A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 14, 2010

The fallacy is that you're searching for a theory in a pile of data, rather than forming a theory and running an experiment to support or disprove it. Except you're seeing streaks , hoping that this extra-high conversion rate is evidence of a systematic, controllable force. So what's the answer?

Software Review 254

Software Review Analytics Conversion Metrics 254

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 24, 2010

You go to their web site, try to find the link to buy, figure out how to pay, get to the checkout page, then stop and search Google for "adobe coupon codes", go back to step 1. Imagine you are asked to buy some software from, say Adobe. keep refreshing your email for the link, download the software. Keep of record of the receipt somewhere.

Software Review 233

Software Review Technical Review Sales Software 233

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 12, 2011

Try to get your “Jobs” page to rank well in local-only search. Ask your friends for resumes of people they didn’t hire but who they liked. That is, people who are good but just weren’t a fit for that company. So e.g. “java programmer job in austin tx,” not something impossible like “java programmer.”

Hiring 282

Hiring Employee Ruby Java 282

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 13, 2011

Specifically, by making the flight-search problem pleasurable and useable instead of feeling like you’re navigating pivot tables from Excel ’98. Here’s what I mean. It’s clear from the outset that design is the only competitive advantage Hipmunk has over its competition.

Design 253

Design Lean Database Cofounder 253

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 5, 2012

At Smart Bear I tried literally a hundred campaigns: paid search, trade shows, postcard mailers, newsletter sponsorships, and magazine ads (yes, print!). Which are best? Are any actually good at generating sales?

Advertising 229

Advertising Campaign Demand Audience 229

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 21, 2010

Thus you reap the straightforward benefits of incremental improvements while also searching for something that could radically improve your revenue. The best idea is to do both: Instead of just running A versus incremental-change A 2 , also run a B version that's radically different from A.

Metrics 233

Metrics Austin Global Audience 233

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 10, 2010

When a potential buyer made a search, they grabbed their email or phone number and said "Thanks, we're going to find you a great deal by Thursday." I tried a search over the entire state and found nothing!"). If they had picked a strategy and automated it, there's a low chance they would have picked the right one. They'll never return.

Business Model 310

Business Model Finder SEO Bootstrapping 310

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 15, 2010

Hacker News, Search, Twitter, Reddit). Automatically create a "robots" meta-tag for search engines. Nice-to-haves: WP Greet Box. Generates a message near the top of the page suggesting that you subscribe by RSS or email, tuned to the source of the traffic (e.g. Not even sure if it makes a difference, but. Google XML Sitemaps.

HTML 216

HTML RSS Caching PHP 216

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 19, 2011

Google wasn’t the first search engine, the iPod wasn’t the first mp3 player, and DropBox wasn’t the first shared filesystem. Does it make you better than your competition? On the surface being “first” sounds impressive , implying innovation and leadership. But upon reflection, it’s not.

HTML 243

HTML Hosting Engineer Leadership 243

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 5, 2010

Your mind is searching for something to think about besides your body’s pain. Exercise is pretty useful for anyone in a startup even without the health and stamina benefits. Just as your best ideas appear while you’re soaping up in the shower, elegant solutions spring up when you’re out running.

Sweat Equity 208

Sweat Equity Startup Viral Equity 208

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 30, 2010

Search ODesk under Admin Support -> Personal Assistant or Other. Search Google for "virtual assistants." Search Elance under Admin Support -> Admin Assistant. Search ODesk under Admin Support -> Personal Assistant or Other. Search Google for "part-time virtual assistants". Part-time VAs. Full-time VAs.

Software Review 284

Software Review Startup Technical Review Hosting 284

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 13, 2015

Not many search terms have that many impressions even over 3 years. Click-through rates on paid advertisement is 1% at best, so we’ll assume less; call it 0.3%, so they’ll need 60,000,000 impressions on qualified eyeballs if they use that sort of advertising. That’s a lot of impressions!

Business Model 120

Business Model Affiliate Startup Bootstrapping 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 21, 2013

My search for the perfect pricing model resulted in an additional $50,000 (a 170% increase) in revenue. Nathan is the author of Designing Web Applications , The App Design Handbook , and Authority: A Step-By-Step Guide to Self-Publishing. His most recent company, ConvertKit , makes email marketing suck less. Here’s how.

Sales 335

Sales Revenue Design Web 335

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 22, 2010

Students performed word-searches from random words. It's akin to subliminal messaging, but more pervasive, more powerful, and less susceptible to biting satire. Eerie examples: Touching merchandise while you're shopping increases the chance that you'll purchase it. source ).

Madagascar 227

Madagascar Sales Viral Argentina 227

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 24, 2012

Dan: Our goal is really to get beyond search social and the inefficiencies that search social and mobile have introduced to us. Jason: There’s no way families are sitting around saying, “If only somebody could reduce the inefficiencies that search social.” I think that we get lost in search and social.

Silicon Valley 204

Silicon Valley Software Review Internet Technical Review 204

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

Google's search algorithm was just better, therefore they won the eyeballs, therefore they were able to monetize. Google has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on their search algorithm, the single biggest focus of the company even today, a decade after they decided that was their One Thing.

Software Review 325

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 20, 2010

I searched for a WordPress hosting service that would help with speed, scalability, and security and found nothing. And having gone through the experience of being hacked, I knew how painful that can be, and WordPress is known for being hacked constantly (more often because of poor IT than WordPress itself, but either way you're screwed).

Startup 239

Startup Campaign Turkey Customer Development 239

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 31, 2011

You don’t know what keywords they’re searching for. It’s like saying “My target customer has a computer.” ” It’s not someone you can reach or persuade. You don’t know what conferences they go to. You don’t know their budget or whether they have pain and what kind and on what scale.

Customer 279

Customer Software Review SEM Technical Review 279

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

People search for “saas business accounting model spreadsheet,” not “custom business intelligence analysis tool.” get some traffic with paid search, then get some press around the customer’s story (not your story) where you drop your landing page as the way they solved the problem.

Database 229

Database Metrics Search Customer 229

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 4, 2015

Example: SEO, where the top three search results receive nearly all the traffic. bidder, and the few companies who get the good slots will get the vast majority of the clicks, whereas the other companies cannot get enough clicks to materially impact their sales. Counter-Example: Social Media.

Channel 120

Channel SEO Marketing Social Media 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 26, 2016

It is historically true, after all, that large internet businesses attempt to control the flow of online communications (Microsoft with IE, Google with their search results and Chrome, Facebook with their algorithms and the corn-maze you have to go through before leaving the site, Amazon with commerce, Apple with in-app purchases).

Security 120

Security Government Internet Algorithm 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Edwin: I do get a lot of searches for that, by the way. What might their title be today that you could search LinkedIn on or you could pummel your network around? Jason: Well, look, nobody sits around and goes man, I wish my meetings were too productive. You know what I mean? That kind of an offer. What will they have done?

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 25, 2011

Evidence of searching and asking demonstrates not only need but suggests a way to reach those people. Produce evidence of potential customers already looking for a solution to this problem (e.g. complaining on Twitter, asking on forums, musing on blogs, paying too much money for crappy alternatives).

Startup 284

Startup Algorithm Design Salary 284

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 29, 2010

For example, here are the origins of search engine traffic to my blog: There are several "other" search engines (e.g. Whether it's a cover article in Cosmo or a web analytics report, people love to read "Top 10" lists. Top lists can be useful. Ask and AOL), but the traffic doesn't amount to a hill of beans (as we say in Texas).

Metrics 257

Metrics Analytics Conversion Ratio Texas 257

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

And as I mentioned earlier, there was a huge context searching over head when we switched between your e-mail and the CRM. And we found that we are always struggling to context, when people are writing mail, when people are reading mail from a customer.

Widget 204

Widget Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 204

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

If you're betting the entire business on getting traffic through search results, at any moment a competitor or the platform itself could oust you. It's an ever-shifting landscape of shit you chase without ever really knowing what the rules are. If you're doing SEO as one of ten tactics to get people to show up to your site, that's great.

Marketing 229

Marketing Ruby SEO Widget 229

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 8, 2012

Increasing traffic, increasing their Google Search. There’s something’s that they want, which is where we kind of started the call with. I don’t know what those are. Jared: I understand. You’re asking for one thing. Why is someone to pay that money? What is the justification for me paying that money?

API 220

API Software Review Hosting Technical Review 220