I’m excited to welcome Spencer Haws back to the show this week!
Longtime listeners may remember Spencer from episode 18 of the show, where he gave us a step-by-step walkthrough of how he builds profitable niche sites from scratch.
But in addition to his niche site empire, Spencer is also an accomplished software entrepreneur. His popular Long Tail Pro software powers the keyword research for thousands of customers.
In this episode we take a deep dive into the creation process of validating, building, and selling software. Obviously, a product you can build once and sell a thousand times is an attractive business model.
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Learn:
- Where to find software developers.
- What to be mindful of when creating your proposal and contract.
- How much it cost to build the first version of Long Tail Pro.
- What happened when the original developer held the source code hostage.
- How Spencer priced the product and got his initial customers.
- How his partner Perrin collected 6000 emails in 2 weeks for a software product that didn’t even exist yet.
- The advantages and disadvantages of a business to business customer vs. a business to consumer customer.
- Why competition in the marketplace is generally a good thing.
- Why Vylo uses a “freemium” pricing model and LTP doesn’t, and best practices.
- How Spencer recommends side hustlers spend their limited time.
Links:
- NichePursuits.com
- Vylo.org
- Long Tail Pro
- Spencer’s first appearance on The Side Hustle Show, walking through step-by-step how to build a profitable niche site.
- Dave Schneider on “Selling Shovels in a Gold Rush”
- Freelancer.com
- Elance.com
- The Foundation
- PowToon | The explainer video for Vylo
- The Reddit League of Legends thread
- Reselling software
What do you think? Are there any problems in the market you could solve with software?
What other “gold rushes” are going on that could “sell shovels” for?
Download the Free PDF "Highlight Reel" from this Episode
With all of my guest's top tips and resources included.
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Great podcast! I am in the process of building a SAAS/cloud based product. The part I’m having a challenge with is validation. I have such a time just trying to get the right people to say they need my solution.
Spencer, do you recommend I do more keyword search to gain a better idea on pain points and what’s actually being searched for?
Thanks Nick/Spencer
Hey Tony, thanks for stopping by. I think beyond keyword research, it’s time to pick up the phone and/or email with your target customers to get first-hand reports of the pains they’re trying to solve.
Hey Nick,
Really enjoyed the episode. Any plans on doing a podcast centered around validation ideas? I liked what Spencer covered, but would like to listen to something that really goes in depth into the topic. Likewise, any resource recommendations to read/listen more on validation methods/ideas?
Thanks
Thanks Tony! I would check out a couple Dane Maxwell interviews. He’s a little brash or cocky, but does have some great stuff on drilling down to people’s pain points and validating software ideas. Here are a couple I’ve listened to:
http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/no-ideas-no-expertise-no-money-business/
http://meronbareket.com/dane-maxwell-idea-extraction/
Cheers!
Awesome.
Thanks man!