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Is it possible to take an old outdated idea and put your own twist on it?
The thing is, I hate opt-in forms that take me off the current page. Luckily there has been a rise of Ajax-based and iframe-based subscription boxes in the last couple of years where you can fill out an opt-in form and you are NOT taken away from the page you are on.
In August of last year I first released Action PopUp.
Strategy #1: See If They Buy It In the First Place
I didn't know if it would sell well or not... the only real way to find out is to test it with a version 1.0 and see if people buy!
I am not a fan of releasing a free report, or offering nothing but a newsletter in your niche... just make a simple product, price it accordingly (a low price if it's a simple early version of your product) and see if people are willing to pay money for it!
There's really no other way to know for sure.
I launched on August 15th, 2007. It was a dimesale, the price was $7.99 plus a 2 cent price increase with each sale. The launch lasted for two weeks, totaling 242 sales at $2,504 profit ($2,348.36 after PayPal fees).
$2500 for two days of work? I definitely consider that a success! It was something people actually wanted to buy (instead of just saying they would buy it -- beware of this).
Strategy #2: Feature Creep
Because it was a new source of income, I knew I would spend the time to develop it more.
I slowly added new features and released them for free to my existing buyers. This is how you should roll out all your products: software OR information products.
I've developed the heck out of this idea and it's now at version 1.5 with a price of $13.31.
Strategy #3: Eating Your Own Dog Food
I added an option to make it work directly on a page, instead of as a pop-up... which is how I use it on this blog. When someone reads a post, they have a chance to subscribe to my newsletter for updates. Once they do, the subscription box disappears.
Action PopUp personalizes any web page (including this blog) after you fill out the subscription form... and remembers it for future visits.
You might have noticed it already... for example, on one of my posts, I start with this sentence:
"Don't forget, it's okay to make mistakes."
If you are reading the actual entry (not just on the front page)... after you fill out the newsletter box... let's say your name was Steven... the blog entry now reads:
"Steven, it's okay to make mistakes."
The more I used it on my own sites, I found I kept adding little "tweaks" in the script to get it to do what I want... these tweaks eventually became advertised features.
I added a one-time-offer countdown, link capture functionality, a delay-onload pop-up... only when I needed them for my sites.
Have you heard of the phrase, "Eating your own dog food?" It means if you use your own products, they will kick ass. Dog food tastes like crap, but if you were a dog food company and all you had to eat was your own dog food, you would tweak it to make sure it tastes great.
Action PopUp was something I actually used on my sites, so with all the unintentional self-testing I performed, I weeded most of the bugs, added features that people like me would actually use, and made it as easy to install as possible.
It's because of those three simple strategies that I am able to consistently pump out products.
Andy Erickson
Annette Ommen
Gareth Thomas
Nancy Boyd
Todd Royer
Rob Metras
Michele Anderson
Dave Gale
Kathy Dobson
Jason Johns
You've given us great food for thought again Robert.
Strategy 2 is my favorite.
Success Belongs To You Robert
Ken
Man, oh man...
I'm just sorry that I found this blog just now.
Really great stuff.
Hey Robert,
Nice post.
I like the way you've laid it out and, to a certain extent, I agree with the three strategies. I'd just call them steps.
You can combine all three into a successful business model:
1. Test the viability of a product on your own sites; then test market demand by launching a small/basic product.
2. Survey customers to see what features they want.
3. Develop product (feature creep).
Take care
John
Nice post, Robert - I love the point about eating your own dog food. There's absolutely nothing like using a product yourself to tell you where it could be better and where it gets annoying.
When I wrote software for businesses I'd sometimes have what I thought were great ideas. Later, when I worked for one business exclusively and got chance to use the software in the production environment I found certain aspects intensely frustrating. Guess which bits got changed first?
I love the description of Action Popups so much I'm going off to buy it now.
As always, you wrote exactly what I thought on the subject, and it TRULY is a pleasure to follow your creative, instructive and useful blog.
Thanks.
Another inspiring post, Robert!
One that moves me to take action...
One of the biggest problems I have is deciding the price at which to sell my software products.
The Dime Sale (or Nickel Sale) is the perfect way of letting a product find its own price.
Start it off low and let the price build up.
When sales start to drop off, you've either exhausted your market (or not promoting it enough), or it's reached the price at which people consider it to be too expensive.
Switch off the Dime Sale, fix the price at the highest level that it was when sales were still steady, and leave it at that.
And if you really want to impress your customers, offer a refund to the people who paid a higher price.
After a gesture like that, the chances are, they'll buy from you again.
Aaaah Robert!
Another Great Post!
Keep it coming!
Phil, one thing I have been doing is keeping track of the average purchase price.
For the past month the average purchase price of PHP Uncensored was $11.26, average price for Simple JavaScript was $15.21, average price for Action PopUp was $12.66.
This tells me good "discount" prices when I want the products to be selling like crazy, but for a regular price I probably want to double the price.
I have re-thought capping the price lately. Why not just let it go up forever?
If sales dry up add some value to it and relaunch it.
If that doesn't help, create a new product. When someone goes to buy the new product, offer an upsell to the new product + the old product. That's what my plan is right now for keeping consistent sales with dimesales.
Generally I don't like incresing sales prices. Because this seems greedy. I think you should set a cap. This tells customers - this s the price you think it's worth. Re-launching contantly with new additons only seems "gimmicky" IMO.
As for the product itself. It's the best of the best.
It has helped increase sales.
I use it instead of opt-ins, and will use nothing else.
It made me the money back the day I implemented it on one PPC landing page.
For the FIRST time ever, I disagree with you. When I clicked your offer on http://www.blackhatphp.com/ the price was 3.67 but due to someone buying while your intermediary page was shown the price was raised for me also to 3.77.
I know the 10 cents shouldn't separate us, but I do feel that when I click while the price is 3.67 it should have been LOCKED at that price in that session.
Hope this gives a good idea for relevant scripts etc.
Henrik, I kind of know what you mean.
But if you look at it from my point of view... last night, the first 5 people who bought Black Hat PHP all paid $0.07 because they all clicked through at about the same time. Because of PayPal fees that meant I gave 5 copies away for free.
Just like you said, 10 cents isn't that big of a deal, and neither is 0.10 + 0.20 + 0.30 + 0.40 = $1.00 in lost profits. (PayPal takes half of that dollar in fees anyway.)
But just like you said you feel like you should be locked in, I feel like I should get that 0.07 then 0.17 then 0.27 sale etc. not 0.07 in a row.
It also raises the question of how long would people stay locked in to that price? I do want people to click that order button after all.
I feel like most programmers would know what a SESSION means, so I don't see how you could be in doubt.
Robert,
Yes, I downloaded the Action Pop-up script. I had to make a few alterations to the form, as I do not need any email addresses. I use it as a last ditch reminder to download my software. You can check it out at http://www.mlstoolbars.com/are
Since installing the script my software has been downloaded substantially more than in the past.
Great script!!!
Michael.
Hi Robert,
I've set up the Action Pop-up script at http://www.aboutgettingpregnant.com
It is super cool and easy to use even for a beginner like me! Today I had to change the file to suit FireFox and I managed to do it without a hitch thanks to your step by step instructions that not only appear in the pdf. file but also within the code itself, thankyou!
Conversions so far have improved although I don't get a
great deal of traffic yet...that's my next task.
Cool ideas for the future? What about adding some sound for us to choose from that chimes at the same time as the pop up appearing to grab the users attention even more. Maybe even being able to record our own voice saying "Hey, please don't leave, I have a free gift for you..." or whatever...
Thanks for a great script.
Cheers
Michelle.
Hey Robert,
I set up Action Pop-up plus Action Comments at
http://www.ryanhealy.com
I've seen a 25% increase in total subscribers in the past 10 days -- from about 150 subscribers to 200.
I'm impressed.
Ryan
I just want to say YOUR Plug in is ROCK and Robert know how to treat his customer!! I really like your product! good product and good customers service!! thank you
Semmy
http://www.myselfhelpsolution.com
I've used your popup script on marketingwizardsalliance.com. Works GREAT! Thanks!
Hi Robert,
Yes, I downloaded and put to work
Action Popup...see URL above. It has increased signups for the free ebook, resulting in more sales letters being sent, using AutoResponse Plus, so...eventually it will contribute to the bottom line. Am looking for other ways to use the software on my site - I assume I can just upload another instance to the server, renaming it slightly?
Thanks for the good script, Robert. Keep up the good work.
Dan Eskelson
Clearwaterlandscapes.com
Hello Robert,
I bougth your super Action Popup plugin to my website. I installed and activated it, but it does not work properly. If I open the homepage, I see just a black header instead of my original header and the popup.
Could you please help me, what the problem could be?
Thank you for your help,
Regards,
Gabor Soltesz
Sure Gabor, can you shoot me an e-mail using the link at the bottom of this page with the URL you are trying to set this up at... and if you followed all the steps in the "troubleshooting" checklist in the PDF.
Hi,
I have a Pre-Sales question. Will this script work on a Proxy Site (Glype)? I have purchased "Awesome PopUp" which is similar to this script, but It doesn't work on my proxy site. Before I purchase "Action PopUp" I would really like to know If it works first on a Glype Proxy Site (My website is http://www.hiddenSecret.info). Please get back to me as soon as possible.
Cheers!
Hello Robert,
Of course I followed all the steps. But I don't know why it doesn't work. My website's URL is: http://www.vizlagyito.eu
Thank you for your help.
Regards, Gabor Soltesz
Well......
The program did not interface well in my website....My webmaster is working overtime to re-code it and FLV producer plug in to function properly. We installed it on the latest version of WordPress. We had just upgraded to the latest version and maybe that is the problem.
Could you please contact my webmaster, Richard Morrison at (419-371-0792 or e-mail at profexcon@gmail.com
Thank you....
Betty Jones
(352) 401-3512
Hi Robert,
I have installed it and had very minimal problems. I got it up and running in less than 1/2 hour and it is working perfectly. Great little tool. I have started getting a few new sign ups since I installed it. Thanks for your help.
Its a great piece of software, didn't take me long to get set-up on my site. The only small problem I had was tweaking the size of the pop-up box so it works in IE and Firefox.
I'd like to buy this script...but is it cross browser compatible?
@top paying keywords: Yes, I've tested it in IE, Firefox, Opera and Safari and so have lots of other people.
We've installed it and are having difficulties with getting the link from our Thank you URL to connect with the autoresponder confirmation email. Specifically, this works on Firefox, not on Safari.
Otherwise, seems like a great program.
I have installed it at http://www.diymarketingcoach.com.
Didn't have any trouble with installation and/or customizing the different settings (Wordpress plugin).
I couldn't get the Thank You message to work. My popup disappears, as it should since I want them to stay on the same page but it doesn't display the thank you message.
Not sure what to do with the optional CSS Code settings. Haven't used the stand-alone version yet.
Works well with my Aweber sign-up forms.
Too soon to tell if it has had any impact on my conversion rate.
Wish list:
1. Ability to adjust the alpha value for lightbox color
2. A way to add more than one Action popup i.e. onLoad and upon exit
Archie,
The error with the thank you message is fixed in the latest version, let me know if you need a download link. I have tried the alpha value and the onload+onexit thing in previous versions, but it confused and annoyed people so I removed it.
Robert,
Do you have an affiliate program for the action popup? Also can Google detect it?
Mike
Robert, can you please make this script compatible with the new internet explorer? here is what is happening in IE, works fine with safari, flock and fire fox.
http://www.onestepfortune.com/index2.html
Mike, yes there is an affiliate program. It's at: http://www.actionpopup.com/affiliates
Hassan, what version are you of Action PopUp are you running?
I'm using the latest downloadable on your site. I just dled it two days ago.