Ian Landsman is Starting From Scratch, October 4, 2006:
Mini Site Marketing Experiment
If you're in the market for a powerful and user friendly Help Desk solution, please take a look at my company's flagship product HelpSpot.
For a long time I’ve wanted to experiment with mini sites, basically a one page site on something. It seems like if you can pick the right niche that the site could be useful in driving sales. The trick is to pick the right topic which intersects with your product, but covers a slightly different group. You don’t want something which will compete with your main sites rankings in the search engines. The mini site should reach someplace new. So for months I’ve been looking for the right topic. Something that would be static to keep the maintenance down but could still produce results.
While taking a look at my logs and their relation to my sales I noticed an interesting trend. I received a lot of traffic and in turn sales from searches for open source help desk software. This is kind of curious because HelpSpot isn’t open source, in addition my blog topics on the matter are relatively few and generally very off topic. Few of the posts have open source help desk software as a primary part of the post.
So I go to thinking about this and did a little research. It turns out there aren’t really any good lists of open source help desk packages. Most are very outdated. Almost all are little more than spam sites with dozens of ads in and around the few measly real links.
Another thing that intrigued me was how many people who started out searching for open source ended up buying HelpSpot. Also by looking at who purchased I could get a feel for their intentions. With that data I came to the conclusion that many of these searchers weren’t really looking for an open source solution at all. They were settling for one. They had likely searched on just ‘help desk software’ and found that all the ads and top listings are for products in the $50,000+ range (remember it’s as high as $35 a click for those homepage ads, lots of competition).
Finding the middle tier market is hard. What do you type, medium priced help desk software? Not going to work. So they fall back on searching for open source and are so desperate to find any decent information that they end up clicking on my relatively unrelated blog posts.
Hence, I’ve decided to make my first mini site a very clean simply directory of the primary open source help desk applications. I see this as a win win for everyone. Here’s why:
- Searchers can find a site with real information and clear links to the resources.
- Open source applications get a site that actually links to them rather than simply using them as bait to trick searchers into clicking on links
- I get to place a few simple clean ads on the site that lets people know I exist and that there are mid price products available.
Without further ado I give you the
Open Source Help Desk List.
I’m still tweaking the content and as always suggestions are greatly appreciated. I’m not sure I like the help desk articles on the right. Also if you see any major applications I’ve missed please let me know.
Finally, I’d love to get a few links to this new resource to kick start it. If you like the idea please say so with a link!
Discussion
Why does clicking the 'Contact Us' link show, this form isn't available to public?
Created by Ali on 10.04.2006 4:22 pm
Hmm. I'm using a http://www.wufoo.com form for it. It was working, but now it's not. I have no idea why. I've emailed them to see what's up.
Created by Ian on 10.04.2006 4:29 pm
Slick move.
We're about to give helpspot a trial here. It already looks pretty impressive from the outside, but listing your open source competition really shows your confidence in the product.
Very impressive,
Mike
Created by Mike Schoeffler on 10.04.2006 6:55 pm
Thanks Mike, looking forward to you giving it a go.
I think OS competition is really important to the help desk ecosystem. I fully support those guys and think what they're doing is great stuff.
They provide an important part of the market. First they allow organizations with limited resources to get the assistance they need. Second, they broaden the market just by their existence and the discussion of their contributors and fans. Finally they're doing a lot more innovation than the $50K crowd so I love the challenge they provide.
Created by Ian on 10.04.2006 7:32 pm
I really like what you're doing here. You're not trying to be slick and hide the fact that this is to promote HelpSpot, and you're not trying to pretend like other (free) solutions don't exist for your product. You're being open and honest, and I believe that will ring true with your potential customers.
Created by Michael Sica on 10.04.2006 10:28 pm
Thanks Michael. That was definitely the goal. It's a scary thing to do though. It's much easier to take the sleazy route and build a spammy site. Hopefully it pays off!
Created by Ian on 10.04.2006 10:32 pm
Is there a name for this kind of advertising? Helpvertising?
Created by lee on 10.04.2006 10:49 pm
Huh, I don't know. But if you just coined a term that'd be pretty cool!
Created by Ian on 10.04.2006 10:58 pm
Very well done Ian! This is a great example of targetting your customers vs. the common mISV approach of writing to target your peers (e.g. other programmers and mISV owners).
Nothing shows more faith in your product than listing potential competitors. It makes sense to do though because a good buyer will do due dillegence. With this approach you help set the stage and might help them do that research on your terms. Keep the articles because pointing potential customers to articles that re-inforce what you have to offer can only be good thing, right?
Great content and great looking site too. May we ask how much time it took you to build?
Created by Scott Meade on 10.05.2006 2:22 am
Thanks Scott. I would agree, most customers in my industry download many products to trial and my main goal is just to get downloaded. From there I feel very good about my chances.
Sure, I purchased the domain about 7am yesterday morning, found the template in about an hour and spent from 9am to 4pm or so building the site. So 1 day. It of course helps that I knew all the most important open source applications already so I didn't have to dig around much.
One day was really all the time I could spare. What's the point of a mini site that takes 3 weeks to build? In truth more than one day of work went into it in terms of "thinking" but only one day of actual production.
Created by Ian on 10.05.2006 6:54 am
I think this is brilliant idea and a strong move. I would be delighted to know eventual stats though. 
Created by Max Ischenko on 10.05.2006 9:51 am
Thanks Max. I'll definitely be sharing stats once things get off the ground. It will be a few months at least though until it's indexed well.
Created by Ian on 10.05.2006 9:53 am
Ian, I think it's a really great idea, and your execution is fantastic.
But I do have a few (fairly minor) suggestions.
1) "Complete". I think it's impossible to have a complete list of any sort of help desk software, let alone open source. It's probably the best list, and the list of the best products, but I guarantee you there are projects out there that you don't know about. If you're aiming to hit keywords maybe you could try something like "it's not possible to have a complete list of open source help desk software, but we aim to be as close as possible."
2) It's not obvious how a maintainer of an open source project can get on the list. Maybe the first item in the sidebar could be "do you know of something missing? tell me!" or a similar type note. A way to get added above the fold would be useful, I think.
3) I don't think it's as stated as outright as it could be that the page is sponsored by UserScape/HelpSpot. The text "In addition to the open source software listed, this site also features HelpSpot Help Desk Software." is pretty passive/third-persony. Perhaps instead of that, something like "This list of open source help desk software is sponsored by HelpSpot Help Desk Software. I think you'll love our package, but if it isn't what you need, maybe one of the ones below is."
Created by Rob Drimmie on 10.05.2006 11:37 am
Very smart idea Ian. This is a coincidence for me because I was planning to do exactly the same thing with a list of public and free resources related to my product. The only thing different is that I also want to add a Tags cloud (kind of glossary) for easy searching and make my list regularly updated with new resources and tags. That way, if someone is looking for "featureX" he will be given the right resources (it takes a bit of my time to analyze the resources and categorize them with tags). I hope I can do that with our beloved CMS. The explanation of the path you followed gave me the idea to also not invest time in the design of the page and I easily found oswd.org by using your template reference at the bottom. I will mix that with google analytics to analyze the results of this kind of campaign. Good luck to you in this experiment.
Created by Nicolas Cadilhac on 10.05.2006 11:47 am
Thanks for the suggestions Rob.
1. As you say I think it's the most complete, non-spam listing. Since I'm not keeping anyone off the list I believe complete isn't that misleading. I've already added 2 who contacted me about being on there. I'll think about it a bit more though.
2. That's a good idea, I'll see how it looks closer to the top. Maybe just after the article boxes.
3. The text is passive on purpose. Not to be deceitful, but because I strongly dislike traditional advertising and I wanted the site to have a different feel. If I was beating you over the head with sponsorship this and that it would give it the wrong vibe. As evidenced by this blog post, I'm not trying to hide the fact that the page was created by me.
What I might do is add 'sponsor' to the mini tour on the right side. On the other hand aren't the 2 banner ads evidence enough that the site is sponsored by HelpSpot?
Created by Ian on 10.05.2006 11:49 am
To clarify: I didn't mean to suggest you were being deceitful. You're definitely not.
Created by Rob Drimmie on 10.05.2006 11:51 am
Thanks I'm not trying to be! And thanks again for the feedback.
Created by Ian on 10.05.2006 11:54 am
I really like the idea and the execution. What I don't like is the additional ad between the R and the S. I think moving it to the very bottom would be better, then you get an uninterrupted list.
Created by saberworks on 10.05.2006 12:02 pm
Yeah, it might be a bit much. I'm going to move it and the contact link in a few minutes.
Created by Ian on 10.05.2006 12:07 pm
Hi Ian -- This is a great idea! I think this also highlights the fact that while people want to go the open source route for lower cost of ownership and something decent, in the end what we all want is dependability and a quality product without losing our shirts to the big boys (like BMC).
Created by Alex Strand on 10.05.2006 8:38 pm
Hi Ian,
I don't know how familiar you are with Mini-sites, sites with one page to just a few pages? They generally don't work on the principle of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), there's just not enough content.
What you'll rather find is that most of the successful ones rely on type in traffic. The best is from core dictionary keywords, good two word combinations, or typos. A lot of people don't know the difference between a toolbar and a search bar, and assume that both are one and the same.
This is also why a lot of these sites have a lot of ads. The people who got to them from the type in are also very likely to click on the ads, this is their level of computer sophistication.
Now some people will think this is bad and spammy, and they may be right. I'm not judging, I'm just trying to let you know about the economical model behind them. Because of the type of people that go to these types of sites, they are likely to click on the ads.
This is also why a lot of these sites are mini-sites, this is their best revenue generation models. Selling products can work on these sites, but if you remember the type of person going to them, they aren't as likely to buy something than to click on an ad...
In your case, you won't get any of this type of traffic. I suspect you'll probably get some because people like lists (and because of the type of people you'll get a higher conversion than a type-in mini-site), but it won't have the same traffic as a type in mini site.
I don't know if it helps, but I just thought you'd appreciate a little more knowledge on their background 
Created by Stephane Grenier on 10.13.2006 12:50 am
Thanks Stephane. I respectfully disagree though 
It is true that most mini-sites are as you describe but that's now how I setup up this one. First there is plenty of content on the page. SEO can work on these sites because Google and most other search engines base rank primarily on specific URL's not the site as a whole, though the site as a whole is a small factor.
In fact I've been more successful already then I would have thought possible. I'm already first or on the first page for many searches. I think it's unlikely that the type of people looking for help desk software are the type who don't understand the difference between the address bar and a search bar. Generally my customers are moderate to very technical and I think this is true for most people researching help desk software as a whole.
I'll definitely be posting a follow-up though on how this all works out.
Created by Ian on 10.13.2006 7:34 am
Hi Ian,
Don't get me wrong, I don't think your site was setup like the normal mini-one I just wanted to let you know how most of them operated, why they existed if you will. I wasn't trying to imply you were one of those types of sites, I just wanted to let you know their business models.
I'm glad to hear its more successful that you already thought possible!!! I'd definitely love to read a follow-up!
Do you mind if I ask how most of the traffic is generated? Is it from people linking to it? I'm going to assume so since the domain isn't exactly the type-in type.
If that's the case, it's phenomenal news! From my prior experience the only way you could really make such mini-sites successful was from type-in traffic or buying expired domains with pre-existing links. If you wanted to put a site such as yours, you generally had to have more content such as: http://java-source.net It's great to hear that its working for you, you've just proven another model :D I'm excited to see if it's possible in other domains as well.
Created by Stephane Grenier on 10.13.2006 12:31 pm
I would never buy an expired domain, at least not on purpose. That's usually a bad idea since they're likely blacklisted by the search engines because they've been used for spamming or link farms.
Yeah the traffic is from search engines. My site has a good pagerank, but is also very good for help desk related searches. I was able to link over to the mini site from here and give it some instant juice and allowed it to be indexed immediately by the search engines rather than waiting the normal few months.
Also several other blogs and news site have linked over. No huge traffic from them but it's helped with the ranking.
Created by Ian on 10.13.2006 10:17 pm
Hi Ian,
I have to respectfully disagree with you on expired domains. Yes it's true many, probably most have been banned from search engines for exactly the type of activities you say, but there's also some great ones to be had. I have to admit I've gotten a few good ones this way myself
It's also great news that you were able to get ranked so fast! Like you said, it usually takes a while (my experience has been anywhere between 1-9 months to get ranked), so doing it almost immediately is great! I have no doubt that the potency and Google Value Rank (in addition to Page Rank) of your blog helped this!
As well, I'm sure that your reputation helped you get links from other people. I know I thoroughly enjoy and respect your opinion here on your blog. And, if you don't mind my saying so Ian, I'm also a big fan of your software HelpSpot (http://www.followsteph.com/2006/06/20/helpspot-versus-fogbugz/). Keep up the great work, I'm glad to see it growing, I know it's been really great for my company.
Created by Stephane Grenier on 10.13.2006 10:32 pm