful than the press releases and media coverage that turn up in search results.
Maybe you should have made that clear in your question, then. Start by explaining the research that you did and why you don't think it's the whole picture, or what else you want to know.
