Build - The MVP of Your Bitcoin Business
After all that planning and talking we've finally made it, we're actually going to build something!
Are you as excited as I am?
We're going to build our MVP so we can also prove our assumptions in practice and not just in theory. After we launch our MVP and test it we will have a final "go/no-go" and decide if the complete product should be built.
If you did your assignments you should by now have a general feeling about which idea seems most profitable to follow through on. Now it's time to start building our MVP. If you remember, we said an MVP is basically the leanest version of our product possible that still adds some sort of value to our user.
Here are some examples of MVPs you may already have heard about:
If you compare Facebook's original version to what it is today you probably get an idea of what an MVP should look like. The original site lacked any good design, cool features like sharing or posting statuses and only allowed people to see who is in their personal social network.
Virgin Air
Virgin Air started with just one plane flying between two locations. It delivered on it's most core value proposition. After testing the concept and improving the offering they expanded their fleet.
Zappos
Zappos is an ecommerce site where people can buy shoes online. To test their value proposition, they took pictures of shoes at local stores, posted the pictures online, put them up for sale on their site, and when customers purchased the shoes, the company would buy them from the stores at full price and ship them to their customers.
Craigslist
I think one of the best examples is a website that kind of still looks like an MVP and proves the point that if you deliver your core value well you don't need anything else. Craigslist is considered to be the 60th largest website on the webl7. All it does is let you post up and view classified ads in a not-so-beautiful way.
So think about your idea for a moment; what would it be in its most basic form? How will it look if it could do one thing and one thing only. This is how you should design your MVP. Why design a complete product when you can just build its core function and only if it proves all three assumptions move on.
When I started 99Bitcoins I didn't even have a website. I mean think about it, my assumption were that if I create a written guide on how to buy Bitcoins with PayPal people will sign up for my recommended exchange.
Do I really need to put up a website for that? Heck no! I just wrote a "Facebook note" on my Facebook profile and used it as my MVP. I'll later show you how I tested it but for now you can still see the original note here.
In order to get a clearer idea of what you can use as an MVP I want you to answer the following questions:
- How can your solution be created in the leanest and laziest way possible?
- Is there any way this can be done without any coding or design?
- Can I still think of something easier to do than what I just thought about?
Today there are so many free resources on the web that rarely will you need to actually hire a programmer and build a full-blown website just to test out your idea.
Even the ebook you're currently reading is a great MVP example. Why? Because I didn't even start writing it when before I proved my assumptions. I only put up a simple page that explains what the book is about and measured how many people were interested. Once I saw that enough people signed up to get it, I started writing.
I basically proved my problem, my solution, my outcome, and business model before even having a product.
You see, I don't want you to work hard, I want you to work smart. So before I'm going to teach you how to set up a basic website (in case you decide you absolutely must do so) here are some great free website alternatives you can use to create an MVP:
Facebook notes
If you just need to write a post or an article and publish it online you can always use Facebook notes. I did it for my MVP and it worked like a charm. The issue with notes and other Facebook products is that you can't get accurate statistics for them, but there are ways to still guess how many people have visited your page.
Facebook Groups
If you need to bring a group of people together this is a great way to create an MVP. For example, if you have an idea for a group deal website you can always start out your MVP as a Facebook group.
Facebook pages
If you need some more functionality than just text, you can open a Facebook page for free and use this as your MVP. This is good for collecting an audience that is interested in a certain category but doesn't need to interact with each other.
Kickstarter campaign
If you're going to build a physical product for example, what better way to validate if people are willing to pay for it then to create a Kickstarter campaign for it? Kickstarter analytics however are limited.
Wordpress.com
Not to be confused with Wordpress.org, this website allows you to host your own WordPress website for free. WordPress is a CMS (content managing system) which makes it easy for users with no technical knowledge to manage a website. Wordpress.com is a service that will set up the site for your and all you will have to do is enter the content. With Wordpress.comyou get basic analytics.
If you find yourself debating over what's better - using Wordpress.com or hosting your own website you can read this excellent articleto find out the differences.
Wix
Another free tool for building great looking websites. You can add Google Analytics to your Wix website.
Blogger
A free blogging platform by Google. Does similar things to WordPress only more limited. You can add Google Analytics to your Blogger site as shown here.
If none if these do the trick and you still feel that you need to build a full blown website here are step by step instructions on how to do so.
Chapter 7.1: Get A Domain Name
Probably one of the most exciting steps of building your own website is deciding on its name. You can easily get a domain name on GoDaddy but before doing so here are some things you may want to consider.
Buying a "used" domain name
The older the domain name the better credit Google will give it when you try to promote it. Because of this, it's sometimes worth it to invest some more money and get a veteran domain name. You can go on Flippa and just enter "Bitcoin" in the search box. Immediately you'll see used Bitcoin websites and domains for sale.
I wouldn't spend more than a 100 bucks on a domain name and even that's an exaggerated amount. But if you see a name you like which was registered two years ago it may be worth that price.
Another option is to use the excellent site ExpiredDomainsto find old domains that just expired and are not getting renewed. This way you can get old domain names with a small amount of money. Here's a tutorial on how to use it.
Domain extensions
Today there are many available domain extension.".guru", "tips" , "ninja" are just some examples. Still the best option you will have is going with the good old ".com" extension. I'm saying this since no one really knows how Google treats all of these new extensions and better be safe than sorry.
Make your name short and memorable
Of course it becomes harder to do so as most of the "com" domain names are almost gone. One piece of advice I can give you here is try using some form of numbers in your name, just like 99Bitcoins. There are still many free domain names which include numbers.
Incorporate your niche in the domain name
If possible try to have the name of your niche inside your domain name. If not, then at least include the word Bitcoin so that people will understand what the site is about. So if for example, you are going to open an information website about Bitcoin mining you may want to call it BTCminer.com (if that domain was available of course). You can always choose a very descriptive long domain name as well such as BitcoinMiningGuide.com, but I find it more appealing for the name to be as short as possible.
Don't sweat over the domain name too much
When all is said and done, the domain name isn't TH AT important. Also you will be able to change it in the future if you'd like. 99Bitcoins started out as BitcoinWithPaypal.com (pretty original I know). Later on when the site grew and I wanted to brand it in a more serious manner I changed the domain name to 99Bitcoins.
Remember, done is better than perfect, so just choose a name and let's move on to more important stuff.
Buy the domain, and only the domain for one year only
After you choose your domain on Godaddy, you will be showered with endless possibilities for add-ons and upgrades for your domain. You don't need any of them, trust me. Make sure to click the "no thanks, take me to checkout" button at the bottom. Also before checking out make sure the domain is registered for one year only, since the default is five years. The whole thing shouldn't cost you more than $15 for a ".com" domain.
Get a free domain name from your hosting provider
Almost all of the basic hosting providers supply you with one free domain name registration when you sign up. So before heading to GoDaddy make sure to check with your hosting company (read the next step) if they offer one. Also if you get the domain from the hosting provider you won't need to deal with technical issues like connecting the domain to the hosting.
Chapter 7.2: Get A Hosting Plan
The next step would be to choose a hosting plan. Websites are basically files that are hosted on a computer (i.e. server) somewhere. For people to be able to access your website you need to host your site's files on a server. Companies that offer these servers for rent are called hosting companies.
Since I assume you won't be building a very large website to begin with, you can use what is known as "shared hosting". This is a server that is shared by many websites. The pros of shared hosting is that it's relatively cheap, while the cons are that it's a bit slower than a dedicated sever. Having said that for our MVP a shared hosting plan will do just fine.
From my own experience, I found that for entry level websites Dreamhost does a pretty good job. I've also used Bluehost before but their support isn't that great. For as little as $4.95 you can get your shared hosting plan and a free domain name registered for one year.
Here are some things to consider when checking out hosting providers:
You don't need more than the basic plan
Many hosting providers will offer you different hosting plans which won't make much sense to you at this point. Be sure to choose the most basic plan possible since you don't need anything else at the moment. If you find yourself confused, most hosting websites have an online chat where you can consult a representative, they are usually extremely helpful.
Support is critical
One of the most stressful things that can happen to you as a website owner is that your website crashes. When that happens, you want to make sure that someone will be there to support you. One of the ways I test this out is to send a support ticket with a question about the hosting before becoming a customer. I want to see how long it will take to receive an answer. Of course you can't conclude much from this about the actual support for existing customers but it's some sort of a clue.
Make sure they help you set up the site
Another great question to ask the online representative of the hosting provider you're evaluating is if they help you set up the site. I know that several companies will actually walk you through the process or even do it for you. Some companies won't do this for you but they have detailed explanations which will help you finish the process - Bluehost is a good example for this.
Choose a host that is located where you target audience is
Whenever someone tries to access you website, it means that they are trying to reach the server at which your files are located. This means that if the server is physically closer to that computer, he will reach the files faster and your website will load quicker. Don't take this recommendation as a must, but if your target audience is in the United States, don't host your website in Asia.
Make sure there's a money back guarantee
This is a standard for many hosting companies today. Just make sure that if anything goes wrong and you're not satisfied with the support you can always get a refund and choose another provider. There are so many hosting companies that the options are limitless, that's why most hosting companies will make sure to give you the best service possible so you won't leave - make sure you get it.
Chapter 7.3: Set Up Your CMS
The next thing you're going to want to do is install a Content Managing System, or CMS, on your hosting plan. This will allow you to easily write new pages for your website and control everything that goes on behind the stage.
The most popular CMS today is WordPress and I highly recommend using it since it's highly customizable as well. You have all sorts of plugins and themes you can choose in order to make your website look and act exactly like you want it. And the best part about it is that it's absolutely free.
Since I don't want to deal with many technical issues about setting up a website in this book, here is the best guide I couldfind on the web on how to install your CMS. It's a step-by-step guide, including screenshots. It was written by a site called WPBeginner (stands for WordPress beginner). This is an amazing resource for all of your WordPress needs and I find myself visiting it frequently myself.
If at any point you still can't seem to work things out, WPBeginner also supplies dree WordPress blog set up service.
Chapter 7.4: Design Your Site
WordPress websites use "themes" to design a site. There are endless amounts of themes available for WordPress. Just Google "WordPress themes" and you'll see what I mean. Many of the themes are offered for free in exchange for displaying a link at the bottom of the theme to its creator's website.
There are also premium themes that cost a few bucks but usually look way better than the free themes. When starting out with your MVP, don't stress yourself too much over your theme, even the default theme should do the trick. Here's how 99Bitcoins looked when it was in its MVP version:
You can change your theme from your WP dashboard under "appearance" ->"themes". If you need further guidance you can take a look at this guide.
Chapter 7.5: Add Content To Your Site
Now it's time to add pages of content to your site. You can either write your own stuff or hire freelancers to do it for you. In Chapter 8 I'll explain all about how you can get people to write content for you or help you with other website-related tasks.
For now know that if you're going to set up your own website it should have at least 10-20 pages of content so that Google won't consider it to be too low on content. Also it's always advised to make sure you have the general pages such as "about", "contact", "terms of use" and "privacy policy". The terms and privacy pages can be created through generators like this one.
I'm aware that you are still in the dark about what to write about but we'll cover a lot of tactics about getting ideas for your blog in Part III - Marketing Your Bitcoin Business Like a Pro. For now just make sure that the general pages are in place.
Additional website building tools
There are some very popular plugins and tools you can use that will help power up your website. I'm assuming you're using the WordPress platform and therefore most of these tools are WordPress plugins. If I not stated otherwise, all of these tools are free of charge.
Google Analytics
The standard software for tracking user behavior on your website. Once you sign up you'll get a code to paste into your site's header. If you don't know how to do so just use this tutorial for a simple and easy installation. Also, here's how to set up goals in Google Analytics.
You can also use this guide to install Analytify - a paid piece of software that makes analytics much more user friendly. I doubt if it's necessary though.
Contact Form 7
A WordPress plugin that allows you to implement contact forms within your website. Great for the "Contact Us" page.
W3 Total Cache
A great plugin that will boost your website's loading speed. There are also advanced configuration methods available, but just installing and activating this plugin will make a difference.
Akismet
Prevents people from spamming your blog with irrelevant comments in order to get links to their site.
Bitcoin Ticker Widget
Our own Bitcoin price ticker which shows Bitcoin prices from four different exchanges.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
A plugin that will help you configure your blog for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). We will discuss how to use it in Part III of this book.
ThemeForest
A market place for premium themes. These themes cost a higher price but are totally worth it. This is not so relevant for your MVP as it is later down the road.
Homework: Build Your Bitcoin MVP!
- Let's get to work. Look at your solution and outcome assumption and think about the best way to build an MVP for it. This needs to be a "lazy" version of your final project.
- Go ahead and build your MVP! Try to think if you can use one of the website alternatives suggested in this chapter instead of building a complete website.
- If you have to build a website - make sure to go through all five steps and have it up and running.
- If you're building an information product/site - Add the general content to your MVP. This would be the "contact", "about", "terms" and "privacy policy" pages.
- If you're building an information product/site - Add the core content to your MVP. This would be the articles on your selected topic.
- Set up tracking to your MVP and define the goals you want to achieve.
- Measure enough samples to decide if the MVP is a success or a failure.
This homework concludes everything you've learned on how to implement lean methodology to your Bitcoin business idea. Once finished you should have a clear idea if you're going to move forward with your idea and market it like a pro (next part of this book) or go back to where you started and come up with a new idea.
