itengelhardt

14 ms·

1. 91.▲
   by itengelhardt 13y ago

   Absolutely brilliant to show case your own financial data. Also very ballsy IMHO.
2. 92.▲
   by itengelhardt 13y ago

   Patrick already mentioned the best way to get email addresses. However, for my use case (i.e. emailing cold contacts) you usually don't get their address handed to you. I just looked them up with a combination of Yellow Pages and Googl
3. 93.▲
   by itengelhardt 13y ago

   Well, arguably there was no established customer base for WPEngine before the launch. You either were a hobbyist and hosted for free on wordpress.com. Or you were a multi-billion dollar enterprise and used Automattic's premium hosting
4. 94.▲
   by itengelhardt 13y ago

   I do both. Sometimes I look for long tail keywords (< 200 local exact match searches in Google's Keyword Planner tool). I then write mildly optimized posts for that. On other days I am like "that should be an interesting topi
5. 95.▲
   by itengelhardt 13y ago

   There were numerous WP consultants when he did this. They were his target customers. He interviewed them about their pain points and found that their pain was in line with what he had in mind for WPEngine (easy, fast, secure, no-friction h
6. 96.▲
   by itengelhardt 13y ago

   Here's a tactic that has worked for me so far 1. Set up a blog on your domain 2. write 20+ articles on industry-related topics (this alone will bring in some traffic) 3. get a number of emails from prospective customers 4. write a PERS
7. 97.▲
   by itengelhardt 13y ago

   He's so right about the whole "work on things you can show to the next prospect" thing. I wish my 20-year-old self would have known that.
8. 98.▲
   8 Micropreneurs share their best business lesson of 2013(it-engelhardt.de)

   8 points by itengelhardt 13y ago|0 comments
9. 99.▲
   by itengelhardt 13y ago

   I like how you make it sound so incredibly easy - especially thinking back to how much I struggled with the math behind this :-) (To be very clear: There's nothing wrong with explaining things in a simple way and leaving out the scary
10. 100.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    I am seriously interested in this topic, but I find it really hard to work with personas. I've tried it numerous times in other fields (e.g. software development), but it just never worked for me. Maybe this is a personality thing :-&
11. 101.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    I've seen this work in all kinds of situation. Especially with people thrown into leadership roles at young ages (e.g. military). First they are scared, but then they adjust and stick to the mantra :-)
12. 102.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    Shouldn't that be handled by existing laws - i.e. you charge the perp with rape and let the court decide?
13. 103.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    (15a+363d)old boy + 18yo girlfriend = prison for the girl? (Assuming the sex being consensual)
14. 104.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    The question should never be "What's the benefit of NOT prohibiting something" - that's why we call it a free society. That being said, I think that the spanish law is rather reasonable by not strictly enforcing 16 and a
15. 105.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    I love how she gives away the name of the actual software (desire2learn) in the tag. :-)
16. 106.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    You know that prices are (often) more a function of marketing than of competence...
17. 107.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    Thanks for making Germans look like dicks... IMHO you are not factoring in the value of the built email list building. This will (hopefully) allow Pete to be exponentially more successful with future books.
18. 108.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    I kind of like that quote in the sense of "don't let anyone hold you back" / "don't settle for what is already there". OTOH it can easily come of as pretty arogant. What do you think about that?
19. 109.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    I am willing to bet my money on porn - but I could be wrong there
20. 110.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    Yes. That's basically the idea... Bonus: If you never ship, you can never fail :)
21. 111.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    IMHO the best line: "perfect is never possible, and shipped is better than perfect."
22. 112.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    Effiency For The Win!
23. 113.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    Not to mention that the SEALs that make it to hell week have been sifted quite a bit already. The "weakest" are already gone by then
24. 114.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    True. It is highly unlikely that sleep deprivation alone killed him. However, there were a few studies performed on animals where the test subjects died after 5-20 days of (complete) sleep deprivation. There does not seem to be a study abou
25. 115.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    Hi Kilian, Thanks for clarifying this! Good to hear
26. 116.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    I think it is a prudent move for a bootstrapped startup. You just don't blow out 1,200 EUR / year, when you don't have any revenue incoming. Solve the problem at hand (i.e. accept payments) in a way that is best RIGHT NOW. Th
27. 117.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    Thanks for the blog post and going into how difficult it is to accept payments in Europe. I would like to add one - IMHO important - point to PayMill: They do not support credit cards from the USA. source: https://www.paymill.com
28. 118.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    Hi beat. You are probably right and this is NOT a good FIRST question. BUT... it is a great question (that is seldomly asked) for later in the conversation. And of course you should be able/willing to follow through. (also see my other
29. 119.▲
    by itengelhardt 13y ago

    Hey Jon. Thanks for reading the article & posting a comment. Interesting question. I haven't and I feel that it could get a bit more akward, if you haven't established some sort of connection first. Another reason against it m
30. 120.▲
    Question To Ask When You Meet Fellow Bootstrappers(it-engelhardt.de)

    38 points by itengelhardt 13y ago|14 comments