A Hacked Launch is Greater Than No Launch

... unless you're a rocket scientist. However, when it comes to business, launching something new in a hacked, unorganized, messy, or imperfect way is still far better than not launching at all.   Indefinitely delaying a launch out of the desire for a fully formed and perfected presentation is a great way to never launch something.

Consider how much you learn and can earn from starting early and messy, no website, no pretty packaging, just trying different things, learning what resonates and what doesn't, building your resources as you go, discovering what people are and aren't willing to pay for just by offer to do work, honing and perfecting your presentation and process with each trial, gradually creating something that really works and is built on a foundation of real meaningful experiences.

Now consider what happens when trying to perfect everything first in the mind, without ever testing it in the real world with different people, without getting any feedback or response before sharing it with the world.  It's a lot of time invested on the perfection of a vision, but little to no time invested in understanding how others perceive that vision, what they are willing to pay for, or what questions they have and need answered to help them understand the value.  Understanding how other people value our work can only be understood by sharing that work with other people.  Understanding what and why people buy can only be understood by attempting to sell something.

Launching the Pricing Workbook for Creatives required me to launch messy and imperfectly.  What do I mean by messy?  At the moment, there seem to be two different versions of anneruthmann.com currently online depending on what device you use or how the domain connects based on any cookies you may have stored on your browser.  You might see my architecture & interior commercial photography portfolio hosted with photoshelter.com that looks like this:

Or you could see an about.me page that looks like this:

Neither of these are what I was hoping to have in place while launching the Pricing Workbook for Creatives.  Even though I already hired a designer to craft a new website that will be a better showcase of my experience and the resources I can provide, I already knew that the new website would take more time and not be ready for the book launch.  Rather than delay the book launch for the perfection of a website, or put the pressure of having the website first, I decided to focus on finding another way to launch messy and prioritize capturing public interest in the workbook so I could build and share resources along the way.

Instead of having the domains PricingWorkbookforCreatives.com or PricingWorkbook.com point to a website page full of amazing copy and testimonials, I decided to point the domains to a simple MailChimp.com email capture landing page (shown below) so that I could capture the interest around sending special deals to the early readers who wanted in on deals and freebies:

I really held to the promise in this form and ONLY offered special deals to this email list.  Everyone else who was just watching on social media never got the deal I offered over email.  I knew it was highly likely that the people on this email list would still be watching me elsewhere online in social media, and I needed them to know how much I valued their early support, interest, and trust in me to deliver on my promise.  This made a tiny little email form far more valuable than a website would be, because it unlocked something no one else could get otherwise.  Any mention I made leading up to the launch on social media simply directed people to this form, rather than some long and rambling sales page, complicated website, webinar registration, free download, or anything else.  I wanted the process to be simple and straightforward, no complications.

In some ways, I find the interest of those early registrations to be far more meaningful and valuable than anything that comes from a more a perfected website or sales pitch.  The early registrations were all-in right away.  They didn't need to see more.  They knew what they wanted and were willing to get first dibs.  Regardless of their follow-through rate on sales, the emotional support to keep going when it was frustrating before launch came from just seeing those early registrations waiting in line.  Thanks to launching early and messy, the Pricing Workbook for Creatives got to have its moment of fame at the top of the New Release list for Kindle Books in the Business of Art category!

When building something important, I've realized the group belief in what you are offering is a key factor in getting to the finish line.  Group support for a product creates an encouraging fire to keep moving forward even when you might want to give up, much like being in a relay knowing an entire team needs you to be your best and reach your finish point.  It truly is special to know when people value what you're putting out into the world.  I don't think I would have learned how important that step really was if I had waited to launch with a more developed website or structure.

Having a hacked together launch can also help you mitigate risk.  If you anticipate a launch with a simple sign up page and get no sign ups at all no matter how much you promote something- it's a pretty good sign that something doesn't seem valuable enough to want!  Either that or you need to talk to more people and revise your offer until people do sign up for it.  Eliminating what people don't value and don't want helps prevent you from risking the time and energy to build something that won't be able to get off the ground when it's ready.

So if you're working on something new, or planning to launch something no one has ever seen yet... how about taking it for a test drive while it's still in concept form before going big?  Talking with people about what you're working on helps you refine what other people are most interested in and excited to see.  Whether you talk about it online or in person to build buzz and interest, try it while things are still messy and see what you can learn and revise to make it better for those who want it!