14 years running little businesses and 3 books about my learnings along the way. Tweets about the career path of entrepreneurship & the business of indie books.
@david_nwobia@IndieHackers Nir is smarter than me, so if take his strategic advice over mine. But if that leads you to a place where you need to run customer convos, I think he'd agree that my tactical advice is solid.
@davebloomdev Educational video at scale. Very muddled together with advice from entertainment/edutainment that doesn't quite apply.
Previously used same process to filter noise w/ communities (outcome-oriented vs. engagement-focused) and books (back catalog / reliable vs. hit-driven / hyped)
Trying to learn in a v. noisy field and finding this helpful:
1. Write down all commonly accepted best practices
2. Find examples of people/orgs who've spent YEARS following ALL those guidelines WITHOUT WINNING
3. With best practices balanced, try to find the actual difference
@p_millerd@dela3499 The only books worth comparing to are the ~2% that enter back catalog (i.e. recommendable + long-lasting). The other 98% are irrelevant since they only sell during launch window. So question isn't how to write a "typical" book (yeah AI can do that), but how to write the 2%. IMO.
~"Making video content reduces our paid CAQ by 3-4x because people see an ad, then Google us to check it out, then watch a video and see that we're good at what we do and decide they trust us."
(Extremely paraphrased from https://t.co/RwmhdXudSS)
@p_millerd@dela3499 The only books worth comparing to are the ~2% that enter back catalog (i.e. recommendable + long-lasting). The other 98% are irrelevant since they only sell during launch window. So question isn't how to write a "typical" book (yeah AI can do that), but how to write the 2%. IMO.
1/ You've heard a million times that the biggest factor in success is being in the right market.
Discovery is how you figure that out,
But we always want to rush it.
It's not about how fast you "get through" discovery, but how much you get *out* of it.
https://t.co/8zQyaoxY10
6/ It sounds cheesy, but authentic curiosity is the secret weapon here π.
Engage without any hidden agenda, explore their challenges, understand how they make decisions...
Easiest way to do that? Pick a customer segment you'd want to be friends with:
https://t.co/0ZwevWweWN
@sathishvj@amazonIN Also, is there a viable shipping option for you at https://t.co/CeV3zgaKsT? That buys from me directly via Shopify and Lulu. So if it's able to deliver to you, it guarantees you're getting the right thing. (And has bulk discounts baked in.)
@sathishvj@amazonIN I think it's a local publisher trying to shake me down into giving them the rights by flooding the market with bootlegs and then telling me they can fix it. It's a bit of a whackamole situation that's hard to permanently prevent, but I'll try to improve it. Sorry for the hassle.
This guide breaks down @robfitz's "The Mom Test" into 5 simple steps to help you confirm if your business idea has real potential:
Stage 1: Setting the stage.
Stage 2: Getting your ducks in a row.
Stage 3: What to avoid.
Stage 4: Diving deep.
More:
https://t.co/qsIjVSoY5y