Update After Our Biggest Product Release Yet
The actual most important point in today’s update is in the following questions:
- What do you want to know about the Thrive Themes launch?
- What are your questions about preparing, creating and launching a business like this?
- What insights to you hope to get from my deconstruction of this most recent launch?
Leave a comment below, with your thoughts. I hope I can put together some great content, based on your questions and the things we learnt during the past few weeks and months, with the Thrive Themes project.
Please leave a comment below.Note that I don’t reply to all comments, but I do read them all.
If I don’t reply to your comment, it most likely means that I agree with what you say and don’t have anything meaningful to add, myself. I appreciate and read all comments and your comments play an important part in what I write about, so keep them coming.
Spammy comments are always filtered or removed. No surprise there.
Thanks for keeping us posted. I can’t speak for others but I think it is more important to focus on maximising the quality of themes and tcb and iron all the bugs out. I rather wait for future products later. Buggy stuff will be no use to anyone. Keep up with the good work but don’t forget to recharge your batteries!
Yeah, definitely. I want the base product to be as solid as possible. Plus, there are some features I want to add to the existing themes, before we roll out new ones.
I am very excited about some of the new themes we have planned, though.
Shane,
I enjoy your video updates. I only have one complaint and I’m not a complainer. I wish your videos were smooth and not choppy. I have a high speed cable connection and can view many videos that are smooth. My computer is older but like I said, I can view many videos where voice and picture are in sync.
Just an observation from a happy product customer.
Have a Great Day!
Jeff
I’ve been getting a couple of complaints about the videos, lately. I don’t know why that is, though. I’ve never had trouble with Wistia videos, but apparently they don’t work for everyone. They recently switched from Flash as the default player style to HTML5. Maybe that has something to do with it?
Hey Shane, you deffo need a holiday. I would be really keen to learn how to develop the themes as i am interested in this side of things for my business.
Thanks for the suggestion, Jock!
Shane and Paul, Do you have a online shopping theme planed for any time soon using the Woo-commerce shopping plugin?
Hello Richard,
We’re looking at WooCommerce and assuming it’s not too time-consuming, we’ll make sure our themes have basic compatibility with WooCommerce. But we don’t have plans for creating themes that are specifically made for an ecommerce store. Not in the near future, anyway.
Gets some rest, Shane!
Take care…
David
Thanks, David. I will.
Hi Shane,
Congratulations on the launch. I purchased the Thrive Themes membership as well as Thrive Content Builder (TCB). Wonderful product pairing the two products work amazing well together. I had some issue with the earlier version of the TCB working with other themes but everything is perfect when paired with the Thrive themes. I am very happy with both products and the team has created a superb product and to me a great launch. No issues here.
Now, go take a vacation. You look like you have been run all day and put away wet. Get some rest dude and give the team some time off.
Thank you
Charles O
Thanks, Charles! I’m happy to know that you’re getting good value out of the plugin and themes.
Did you consider launching 1 product at a time? Why the themes and plugin at same time?
How do you keep positive when so many things seem to go wrong? That’s what it looked like from the outside from a customer satisfaction point of view.
I heard wordpress is very difficult to develop for because of so many different combinations of issues. Any general thoughts on that?
Here’s a selfish question. Any chance hybrid connect can be responsive?
Looking forward to the hearing about launch. Hope these questions helped.
Thanks,
Bo
Hey man,
It’s already responsive :)
Yep, what he said. Although slide-ins and modal boxes aren’t responsive. But all the other form types are.
Hello Bo,
That’s a very good question. I’ll definitely address the reason why we launched with a plugin and four themes, rather than one theme at a time.
And the keeping positive thing: at times, it’s very hard. When you don’t get enough sleep or food and are just working on solving problems for ages, it’s difficult to stay positive. For me, I just stay as calm as I can and keep working. Especially during a product launch, you just don’t have a choice. You have to keep going, no matter how bad it gets. You have to get through it. The good thing about a launch is that you know when it’s going to be over. We were under an amount of stress that is unsustainable for any long period of time, but for two weeks, you can suffer through it and remain more or less sane.
Shane, please rest for a few days. It is okay because you will be fresh and ready to tackle a new round of questions and issues. Thanks for your quality products and intelligence.
Nancy
Thank you, Nancy!
Congrats on the unexpected success. Love the new things that you and IMI are coming out with. I disagree with commenters who seem to want perfect (bug-free) releases. Perfection is the enemy of good enough (something that can be released and then improved/updated). Sometimes it is worth it to burn the candle at both ends, and push out something fantastic. All the best to you!
Just in case you were referring to me Sophia. I agree with you. My comments were business and perception related questions. I’m a fan and basically follow Shane around the web lol.
Just giving him some things to give his opinions about in future podcast/post.
I agree, yes. The problem with distributed software is that you can’t ever test for every possible scenario. It’s just not possible to make sure a theme is compatible with every possible combination of WordPress version, plugins, customizations and hosting configurations. You can make it as solid as possible, but then you have to release it and start fixing issues that people come across. I think we’ve been doing a good job of keeping bugs at a minimum to begin with and fixing them quickly, where they appear. I’m proud of how the team has handled things, so far.
In case you are referring to me as well, I am a fan if Shane too. What I said in my previous comment was expressing my concern that Shane is taking on too much and thought it would be best to concentrate on tackling important issues if any and get some rest before moving on the next stage.
I honor and respect the candor. The universe conspiracy comment really hit home. If misery loves company, I am grateful to you for sharing. Bottom line… business is a messy endeavor that we constantly try to lay a grid of “control” over the chaos.
Thanks, Adam. It can indeed be a very messy endeavor. One of the many things we just have to learn to deal with.
Hey Shane,
congratulation for your great work! I’m really impressed!!!
Concerning your question “What are your questions about preparing, creating and launching a business like this?”
Well, of course anything ist interesting… ;-) But the most interesting for me is which work you are delegating and how you are delegating work. And in addition: Are theses people employees or do you outsource your work.
Thanks a lot for all your work! I love your products!
Thomas
Hi Thomas,
Yes, that’s a great question for us to address. Delegation has been key for this project, more than for any of my previous ones.
The team we’re working with are all hired as freelancers and it’s a remote team. We don’t have an office, in other words.
Hey Shane – very nice job on Thrive Content Builder, it’s an excellent product. I’ve updated two sites using it (& finally updated my own site using TCB). Unlike everyone else, I think you should continue working, I’d even suggest perhaps even longer hours? [ OK, JK ] – For ‘behind the scenes’, I’d be interested in knowing how you connected with all those JV’s pre the launch.
Cheers, Neil
I was getting to the point where longer hours were not possible, unless I’d get in a rocket that would accelerate to close to the speed of light…
The thing with the JVs was actually really interesting, for this launch. What happened here changed some of my previous beliefs about affiliate marketing. Definitely a point we’ll address, when we talk about this.
Shane, You want to be transparent. That’s good
While your in the middle of it?
Maybe because you remember the detail
Maybe not as it becomes difficult to see the wood for the trees
Your the only tech/business guy I really relate to
because you get the real world problems new business faces in a very noisy world
Rest recuperate and rise again buddy
Thanks, Dave!
Hi Shane…
I agree with the above: three days out with Paul like the old days… Take yourselves down to the paradise city….where the grass is green…You know what I mean. :)
And you needn’t worry, we will all be here when you get back.
I think we can wait a while for the learning here, and we know when it comes, and you are ready, it will be good. One tip might be to scribble down the bullet points ASAP as it is really easy to lose track of the nuggets. Then let it all jell for a later date.
It’s all coming together…
Great work…
Good point, Michael. I’m taking some notes right now, to make sure I have something to work with and don’t forget the important details.
I actually noticed that the crazy pressure during the launch weeks already kinda blanked out my memories of what happened in the weeks leading up to it…
I’m kind of amused Shane, but supportive of the concern shown for your well-being in some of the above comments … your integrity combined with superior achievement inspire such response.
I am enjoying my Thrive Content plugin as I learn to get the most out of it. Thank you,
Fran
Thank you, Fran! Glad you like the plugin. :)
Shane,
I think it’s Wistia that’s chopping up the video! All of your videos from Viemo I can watch fine, but this one, I even let download ALL the way, and when I try to watch it, it stops/ and you stutter about ever 10-15 seconds!
I’d check with Wistia as to what the problem is??? I can tell I won’t be using them for video storage, crazy.
Thanks
-Brett
I will report this to the Wistia crew, yes. Hopefully, they can fix whatever the current issue for some viewers is.
What you suggest is a good subject mix between ImImpact and Thrive.
Think of it as putting strategic business, marketing and launch issues on Im and tactical “how to build” such and such for one’s site on Thrive.
You long ago made the decision to have different sites for different products, as opposed to having them as part of one site. Does make it clean and allows for better/deeper branding and value propositions, but it does seem to make for more work, if each site maintains a blog.
In any event, you do look beat, so remember that you’ve got some equity in the good will bank with your followers and members, so find a pace you can sustain without worry that the wolves are at your heels.
Bonking doesn’t win the race.
Cheers.
-Joe
It is more work, yes. My goal is to have a small team for each major product. For example, I want to create a team of people who will not only continue developing and improving Hybrid Connect, but also continuously do marketing for it, add new content to the blog, etc.
So far, I’ve been the sole marketing person for everything, but I think we can achieve more and reach a greater audience if I delegate some of the marketing work as well.
At least, that’s one of the things I’ll be experimenting with, this year.
You guys are doing a great job. Appreciate your effort and integrity. Keep it up and don’t worry about not always being on top of everything. You’re human after all. (And that’s what sets you apart from a lot of the others out there.)
Thank you for the kind words, Martin.
Giving us the lowdown on the ups and downs of a product launch is a great idea, and it’s good to know that launches can be a great success even when it seems like everything is conspiring against us.
Enjoy your well deserved break!
Thank you, Stephanie! The launch was a very hot/cold situation. It was a big success, which is great, but we had so many issues that we couldn’t ever really enjoy the success.
In your deconstruction I’d love to know how you would do things differently based on your experience so far. What decisions did you make that you would make differently now? What would you be sure to have in place next time, both the things you already had and what was missing?
I think perfecting TCB would be my preference as that’s what I’m using, but I know you have a growing empire and wish you huge (and manageable) success with it.
Thanks for the questions, Damion! I’m adding those to my list for our next podcast.
Please, please – some tutorial demos and knowledge base on using the content builder plugin – there aren’t ANY at the moment.
It would save you hundreds of Support queries, and save us frustration. Not everyone is a geek or used a design content builder before.
Thanks.
Carol, that’s not true. You have five videos showing everything from inserting text to building a full sales page here:- http://thrivethemes.com/members/thrive-content-builder/
It’s labelled “Thrive Tutorials” on the right hand side when you log in…
Shane, I’m a fan of your products. I have Hybrid Connect and the content builder plugin. The package makes sense for a developer or someone with lots of sites, however I was hesitant to pull the trigger on the theme package for two reasons: (1) I really only need one theme for one site and (2) the recurring cost. I can get past number two if I could get one theme for a lower price. Any chance of that happening? If so, I’d be all over the Focus Theme. Really like it.
Yes, we’ll make individual themes available for purchase as well, sometime soon. We still need to set things up for this, but I hope that we’ll be able to sell individual themes not long after we re-open Thrive Themes.