(2011-12-21) Mckenzie Annual Update

Patrick McKenzie gives an annual update on his progress/earning with Bingo Card Creator, Consulting, and his new Appointment Reminder app. Things I noted:

• Bingo Card Creator made only $22k in profits. Not too inspirational for the One Man Show Life Style.
  • May'2012 post-MicroConf update: he keeps his Consulting book full at a huge rate, so it's hard to put too much time into a product limited by its market choice: "don't sell to teachers".
• I integrated StripeCom and expected a huge lift in conversions for going from PayPal to a simple CC-based payment system. I tested this extensively in A/B tests. I love everything about the Stripe system, but I have no evidence for “Stripe is better than Paypal/GoogleCheckout”, “Stripe/Paypal/Google Checkout is better than Paypal / Google Checkout”, etc etc. That said, it might be something as simple as my buttons being ugly. I’ll probably take a whack at it in the future, or better yet, have my designer take a whack at it.
• Appointment Reminder is hitting both SmallCo and Enterprise targets. The SmallCo market gets handled by a Self Service SaaS, which then works as a trial/Lead-Gen system for the Enterprise sale follow-up. I Commented to wonder whether this is a Fo Cus problem.