What to focus on: Product, Conversion or Traffic?

pctThe core message of my Art of Ignoring presentation is focusing on the right stuff and in particular, choosing between working on Product ( = Programming), Conversion or Traffic.

Many developers default to working on their Product, spending most (or all) of their time programming. But that may not be the best way to increase your sales. For example, if you are getting about 100 visitors a day, then adding more cool features to your program is not going to help your sales. (Tip: if this is you, focus on Traffic).

On the other hand, if you are getting thousands of visitors per day, but are only averaging one customer per 1000 visitors, then spending time and money to get even more Traffic may not be the smart thing to focus on. You should improve your Conversion first.

Final example: if you are getting 1 or 2 sales each day, then trying to optimize the Conversion of your check-out process is not a good idea, as you won’t be able to measure the effects reliably.

That’s enough examples of what not to do. Here’s some simple guidelines for deciding when you should focus on Product, Conversion or Traffic. Continue reading

The Art of Ignoring – ESWC 2009

As promised, the slides and full text of my “The Art of Ignoring” presentation at the ESWC 2009 in Berlin. Download it in PDF format here.

(Sorry, no video of this ESWC presentation, but you can watch the SIC 2009 video of the same presentation here.)

artofignoring-eswc-620001

This presentation is about time-management for ISVs, about deciding what to work on at any given time. But more importantly, what to ignore.

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Speaking at the SIC : The Art of Ignoring

I just received confirmation that I have been accepted as a speaker at the 2009 Software Industry Conference, in Boston (July 16-18).
The organizers were able to squeeze me in, even though I submitted my paper way too late (sent it in last week, deadline was February 28).

I will be speaking on Saturday afternoon (July 18), in a session about micro-ISV Issues.

Here’s what I will be talking about:
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