Quartz 4

Launch Cheatsheet- how smart people launch things

19 min read

Collected advice for beginner indiehackers, focused on pricing, landing pages, and everything else that you need going up to a launch

My own launch was on July 1.

Table of Contents

Launches to study

Todo Fix this table (copy original table into a table-to-markdown converter) Product (and Landing Page)

Creator

$$$/Numbers

Launch Links

Misc Info

🔥🔥Cracking the Coding Career

Swyx

- 4k presales in week 1 - 4k endorsement sales in May - Presales + Day 1 = 25k - Month 1 lifetime sales: 40k

- Apr Presale Tweet - May Dan Tweet - Jun launch delayed launch - July 1: PH, HN, Twitter, Dev.to

LaunchLog

🔥🔥Refactoring to Collections

Adam Wathan

- 61k in 3 days. 100k in 3 months. 140k in 1yr. Jan 2019 200k.
- 30k at 59-79 tier, 75k at $135-179 tier

Tweet, no HN, PH (33)

Talk: Nailing Your First Launch, HN comment Podcast

🔥🔥Test Driven Laravel

Adam Wathan

- 3k customers
- 149 prelaunch
- US500k as of jan 2019

- Nov 2016 announce
- WIP tweets (Dec 2016, Mar 2017, May 2017 with 40% presale discount, Nov 2017, Jan 2018)
- Feb 13 2018 prelauch announcement
- Feb 16 2018 launch tweet?
- Mar 12 2018 followup tweet
- Nov 2019 Black Friday Sale

- scope blew out, really too ambitious, wanted to launch by christmas. opted for early access, got trapped in promised content
- keep it short. only 300 people out of 3k buyers finished the course

🔥🔥 Advanced Vue Component Design

Adam Wathan

- price: 99/139
- 230k as of jan 2019

- Mar 28 2018: Announcement Tweet
- WIP tweets: Apr 14 “broke ground” on recording, Apr 2018 free screencast
- May 7 2018: email list tweet
- May 9 2018: launch Tweet
- May 25 2018: followup tweet
- Jun 6 2018: Social Proof followup

- endorsed by Sarah Drasner, Jeffrey Way

🔥🔥🔥Refactoring UI

Adam & Steve

- 968k in 1 month
- now ~2m? (tailwind ui another 2m). in 2020, did 600k.

to be completed

- amazing goodreads
- adam wathan 2020 review

🔥🔥The Good Parts of AWS

Daniel Vassallo

45k in 2 weeks, $100k in 8 months

tbd

https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-i-made-210-822-selling-a-pdf-and-a-video-on-the-internet-028d5b0a2c

🔥🔥Everybody Can Build a Twitter Audience

Daniel Vassallo

115k in 4 months

tbd

https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-i-made-210-822-selling-a-pdf-and-a-video-on-the-internet-028d5b0a2c

🔥Writing for Software Developers

Philip Kiely

20k (521 at launch, 7 team)

HN (267), patio11 tweet, Twitter
$17k sales

Podcasts:
- Software Sessions
- Entr. Coder
- David Perell
- SE Radio

🔥Sublime Text Book

Wes Bos

to be completed

HN (163)

Talk: Creating and Launching Your Own Products

🔥Production Ready GraphQL

Marc-Andre Giroux

- Price: 39/99 with interviews and slack
- $70k in Week 1

- Started writing in June 2018
- 2019: WIP updates in Mar, Jun, Jul
- Mar 3: Launch announcement
- Mar 24: Launch Tweet, HN
- Mar 31: Update v1.2

- open sourced his pandoc stack
- has goodreads reviews
- launch tweet underperformed preannouncement!
- podcast retro
- sales = 1/3 tweet, 2/3 email?
- seemed to abandon dedicated book twitter

🔥De-Coding The Technical Interview Process

Emma Bostian

- 17 for both light and dark mode
- $42k in 30 days via Gumroad

- Apr 22: 75% update
- May 6: Dark mode
- May 7: Launch Tweet
- May 8: Moved to dedicated site

- Giveaway copies to DiversifyTechCo and React Ladies
- Retro blogpost
- used Gdocs, Procreate, Mac Pages
- 30day sale, moved to Egghead, 3 tiers

🔨The Beginner’s Guide To Creating & Growing Your Blog

Emma Bostian

4k presales in week 1

- May 27: Announce Tweet
- Jun 2: Donating proceeds

donating all proceeds

🔨Solid: Software architecture & design principles

Khalil Stemmler

cant find

- May 4 2019: “free book”
- tweet in public from Aug 2019 to Oct 2019 to Dec 2019
- still working on it in Jul 2020

to be completed

🔥🔥The Complete Guide to Rails Performance

Nate Berkopec

200k

to be completed

Blogpost . Used Gitbook for PDF/EPUB/MOBI

🔨React 2025

Lee Robinson

3k in preorders on day 1

- May 18: Announce Tweet, HN, PH
- May 24: Preorder Tweet

offered free access to old course (Mastering Nextjs) at $200 face value

🦗Mastering Nextjs

Lee Robinson

$11k in sales before making it free

- Nov 4 2019: Launch Tweet, HN, PH
- Feb 2020: relaunch on HN

seems a dud. not sure why.

🦗Builder Book

Kelly & Timur

cant find

cant find

open source

🔥🔥The DynamoDB Book

Alex DeBrie

- Price: 79/129/249 with supplments, code, & video walkthrus
- code “HACKERNEWS” to save 30 on Plus, or $50 on Premium
- ~200k? (guess)

- Nov 2019: AWS Data Hero, Book announcement
- Dec 2019: most watched re:invent talk
- Jan 2020: Leaving Serverless
- Feb 2020: WIP updates
- Apr 7 2020: Launch Tweet, HN
- May 16 2020: HN relaunch (worked!)

- wrote the free DDB Guide first
- endorsement by AWS (Rick Houlihan, GM of DDB, Jeff Barr)
- Launch HN comment
- Podcasts:
- fullstack radio
- serverless chats

❓Refactoring Rails

Ben Orenstein

to be completed

- Jun 2017: announcement, first teaser video - Oct 2017: launch - Nov 2018: 50% off sale - Dec 2018: Testing tips with plug - Nov 2019: another sale

to be completed

🔥 The Tech Resume Inside Out

Gergely Orosz

29 w/ video, free for those in need, PPP

Total ~$10k launch week
Day 1: 5.6K visitors, 840 clicks on “buy now”, 300 sales.
Day 2: 5.6K visitors, 750 clicks on “buy now”, 257 sales.

to be completed

🔥 🔥CSS for JS Devs

Josh W. Comeau

$130

https://twitter.com/JoshWComeau/status/1369664227934429184

to be completed

Other infoproducts:

Good meta discussions:

All Adam Wathan interviews:

Required Reading

Gabriel Mercer on the SPF podcast adopts Tony Robbins’ Business Mastery roles:

  • There are three roles in creating things: Talent (making things), Manager (growing things), Entrepreneur (taking risk).
  • Our parallel: Artist (writing), Director (run and manage team), Producer (marketing, networking, interacting with readers)

as solo product makers we do all 3.

Chris Guillebeau’s 39 steps to launch PDF and Podcast Ep 1234

  • Prelaunch
  • Launch day:
    • soft launch, make sure everything working
    • post on social networks youre already active in
    • use GA to monitor website traffic - write to first 3-5 buyers, make sure everything is OK
    • celebrate your win
  • Postlaunch:
    • think about next launch, write down what you learned

Launch by Jeff Walker - recommended by Emma Bostian

https://booklaunch.com/

http://onepagelove.com/100

Austen Allred’s Secret Sauce book talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6key9jl9w8Q

  • 100x content on reddit
  • all biggest second-tier publications in Medium
  • Invite Queue - viral waiting list
  • Twitter - follow liker, thunderclap
  • some misc growth hacks for kickstarter

(thanks to @estevanmaito for the below)

[An eBook pricing model that resulted in 50,000 (a 170% increase) in revenue. Here’s how.

Six figures in 26 hours - Behind the Scenes of a $177,803 Hand Lettering Course Launch That Made the First Six Figures in 26 Hours

Mariah Coz presentation

[The 61,392 in revenue and gave me the confidence to quit my day job and work on my own ideas full-time. (You cited Adam, so you probably already read this, but I didn’t found any mention to the email templates, so, here it is just in case)

Nailing Your First Launch - Adam Wathan - More details into the ‘Refactoring to Collections’ book launch

How I Made $40,000 Off A Book…Before I Even Published It. - Every product and marketing strategy is different and will yield different outcomes. Every product serves a different market need and some are more needed than others.

How mispricing an eBook got me the wrong readers. What I learned. - I had to completely remove it from sales too, to fix my mistake. That’s me.

Mythbusting the best-practices of best-selling nonfiction, with April Dunford - with Rob Fitzpatrick

the Ladybug team on selling ebooks - self publishing, software, selling, pricing

Advice

  • Wesbos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBlOxBQrP9I
    • 5 parts quality content
      • pick something hard-ish, that they’d take a while to learn
      • no brainer value - is it worth it? need to convince your boss? calculate ROI
      • pick something that sells itself
      • solves a pain
      • evergreen - flexbox is done
    • 2 parts personality + reputation
    • 2 parts community
    • 2 parts good marketing
      • who is this for?
      • email is king - 4.2x twitter
      • Sell hard but not too hard - social proof works
      • Launch Price - 4890 already sold! live number
      • TELL THEM its good
  • https://www.katedoster.com/7-key-elements-of-a-successful-launch/
    • Don’t just launch out of nowhere - as simple as “next week email” or a launch trigger - webinar, challenge,
    • Bigger isn’t always better - which will you actually do? Like really?
    • Be more excited for them then your product
    • Have an audience booster close to your launch (if you can)
    • Have some type of urgency/ scarcity
    • Email more than once--- seriously.
    • Have faith & leave room for miracles and fun

Pricing

Pricing page swipe file

Tax info

Affiliates

  • wesbos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBlOxBQrP9I

    • offer high cut for affiliates. 2 week cookie.
    • the right people are key. 6-7 affiliates.
    • something shady with adblockers idk

  • 5 tips referral programs https://sidehustleschool.com/episode/1360/

    1. build referral language into a customer experience, at every touch point encourage them to tell their friends
    2. setup formal referral program (money, discount, with a link) - beneefit can just be more of what they’re already buying from you - so your costs are going to be lower
    3. combine ongoing referral program with special promotion - eg classpass always 500 if you refer a few
    4. make a simple ask at the conclusion of a simple interaction, if they’re delighted - dont miss out
    5. https://www.amazon.com/Referral-Engine-Teaching-Business-Market/dp/1591844428

Bundles

  • black friday deal with other authors. High value > deep discount.
  • 4 day sale.
  • 3 books + videos for 49, 20k in sales

Podcast Sponsorship

wesbos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBlOxBQrP9I

  • Find people who run podcasts that will vouch for your product.
  • make it good: “wes did an awesome job with this series etc”
  • shoptalk show - sponsorship was good

Endorsements / Testimonials

REMEMBER: Your Landing Page with 8 testimonials does not need a 9th. Kick out the weakest of the bunch. - Rob Hope

  • use https://helpthisbook.com/ for reviews? (its new)
  • give 4-8 weeks with a final week followup?
  • https://www.amarketingexpert.com/step-by-step-guide-to-getting-celebrity-book-endorsements-forewords-and-early-reviews-for-your-book/
    • book cover
    • 1pg overview of book
    • early reviews/endorsements
    • table of contents
    • 3 chapter sample
    • prewritten forward/endorsements
  • https://writersrelief.com/2015/02/25/get-book-cover-quote-endorsement-famous-author/
    • Introduce yourself in a personal way, then state that you’re asking for a book jacket quote.
    • Briefly offer the details about your book: genre, story, publisher, release date.
    • Explain why you think the author in question is a kindred spirit who might like your book. Possible reasons could be: you also like his/her writing; one of the author’s titles compares well with yours; or you both love and write about the same topics.
    • Give the author a deadline for the potential endorsement, but offer as big a timeline as possible.
    • Let the author know where the blurb will be used. Will it be on your book cover, your author website, or both?
    • Don’t forget to say thank you!
  • https://pithywordsmithery.com/2017/01/book-endorsement-quotes/
    • Email Subject: Will you endorse my book?
    • The introduction of the book and one or two of the best chapters, ideally put into one PDF that is marked confidential. (You should offer to send the whole manuscript, but don’t send it right away. It could seem overwhelming to review a long document and be a turn off.)
    • A jpeg of the cover art, if you have it.
    • Step 1: Insert flattery while at the same time being genuine. Bonus points if you can proactively help the person out somehow.
    • Step 2: Draw a connection between what they do and your book.
    • Step 3: Explain the project.
    • Step 4: Explain what you need and provide a deadline.
  • https://blog.reedsy.com/live/get-amazing-endorsements-book/
  • https://onepagelove.com/requesting-testimonials
    • Step 1: Request a detailed testimonial
    • Step 2: Edit the testimonial, extracting highlights
    • Step 3: Confirm the testimonial edit with your customer

Example emails

Dear THEIR NAME,

My name is YOUR NAME and I've recently finished a book that I think you would be interested. It's called TITLE and it's DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOK. I've attached a sample of the book here to give you a better sense of it.

NOW, IN 2-3 SENTENCES, CONNECT THE BOOK TO THEIR WORK OR LET THEM KNOW WHY YOU'RE INTERESTED IN THEM OR HOW THEY INSPIRED YOU.

I'd be honored if you would consider looking at the book, and if it resonates with you, providing me with an endorsement. If you'd like, I can send you a full digital or paperback version of the book, whichever you prefer.

PERSONALIZED CONCLUSION LINE THAT, AGAIN, CONNECTS YOUR WORK TO THEIRS.

Thanks for your time and consideration,

YOUR NAME

Hi <author name>,

I loved your book <title> and found it enlightening because . . . <briefly explain>

I have a new book coming out this winter: <title>. It’s about <brief description, just two or three sentences>. I am in the process of gathering endorsements for the jacket. Would you consider providing a testimonial? I would be happy to send you sample chapters or the entire manuscript for review—whatever you prefer. Having your support would mean a lot to me.

Thanks very much for your consideration.

Warm wishes,

<your name>

<your website link so he/she can see you’re a pro>

Testimonial paid services

more for b2b saas

Branding

Landing Pages

🚧 CAPTURE LEADS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE MAKE THEM THINK “THESE ARE MY PEOPLE”!

builders:

Nice Landing page templates

see linked landing pages above

Landing page section ideas

[Bold statement showing what can be done] [Video] (optional) [Personal story how the product helped] [Show why they need it] [Problem the product solves] [Show what will happen if they don’t have it] [Testimonials] [Show different uses for the product] [What’s included in the product] [Personal stories] [Justify the price] [Industry Statistics] [Success case study] [Show the pricing options] [Satisfaction guarantee] [Justify the pricing even more] [How much better life will be with the product] [Pricing info] [Frequently Asked Questions] [Address Objections] [Contact Info] [About the creator]

Landing page checklist:

Community Landing Pages

**What they do well **

  • The headline tells visitors exactly who the community is for. “Curious minds”; “Developers without an existing audience”.

  • Benefit-focused copy that addresses member’s tangible and aspirational goals. People don’t join a community to receive features or attend events. They want to learn new things, increase productivity, or feel more confident.

  • Social proof through result-focused testimonials, real-time stats, community previews or videos. They show us what success looks like for existing members, and what we can expect to find once inside.

  • A single call to action gives people a clear path to get started. Whether it’s applying before X date, leaving an email address, or subscribing right away, we know exactly what step to take.

  • … and a personal touch. A community landing page that reflects your personality will inevitably stand out. Sharing a bit about who you are and why you care goes a long way in helping people trust you –– and decide to join your community!

  • Donald Miller’s Building a Storybrand. https://www.toptal.com/designers/ux/storybrand-framework

Landing Page Copy

Launch Email

  • prelaunch
    • include all package and pricing details
    • complete TOC list
    • final free content preview
  • launch
    • its done
    • link
  • T+1
    • email early feedback from people
  • T+x
    • send another free preview
  • closing the launch

Launch Tweets

Show HN posts

Email

Titles

Automation

once purchased, move customer to a different list! don’t keep selling sth they bought

Infoproducts

Ebooks

people

Post Launch

Long Game

Email

  • wesbos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBlOxBQrP9I&t=20m0s (20min)
    • build a huge email list by putting up free courses
    • it establishes credibility with numbers
    • consistency: buy without reading website bc they loved prior work
    • discoverability - free on youtube, signin to download exercises

Twitter

  • wesbos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBlOxBQrP9I&t=34m0s (34min)
    • twitter: bring value TO twitter. they want to stay on twitter
      • hot tips 🔥 nuggets
    • creating content for your specific medium builds an audience that both trusts you and is hungry for more
    • as a creator you want to be on people’s radars - say thanks, you open up dialog to get to know them better. textexpander snippet to give random thanks

Sales

Repurposing

Getting Started

  • adam wathan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajrDxZRpP9M
    • 8mins “help people where they already are”
      • 🔥 tips on twitter
      • what do you already put out that people get most excited about?
      • what have you learned from outside regular circles that you can bring in?
      • where are you ahead of the curve on? pay attention to things around you
      • what did you have to figure out yourself that would have been super helpful to past you
    • test your idea for your product
      • catalog feedback, reactions
    • define the product - package up the idea
      • written format, video course
      • plan small. always gonna turn out bigger.
      • email signup - promise content previews - screencasts with big discount
    • presales
      • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajrDxZRpP9M&t=28m0s (28mins)
        • announce that you are going to announce something
      • share progress. send update with free content, or livestream to test out idea
        • tweet it out, always link to landing page so ppl can sign up
      • email once a week
  • wesbos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBlOxBQrP9I&t=37m0s (37mins)
    • small scale tests, blogpost, guides, downloads, see what sticks
    • do 20-30 tests
    • dont just copy people - “make it a thing” - bundle into a package and put a domain name on it
    • all about momentum - no home runs, grind it out
  • authority

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