#10 Rules for Bootstrapped Web App Startups

Thanks. I needed this.

thanks. great points. but I guess in p.6 you meant Google AdSense.

Best startup top 10 list in quite a while.

Great list

wow great stuff. how about incorporating a professional service model around the apps? What type of service would work?

This list has shown, without question, that you are list writing experts.

Great advice. We are working on getting our app out the door. The best point is number 10. You can always rationalize that this or that will help in the long run. The problem is most people never make it in the long run.

Great list!

“Build something people need and love. People will talk about it.”

This is a poor substitute for a marketing plan. While word of mouth is AWESOME and something you should shoot for, it’s certainly NOT something you can plan for. It’s a great idea to have some plan to introduce folks to your product who have never heard of it. Do keyword research and do some light SEO. Track a few keywords on Twitter/Google Blog Search and reply to people with a pain you solve. Try adwords with some tuned landing pages. Figure out of there are sites/conferences with a high density folks who are your perfect customer.

Even with good word of mouth, if you wait for it to happen, the length of your road to ramen-profitability is a long one.

Also, I’d add “start tracking retention stats now” if you’re doing SaaS/subscription. a 90% monthly retention rate is 300% better than an 80% monthly retention rate over a 1 year period!

Tony SEO is bullshit. I don’t know anyone that googles “twitter app”, or “microsoft word alternatives”. We’ve also seen very little conversion rates from google. Word of mouth is king. Marketing plans suck, build something great, and search results will take care of itself.

Great!

Going into my theStartup weekend reading next saturday ;)

Saying SEO is bullshit is fucking ridiculous. If you have a great product AND great marketing, you’ll be happier and more successful. Marketing is CRAZY FUCKING EFFECTIVE if you have a great product (Apple and 37Signals- PLEASE take the bait and tell me that 37Signals spends no effort on marketing and SEO). And, for the record— telling someone who takes the time to comment on your site that their point is bullshit is bad form. No, people don’t search for “twitter app”. But they search for a LOT of things that they buy- so it depends on your market.

It varies wildly based the quality of what you’ve built and the competitiveness of your market. Yes, build something great (your competition is also trying to build something great). Yes, word of mouth is a big deal and converts/retains better.

I’m not advocating for marketing PLANS (other than thinking about places where potential customers hang out and/or look for solutions like the ones you’ve built).

When entrepreneurs build the best thing they can and only see a tiny trickle of signups every day, they have a few choices. They can try to make it better (and they should). They can punt the idea because the “build it and they will come” resulted in a good product but NOT a good business. Or they can see if there are easy/efficient/measurable ways to get the word out to customers who are suffering from the pain they are effectively solving.

Tony I’d love to see an ROI on your SEO investment for your app. For us, it’s been quite ineffective. I think if you sell a product “Samsung 47” inch tv" SEO is the way to go, but we’re talking about apps. Allocating money for building something special instead of highly ranking yourself has proven to us to work more than SEO.

If you’ve build something and no one is talking about it something is wrong. SEO doesn’t fix your apps issues. Most apps aren’t being searched for. I don’t search for “make me more productive” I did however find your site from a tweet where someone said “Rescue Timer is pretty cool, see where you waste time.”

I believe a format marketing plan and having an idea of where your market is and how you’d reach them are two different things.

In regards to calling a comment bullshit, our blog is our living room and readers are our guests. I speak on the blog like I do in real life. Although in real life I am less likely to make spelling mistakes.

Great post, needs to be something I read every day.

I needed/love this. Thanks so much for further inspiration! :)

So you’re saying I should get back to work instead of reading your blog…hmmmm….. ;)

@tonywrite

Even though Allan took the bait and is arguing with you about SEO, I think you are missing the point of number 1. It is not that people talking about your product is the number one marketing tool, number one isn’t even talking about marketing. The point is that building something people need and love is a great business plan. Don’t build the best social network where people can discuss their love of toasters, build something people need and love. People will pay for something they need and love. And they will pay gladly and cheerfully. That is why it’s the first one on the list.

We’re currently paying for Staction.com for our team collaboration. I initially saw this thing on an ad from from Tweetie app. I’m sure they invested something on advertising. But of course, some small guys like us can’t rack up $1000 for spreading the word around.

Here’s a good idea for the next blog post: how do you “market” a good web app at little or no cost at all. How did you get started with LessAccounting?

@Toni afaik SEO is very good to support direct sales (low conversion rate) but surely inefficient for web-apps. Viral marketing (word of mouth) fits this perfectly.

Allan – I believe there’s a lot of value in listening to Tony Wright’s words of advice regarding SEO. There’s a negative stigma regarding SEO in our industry, and while a good majority of it is deserved, there’s still tremendous value in marketing using search engine results (especially the free kind). Simply put, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Spread your marketing time, effort and/or resources around and see what takes, rather than be close-minded about what you think works and doesn’t work. In the end, you may surprise yourself.

10. Don’t spend any money, funny, I was just considering spending money on your LessAccounting app, glad I read this list first :)

People listen to the advice here – this is exactly what I’ve done with rentoid – except for the 1 mistake which was upgrading a server after a TV appearance site fail (no.9) – before we really needed it.

Look no further – This is the startup success formula right here.

Great post.
Steve.

obvious points are obvious.

how do u decide a business model? Free, but how do u make money from that – I don’t think ads are the way to go. Subscription based, how do u get the “value” right??

any tips??

Good tips, If only I knew how to make an app! It works for my SEO business as well.

Nice tips, thanks for sharing….

Each of the 10 points is worth thinking about. The key is 1/, build something people need, and there is a lot of competition to find novel ideas.

I agree with most of the list. We’ve taken much the same approach to our application. Over 3000 users (free tho) and growing strongly!

jocuri mario

for another better understanding. thank you