Success Criteria

I read something on the net recently about what makes a person good to be successful at running a Micro ISV. There were many insightful comments to that post that I want to cover today. There were some common themes in the comments. You just need to stick to it. This requires passion, persistence, and dedication.

Here is something that is disappointing. Your success rate does not have much to do with your technical abilities. Development is only about 10% of the work involved. The other 90% of the work involves things such as advertising, marketing, and selling. You also need to work on processing payments and finding suppliers.

You got to be willing to put on a suit to sell your software. To be successful you need to have a positive outlook. You need to be in a good mood to be able to run your own software business. A common catch phrase is that you need to be smart and be able to just get things done.

Stay focused. You might be able to be successful and get rich.

Gimmicks That Work

I got a big envelope from a mail order company I use a lot. The envelope contained a poster sized certificate. It was given to me because I was a good customer. The certificate allowed me to get some free stuff if I placed an order. Normally I would laugh at such crazy tactics. But in this case, it actually worked.

No. I did not run out and place an order with this company. But I did keep the certificate. And I plan to paste the thing up on my wall. I have already received some compliments from the certificate. It looks very authentic. There is a seal on it. And it is printed on paper that looks official.

Here is the thing. The certificate by itself did not create any company loyalty for me. It is the reasonably priced goods they offer. During these hard economic times, I love to get a good deal. The quality of the merchandise is not all that high. I have returned a bunch of stuff because it has fallen apart. However they have a 100% money back or replacement guarantee.

This is funny. The company is not that prompt with their shipment of my orders. However I always keep coming back for more with this company. Sometimes they offer free shipping. Other times they offer free gifts. They are always sending me offers in the mail. I am finding that I buy most of my clothes from this company. That’s some successful marketing, even if they resort to gimmicks every once in a while.

Too Good To Be True

I saw a video on a web page that was pitching a service. You never saw the narrator. However you saw a picture of his family. They looked quite normal. The guy said it costs $97 to join his club. He claims to make thousands of dollars a day. He showed a picture of an account which made him $2.6M this year. The last month he claimed to have made $117k.

It was clear that this guy was a good talker. He sounded young. This guy’s business is promoting other people’s products. He is trying to sell people his coaching services in the form of a club. He guarantees results or you get your money back. He pokes fun at infomercials. Why is he charging money to join? That is to limit the number of people involved. You get email access to him if you pay to join.

Why would somebody give away the keys to the kingdom of $117k per month? The guy says it is charity work for him. He likes to help other people. He considers the $97 price too low, and admits the price may rise a bit.

This is the gist of his technique. He promotes products using Google AdWords. He will show you what he does. Then you can copy it. The products he promotes give you a lot of money for each lead you generate. He claims you can get 100 times your initial investment. He advises against using ads targeted to Google search. Instead you should use AdWords on specific sites. His focus is the USA and UK markets.

There are some tricks he shares for free. Capitalize words in ads. Have a copyright sign in there too. He recommends that you have your own domain. He says that the money you make with his system can buy you happiness. His club let’s you get into his site, where he has 60 instructional videos.

I am usually very leery of such pitches. Why would anybody want to share the secrets of success? If somebody was really into charity work, they would just give away their money. I would be willing to take $97 or $970 or $9700 cash from this guy. I will thank him profusely.