"How Many Units Can It Handle?"
Since the beginning of the summer we’ve been continually revising our website (LandlordMax Property Management Software) with several goals in mind. One of these goals is to proactively answer our pre-sales questions, and so far we’ve been doing a good job at it because the number of repetitive pre-sales support questions have reduced in number. That is to say, the ones we had a tendency of receiving over and over are now being answered directly by the copy on the website.
The current common question we’re in the process of dealing with is: “How many units can the software handle?”, or some version of this. The first and simplest thing we did on the website is adjust the copy on the front page to include “store 1000’s of units”. Even though the database engine can store a lot more, in the millions, we decided to use a much lower number that our customers would perceive as reasonable. The second and probably the most powerful is that we’re in the process of creating a showcase flash animation link directly on the front page to replace the screenshot currently there. This animation/tutorial will use a database that larger than what 99% of our clients currently use, the largest database I’ve seen so far from a customer was 652 units. I’m sure there’s larger that we don’t know about, but it gives a good idea to the vast majority of our customers that the support can support a large database when one of this size doesn’t even cause it to flinch!
In any case, the database we’ve created to showcase LandlordMax has 2797 units! In terms of buildings, it’s got 211 (several multi-unit buildings, including some buildings with about 200 units). The database also includes 2659 tenants with 2535 leases (some tenants are potentials, etc.). As you can imagine, this is a lot of data for most real estate investors or property management companies. Although we could add a substantial amount more data to it, I believe this is significant enough to showcase the software.
Even though I’ll be answering this in more detail on LandlordMax, here’s some of the performance results we’ve seen with this particular database. The time to display the list of buildings, units, tenants is under 1 second (this includes time for the database and the software to render them). By the way, for those of you who think Java is slow, here’s a clear example that performance is based on the quality of the code and not the language!
I also ran some further tests with our most performance intensive report, the Rent Roll, and the results were very good. Before I give the actual numbers, let me explain a little why the Rent Roll report is so performance intensive. First, unlike other property management software applications, we give you the ability to run the Rent Roll report between any start and end date. This might not seem like such a big deal, but now imagine what happens if you put no start and end date? It will then generate a report listing every single rent ever due from all your leases!!! That’s a lot of data! In addition to finding when every single rent is due, it will also cross reference this data with the rest of the data to show the tenants name, their residing building, and in which unit they’re in, if it’s applicable. That means it’s combining information from 4 tables for each rent due. Also remember that this is for each rent due, not each lease, so if it’s a year lease this will include 12 seperate monthly rental amounts due. Finally it then computes the total amount of all these rents due for the whole period. Now that you have some idea of what’s involved in tabulating this particular report, the results included 33,290 rents due, or 521 pages of printed data! How long do you think this should take to generate? The report is generated in under 12 seconds on my computer!
Anyways, going back to the main point, the moral of the story is that you should continually update your company’s website copy to answer the most frequently asked questions from your customers. Not only does this reduce your pre-sales/support costs, but more importantly it will increase your sales conversion ratios.
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Ideas are a Dime a Dozen
I don’t know if I’ve posted about this before, but it keeps coming up over and over again with people I talk who want to start a businesses, invest in real estate, start new projects, etc. Either they don’t have a new novel idea to start with, or if they do, they think the idea is worth a mint. The reality is that both of these preconceptions are dead wrong! Ideas are worth very little, it’s the execution that’s worth it’s weight in gold!
Let’s think about this a little… How many times have you heard someone say something like “I thought of that years ago. I should be a millionaire”. I know I’ve heard it a lot. The reality is that 99.99% of the general population doesn’t follow through with their ideas, at least not much past the first few months. Most people aren’t willing to put in the effort it takes to get an idea off the ground. And make no mistake about it, it takes effort. By the way, health gyms are notorious for using this to their advantage. They get you to buy a year membership, with an initiation fee, knowing full well that the majority of their members will stop using the facilities within a few months. Are you one of these people?
I can also tell you that I come up with potentially successful business ideas every day. The problem is that I can’t try them all out. You need to focus on one idea and push through it because it will take time for it to come to fruition. If you decide to invest in real estate, than expect it to take you many properties and deals before you can retire, you won’t retire on one golden deal (also you probably won’t have the experience to know what a golden deal is without some experience). In business the same is true, it takes time for a business to gain momentum and get off the ground. Don’t keep moving from project to project, which is easy to do as soon as you hit a speed bump or when you think of something new and exciting. If you study psychology at all (or probably through common sense), you’ll know that people like novelty more than repetition, so it’s very easy to get sidetracked.
On the other side of the coin, you have those who think they need to come up with a golden idea to make it. They think that everything’s done and there’s nothing they can do. Guess again, there’s lots of things everyone can do, you just need to put your mind to it. And please don’t ask me what you can do, that’s what you have to come up with yourself. Make that your first goal! Come up with an idea. Now don’t think it has to be original, it doesn’t. Just look at what’s happening in your area of interest, see what others are doing, look at who’s succeeding, and see if there’s more room in the market for you. How many grocery chains are there, movie rental chains, real estate investors, software companies, chocolate bar producers, tv shows, etc. You don’t need to be original, you just need to look at it from a slightly different angle. Maybe a higher quality, cheaper price, best locally, fastest, better service, etc.
The next major obstacle I often hear is that I don’t have enough money to get going. The reality is that if you think too big to start, than absolutely you don’t have the money. You might need to start smaller and grow from there. If you’re a real estate investor, start with a single resident home instead of with an apartment complex. Maybe one in a more affordable community. If it’s a business, look at something that can be started with your current capital. It can be as simple as a web service, a blog, a software application. You could even sell cookies, a lot of large companies have started this way.
Who’s familiar with the purple dinosaur Barney? How many of you know it was started by a mother (Sheryl Leach) in 1987 as home videos she wrote and filmed herself because she was dissatisfied with the selection of home videos on the market to amuse her own son? She produced three “Barney and the Backyard Gang” videos and marketed then to day-care centers and video stores until they were finally discovered by a PBS director in 1991. And the rest, to quote a cliche, is history.
So what are the steps to success?
1. Get started! That means now! We all have things happening in our lives, it’s just a matter of priorities. If you can find the time to watch any TV, then you can find the time to get started. I can tell you right now that for me it’s 11:15pm right now (actually I’m now revising this entry, minus some LandlordMax related sidetracks, and it’s 12:35am now) and I’ll be up on the computer for at least another hour or two working (as I’ve just confirmed). I live by the principle of work extremely hard for 5 or so years and then completely relax for the rest of my life rather than work moderatly for my whole life. So get started, find the time, it’s there.
2. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. That is, stay the course. Yes, you’re all pumped and the first 2-3 weeks go flying by. You get some work done but suddenly its your friends wedding on the weekend. One weekend isn’t so bad. But the next thing you know you have a party you just have to attend, a supper, a celebration, a birthday. And then there’s the bbq the weekend afterwards at your parents. And not to mention the fact that it’s SuperBowl weekend right after and everyone meets up for that. Suddenly a month goes by and nothing gets done, so you stop working. The project pitters to a dead stop. This is exactly how health gyms make their money! Stay the course. Push yourself. Set your priorities. Know what’s important to you and live accordingly.
3. Educate yourself. This means spend time AND money on educating yourself. I think I’ve read every book there is on real estate, business, marketing, sales, software development, etc. I try to read one book a week that’s related to what I’m trying to do. Yes I still read the odd novel, but again, base your priorities on what you want. A novel to me is like going to the movies, so I read them when I need a break. Not all my books are interesting, actually I can tell you many are really pretty boring and hard to read, but the content is worth the effort. Try to read a lot of what will help you succeed. The unfortunate side is that it’s not always the most interesting material.
Also attend seminars, talk to people in your industry, join like minded groups. For example, I belong to several local groups, the latest of which was just formed. This last one is a group focused on generating passive income here in Ottawa that meets once a month to discuss any and all passive income opportunities available out there (stocks, real estate, automated businesses, web sites, etc.) Take the time to educate yourself, you’re worth it.
4. Spend on yourself. Most people think that they can start a business, invest in real estate, and so on, with just time. It’s possible, but don’t be afraid to invest money on yourself. I can’t tell you how many people get flustered when I start to share my expenses in regards to LandlordMax and FollowSteph. They’re all pumped to get started, but as soon as I suggest they look at investing $500-$1000 on themselves and their idea, WAIT A MINUTE!!! “I don’t know, that’s seems like an aweful lot of money.” Well let me put it another way, if you don’t even believe in yourself and your idea enough to put down a little money on it, do you think anyone else will? Why are so many people afraid to invest in themselves? I don’t understand it. Don’t they realize that their employers are doing just that, they expect to make more money from their labour and skills than they pay them (that’s how business works)? I can’t imagine a world in which I wouldn’t be willing to invest in myself and my ideas. I do it all the time. Actually, I’ve been known to be a little trigger happy in this regard. I’m willing to take the chance sooner than later as I’m a big fan of trying rather than theorizing. After all you can’t debate with results, right or wrong (and I’ve proven myself both right and wrong many times).
5. Stay focused. I can’t even count any more how many people have asked me to co-venture with them… From small to larger projects. In the past I would generally hear everyone out, consider their ideas, and possibly be interested, in the least I’d offer some guidance. Today I have a different perspective. After having gone through it so many times, I now tell people that if they have an idea they’d like me to consider as a co-venture, come talk to me again about it in 6-12 months, whether or not they’re succeeding. Why 6-12 months? Simply because I want to see if they’re going to stick with their projects. Again, it all comes down to the fact that the vast majority of people, good intentions or not, will for some reason or another, start to lose interest in their projects within a few months. All I’m trying to do is weed these people out. So far I only know of a very small select few people who’ve gone beyond this! I don’t care whether their succeeding after this time, everyone has different areas of expertise and maybe its something simple their missing, maybe it’s not the great idea it seemed, maybe its an amazing success I missed an opportunity on, it doesn’t matter. I’m personally not interested in any co-ventures unless the person has put in at least 6-12 months of effort, to show me that they’re going to stay the course, that they’re focused, that they’re not just another health gym statistic.
6. Stick to your idea, test it. Lastly, don’t run away as soon as you hit a road block. Get past it. Go around it. Go in a slightly different direction. But keep moving. I can’t tell you how many people hit a road block and stop. If I did that with LandlordMax, well I wouldn’t be here. It’s now been over 3 years now, 4 if you count the year in which I created the initial version. If you think there weren’t some brutal road blocks, think again! To use one of my favorite quotes from I can’t remember who: “It took me 10 years to become an overnight success!“.
And with that, let me just say, you can’t make a journey around the world without first taking a step, so take it! Henry Ford put it another way: “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” Or as a fellow business owner and investor of mine, Glenn Scott put it: “I would rather see a stupid do’er than a brillant dreamer“.
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Customer Service How Not To
Before I begin, let me just say that this example is taken from GoDaddy.com. I’ve used them in the past, I will use them again in the future, but this particular incident did put some heavy doubts into my mind as to what type of company they are.
At least a year or two ago, maybe more, I tried the GoDaddy’s domain name backordering service. It’s a pretty simple service, it allows you to try to pick up domains that are about to expire (that is domains that were once registered and that are now about to come back on the free market). At the time, I knew that the big services for picking up expired/deleted domains were Pool.com, NameWinner.com, and another one that I can’t offhand recall. In any case, GoDaddy’s domain backordering service uses one registrar to try to pick up expiring domains whereas these other services use many different registrars combined together to keep pounding away hoping to get the domain at just the second it expires (it’s first come first serve). As you can imagine, the success rate of highly sought after expired domains is much more likely with services like Pool or NameWinner than with GoDaddy.
So why did I decide to use GoDaddy? Because the other services start auctions if more than one person tries to get the name, with the domain eventually going to the highest bidder. As you can imagine, some highly sought after domains can quickly go for large sums of money. What GoDaddy offers is you get it or you don’t (no auctions), but for one low price, under $20. So the odds are very low, but the so is the price. Almost like buying a lotery ticket. So I figured why not try it out.
As well, they advertise on their website:
“If you don’t get the name, you don’t lose – just re-assign to another name.”
Not a bad deal. So if they can’t get it, you just keep trying with other domains. Well after several unsuccessful expired domain attempts, this got rather tedious and annoying. It could very well be that I was trying to constantly pick up popular expiring domain names. But either way this got annoying after a while. So what do you think your next reaction is going to be? Let’s get a refund since they can’t deliver the service they promised. Rather than keep trying for other domains that they don’t seem to be able to get, let’s just get our cash and move on. After all, they seem to offer a very nice guarantee: “If you don’t get the name, you don’t lose – just re-assign to another name.” suggesting that they would offer a refund.
But wait, there’s no mention of a refund… Actually if you look on their website, there’s no mention of any type of refund anywhere. It turns out this is a non-refundable service! But here’s the kicker, no where is it mentioned that this is a non-refundable purchase. On the contrary it seems to suggest that they have the best intentions for you by their guarantee, but the reality is that it’s a non-refundable purchase with no notification. I even took the time recently to try to dig up this non-refundable condition. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I looked in the FAQ, the Help sections, everywhere. Nothing. No mention of it anywhere. I’m sure it’s there somewhere, but it’s obviously not easy to find by any means! If any of you find it, please let me know in the comments, I’d be very appreciative.
Moving on, why is this bad customer service? Because they intentionally give their customer the perception that they’re out looking for their best interest by offering a great guarantee, but with the exception that if they can’t deliver their service it’s non-refundable. So now what am I to do with this money I spent? I know it’s not a lot of money, but it can quickly add up. Now the only way I can use this money is to buy an already expired domain (one that no one is interested in) for $20 where it should have only cost me $9, almost double the price of purchasing a regular domain because they couldn’t deliver what they promised!
This really annoys me. This is not a way to treat your customers. If it wasn’t for the fact that they are one of the largest registrars, if not the largest, and that I have many domains already setup there, I would have seriously considered moving. Actually I seriously did! It’s amazing how simple small interactions with your customers can have such large ripple affects. For a measly $20 they almost lost thousands of dollars of business! I can’t ever imagining taking this type of gamble with my LandlordMax customers. It just doesn’t make business sense to me…
And yes I’ve registered that many domains over the last few years as I tried and learned many things.
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Adsense, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Website Promotions
The seminar where I was a keynote speaker over the last two weekends turned out to be a great success! Not only was it sold out, but everyone seemed to really benefit from it! All in all a phenomonal success!
Because of the enthusiasm and success of the first seminar, we’ve (me and Glenn Scott) decided to offer another repeat of it, just a little more condensed. The next seminar will only be lecture based rather than a combination of lecture and workshop, and it will be over 1 weekend instead of two. The new seminar will be very similar in terms of content; Adsense, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and website promotion methods. We’re just going to eliminate the Dreamweaver MX section and the computer workshop time.
We’re very excited about it, especially considering the amazing feedback we received! You can yourself view some of the amazing video testimonials we received from the seminar by going directly to the the new website we’ve setup for the next course: LearningCentre.com. You can also view comments that were left from some of the attendees on my blog related entry here. As you can easily see, it was a great success!
This next seminar will be held on the weekend of September 23-24, 2006 here in Ottawa. If you’re interested, please visit LearningCentre.com for more details.
In addition, based on the feedback from the people in the seminar, we’re going to offer in the very near future (within days) a new membership based group to LearningCentre.com for as little as $25/month, which is extremely affordable! It’s less than either cable tv or your cell phone, it’s the price of only one supper outing. The idea is that it will give you the opportunity to keep up to date with the latest industry information through both its online blog/newsletter and forums where both me and Glenn Scott will be very active members. In addition to that as part of the same membership package, we’re going to offer something similar to what REIN offers for real estate investors, we’re also going to host a monthly evening event where we’ll have either one of us, or a guest speaker, talk about the latest information, offer tips, show things we’ve learning that month, and so on. These monthly evening events will of course be optional, but I wouldn’t want to miss them!
I’m personally very excited about this new package because it gives the people who take the seminar a nice way of following up after the seminar is done, it helps to keep them updated. Therefore as part of the seminar package, we’re giving everyone who takes the seminar one free month’s access to this extra package, giving you a month’s worth of free access to the member’s only section of LearningCentre.com and one free monthly evening event eadmission!
Very Exciting! Had you asked me two weeks ago about these new offerings, chances are I wouldn’t have been able to predict them. But after having gone through the seminar once and seeing the interest, I can’t help but be thrilled!
Lastly, as many of you who took the course have already seen, we’ve been working very hard this week to get the website LearningCentre.com up and running (it was unplanned), and if everything goes well we should be fully operational by the end of the weekend. As we mentioned in the seminar, neither of us had any plans of offering this seminar again, or even expanding on it, but the interest and enthusiasm were so high that I was able to convince Glenn Scott to join me for a few more offerings. Therefore I can’t guarantee how many more seminars we’ll offer here in Ottawa, so if you’re interested I would suggest taking the next one right away in case it’s the last one…
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SEO Resources
Just a quick post as this week is incredibly busy for me, several people at the seminar of which I’m one of three keynote speakers asked me where to get additional SEO and Adsense related resources. I’m going to recommend here one ebook that I really enjoyed and got a lot of value from, probably the best resource, and several links/blogs for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). As for Adsense, unfortunately all I can reference is additional websites and blogs, I don’t know of any one book or ebook that does a good job of explaining it that worth its price.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
eBooks
SEO Book: By far the best book I’ve read on the topic. This book is written by Aaron Wall, who’s one of the first 100 “Google qualified professionals” in the world. Even though I’ve been very active in the SEO world for quite some time, this book still contained many great pieces of information for me when I read it. In terms of an introduction and encapsulating a lot of the knowledge, this is probably the one best resource to get. You can find the SEO Book here.
SEO links
Beginner’s Guide to SEO (Search Engine Optimization): The best and most comprehensive free introduction and how-to to Search Engine Optimzation (SEO) I’ve seen online!
Matt Cutts: This is the blog you want to follow if you want to keep up with SEO.
SEO Chat: Lots of articles being continually updated on SEO
SEO Black Hat: Lots of interesting leading edge information on SEO
Adsense
Adsense Links
Problogger.net: He’s mainly about making money through blogging. The good news is that he covers many related topics, from Adsense to other monetization methods. He even talks about other related topics such as SEO, how to generate traffic, etc. Very excellent overall resource.
Performancing.com: Again, very related to monetizing blogs, but very applicable to monetizing any website.
I mentioned it in the course but not here yet, getting information about SEO and website monetization, such as using Adsense, is generally not easily available in one “put together nicely” package. This is why the seminar was created. These are just some of the more common resources I personally use, there are many more. These should at least give you a big head start!
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Update: LandlordMax Traffic Doubles As a Result of the Free Real Estate Analyzer
A few weeks ago we released a free online real estate analyzer on my company’s website (LandlordMax) in the hopes that it would increase the traffic to our website, and hence create more interest in our main product. The idea is that if you offer something of value for free, you will generate significant traffic from it.
We initially doubled the traffic to our website, which was great! Since then, as I promised to update you all, we’ve continued to get at least double our previous traffic each day from before we released it, sometimes much more! This increase in traffic has been maintained, and is actually still growing as its gaining more exposure. At this point, we’re barely promoting it anymore if at all, we’re letting the viral aspect take over, which is great. This might turn out to be our best marketing investment yet!
If you have a website and you want to increase your traffic significantly, offer something of high value for free and people will come.
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Here’s a Quick Way to Get the Most Value Out of Your Press Releases
A few weeks ago we released a major press release about our new free Real Estate Property Analyzer on LandlordMax, and I said I would post an update about it since we decided to go a very different route. Normally we would only use PRWeb as our distributor, which is very affordable. This time however we decided to go mainstream and we used a major news wire service called PR News Wire. Both are very good and very different. Unfortunately for us, I learned a very hard lesson which I already knew but completely forgot this time, which is to test the press release in a smaller and cheaper distribution first rather than releasing it nationally right away. This is an absolute must, especially if you’re going to use a major service!
Let me expand a little and give you some context. As I said earlier, normally we release our press releases through PRWeb, which can be free to virtually any price you want (of course I’ve never seen one go for more than a thousand dollars on any day) depending on the placement you want. We often use the $80 option as this gives us some pretty good coverage and traffic and it’s very affordable. So far, our press releases have all been successes, all with over 100’000’s reads directly from PRWeb alone, and lots of reprints from the feeds, in the thousands. So I’m fairly confident in my ability to write press releases. I’d never really had an unsuccessful press release before, so I didn’t anticipate one this time.
Therefore on this iteration, I went directly to PRNewsWire without testing the press release first, and I went with the bigger coverage (being picked up by the major publications). In my head I wanted to go this route because I figured “old news is no news”. That is, if it wasn’t new, no one would be interested in publishing it. And this was my mistake that I hope you learn from because I know I did!
I opted for a very expensive high distribution press release without testing it in a smaller distribution first. I went with the “US1 Financial Services” where I should have gone with something like “New York”, which costs about 30% of the price. I could also have used PRWeb to test the success of the release since it’s even cheaper, about 15% the price. Had I done this I would have quickly learned that this particular press release wasn’t as successful as normal. By the way I think the cause was the headline, I have to admit I did have some doubts about it when I released it. Anways, it did get attention, just not on the scale I’m familiar with.
So the tip of the day on how to get the most value out of your press release is:
When doing a press release, ALWAYS ALWAYS release to a smaller distribution first before doing a full scale distribution. By doing this you’ll be able to commit your hard earned income to only the most successful press releases you write.
Additionally, as an extra update on the original article as to its success I’ve posted my report graph from PR News Wire below. By the looks of the graph, I’m highly confident that this press release will result in a positive ROI (Return On Investment). However had I just tested it first on a smaller scale first, I know I could have easily increased the ROI.
As an extra little addendum, from what I understand from talking to their representatives, this is what you should expect from a normal press release. Of course some news items have much larger pick ups, such as the latest news on celebreties, the war in the middle east, gas prices, etc., but in terms of a smaller company with a new offering (even if it’s free), this is what they told me you should expect. However after running the same press release through PRWeb a week later and achieving only about 20% of my normal results, it makes me think that I could have done much better… Hence the tip of the day!
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How to Generate Traffic for Your Website
I’ve been asked to be one of 3 keynote speakers/instructors in a 4-day intensive training class on how to generate passive income online. The course will be held here locally in Ottawa over 2 weekends (the weekends of August 12-13 and 19-20). Spacing is very limited, it’s already 50% sold out and it was only annouced yesterday! Anyone interested should contact Glenn Scott before the August 4th deadline to register. The cost of attending is $250/person, which is phenomally low considering that you get 3 speakers for substantially less than it would cost you to just have one of them speak individually!. This is a one-time opportunity, this course will only be offered this one time.
As an extra, this course will be recorded for resale later on DVD. I’ve already made arrangements with Glenn Scott to be able to resell the DVD here through FollowSteph.com, so if you’re not able to come, you can always purchase a DVD copy here when it becomes available. The price of the DVD has not yet been determined.
The course will cover 4 major topics:
Web design
This will by taught by Michael VanDusen who is the head of web design at Algonquin College here in Ottawa. He will use Dreamweaver MX as a tool for building websites which includes lab time (individual computers will be available during the lab time).
Google Adsense Revenue
Glenn Scott will teach how to generate passive income using Google Adsense on your websites. Although he has several streams of income (real estate properties, etc.), Google Adsense is what has allowed him to become financially free at the level he wants.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Glenn Scott wil also cover SEO principles which is very important in getting your site recognized and highly ranked by all the major search engines.
Traffic Generation (my section)
I will personally show you how to generate traffic to your website, be it for monetization, for a small business, etc. I will cover many topics such as blogging, how to get links to your website (link baiting), how to create valuable content, concepts online social networks, copywriting, Google Adwords, press releases, and so on. Basically I’ll show you many ways I’ve learned to make LandlordMax Property Management Software and FollowSteph.com grow in traffic to where they are today (they’ve both at least doubled in the last 6 months alone as shown in the graphs below).
To give you a little history, the concept for this course was actually born from a dinner I attended that was hosted by Glenn Scott entitled “How I Got Out of the Rat Race”. During this dinner many people were interested in learning more details on how he managed to become financially free and suggested he offer a course. And thus 4 weeks later this course was officially offered for this one and only time.
I’m very excited about this project! Not only will I be speaking/instructing one component of the course, but I will be donating my personal time for the other 3 course days to help Glenn and the other speakers/instructors with their components. I will field questions, help with lab times, etc. as I’m also very familiar with these topics. It’s a great opportunity to take advantage of several experts under one umbrella.
I look forward to seeing several of you there!
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LandlordMax Free Online Real Estate Analyzer Continues To Double Traffic!
Just a quick update because I promised I would post an update tp the entrepreneurs following this blog, the traffic (measured in unique visitors) to LandlordMax continues to maintain at least double it’s previous best day before the we launched the new LandlordMax Free Online Real Estate Analyzer. Therefore this service continues to be a success as a traffic and buzz generating campaign!
Once at least a month has passed by I’ll write a detailed entry showing some of our results so that you too can benefit from it. But I’ll quickly mention that there is definitely something to be said about offering something of value to generate traffic and buzz!
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An Amazing Customer Service Request
What do you get when you buy a product? You get the product yes, but what else do you get? Customer service, probably. What about information on how to make the product? Can you resell it? Can you repackage it as your own and resell it (for example instead of Microsoft Windows can you resell it as Steph’s Windows)? Do you get the schematics on how to make it yourself? Not likely, but not everyone thinks so!
I’ve never commented on any customer requests we’ve ever gotten over the past three years since LandlordMax has been around, but this week we received such an audacious request that I’m going to make a rule to the exception. I will however leave out the person and company’s name, as well I will paraphrase the emails going back and forth. I will acknowledge that this isn’t the first time we’ve received a unreasonable requests, however what’s interesting about this one is that it is the most audacious request we’ve ever received and it also had follow-up emails.
Without further ado the first email we received contained two questions. The first was a general pre-sales question such as will the software do this or that for a special situation. The second question is the big one. It went along the lines of:
I want to repackage LandlordMax so that I can put my company logo on it and remove your company’s logo. Is this possible? Also, can I have access to your complete source code?
Wow! We’ve received some requests in the past of people trying to resell it on their own, which by the way does require permission from whichever company makes the product (often this is done with distributors or directly with the company through some sort of arrangement). But not with this request, they wanted to brand the product as their own and have full access to the source code, the full schematics of LandlordMax! This is basically like asking Microsoft for the source code of Windows and repacking it as say Steph’s Windows. Microsoft would never do that in a million years. This is the same as Dan Brown selling a copy of his book The Da Vinci Code and with that you have his permission to repackage it under a different title by another author (for example “Steph’s Da Vinci Code” written by Stephane Grenier). I don’t think so! When you buy a can of Coca-Cola, do you get access to the Coca-Cola formula to make your own and repackage it as Steph’s Coca-cola? I don’t think so! So why are they asking? Maybe they just don’t know any better, so let’s give them the benefit of the doubt as we normally do (honestly many people don’t realize it until you explain it).
So I personally proceeded to respond to this request, more out of curiousity than anything else, mentionning that no they aren’t allowed, as well doing so without special permission is actually illegal (copyright). Surpringly they responded to this expressing pushing their request further. Here’s the paraphrase of what I received:
I’m also thinking about reselling LandlordMax as I have found the trial version to be very good. However, I would only feel comfortable selling it if I had anonymity where clients would think that this product has been developed by my own company. I am happy to pay a fee for this or work on some commission/affiliate scheme with you.
Wow! So what they’re basically saying is that if you buy a can of Coca-Cola, you only feel right reselling it if you have complete control over the product, access to it’s full research and development that took years to build, it’s secret formula, and that you can repackage it as your own Steph’s Coca-Cola. Not only that, you want completely anonymity selling it however you want, at any price you want, etc. Complete and full control? Would any company oblige to this? I highly doubt it. If you don’t believe, make this request to Coca-Cola.
Luckily for the extra sentence at the end, where they mention they were happy to pay a fee for this. What kind of fee? So I decided to push it for my own interest to see what their expections were for the fee, because at this point I knew this wasn’t going any further. To go back a second, my initial intention in my first reply was to try to steer them away from their repackaging concept and have them become an affiliate through our LandlordMax Affiliate Program. This is a great little program that benefits everyone, they get a commission from any direct sales from them and it’s automated by a third party service called ShareASale.com. It’s worked great for us and we have many affiliates this way.
However I could tell by their last email (remember I’m just paraphrasing above, and I did omit some of the content) that they weren’t interested in the affiliate program. So I did hinted that they could get full access to the source, etc., but that it would be virtually the same as buying the company and it would cost them a substantial amount. Needless to say this is the last I heard from them.
At the end of the day, I don’t mind that they didn’t become a LandlordMax customer. I suspect that the cost of dealing with them would have far outweighed the revenue they would have generated. I’m just amazed at the audacity that they had, what they expected to get when purchasing LandlordMax. This is the biggest most unreasonable request we’ve ever had which is why I thought it would be an interesting read.
And please don’t think that I don’t believe in partnerships, I do. As an example, we’re actually in the process of establish a strong partnership with a company in the UK that will sell LandlordMax along with their services and offer support above and beyond what we can offer above our own. This company was very reasonable, they understood business, and came to us with an opportunity that made sense for both of us, it was a win-win situation. If a company approaches us with an opportunity that makes sense, we have open ears.
Anyways, I didn’t want to go on such a rant (my first on FollowSteph.com because I don’t really believe in them) but I thought it would make for an interesting read!
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