18 ms·

Patio11 Wrote A Book On Conversion Optimization For Software Companies

231 points by edw519 14y ago

pc86 14y ago
I have no professional need for a book like this, but I enjoy Patrick's writings and have learned many things I can apply to my "real" work (internal BigCo applications). I may not buy this any time soon, but for anyone on the fence for whom this book is directly related to your work, buy it immediately and don't put it down until you're done.
obilgic 14y ago
So %80 percent of the content comes directly from his blog posts. Seems like he really likes conversion :)
- jsaxton86 14y ago
  I would assume patio11 doesn't intend to directly make a lot of money off of this book. Instead, he wants to be able to tell potential clients he has written a book on conversion optimization, which allows him to charge a higher rate.
  - barry-cotter 14y ago
    He charges $X0,000 per week for his consulting services and has had more than modest success in doing outreach/education/marketing through his blog and participation here and on the SEOmoz and Business of Software boards. He's past the point where writing a book is the most remunerative use of his time.
  - patio11 14y ago
    Honestly? Primarily non-economic reasons. (People asked me for it, the Hyperink guys seemed great, "published author" beats "owns a software company" in the McKenzie Family List of Approved Jobs, etc.) It is possible that there are some markets and consultancies for which publishing a book would be a great credibility enhancer, but I sort of doubt I'm in one of them. I do something which is very quantifiable, with very few people available who do it, and which empirically produces absolutely stupid ROI some of the time. Books are not required to raise rates. (And, if I ran into a company that was unpersuaded by "I made $FIRM $X million in two weeks by running a series of A/B tests" but really responded to "... and I wrote a book!", I'd run screaming from that engagement, because that client sounds like they're going to be a lot more stress than my savvier clients.)
    - charleshaanel 14y ago
      "The Black Arts of SaaS Pricing" - copywriting hat tip ;)
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - pknerd 14y ago
    Jealous??
- yesimahuman 14y ago
  Honestly, I'd pay just to have his posts nice and curated into a single book. My company bought his drip campaign classes and they were really great as well, so I'm looking forward to this.
- mblake 14y ago
  To me it seems like he really likes to make the most of all advertising opportunities, be it direct or indirect. Publishing this book was most likely seen as an advertising vehicle for his consulting services. I think it's a smart idea which will most likely net him a lot more money in the future that just book sales commission and will help further consolidate his name brand.
edw519 14y ago
Thank you, Patrick! I don't know how many times I've read one of your Hacker News comments or blog posts and thought, "Wow, this guy really cuts to the chase." Then I bookmark it but never return. I'm hoping that this is kinda like a "Best of Patio11", giving busy people like me a chance to have it all in one place on my hard disk. If so, $9.99 is a bargain. Downloaded, up to Page 14 of 136. I guess dinner will be late tonight.
- wildmXranat 14y ago
  And thanks for posting it here man. Also, just so you know, I spent some major time reading your 'best-of' http://edweissman.com/53640595 http://edweissman.com/53640595. There are plenty of gems over there .
xiaoma 14y ago
I really have to say that books (fiction or non-fiction) are one of the best values that exist. For the same money that you would spend seeing a movie that will be over in two hours, you can purchase a novel that will provide more hours of enjoyment, more depth, and the option to return at any time. For a fraction of the money you could spend on a scammy info product that constantly upsells you and pushes you to promote the author (via fb likes, tweets, etc), you can have the result of months or years of effort from one of the greatest minds in history. I'm sure Patrick doesn't need any help selling his products here, but I'll say it anyway-- books are an incredible value, especially from someone like him who has shared so much before and from whom you have an idea what you'll be getting! Buy it. I'm totally broke and could still easily justify this kind of purchase -- skip one trip to Chipotle and it's paid for!
- snogglethorpe 14y ago
  At the prices I normally pay, a book is about 1/4 the cost of a movie... (~$4-5 for a book, ~$18 for a movie) I read slowly, so the value ratio is something incredible... :]
patio11 14y ago
So I feel sort of morally obligated to comment here and yet don't want to sell my book, so instead, can I sell Hyperink? They were fantastic to work with, and successfully convinced me on why I should try publishing through them rather than trying to e.g. go through a traditional publisher or even one of the smarter tech-specific presses. I've been asked to write a book for a few years by potential readers, and a few times by potential publishers, but I was very disinterested in doing so. For most people capable of writing tech books, writing books is a very poor use of time under any economic calculus. The typical model is that you and the publisher agree to do the book, then you're paid an advance (sometimes in installments contingent on milestones). You earn a royalty on each sale of the book, with the royalties first going to pay back ("earn out") the advance, and then being paid to you quarterly. This sounds reasonable, until you hear the numbers (typical advance for a tech book from a first time author: $5k, typical royalty percentage: 8% on a physical copy, 15% on an ebook). They're not universally that bad -- an author or two from Apress and Pragmatic Programmer wrote me to say they were genuinely happy with their experiences -- but that's sort of the general flavor of things. If you do the math, it is highly unlikely your book will recoup the advance, and that is indeed what happens to most tech books. So you've traded months of full-time labor writing and rewriting, plus additional months of part-time work hawking the book to anyone who will listen, in return for $5k. That is not a rational use of time for anybody who can e.g. do contract programming, which (one would assume) virtually all tech book writers could do. When I said as much to publishers who asked me to write things, they said "Ahh, but the book will allow you to establish your bona fides", and I do not believe that making stupid decisions for my business successfully demonstrates to clients that I will make smart decisions for theirs. To my view of things, I'd rather have lots of folks be able to read my writing than have it blessed by a gatekeeper but widely unavailable. But blog posts do leave a lot to be desired for teaching people. For one, my blog is very disorganized, since I have six years of back-issues which appear in order of "what I was working on that week", and they're of varying quality and relevance, particularly early in my career. Something with a bit of structure and curation seemed like it would add value. Plus, I am spelling- and design-challenged, so having an editor and someone with a sense of style would be a plus. That's basically what Hyperink pitched: curating the best of the blog into a book, complete with editing and design help, with some extra essays added. It's far less work than scratch-writing a book, the terms are more equitable (no advance, equitable royalty split), and it provides incremental value to readers over the blog. I don't expect to make a huge amount of money on it, relative to the business in general, but the idea sounded attractive enough to try it as an experiment.
thoughtcriminal 14y ago
Honest price, not $100 and bundled with some garbage videos I don't even want, like I've seen around here. Thanks Patrick, for not pricing it to squeeze every single penny you can from me. It's an easy sale.
- patio11 14y ago
  You're entitled to not buy anything you feel like, but I'm strongly of the opinion that all arms-length prices are honest prices. The economics of producing things for businesses are very different than the economics of producing them for individuals, particularly because businesses are relatively price insensitive and not very numerous. I can price this at $10 because it receives implicit subsidy from everything else I do. If making businesses money through training was my livelihood and not a fun hobby, I would certainly explore packaging options and price points that made sense even if I only sold a few hundred copies. (And, n.b., if you were a SaaS company trying to buy advice on lifecycle emails from me that would run $500 to $X0,000. There aren't enough customers in that niche to make $7 a sale sane. Also, seen from the customer's perspective, the information will routinely be used to make five to six figures) I respect that this can make commerce difficult for goods which are dual-use between for-profit businesses and hobbyists, at least for folks whose purchase would be more aspirational in nature. As somebody who started out as a hobbyist with a $60 budget, I have great appreciation for expensive business tools not being in the budget, but wouldn't cast aspersions on them simply because they're not in the budget. Many worthwhile things like e.g. employees are similarly not in the budget, and the answer is probably "Do without and bootstrap until you can afford them" rather than worrying overmuch about the pricing structure of businesses other than one's own.
  - xiaoma 14y ago
    >I'm strongly of the opinion that all arms-length prices are honest prices. As I understand it, "arms-length" prices just mean "the price at which two unrelated and non-desperate parties would agree to a transaction". And, obviously factors such as the presence of manipulation, coercion, informational asymmetry and variance between the product and the promises of its marketing have an effect on how "honest" a price is. Selling a car for $50k that we both know is crap is different from selling one that I know but haven't told you is crap is different from selling one through very persuasive and reassuring marketing and removing all liability through legalease incomprehensible to the customer. Selling a luxury car as a risky investment plan to a non-savvy retiree would be still worse, and selling a car with safety flaws would be downright reprehensible, even if both parties agreed on the price. People of different cultures and political leanings draw the line in different places, but it's certainly not a simple black and white rule that anything you can get someone to agree to buy is ethical at any price. There's spectrum that goes from saintly and honest to illegal and evil. My definition of an honest price: an honest attempt to provide at least as much value as you extract. (which the B2B business examples you listed above would be doing)
sjs382 14y ago
Do you get a bigger cut if I buy via Amazon Kindle or buy a .mobi (which Kindle supports) via Hyperink?
- patio11 14y ago
  Good question. Not sure. It must be the case that Hyperink gets a higher cut if Amazon is not in the equation, so to the extent that you want to do someone a solid I'd suggest buying from them directly (they're a startup, too), but whatever works for you.
ig1 14y ago
Don't seem to be able to buy it on Amazon: http://oi48.tinypic.com/2cofv3o.jpg http://oi48.tinypic.com/2cofv3o.jpg
- kroger 14y ago
  Why an ebook is available in Brazil (where I am) and not in UK is beyond my understanding.
- WA 14y ago
  See the green box on the right? You're in the wrong Amazon shop. Go to amazon.co.uk and search for his book there. This works at least on amazon.de (same green info box in the US-store).
  - ig1 14y ago
    Odd, I thought that might be the case and I clicked on the green box and it just took me to Amazon's UK homepage so I just assumed it was just a generic "would you like to shop at Amazon UK" link rather than something related to the availability of the item in question. But if I search Amazon UK for the title it comes up correctly and I can buy it. Pretty poor UX really.
    - WA 14y ago
      Yeah, UX is really poor. I don't know why they can't put a direct link to the product there - or at least trigger a search for the product.
smoyer 14y ago
I don't really need this book for my current job, but will probably buy it simply as a way to pay Patrick for all the valuable and free content he's provided over the past 5+ years.
- azazo 14y ago
  I'm pretty confident that I'll get significant value out of this book for my current job, but I also agree with this sentiment. For all of the value that I have received from Patrick's posts, comments, podcasts, etc. over the years this is the least I can do. Buying it now.
typicalrunt 14y ago
@patio11: Stupid question time, and this may be from hyperink more than you. You state: You can buy it here (Kindle, iPad, Nook, PDF) or on Amazon (Kindle). Does that mean I would get an ePub version? Device-specific is great for non-technical people, but I have a Kobo (ePub/PDF) and it's not in the list, so I'm not sure what formats I'm being given (Hyperink's FAQ doesn't answer this either).
- nekopa 14y ago
  The nook format is usually ePub.
  - typicalrunt 14y ago
    Funny enough, I searched the Wikipedia entry on the Nook and there's no mention of "format" so I figured it was proprietary. Thanks.
- kroger 14y ago
  Check the "technical" tab on the FAQ page: http://www.hyperink.com/faq http://www.hyperink.com/faq It has an entry: "How do I get my .epub eBook onto my iPad?"
ruswick 14y ago
Although I'm generally hesitant to purchase books, this appears to be a fairly interesting product. I'd likely buy it immediately were I in an economic position to do so. Unfortunately, I'm simply unable to justify such an expenditure...
- mctx 14y ago
  Can I buy it for you?
danielpal 14y ago
I met patio11 at TwilioCon, and just chatting less that 20 minutes with him I learned a ton. Needless to say, I just bought the book.
dwnoble 14y ago
Congrats on the book, Patrick! I think that is a feat that a lot of hacker news readers hope to accomplish one day. I know I fall in that category. Anyway, I really appreciate the earnest care you took in talking about the book in this linked-to post. You didn't publish "20 blog posts" in the book. You published "20 essays that appeared in your blog." Now I haven't read all of your blog. And for a few parts of a second, reading the word "essays" (instead of "blog posts") made me think you had some kind of book-marketer coach this enunciation. But, I have read enough of your blog where I think I know what you mean. I have definitely made posts in my own blog because I have felt it's been too long and I have needed to make a post. But, on the other hand, I have also had a teensy-handful of posts because I had something itching at the back of my head that needed to come out. Maybe I would call these essays. I would definitely try to distinguish them in my mind from just another "blog post."
mzarate06 14y ago
I'd suggest actually having a working product, this book doesn’t cover product development... Excellent! Having researched what it'd be like to build a product before having done so, I found so much emphasis on the development side ... building, launching, iterating, etc. I didn't find a whole lot that covered marketing, sales, and conversion. W/my product launched and getting good reviews from those that use it, I have every intention of using 2013 to focus on it's growth and conversion. So this turns out to be such a timely offering. Thank you for offering this up at a great price, and for recommending Hyperink (I have a deep interest in writing an ebook in 2013, I'll check them out).
jbail 14y ago
The book looks great. Just bought it on Kindle and started reading. It immediately gets down to business. I like that.
pknerd 14y ago
@Patio11 A dumb but important question. Is this book about latest buzz, "Growth Hacking" or Market Research(Finding a Niche/Market) for your next product by using available tools? Please clarify.
danhodgins 14y ago
Can't wait to apply these insights Patrick. Keep up the teaching/sharing - your material is fantastic.
gingerlime 14y ago
Just bought the book. This is more of a comment about Hyperink: It looks like a really nice platform, and seems like they do good marketing too. The only confusing part with the purchase process initially was that they only show iPad and PDF highlighted as available formats. Nook and Kindle look greyed-out (??). I was just hoping to get an ePub, so wasn't sure if I'll get one. Eventually it gave me a much clearer list of options to download from: pdf, epub and mobi. Why not simply showing those options with the same terminology in the first place??
hayksaakian 14y ago
Would someone mind finding and turning the posts in the table of contents he posted into links? I'll do it tomorrow if no one does it before then.
kybernetyk 14y ago
Patrick, don't get it the wrong way: I love your blog and podcast and bought your book. But ... if you're so good with marketing software why don't you market your software but go the consulting route instead? Isn't there more potential profit in selling your products than offering your services as a consultant? That's something I've been asking myself for some time.
- jgeralnik 14y ago
  He does market his software, and practices everything he preaches on his own software too. But let's look at some numbers. Let's say that Patrick's techniques can increase profits by 10% compared to an "unoptimized" website. If the bingo card business is worth $X0,000, by selling his own products on optimized webpages Patrick makes an extra $X,000. If instead Patrick consults for a company that does $X0,000,000 his techniques are now worth $X,000,000. If he gets a percentage of those new profits, he is doing much better than if he had sold more of his own product. Since creating a business which does $X0,000,000 in sales is hard, Patrick can make better use of his time by finding those existing companies and offering his services that by selling more of his (comparatively low value) product himself.
mblake 14y ago
Bought yesterday and almost finished reading. Although I could've read almost all of it through the blog (except for the few new articles), I find it much more comfortable to have everything compiled into a single file; pure content without other distractions. I just started dabbling into software marketing and would much rather take advice from Patrick than general-level marketing advice. The book (I used the pdf version) is pretty well typeset, so reading it is not headache-inducing (for the ppl worrying they might not enjoy it and would rather wait for a printed version).

231 points by edw519 14y ago

pc86 14y ago

I have no professional need for a book like this, but I enjoy Patrick's writings and have learned many things I can apply to my "real" work (internal BigCo applications). I may not buy this any time soon, but for anyone on the fence for whom this book is directly related to your work, buy it immediately and don't put it down until you're done.

obilgic 14y ago

So %80 percent of the content comes directly from his blog posts. Seems like he really likes conversion :)

jsaxton86 14y ago
I would assume patio11 doesn't intend to directly make a lot of money off of this book. Instead, he wants to be able to tell potential clients he has written a book on conversion optimization, which allows him to charge a higher rate.
- barry-cotter 14y ago
  He charges $X0,000 per week for his consulting services and has had more than modest success in doing outreach/education/marketing through his blog and participation here and on the SEOmoz and Business of Software boards. He's past the point where writing a book is the most remunerative use of his time.
- patio11 14y ago
  Honestly? Primarily non-economic reasons. (People asked me for it, the Hyperink guys seemed great, "published author" beats "owns a software company" in the McKenzie Family List of Approved Jobs, etc.) It is possible that there are some markets and consultancies for which publishing a book would be a great credibility enhancer, but I sort of doubt I'm in one of them. I do something which is very quantifiable, with very few people available who do it, and which empirically produces absolutely stupid ROI some of the time. Books are not required to raise rates. (And, if I ran into a company that was unpersuaded by "I made $FIRM $X million in two weeks by running a series of A/B tests" but really responded to "... and I wrote a book!", I'd run screaming from that engagement, because that client sounds like they're going to be a lot more stress than my savvier clients.)
  - charleshaanel 14y ago
    "The Black Arts of SaaS Pricing" - copywriting hat tip ;)
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- pknerd 14y ago
  Jealous??
yesimahuman 14y ago
Honestly, I'd pay just to have his posts nice and curated into a single book. My company bought his drip campaign classes and they were really great as well, so I'm looking forward to this.
mblake 14y ago
To me it seems like he really likes to make the most of all advertising opportunities, be it direct or indirect. Publishing this book was most likely seen as an advertising vehicle for his consulting services. I think it's a smart idea which will most likely net him a lot more money in the future that just book sales commission and will help further consolidate his name brand.

edw519 14y ago

Thank you, Patrick! I don't know how many times I've read one of your Hacker News comments or blog posts and thought, "Wow, this guy really cuts to the chase." Then I bookmark it but never return. I'm hoping that this is kinda like a "Best of Patio11", giving busy people like me a chance to have it all in one place on my hard disk. If so, $9.99 is a bargain. Downloaded, up to Page 14 of 136. I guess dinner will be late tonight.

wildmXranat 14y ago
And thanks for posting it here man. Also, just so you know, I spent some major time reading your 'best-of' http://edweissman.com/53640595 http://edweissman.com/53640595. There are plenty of gems over there .

xiaoma 14y ago

I really have to say that books (fiction or non-fiction) are one of the best values that exist. For the same money that you would spend seeing a movie that will be over in two hours, you can purchase a novel that will provide more hours of enjoyment, more depth, and the option to return at any time. For a fraction of the money you could spend on a scammy info product that constantly upsells you and pushes you to promote the author (via fb likes, tweets, etc), you can have the result of months or years of effort from one of the greatest minds in history. I'm sure Patrick doesn't need any help selling his products here, but I'll say it anyway-- books are an incredible value, especially from someone like him who has shared so much before and from whom you have an idea what you'll be getting! Buy it. I'm totally broke and could still easily justify this kind of purchase -- skip one trip to Chipotle and it's paid for!

snogglethorpe 14y ago
At the prices I normally pay, a book is about 1/4 the cost of a movie... (~$4-5 for a book, ~$18 for a movie) I read slowly, so the value ratio is something incredible... :]

patio11 14y ago

So I feel sort of morally obligated to comment here and yet don't want to sell my book, so instead, can I sell Hyperink? They were fantastic to work with, and successfully convinced me on why I should try publishing through them rather than trying to e.g. go through a traditional publisher or even one of the smarter tech-specific presses. I've been asked to write a book for a few years by potential readers, and a few times by potential publishers, but I was very disinterested in doing so. For most people capable of writing tech books, writing books is a very poor use of time under any economic calculus. The typical model is that you and the publisher agree to do the book, then you're paid an advance (sometimes in installments contingent on milestones). You earn a royalty on each sale of the book, with the royalties first going to pay back ("earn out") the advance, and then being paid to you quarterly. This sounds reasonable, until you hear the numbers (typical advance for a tech book from a first time author: $5k, typical royalty percentage: 8% on a physical copy, 15% on an ebook). They're not universally that bad -- an author or two from Apress and Pragmatic Programmer wrote me to say they were genuinely happy with their experiences -- but that's sort of the general flavor of things. If you do the math, it is highly unlikely your book will recoup the advance, and that is indeed what happens to most tech books. So you've traded months of full-time labor writing and rewriting, plus additional months of part-time work hawking the book to anyone who will listen, in return for $5k. That is not a rational use of time for anybody who can e.g. do contract programming, which (one would assume) virtually all tech book writers could do. When I said as much to publishers who asked me to write things, they said "Ahh, but the book will allow you to establish your bona fides", and I do not believe that making stupid decisions for my business successfully demonstrates to clients that I will make smart decisions for theirs. To my view of things, I'd rather have lots of folks be able to read my writing than have it blessed by a gatekeeper but widely unavailable. But blog posts do leave a lot to be desired for teaching people. For one, my blog is very disorganized, since I have six years of back-issues which appear in order of "what I was working on that week", and they're of varying quality and relevance, particularly early in my career. Something with a bit of structure and curation seemed like it would add value. Plus, I am spelling- and design-challenged, so having an editor and someone with a sense of style would be a plus. That's basically what Hyperink pitched: curating the best of the blog into a book, complete with editing and design help, with some extra essays added. It's far less work than scratch-writing a book, the terms are more equitable (no advance, equitable royalty split), and it provides incremental value to readers over the blog. I don't expect to make a huge amount of money on it, relative to the business in general, but the idea sounded attractive enough to try it as an experiment.

thoughtcriminal 14y ago

Honest price, not $100 and bundled with some garbage videos I don't even want, like I've seen around here. Thanks Patrick, for not pricing it to squeeze every single penny you can from me. It's an easy sale.

patio11 14y ago
You're entitled to not buy anything you feel like, but I'm strongly of the opinion that all arms-length prices are honest prices. The economics of producing things for businesses are very different than the economics of producing them for individuals, particularly because businesses are relatively price insensitive and not very numerous. I can price this at $10 because it receives implicit subsidy from everything else I do. If making businesses money through training was my livelihood and not a fun hobby, I would certainly explore packaging options and price points that made sense even if I only sold a few hundred copies. (And, n.b., if you were a SaaS company trying to buy advice on lifecycle emails from me that would run $500 to $X0,000. There aren't enough customers in that niche to make $7 a sale sane. Also, seen from the customer's perspective, the information will routinely be used to make five to six figures) I respect that this can make commerce difficult for goods which are dual-use between for-profit businesses and hobbyists, at least for folks whose purchase would be more aspirational in nature. As somebody who started out as a hobbyist with a $60 budget, I have great appreciation for expensive business tools not being in the budget, but wouldn't cast aspersions on them simply because they're not in the budget. Many worthwhile things like e.g. employees are similarly not in the budget, and the answer is probably "Do without and bootstrap until you can afford them" rather than worrying overmuch about the pricing structure of businesses other than one's own.
- xiaoma 14y ago
  >I'm strongly of the opinion that all arms-length prices are honest prices. As I understand it, "arms-length" prices just mean "the price at which two unrelated and non-desperate parties would agree to a transaction". And, obviously factors such as the presence of manipulation, coercion, informational asymmetry and variance between the product and the promises of its marketing have an effect on how "honest" a price is. Selling a car for $50k that we both know is crap is different from selling one that I know but haven't told you is crap is different from selling one through very persuasive and reassuring marketing and removing all liability through legalease incomprehensible to the customer. Selling a luxury car as a risky investment plan to a non-savvy retiree would be still worse, and selling a car with safety flaws would be downright reprehensible, even if both parties agreed on the price. People of different cultures and political leanings draw the line in different places, but it's certainly not a simple black and white rule that anything you can get someone to agree to buy is ethical at any price. There's spectrum that goes from saintly and honest to illegal and evil. My definition of an honest price: an honest attempt to provide at least as much value as you extract. (which the B2B business examples you listed above would be doing)

sjs382 14y ago

Do you get a bigger cut if I buy via Amazon Kindle or buy a .mobi (which Kindle supports) via Hyperink?

patio11 14y ago
Good question. Not sure. It must be the case that Hyperink gets a higher cut if Amazon is not in the equation, so to the extent that you want to do someone a solid I'd suggest buying from them directly (they're a startup, too), but whatever works for you.

ig1 14y ago

Don't seem to be able to buy it on Amazon: http://oi48.tinypic.com/2cofv3o.jpg http://oi48.tinypic.com/2cofv3o.jpg

kroger 14y ago
Why an ebook is available in Brazil (where I am) and not in UK is beyond my understanding.
WA 14y ago
See the green box on the right? You're in the wrong Amazon shop. Go to amazon.co.uk and search for his book there. This works at least on amazon.de (same green info box in the US-store).
- ig1 14y ago
  Odd, I thought that might be the case and I clicked on the green box and it just took me to Amazon's UK homepage so I just assumed it was just a generic "would you like to shop at Amazon UK" link rather than something related to the availability of the item in question. But if I search Amazon UK for the title it comes up correctly and I can buy it. Pretty poor UX really.
  - WA 14y ago
    Yeah, UX is really poor. I don't know why they can't put a direct link to the product there - or at least trigger a search for the product.

smoyer 14y ago

I don't really need this book for my current job, but will probably buy it simply as a way to pay Patrick for all the valuable and free content he's provided over the past 5+ years.

azazo 14y ago
I'm pretty confident that I'll get significant value out of this book for my current job, but I also agree with this sentiment. For all of the value that I have received from Patrick's posts, comments, podcasts, etc. over the years this is the least I can do. Buying it now.

typicalrunt 14y ago

@patio11: Stupid question time, and this may be from hyperink more than you. You state: You can buy it here (Kindle, iPad, Nook, PDF) or on Amazon (Kindle). Does that mean I would get an ePub version? Device-specific is great for non-technical people, but I have a Kobo (ePub/PDF) and it's not in the list, so I'm not sure what formats I'm being given (Hyperink's FAQ doesn't answer this either).

nekopa 14y ago
The nook format is usually ePub.
- typicalrunt 14y ago
  Funny enough, I searched the Wikipedia entry on the Nook and there's no mention of "format" so I figured it was proprietary. Thanks.
kroger 14y ago
Check the "technical" tab on the FAQ page: http://www.hyperink.com/faq http://www.hyperink.com/faq It has an entry: "How do I get my .epub eBook onto my iPad?"

ruswick 14y ago

Although I'm generally hesitant to purchase books, this appears to be a fairly interesting product. I'd likely buy it immediately were I in an economic position to do so. Unfortunately, I'm simply unable to justify such an expenditure...

mctx 14y ago
Can I buy it for you?

danielpal 14y ago

I met patio11 at TwilioCon, and just chatting less that 20 minutes with him I learned a ton. Needless to say, I just bought the book.

dwnoble 14y ago

Congrats on the book, Patrick! I think that is a feat that a lot of hacker news readers hope to accomplish one day. I know I fall in that category. Anyway, I really appreciate the earnest care you took in talking about the book in this linked-to post. You didn't publish "20 blog posts" in the book. You published "20 essays that appeared in your blog." Now I haven't read all of your blog. And for a few parts of a second, reading the word "essays" (instead of "blog posts") made me think you had some kind of book-marketer coach this enunciation. But, I have read enough of your blog where I think I know what you mean. I have definitely made posts in my own blog because I have felt it's been too long and I have needed to make a post. But, on the other hand, I have also had a teensy-handful of posts because I had something itching at the back of my head that needed to come out. Maybe I would call these essays. I would definitely try to distinguish them in my mind from just another "blog post."

mzarate06 14y ago

I'd suggest actually having a working product, this book doesn’t cover product development... Excellent! Having researched what it'd be like to build a product before having done so, I found so much emphasis on the development side ... building, launching, iterating, etc. I didn't find a whole lot that covered marketing, sales, and conversion. W/my product launched and getting good reviews from those that use it, I have every intention of using 2013 to focus on it's growth and conversion. So this turns out to be such a timely offering. Thank you for offering this up at a great price, and for recommending Hyperink (I have a deep interest in writing an ebook in 2013, I'll check them out).

jbail 14y ago

The book looks great. Just bought it on Kindle and started reading. It immediately gets down to business. I like that.

pknerd 14y ago

@Patio11 A dumb but important question. Is this book about latest buzz, "Growth Hacking" or Market Research(Finding a Niche/Market) for your next product by using available tools? Please clarify.

danhodgins 14y ago

Can't wait to apply these insights Patrick. Keep up the teaching/sharing - your material is fantastic.

gingerlime 14y ago

Just bought the book. This is more of a comment about Hyperink: It looks like a really nice platform, and seems like they do good marketing too. The only confusing part with the purchase process initially was that they only show iPad and PDF highlighted as available formats. Nook and Kindle look greyed-out (??). I was just hoping to get an ePub, so wasn't sure if I'll get one. Eventually it gave me a much clearer list of options to download from: pdf, epub and mobi. Why not simply showing those options with the same terminology in the first place??

hayksaakian 14y ago

Would someone mind finding and turning the posts in the table of contents he posted into links? I'll do it tomorrow if no one does it before then.

kybernetyk 14y ago

Patrick, don't get it the wrong way: I love your blog and podcast and bought your book. But ... if you're so good with marketing software why don't you market your software but go the consulting route instead? Isn't there more potential profit in selling your products than offering your services as a consultant? That's something I've been asking myself for some time.

jgeralnik 14y ago
He does market his software, and practices everything he preaches on his own software too. But let's look at some numbers. Let's say that Patrick's techniques can increase profits by 10% compared to an "unoptimized" website. If the bingo card business is worth $X0,000, by selling his own products on optimized webpages Patrick makes an extra $X,000. If instead Patrick consults for a company that does $X0,000,000 his techniques are now worth $X,000,000. If he gets a percentage of those new profits, he is doing much better than if he had sold more of his own product. Since creating a business which does $X0,000,000 in sales is hard, Patrick can make better use of his time by finding those existing companies and offering his services that by selling more of his (comparatively low value) product himself.

mblake 14y ago

Bought yesterday and almost finished reading. Although I could've read almost all of it through the blog (except for the few new articles), I find it much more comfortable to have everything compiled into a single file; pure content without other distractions. I just started dabbling into software marketing and would much rather take advice from Patrick than general-level marketing advice. The book (I used the pdf version) is pretty well typeset, so reading it is not headache-inducing (for the ppl worrying they might not enjoy it and would rather wait for a printed version).