That’s a great story! Congratulation on this adventure, this is brilliant!
Maybe just one question: As you are building a tool to help develop SEO, why don’t you use this tool for your own SEO, and then prove that you service is better than all the others SEO tools?
This tricky question cames out of my mind the day I met this founder dealing with boosting influence on social networks : which guy was having less than 100 followers on each of his personal social networks accounts...
😉😉
1
Thanks Piem!
Great suggestion! I think I can write a good case about how I used SiteGuru to boost SEO. I'm a new player in a competitive market, and already have decent rankings. Eat your own dogfood, drink your own Champagne!
1
Something, do before my users can even use my product is sign up for it. This requires email verification so this eliminates fake email signups. This gives them a chance to see a tangible product. Now here's the additional check: before they can even use my product, I make people enter a credit card if the product isn't free. This weeds out people who aren't serious about paying for anything. I give some products away for free, but I need to ensure they are legitimately there for a reason, and by entering a credit card, most won't stick around, eliminating my non-serious users.
So it definitely made sense for you to remove the "Free check" or at least -- use it for free (once) after they sign up. This way you at least got their email.
1
Thanks!
1
Interesting article!
I know the article wasn't really about this, but what plans do you offer and how does the conversion look from free user to a paying customer?
2
I now have 2 paid plans that let you scan more pages instead of just 50 on the free plan.
Monetization is definitely the next step, and I probably should have focused on that much sooner. I'm thinking of offering free trials and converting people into a paid client after a month. That would mean I'd have to ask for their creditcard during signup.
I'm still trying to figure out how exactly I'm going to do that. The e-book Growing a Million Dollar Company Book by @Shpigford is a great inspiration for that.
1
Thanks for sharing!
1
Thanks so much, Rick!
1
Nice Story, good luck onwards!
I am wondering If those users are actually active? Paid? Logging in and using it regularily?
Because your login entry barrier from the article sounds as if you artificially pushed up registrations without having a direct benefit other than more rows in db.user
But maybe I misunderstood?
1
Thanks! Good point. The number is registered users. Paid is only about 10% of that.
There's more benefit to the registrations than just seeing the number increase. Registered users get a report on their entire site, instead of just one page. It's easier to showcase my tool that way, and it turns out those users come back often.
I also send regular emails related to their site performance as part of the onboarding flow, which I couldn't do if they would only run the single page check - they didn't have to enter an email address.
2
Got it now, so the first page check actually gets them into your funnel for more value. Must have missed that in the article. Sounds like you have a way to scale now... Knowing the conversion numbers should give you some room to experiment.
That’s a great story! Congratulation on this adventure, this is brilliant!
Maybe just one question: As you are building a tool to help develop SEO, why don’t you use this tool for your own SEO, and then prove that you service is better than all the others SEO tools?
This tricky question cames out of my mind the day I met this founder dealing with boosting influence on social networks : which guy was having less than 100 followers on each of his personal social networks accounts...
😉😉
Thanks Piem!
Great suggestion! I think I can write a good case about how I used SiteGuru to boost SEO. I'm a new player in a competitive market, and already have decent rankings. Eat your own dogfood, drink your own Champagne!
Something, do before my users can even use my product is sign up for it. This requires email verification so this eliminates fake email signups. This gives them a chance to see a tangible product. Now here's the additional check: before they can even use my product, I make people enter a credit card if the product isn't free. This weeds out people who aren't serious about paying for anything. I give some products away for free, but I need to ensure they are legitimately there for a reason, and by entering a credit card, most won't stick around, eliminating my non-serious users.
So it definitely made sense for you to remove the "Free check" or at least -- use it for free (once) after they sign up. This way you at least got their email.
Thanks!
Interesting article!
I know the article wasn't really about this, but what plans do you offer and how does the conversion look from free user to a paying customer?
I now have 2 paid plans that let you scan more pages instead of just 50 on the free plan.
Monetization is definitely the next step, and I probably should have focused on that much sooner. I'm thinking of offering free trials and converting people into a paid client after a month. That would mean I'd have to ask for their creditcard during signup.
I'm still trying to figure out how exactly I'm going to do that. The e-book Growing a Million Dollar Company Book by @Shpigford is a great inspiration for that.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much, Rick!
Nice Story, good luck onwards!
I am wondering If those users are actually active? Paid? Logging in and using it regularily?
Because your login entry barrier from the article sounds as if you artificially pushed up registrations without having a direct benefit other than more rows in db.user
But maybe I misunderstood?
Thanks! Good point. The number is registered users. Paid is only about 10% of that.
There's more benefit to the registrations than just seeing the number increase. Registered users get a report on their entire site, instead of just one page. It's easier to showcase my tool that way, and it turns out those users come back often.
I also send regular emails related to their site performance as part of the onboarding flow, which I couldn't do if they would only run the single page check - they didn't have to enter an email address.
Got it now, so the first page check actually gets them into your funnel for more value. Must have missed that in the article. Sounds like you have a way to scale now... Knowing the conversion numbers should give you some room to experiment.
All the best!
Great article Rick, thanks for the insight!
Cheers Grant!