[dangrossman]

I'd like to say I did something clever, but the first customers just came from a little bit of advertising. I'm talking $100-200/month in AdWords clicks the first few months, and a $79/month banner ad on a web stats site I bought through BuySellAds.com. I'm no novice to advertising, so I had the right keywords and the right ads to make sure I only paid for people looking for what Improvely offers.

I then spent my afternoons all summer with a live chat widget on the site that automatically prompted a conversation to anyone who kept the page open for 10 seconds, and talked quite a few people that came in from Google into signing up. It only took a few people at $25-99/month (I tried a bunch of different minimum prices in the beginning) to pay back the initial investment and keep the ball rolling.

Word of mouth referrals started really really quickly, as some of those first customers were both super excited about the product being way better than what they were doing, and very well connected socially. Now referrals are my biggest signup driver.

[vijayr]

This is after the product was fully built, correct? How did you decide what features to include? Did you talk to customers first, or you knew because of prior experience etc?

[thenomad]

"I'd like to say I did something clever"

...

"I then spent my afternoons all summer with a live chat widget on the site that automatically prompted a conversation to anyone who kept the page open for 10 seconds"

Given that's the first time I've ever heard of that particular approach, I'm not exactly a novice to marketing either, and it's sufficiently smart that I'm going to test it out myself on a project in the near future... I think you may, in fact, have done something quite clever there. :)

Any recommendations for backend technology for that? I've found that live chat solutions tend to be... sub-optimal.

[dangrossman]

I was using SnapEngage, which was $19/month at the time. They've raised their prices since.

[thenomad]

Ah, that's a pity. Looking at their website they seem to have moved into the "if you have to ask you can't afford it" range :)

[karterk]

Awesome :) Thanks, I learned a new trick today.

[rickdale]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. When you say you are no novice to advertising, care to share a few tips? Thanks!