It's actually very smart to do it the way you are doing it. We do this all the time and have tested it extensively. What you want to do is to see if your ad is getting enough "reach" at the 20 cent click level. Reach is the amount of times your ad is shown. If there aren't many others bidding, you can bid pretty low and still get lots of reach. However, if your ad isn't getting shown much, you'll know that you should raise your ad price. Make sure you also test using Optimized CPM versus paying for clicks as well. Hope that helps.

I love this topic and I know it all to well ;) I work with small businesses Building Brand influence to increase sales on social media but I also Market info products like yours. I would ask: Do you have a specific process that people go through? There are a few specific things I want to suggest off hand. First and most importantly, though, is asking for the sale. You have got to get comfortable stepping behind the cash register so to speak. This question makes me smile and I had to reach out to you because I know exactly what you are talking about. There are people that do well without having specific processes in place, they do it intuitively and without much skill. Those are few. Most of us have to break through some self-limiting beliefs and hop behind the cash register and say/do some BOLD things simply because: People need to be told what to do. It's great that you are talking to prospects and they are sounding eager. One small tweak that will most likely increase conversions is to simply say, "Okay great, are you by your computer now? I'll stay on the line to help you through the checkout process." Schedule a follow up time or just call back in 3 days to "See how it's going." ;) Even if you KNOW they didn't buy. Sometimes people need reminded or something came up as soon as they hung up. If you look at it as a kind gesture, so will they. :) Have you tried this yet? There are tons of directions we could go with this. I'll wait to see what your reply is. Have a great day!

Have a great story / hook. Reach out to outlets who 1) are relevant 2) write about Kickstarter campaigns regularly. Determine why you want the press, pre-launch. It should either be for social proof for your "Kickstarter As Seen In Logo Banner" or to drive any traffic to a landing page to gather pre-launch opt-in emails. That is explained more in these blog posts. Enjoy... http://crowdfundinghacks.com/this-kickstarter-project-is-already-funded-and-it-hasnt-even-launched-yet/ http://crowdfundinghacks.com/how-kittyo-used-the-macgyver-trick-to-crush-their-kickstarter-goal/ http://crowdfundinghacks.com/how-kittyo-gathered-13000-opt-in-emails-in-only-5-months-part-1-includes-successful-templates-strategies-etc/

The best way to do validation on this idea would be to acquire customers through Facebook ads (rich targeting makes you able to cohort users nicely). Then, you could manually pair people via email or through a simple text messaging exchange facilitated by Twilio. In this scenario, you could prompt them to take the actions you think will be at the core of your app's functionality. Observing their engagement rate and what they do with each other would give you some insight into how viable this is. Happy to talk this through in a call with you. I've helped a lot of clarity members through similar customer development exercises.

Be careful when simply wrapping things into a mobile app. This can backfire on you and you could be presented with some very harsh edge cases. PHP isn't going to be encapsulated so much as the HTML/CSS/JavaScript. So keep in mind your mobile application could likely be in a position of requiring an online connection to work (because it must interface with your existing hosted WordPress site). This could also mean your hosting solution needs to be evaluated to ensure you can handle any increased traffic (and those traffic patterns could be different when coming from a mobile app that perhaps loads things the user doesn't see right away, accesses content that may not be cached, etc.). You want to ensure your server doesn't go down because then your mobile app would be "down" as well. That said... Things like Phonegap (web views) are a wonderful idea for utility apps because the performance is good enough for those (and hey even some games) and they end up being easily ported across many mobile operating systems. I would look into Phonegap, Appgyver (a new and totally awesome one because parts of it will utilize the native OS and your app will feel more responsive), Appcelerator Titanium, and perhaps even the new Famo.us one. Also take a look at the Ionic Framework for some further ideas about mobile UI and what you can do with these web view style apps.

It depends on the country. My best advice to you is to find a key person,a local one, in that country whom you must be able to trust 100% to take care of everything.

The negative hype around flash after apple categorically rejected them for inclusion in iOS safari has made flash look like a non-peforming platform in the eyes of everybody. This opinion is not totally untrue though. I tried writing an app using Flex for iOS and quickly realized it doesn't perform as well since it can't leverage multi-threading of iOS (since it's a single threaded runtime)

It won't work on the iPad. Children are so into tablets and touch. They want to touch all screens!

One under mentioned resource you could take advantage of is PPV. You can pay per views, pennies on the dollar. The people viewing the ads are perfectly targeted people for your offer... because you can choose which sites you "Pop up" on. I have helped countless people well under the 10K budget to see a return while advertising. There are a lot of moving parts but if you know who wants what you have and where they are, it's only a matter of testing a bit to see a ROI.

I am a Camtasia lover for years. Even on a Mac. My internet marketing friends all prefer it except for the few who like ScreenFlow.

Join an incubator program. Many of them have direct connects with media outlets and global news stations. If you are on the West Coast, I recommend, www.desarrollode.org or 500 start ups.

I agree with Stanislov in general. Specifically Product Management as a Service in my case includes: 1. Due diligence for products and experiences 2. Recruiting or mentoring PMs 3. Tools and methods streamlining and implementations 4. Helping with strategy, product-market fit, market research etc. 5. Taking features end-to-end, from requirements till launch

Hi there. Have managed thousands of attorney online programs, I'll see if I can provide any suggestions. However, it usually depends on what type of practice you have. Commercial litigation might have a much different strategy than personal injury, for example. Let us know and I'll come back with some thoughts. Google ads may be a good place to look, though, if not already doing. Although $1k in Los Angeles market might be spent quickly.

Government grants would be your best avenue. To not have to give up IP or equity.

Worst case scenario, sell ads yourself. By doing slideshows this way you're going to be dramatically increasing your view count, which increases the price you can demand from customers. Try BuySellAds.com for a simple solution to selling ads on your site.

Why do you need safeguards at this point? You should be figuring out if there is even a demand for this. We did this with the app we launched and didnt have any problems. Let me know if youd like to discuss more. You shouldnt be wasting money on legal fees at this point.

QRs are simple links, typically URLs. To perform any kind of interaction with a 3rd-party system, you need to understand what parameters this system can take as part of a URL and see if it performs the expected use case well. My suggestion is that if you can generate the right use case by typing a URL in a browser, you can also support the same use case via a QR. The QR is not where the challenge is. I hope it helps

Hi, I think you already know the answer to this as you spent the most time on the third option and you are correct. The Internet is awash with too much information for buyers, they have information overload. So you should concentrate on niche websites for 2 reasons. The first being ease of use for the customer, finding what they want to buy in seconds not hours, the second is SEO, your sites can interlink and if built right pass on link juice and customers by promoting your other sites on each other. You will rank much easier with a keyword domain combined with keyword content. I am doing exactly this at the moment within a number of niches globally and have a team of expert developers, content writers and SEO experts working under my direction and it is working really well. You will need to build a mini-net around your money sites and build links to them, just make sure there is no pattern, then build links from your money sites to each other from keywords not banners and you should rank really high on Google.

My company does a lot of consulting with offshore firms who are looking for a way to generate new business, so I hear this question a lot. My first reaction is that you need to totally reverse your mindset when you talk about your own company. You mentioned that you have: a great software developers team, proven track record, passion, real value But, everyone says that. There a 10,000 companies that have those things, so a customer isn't going to notice it. You need to figure out what your company is best at (doesn't have to be technical) and present it as a solution to a specific problem that clients have. Maybe a speciality, or really good project management, really good communications, a special expertise or experience, a personality, experience with a certain type of client.. really anything.. But, there must be some thing that makes your company 'special' otherwise you will be lost in the mix. Don't worry about things like rates, or the fact that you have 'great' developers. Those are generic. Think about why a client would really choose you, and try to build on that! After you understand your company identity, it gets much easier to identify and engage marketing channels because you understand your target.

Hi There are Facebook advertising techniques that would allow you to target competitors followers, related beauty or skincare pages followers then target them with your advert going to a landing page with a buy now unmissable offer to capitalise on your conversions. Because most people do not buy first time, I would then re-target them with the offer on their Facebook newsfeed so they do not forget you, adding to your conversion. Facebook is by far the cheapest for adverts Google would be crazy prices for this type of product. You could also look at placing with affiliates and let them do all of the marketing work and your cost would be fixed, but there is a lot of competition for affiliates in this sector so maybe difficult. If done right on Facebook with a laser targeted campaign with landing page you should be looking at $0.25 to $0.30 per 1,000 views with a decent conversion making the cost per conversion very low. When you target people you know would be interested in your product it is always best to do a CPM campaign rather than a CPC as this is a waste of money, if launching this product there is no market price other than competitors products so you can show it as a high price then do a landing page with a launch offer only available for a limited time with a count down clock, even offer referral discounts if they share on Facebook. Hope this helps

Properly set up Salesforce CRM with Saleforce Mobile would do this.

Instead of calling it "comedy", aim for humor. Humor that supports a key discovery helps to anchor that insight in the investor's mind. I've coached many pitches, and find that when presenters are nervous they try to go for an improvised laugh, thinking it will cut the tension. However, in most situations, it comes off as just that: improvised and cheesy. Which confims to the audience that the presenter is nervous and unsure. Humor an advanced communication skill which requires strategy, planning and practice. The best humor is subtle and smart. The goal is not to get a laugh, but to get a knowing smile.

I've put together many multi-company product development partnerships. However, as a startup, the other company may not consider you to have enough credibility (longevity, need to pivot to better meet market needs, time for product to reach market) and may not want to expend the time and resources requied to make a partnership work. The value proposition can be time to market, differentiation as far as a more complete solution, use of sales force and channel or marketing dollars to sell something that is more readily acquired by a customer. As the startup, you gain credibility through the brand of the other company, if it's established, trusted, and well known. I would need to know more about your particular situation to be able to be more complete in answering this question. Please feel free to give me a call if you'd like to go into further detail.

I took a quick look at 500px who reported 1.5-million users in 2012 (source: Techcrunch http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/28/gorgeous-photos-in-your-pocket-500px-arrives-on-iphone/) with 10% as professional photographers. The article also mentions monthly growth of ~100,000 users. If your targeting the same market as 500px, use their reported numbers to back-up your assumptions. I'm sure there are other services who target the same user community - I'd spend some time collecting this type of data. Is your service designed only for professionals, or would you see a semi-professional (part-time) and advanced home-user?

Many companies bootstrap their product development by providing services. You can do so from one company. At the point when you believe that the focus of the two businesses is a full time job each, and the channels for sales, etc. are not congruent, then you may want to consider spinning out the product company from the services company. You can even continue to do some services from your product company even, that are more in line with your product direction, and let the services company thrive on its own, at this point in time. It sounds like you're too early to worry about spinning out the product company from your services company. There are some accounting differences between the two types of businesses so that at some point, there may be positives from having two companies. As well, if there's conflicts not just in focus and accounting, but also in competitive issues with your product for your service customers, then the separation into two companies is of value. Feel free to give me a call if you'd like to go through the details of your current situation in more detail.