Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Product People
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Product People episodes
- EP42: Is self-publishing getting saturated? Nathan Barry, Sacha Greif, Paul Jarvis
Paul Jarvis ( Everything I Know), Sacha Greif ( Discover Meteor), and Nathan Barry ( Authority) invited me to host a Self-Publishing Hangout with them this week. It was a great opportunity for me, because I’m about to publish my first “book” ( Amplification). Our Google Hangout ended being a 2 hour marathon of us sharing our experience with writing, publishing, and promoting eBooks, as well as answering questions from everybody in the chat room.
In Part 2 we discuss:
- is the self-publishing market getting saturated?
- the publishing process: what tools do you use to create your books?
- what do you outsource?
- should you publish your book for free?
- pricing your ebook
Sponsors
This show wouldn’t be possible without these great sponsors. When you support them, you support the show!
Are you creating an application that needs charts or a dashboard? FusionCharts is a JavaScript charting solution trusted by over 450,000 developers around the world. They have tons of interactive and animated charts with advanced features like tooltips, drill-down, chart export and zoom. Their charts also work across PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones and Android devices. You can download a free-trial at:
Go to fusioncharts.com
Sprint.ly has been there from the beginning. Perfect for software teams of 3 or more people, Sprint.ly is the easiest way for managers and developers to track the software development process. You and your team can try Sprint.ly for free, go to www.sprint.ly.
Use the code productpeopletv2013 to get 10% off!
I just released my first downloadable course called Amplification. Creating great content isn’t enough; to get it seen by thousands, you need amplification. In the course, I share my experience with viral posts like “ This is a web page” and show you real stats from my website. Then I’ll share with you the steps for amplifying your posts to bigger audiences.
Go to productpeople.tv/download and get $10 off
Notable quotes
Is the market for self-published books getting saturated right now?
- Justin : “In our space (tech, design, dev, bootstrapping) it used to be there were only a few people doing it (Amy Hoy, Chris Guillebeau). Next, there was grassroots people who followed their lead, and came on the scene: Nathan Barry, Sacha Greif, Paul Jarvis. But now it seems like there are a lot of more established people getting in to publishing: Adii Pienaar, Shawn Blanc, Mike McDerment (Freshbooks). Do you think there’s too many players in this space now?”
- Sacha : “I don’t think so. I think maybe it seems that way to us because we’re so involved in this space. Although it’s true that there are a lot of books coming out now for people like us: books about design, and books about self-publishing; that niche might get saturated soon. But the vast majority of ebooks are about other things: CSS, food… that will never get saturated.”
- Nathan : “I think there will always be demand to pay $50 or less for high quality content that’s really specific to a topic you care about (as a reader). Instead of going through 50 blog posts on the internet, you spend a little bit of money to get the best stuff on that topic in a PDF. I don’t think it will become too saturated. We also tend to run in really specific circles on the internet and so when we see something we think: wow the whole internet is talking about this, when in reality it’s just your tiny little corner, and 12 people.”
- Justin : “The hard thing is… if you’re already ‘in’ and you already have an audience, it’s easier to say that it’s not saturated. Certain niches can definitely get saturated. Rob Walling just commented on his podcast that there’s been a big, noticeable increase in the number of people asking him (and other founders) to do interviews for books. If it’s true, that there is more saturation, it means that everybody’s quality and uniqueness will have to go up – you’ll need to offer something that no one else is doing.”
- Brennan Dunn (from the chat room): “Rob was mainly arguing against ebook “authors” who just publish a bunch of other people’s writing. e.g. email a bunch of people, compile them into book, profit.”
- Amy Hoy (from the chat room): “Yeah, there’s a definitely a saturation level with ‘I’m not gonna do any work on this product but you should still pay me’ LOL”
- Michael Hartl (from the chat room): “This is still early, early days for ebook publishing.”
- Joelle Steiniger (from the chat room): “Everyone always thinks there’s no room left… and there always is.”
- Sacha : “I think the key point is quality. For example: interviews are really interesting, but there also really easy to do; that’s why there are a lot of e-books that are just a collection of interviews. Unless you’re a professional interviewer, your questions might not always be interesting. So that niche might produce a lot of low quality ebooks. But if that gets saturated, who cares? It will only push people to make higher quality books.”
- Justin : “Yeah. And maybe that’s something else we have to be prepared for: the professional ebook critic. Right now it’s a fairly friendly space.”
- Paul : “You should read some of my comments on GoodReads: there are some reviewers that don’t like stuff that are vocal.”
Show notes
Paul Jarvis: Everything I Know
Sacha Greif: Discover Meteor
Nathan Barry: Authority
Justin Jackson: Amplification
🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!48 min - EP41: Sacha Greif, Nathan Barry, Paul Jarvis, and Justin Jackson on self-publishing
Paul Jarvis ( Everything I Know), Sacha Greif ( Discover Meteor), and Nathan Barry ( Authority) invited me to host a Self-Publishing Hangout with them this week. It was a great opportunity for me, because I’m about to publish my first “book” ( Amplification). Our Google Hangout ended being a 2 hour marathon of us sharing our experience with writing, publishing, and promoting eBooks, as well as answering questions from everybody in the chat room.
In Part 1 we cover choosing a topic, whether you need to be a good writer, writers block, fear and quality!
Sponsors
This show wouldn’t be possible without these great sponsors. When you support them, you support the show!
On September 1st, I’ll be releasing my first downloadable course called Amplification. Creating great content isn’t enough; to get it seen by thousands, you need amplification. I’ll show you my experience with viral posts like “ This is a web page” and show you real stats from my website. Then I’ll share with you the steps for amplifying your posts to bigger audiences.
Go to productpeople.tv/download and get $10 off
Sprint.ly has been there from the beginning. Perfect for software teams of 3 or more people, Sprint.ly is the easiest way for managers and developers to track the software development process. You and your team can try Sprint.ly for free, go to www.sprint.ly.
Use the code productpeopletv2013 to get 10% off!
Notable quotes
Nathan: “If you try to wait until you’re a great writer, that’s bad. I had someone contact me who read every one of my blog posts. He said in his email: ‘Man, when you started you were a horrible writer. But I could see you getting better each post you wrote.’ I would say: start writing, and use that to get better at writing.”
Paul: “I feel the same way. I don’t think I’m a great writer, but I know that I’m a lot better now than when I started writing. The only way I got better, was by writing. I write every day; I don’t publish work every day (that’s not the point). The more that I sit down and write, the more ideas that I come up with that are worth publishing.”
Sacha: “I didn’t have a fixed amount of words to write every day. I approach writing like design: start with a sketch, low fidelity mockup, high fidelity… every iteration comes close and closer to the real thing. I start with outline of the chapters, and start filling them up. For Discover Meteor, we must have gone through each chapter about 10 times, it was really iterative.”
Show notes
Paul Jarvis: Everything I Know
Sacha Greif: Discover Meteor
Nathan Barry: Authority
Justin Jackson: Amplification
🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!37 min - EP40: Allan Branch on leaving LessConf to focus on his product
If you’ve dreamed about building your own product, you’re in the right place. This week the hilarious, talented, and honest Allan Branch joins us to talk about why he’s leaving LessConf behind to focus on LessAccounting.
Sponsors
This show wouldn’t be possible without these great sponsors. When you support them, you support the show!
Sprint.ly has been there from the beginning. Perfect for software teams of 3 or more people, Sprint.ly is the easiest way for managers and developers to track the software development process. You and your team can try Sprint.ly for free, go to www.sprint.ly.
Use the code productpeopletv2013 to get 10% off!
Notable quotes
“LessConf was a fun little hobby that started to take over.”
“With our app, we’re still battling it out for users, and LessConf was becoming a distraction”
“Notoriety in the startup community doesn’t translate into users in the small business.”
“Notoriety and fame and all that bullshit feels good; it’s a disease. It sucks you in… looking at Instagram likes, and who likes stuff, and re-tweets you. If startups aren’t your target marketing, notoriety can be a distraction.”
“Running a conference is like being a bride at a wedding.”
“What about a social network to connect golfing buddies?”
“We both took pay cuts to start LessEverything, because we wanted to build a nest-egg to build products”
“Having a partner makes it better. Steve likes to make my ideas better.”
“A good partner will give you the courage to be more of yourself.”
“The ignorant user is your best customer.”
“There’s no legacy in pixels.”
Show notes
Allan on Twitter
LessConf
LessAccounting
Allan and Steve’s books
Massalina Drive
🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!40 min - EP39: Spencer Fry part 2
Spencer Fry built his first product when he was 19, and now’s building a new product called Uncover. It’s a big risk: it’s an HR product, which is a difficult vertical. Listen to hear how he plans to succeed.
Sponsors
This show wouldn’t be possible without these great sponsors. When you support them, you support the show!
Sprint.ly has been there from the beginning. Perfect for software teams of 3 or more people, Sprint.ly is the easiest way for managers and developers to track the software development process. You and your team can try Sprint.ly for free, go to www.sprint.ly.
Use the code productpeopletv2013 to get 10% off!
Notable quotes
“Uncover gives employers the ability to give perks and rewards to their employees.”
“Companies are too quick to iterate. You have to look at the broader picture. You have to set aside time for bigger wins.”
“Take time away from the everyday grind, to try something big.”
“When do you know when you should throw in the towel? That’s something I don’t like doing. It’s one of the reasons I choose to bootstrap. If your raise money you have to throw in the towel a lot sooner.”
“One criticism of the HR space is that it’s difficult to sell products to that niche.”
“Small companies get their best applicants through referrals and employees.”
“Longterm, what we want to do is educate companies around employee happiness.”
“Sales or die. Sales is important: the internet is saturated with startups. You have to go after customers.”
“You live and die on your potential customer list.”
Show notes
Spencer Fry on Twitter
Spencer Fry’s blog
Pros and cons of iterative development
Sales or die
Uncover
🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!34 min - EP38: If Spencer Fry could go back in time…
What were you doing when you were 19? Spencer Fry built his first online product.
Sponsors
This show wouldn’t be possible without these great sponsors. When you support them, you support the show!
Sprint.ly has been there from the beginning. Perfect for software teams of 3 or more people, Sprint.ly is the easiest way for managers and developers to track the software development process. You and your team can try Sprint.ly for free, go to www.sprint.ly.
Use the code productpeopletv2013 to get 10% off!
Notable quotes
“When I was 10 years old, I had really, really high speed internet. All my friends were on dial-up, but I was on Yale’s high speed connection.”
“I started with being really interested in video games, which eventually lead to TypeFrag.”
“How did you figure out quality voice-over-IP when you were 19?”
“For TypeFrag, most of our sales growth came from podcast sponsorship, and video game team sponsorship.”
“90% of a business’ success is marketing and sales.”
“Spend 90% of your time thinking about how you’re going to get users.”
“It seems like people are way too focused on product development and design, and not focused enough on the sales and the marketing. Especially new entrepreneurs.”
“Every time you talk I’m thinking: these are crazy lessons for someone so young to be learning.”
Show notes
Spencer Fry on Twitter
Spencer Fry’s blog
TypeFrag
🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!40 min - EP37: Dan Norris gets the Claff
Imagine building a product for a whole year, and then deciding to try something new on a whim. You build it in a weekend, and in 4 days you already have your first paying customer.
Find out what happens next: this is part 2 with Dan Norris of Inform.ly and WP Curve.
Sponsors
This show wouldn’t be possible without these great sponsors. When you support them, you support the show!
Sprint.ly has been there from the beginning. Perfect for software teams of 3 or more people, Sprint.ly is the easiest way for managers and developers to track the software development process. You and your team can try Sprint.ly for free, go to www.sprint.ly.
Use the code productpeopletv2013 to get 10% off!
Notable quotes
“I realized with my first business, that I’d built something that didn’t scale.”
“I also realized, that I don’t want to do sales. I don’t get energy from going out and doing sales.”
“My co-founder calls himself the Claff, which kind of sounds like an STD.”
“Wait a second; are you allowed to swear on your show?”
“There’s something about putting a price on something, and seeing if people will pay you.”
“I don’t know anyone who’s running a software business, who’s started in the last couple of years, who are making a lot of money. I didn’t realize that at first. It takes a long time to build up the product, to where it’s good enough. SaaS takes a long time.”
“Your mailing list is a massive leg up. When I do something now, people find out about it, which is half the battle.”
“Authority is a hugely valuable asset. Do whatever you do best, that will get people the most amount of relevant people aware of what you’re doing.”
“People won’t tell you what they want. I’ve asked people ‘would you pay for this?'”
Show notes
The Dan Norris
Start now no funding needed
The Claff on Twitter
🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!37 min - EP36: Dan Norris gave himself 1 year to build a profitable product
Imagine this: you sell your web consultancy, and give yourself 1 year to build a product. You decide to do everything by the book: you’re going to validate the idea, and use the lean startup methodology to build it.
Find out what happens next: this is part 1 with Dan Norris of Inform.ly and WP Curve.
Sponsors
This show wouldn’t be possible without these great sponsors. When you support them, you support the show!
Sprint.ly has been there from the beginning. Perfect for software teams of 3 or more people, Sprint.ly is the easiest way for managers and developers to track the software development process. You and your team can try Sprint.ly for free, go to www.sprint.ly.
Use the code productpeopletv2013 to get 10% off!
I also just discovered KnowAds. The hardest part about online advertising is figuring out what works. KnowAds reveals your competitor’s campagins showing you exactly what’s working for them. You get to see their most successful ad copy & ad placements. Go to productpeople.tv/ads and sign-up for an account.
- And finally, if you’re trying to set-up an online store, you need to use Shopify. I’ve tried setting up dozens of online stores for clients, and there are always so many headaches: handling payment gateways, multiple currencies, taxes, shipping rates. Shopify solves all of these problems for you. I want you to go to productpeople.tv/shopify and get a 14 day free trial.
Notable quotes
“You’re a full pro with those intros, were you a TV announcer before you started doing podcasts?”
“I try to record my podcasts in the morning, especially when I have a cold, so I sound like Russel Crowe.”
“I listened to the Dan Martell episode, do you want me to tell all my stories about being arrested?”
“Oh, you don’t know what a bogan is?”
“I started learning web development the day I started by web development business.”
“The customer said ‘we want a CMS’. I said ‘Sure, I can do that’, so I went home and googled CMS.”
Show notes
The Dan Norris
Web domination podcast
Bogan [Wikipedia]
🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!41 min - EP35: Noel Tock on building products on WordPress
This is part 2 of our interview with Noel Tock. He built a SaaS app on top of WordPress. In part 1 we talked about the thinking behind that, in part 2 we talk about the lessons he’s learned along the way.
Sponsors
This show wouldn’t be possible without these great sponsors. When you support them, you support the show!
Sprint.ly has been there from the beginning. Perfect for software teams of 3 or more people, Sprint.ly is the easiest way for managers and developers to track the software development process. You and your team can try Sprint.ly for free, go to www.sprint.ly.
Use the code productpeopletv2013 to get 10% off!
I also just discovered KnowAds. The hardest part about online advertising is figuring out what works. KnowAds reveals your competitor’s campagins showing you exactly what’s working for them. You get to see their most successful ad copy & ad placements. Go to productpeople.tv/ads and sign-up for an account.
- And finally, if you’re trying to set-up an online store, you need to use Shopify. I’ve tried setting up dozens of online stores for clients, and there are always so many headaches: handling payment gateways, multiple currencies, taxes, shipping rates. Shopify solves all of these problems for you. I want you to go to productpeople.tv/shopify and get a 14 day free trial.
Notable quotes
Classic product myth: “Build and they will come. Just because you have a great product, doesn’t mean people will come.”
“Our best source for traffic is www.better-restaurant-websites.com”
“The people that come through footer links on our clients’ websites convert the best.”
“Don’t use Bootstrap for your app’s design.”
Show notes
Noel Tock
Happy Tables
www.better-restaurant-websites.com
🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!28 min - EP34: Building your app on top of WordPress with Noel Tock
If liked our episodes on using WordPress to build your web app’s MVP, you’re going to love this interview with Noel Tock, of HappyTables.com.
Sponsors
This show wouldn’t be possible without these great sponsors. When you support them, you support the show!
Sprint.ly has been there from the beginning. Perfect for software teams of 3 or more people, Sprint.ly is the easiest way for managers and developers to track the software development process. You and your team can try Sprint.ly for free, go to www.sprint.ly.
Use the code productpeopletv2013 to get 10% off!
I also just discovered KnowAds. The hardest part about online advertising is figuring out what works. KnowAds reveals your competitor’s campagins showing you exactly what’s working for them. You get to see their most successful ad copy & ad placements. Go to productpeople.tv/ads and sign-up for an account.
- And finally, if you’re trying to set-up an online store, you need to use Shopify. I’ve tried setting up dozens of online stores for clients, and there are always so many headaches: handling payment gateways, multiple currencies, taxes, shipping rates. Shopify solves all of these problems for you. I want you to go to productpeople.tv/shopify and get a 14 day free trial.
Notable quotes
“You can’t build any app on-top of WordPress. It works really well for apps that are content based.”
“Customizing the existing wp-admin is a lot of work.”
“For an MVP, WordPress would work fine. But for something bigger that you want scale, it’s probably better to use something (like Ruby on Rails).”
“Now that WordPress has custom post types, there’s way more you can do.”
“It doesn’t really matter anymore what technology you’re using on the backend. The bar’s really been raised in terms of what users expect [in the front-end experience].”
“We used to be content when app just did something, Hotmail did email. But now we have higher expectations on how an app [looks and feels].”
“We’re trying to understand the users mores, as opposed to what code powers the back-end.”
“We launched Happy Tables in February, 2012.”
“Most of our traffic is organic traffic.”
Show notes
Noel Tock
Happy Tables
RoloPress
Piklist
ClickBank
🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!25 min - EP33: Jason Calacanis of Inside.com talks about bootstrapping vs funding
It’s part 2 with Jason Calacanis!
In this episode we explore the question every product person needs to answer: should I bootstrap, or should I get investors?Sponsors
- Sprint.ly has been there from the beginning. Perfect for software teams of 3 or more people, Sprint.ly is the easiest way for managers and developers to track the software development process. You and your team can try Sprint.ly for free, go to www.sprint.ly
- I also just discovered KnowAds. The hardest part about online advertising is figuring out what works. KnowAds reveals your competitor’s campagins showing you exactly what’s working for them. You get to see their most successful ad copy & ad placements. Go to productpeople.tv/ads and sign-up for an account.
- And finally, if you’re trying to set-up an online store, you need to use Shopify. I’ve tried setting up dozens of online stores for clients, and there are always so many headaches: handling payment gateways, multiple currencies, taxes, shipping rates. Shopify solves all of these problems for you. I want you to go to productpeople.tv/shopify and get a 14 day free trial.
Notable quotes
- “Raise a little of angel funding, prove that there’s product market, and then go out and get second market funding.”
- “If Uber doesn’t go into every market, someone else will, but they still have other people popping up in new markets before they get there. So they’re in a race.”
- “Raise less money in the beginning, raise more money once you have product market fit.”
- JJ: “There are some great products that have grown really fast, and have stayed private and bootstrapped (MailChimp, SurveyMonkey, Valve). Do you think they’re anomalies?”
- JC: “There are some people that stay private, and that’s good because they retain their equity. There’s not one way to do this. But some of those companies are 10 year ‘over night’ successes.'”
- “Most businesses don’t need venture funding. The truth is, there’s a time for both [bootstrapping and taking venture money].”
- “Investors need liquidity. There’s a secondary market for shares today. This really didn’t exist that much before. You used to be forced into an IPO. There’s a concept that (perhaps) venture capitalists would start taking dividends; but it’s more likely that they’ll just sell their shares.”
- “Trying to building for the sale is a terrible idea. You want to build for a growing market, a customer that loves you, and a team that loves to build the product. When I was hiring for Inside.com, I realized there’s a lot of developers into our space.”
- “Building to sell is a dangerous idea. When people come to me for an angel investment and say ‘This is a natural acquisition target’, I say ‘That’s not what you lead with.’ That’s not why you build it, you build it because you have a better solution.”
- “When you’re thinking about these big acquisitions, I encourage people to just drop off 3 zeroes.”
- “It turns out, there’s a lot of money in the world. The money is bored. Money wants to be spent! Money is intended to be gambled. These are big numbers, but these are big companies.”
Show notes
- http://twitter.com/jason
- http://inside.com
- http://www.weblogsinc.com
- http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/10/prweb172213.htm
🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!26 min
About Product People
From the publisher's feed
A podcast about profitable products and the people who make them