When my coworker discovered this at work on Friday, we naturally tried to compete to see who has the highest score. I was keeping track of our scores on our whiteboard, when I decided I should make a new webapp for people to log their scores.

I want to know who has the best score at this ridiculously simple game, even though victory doesn’t seem to be possible. So, I spent a few hours today and launched Zerg Rush Scores.

It’s amazingly simple, but does exactly what I want.

I was able to build on my experience with web2py and put together this fully functional app, start to finish, in just a few hours. To gain time, I used as much included functionality as I could and repeatedly stopped myself from adding new features. After all, for a site that actually serves no purpose, the beauty is in the simplicity.

Rocky is the big institution in a market. He holds the heavyweight title. Since he already owns his industry, he becomes content in his position. He’s resistant to change and assumes he’s good enough to beat anyone – so he doesn’t concern himself with startup boxers. No need to bother with innovation because he’s already in control.

Glubber Lang is a startup. He’s hungry; he’s fast; he’s agile; he’s kind of a dick; he has a different take on the market. He destroys Rocky in a fight that Rocky didn’t even bother training for seriously.

The beatdown makes Rocky realize he’s lost his edge (thanks to outside consultant Apollo Creed). He then changes his training strategy to be better equipped for the next fight. He maneuvers his position so that Glubber Lang doesn’t have such a huge advantage and effectively bumps Glubber out of the market.

If this isn’t an exact reflection of the internet startup world, then I’m just crazy (also plausible).

Even beyond the sheer amount of work that is required, a solo entrepreneur must be capable in so many different aspects of the business. For a simple web project, you have to understand the overall strategy, programming, design, and marketing just to get to launch. This doesn’t even count the ongoing tasks like finance, promotion, or inventory management.

Then, even if you can manage to figure out how to do all of these things yourself, you have to find the time to do them. I think this is the ultimate problem for any project of size. Unless you hire out a lot of the different aspects, it’s just too difficult to complete everything within a reasonable time frame.

When building Roster Brain, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money (mostly because I’m a cheapskate). This meant doing everything on my own. While I have great strengths in strategy and problem solving, I’m not quite as talented at marketing and design.

Everything has turned out decently well anyway, but I believe the project may have launched much more strongly if I had a cofounder or two to compensate for my weaknesses. The trouble is that I haven’t found someone that matches the profile yet and is interested in the same type of projects.

For my next project (which is inevitable and already fairly well defined), I’m not going to be so skimpy on the third party tools I use. There are a lot of cheap or free tools that can help launch a project. If you know the ins and outs of the project before you get too far down the road, I imagine using a few more tools can save some headaches and a ton of time. And if you believe your idea is good enough to make money, why not spend $100 to get it to market sooner?

Some examples of what I’ve been contemplating using for my next project:

• LaunchRock – free tool that allows you to create and host a simple splash page. It gathers email addresses from interested site visitors so you can notify them of launch and encourage them to share on social media. If implemented well, I bet this would be a great tool to find beta testers. Mostly, it lets the search engines get your domain in the index and start the ever important domain age clock.
• Interface themes/templates – You can buy customizable themes and interfaces from several places online. I have been impressed by the choices at ThemeForest. They’re not free, but most are extremely reasonable for what you get.
• Stock photography – It wasn’t necessary for Roster Brain, but imagery is important for most websites. You can struggle to search through thousands of crappy images available for free commercial use or pay a few dollars at a place like iStock and move on to other aspects of the project.

I figure the sports fan who would appreciate Roster Brain spends their internet time on message boards and reading sports blogs/news. To get in front of these audiences, it means I either need to post on a bunch of forums or get featured on sports blogs somehow. Since spamming forums that I don’t regularly participate in is not likely to go well, it means I really need to pitch to sports bloggers.

The trouble is that any kind of direct marketing seems intrusive and I don’t like to be the guy filling up email boxes with unwanted messages. Admit it – when you get an email that’s obviously just trying to get you to do something, you delete it immediately and develop a negative impression of the brand.

Because of this, I’ve defined some rules to keep my cold messages from annoying people:

• Messages are either very brief or customized
• Messages are not pushy
• Messages are only sent to website owners with posted contact information

Either the person is interested or they’re not. Since there are about a million sports blogs, I don’t really have to worry about contacting bloggers several times and agitating anyone. I am keeping a list of bloggers I contact so that I don’t accidentally hit anyone with the same message multiple times…this also lets me follow up later with any leads that seem promising, but didn’t materialize.

Fighting pitch anxiety

I’ve always been easily immobilized by anxiety and sending out the first few of these pitch emails was certainly subject to anxiety. I intended to send them out the day after launching, but it took me a week and half to work up to it. I was fighting the same nerves and uncertainty I had when launching, but managed to finally work through it. After all, who cares if a no-name blogger doesn’t like my website?

The rush of success

So I only sent out about 10 emails yesterday and did not receive a single reply. However, I did see on the analytics that a couple of people checked out the link I sent, which is a good sign. An even better sign though, MLB Trade Rumors, a blog I contacted, included a link to Roster Brain on a weekly Bloggers Weigh In post.

I got so excited to see some new traffic flowing in from that link, that it completely invalidates any anxiety I had about sending out the emails in the first place. I guess that’s the rush of success that propels salesmen forward. Sure this is only a small victory in a marathon of promotion, but it’s a huge first step and definitely gives me some marketing momentum moving forward.

Let’s start with the successes!

• The site launched and the world did not entirely collapse.
• The “soft launch” brought in nearly 20,000 pageviews in the first 24 hours of the site being live.
• I got awesome feedback from coworkers, friends, and random strangers.
• Users seemed to flawlessly understand the functionality and calls to action on the site.
• The site actually made some money.
• The site must have worked well on mobile devices, because pages per visitor on all platforms was equally awesome.
• There has been some continued traffic even though my launch links have dropped out of site.

Despite all of these great things, my favorite stat is not listed above…it’s the awesome percentage of type-in traffic. Direct traffic on an unknown site either means people have remembered their previous visit and come back later or that people are sharing the website with others. Both of these are great indicators that the site is well liked and actually a decent idea.

An odd side note: I received more pageviews in the first 24 hours of this launch than I did in my months of SEO work during my self employment stint. A lot of this has to do with the inherent high action rate of users clicking through a quiz, but it’s still hilarious to consider.

Now…the negatives:

• The site launched broken.
  For whatever reason, the URL rewriting I had worked into web2py took a huge crap when I imported the launch version onto my production host, despite testing in two other environments. Luckily I was able to resolve this by stripping the rewriting in a timely manner. See lesson 2 below.
• The site stayed (partially) broken.
  I had users report other broken functionality later in the day, which I wasn’t able to resolve until the night of launch. Luckily it only had to do with the roster portion of the site instead of the main quizzing functionality. See lesson 3 below.
• Search engine spiders could only index 4 pages of the site.
  Until nearly a week later when I wondered why the site wasn’t getting crawled deeper, spiders were stuck on a few basic pages. I tested without javascript on a previous version, but not the launch version…and it broke somewhere in between. Also a part of lesson 3 below.
• Users didn’t share on social media.
  I had high hopes that when users completed quizzes, they would share their scores on Facebook and Twitter using the buttons I provided, creating a minor traffic draw. Outside of a few friends, this did not happen once. See lesson 4.

Lessons learned:

1. If you launch a product as a side business/project, take the day off of work.

Despite having my morning launch plan laid out in a flawless step by step manner, I was a little late for work. I had to clean up some of the functionality bugs with launch or everyone I had just emailed, spammed, or otherwise gotten the attention of would have arrived at a crippled web experience.

During work, I was ridiculously distracted watching the visitor counts and interactions on my real time analytics (I’m using Piwik and it’s awesome). I know my coworkers could see my enthusiasm, but if I had anything critical happening at work on launch day, it would have affected my performance.

2. Always test in an exact copy of the production environment.

Neither I, nor the gurus on the web2py google group, could explain why my rewriting was failing (mostly because I don’t think it was). The production environment acted different than my local machine and my live testing server, despite having the same web2py version and the exact same code. If I would have testing on my production server (in a non-public directory), I would have seen the problem in a much more pleasant timeline. This brings me to #3…

3. Freeze development 2 weeks before launch.

Especially if you’re a one man show…you need time to test absolutely everything that you’re going to launch. I tested in several places and even had other eyes on the private beta, but some late changes/additions broke some significant portions of the site at launch. If I had frozen development except for bug fixes, I wouldn’t have created some of the launch problems.

Also, this will give you time to focus on other aspects of the site. Make sure you’re launch plan is in place, notify some key people, and create some minor launch hype.

4. Social media promotion pretty much sucks.

I expected a lot more out of Facebook and Twitter. Even with some supportive coworkers sharing my site on Facebook, traffic was pretty dismal. As a one man show with a one trick pony, I don’t have a lot to say on these platforms to create any type of draw without sounding like a desperate beggar. Without people sharing themselves, these promotions went nowhere fast.

In addition, shouting into the blackness of a Facebook or Twitter timeline doesn’t seem to get many eyes on it. I don’t have that many followers to start with, but my posts must have been either completely uninteresting or pushed below the fold pretty quickly. Unfortunately this means that marketing the site is going to be 100% manual, something I’m not very excited about.

Maybe all blog posts should have a summary

The site got a lot more traffic than I anticipated, but dropped off after about a day and a half. Users seemed to understand and like the idea of the site, but did not share using the social media buttons I provided. I got a lot of awesome feedback and suggestions that I’ve put into a plan for a phase 2. There were a lot of bugs at launch, but everything is working now!

What it does

Roster Brain provides quizzes to sports fans based on the current rosters of their favorite teams. With over 700 pro and college teams included at launch, there is likely to be something there for every sports fan.

What sets the site apart from other sports trivia sites (other than it being more awesome) is that it only focuses on current rosters and ignores everything else. The user progresses through the quizzes matching player name to numbers. While the quizzes are scored and the user is encouraged to share the result on social media, the site is really designed to help fans learn about their teams.

After each question, the related player profile is shown with all of the details I have available – number, position, hometown, years experience, height, and weight. So you not only get challenged on knowing a player’s number without any context clues, but then get a full lesson about the player you were just thinking about.

A Brief History

I became a huge Virginia Tech football fan while I was in school. I always wanted to learn more about the team, but it was difficult to find the time being a computer engineering major and all. I was always the slightest bit jealous of my friends who knew all of the players and their stats/details. I tried studying the player roster, but it was time consuming and the players would change significantly every year anyway. Thus the idea for Roster Brain was born – a way to learn the roster that isn’t completely boring.

Creating the site was a few years in the making, as I not only had to learn enough about the development process, but actually had to find the time to do it. Between work, life, and the various side ventures I’ve attempted, it took a lot longer than I expected.

I actually began programming the site in late January after experimenting with various frameworks for a few weeks. I’m excited that I’ve been able to produce the launch version so quickly, but it is only a fraction of my total vision for the site.

How it works

I built Roster Brain on the web2py development framework using Python. I loved Python when I learned it in school, so I was excited to use it for something new and functional in the real world. The framework has a lot of built in functionality and a pretty low learning curve for someone new to frameworks (and client side stuff).

The front end is based on the Skeleton boilerplate for a responsive design. This allows the site to modify on the fly for different screen sizes, regardless of device type, using media queries. I’m quite excited that I was able to build mobile functionality into the launch version because it seems crucial to the success of most websites these days.

What’s next

Marketing

I really have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to marketing such a project. I’m hoping that it catches on a little from my minor launch notices on various websites. If people like it enough to share it, then I know I’m on the right track.

However, I doubt that will singlehandedly accomplish my goals for the site. I’ll be experimenting with other strategies including blogger outreach, twitter campaigns, and some random link building. I’m proud of the site and I want people to see it, so I’ll probably just keep throwing shit at the wall until some of it sticks.

Phase 2

I have some new features planned for the future, but I’m not going to start working on them immediately. Fixing critical bugs and marketing will be my main focus for the next several weeks (mostly to give myself a break from development). Plus it will give me a chance to look at some stats and gather some user feedback.

Functionality currently on the list for phase 2 includes a user login system with some basic game theory (think 4square) and new (more advanced?) quizzes.

While I’m excited to show it to the world, I’m simultaneously terrified that the world won’t care. The first few visitors will think it’s a bad idea and I’ll never reach the audience I’m shooting for. Or perhaps my friends will like it but it never gets passed on outside my social circle. All my effort will be wasted.

Of course these fears are quite ridiculous, but they exist nonetheless. I’ve been having these thoughts daily for about the last week. The key has been to acknowledge each thought, briefly analyze it, and then move on – much like meditation.

Part of the reason I can easily put away these thoughts is that I never anticipated making any serious money from the website, even though I think it’s a good idea. There are too many factors involved to weigh success on the amount of money made. I’ve intentionally set my expectations low so that I can’t possibly be very disappointed.

That said; I really want the site to succeed. I think the concept is great and completely destroys all of the similar sports trivia concepts that exist now, even in the current lean state. The trouble with this, and where the fear stems from, is that the success or failure is entirely dependent on me. If the site never gets traffic or recognition, it’s because I didn’t promote it correctly…and that is a difficult thing to deal with.

The best part is that none of these fears really matter because I’ve already made the site. I was able to implement all of the features I was shooting for and put a wicked skin on the site. Since there isn’t really anything left to do, my fears can’t incapacitate me. I’ve done too much work not to launch it. The momentum that I’ve built up over the last two months or so is enough to push me to launch anyway.

1. I worked on the site only when I actually wanted to, so that I would enjoy the process and not burn out (reasonable considering the many other things going on in life).
2. I worked on one tiny feature/bug at a time, so that I wouldn’t be so overwhelmed by all of the things I still needed to do (not to mention the complexity of the completed project!).

Being new to the one man web project world, these defense mechanisms have allowed me to take a laid back approach to development of my new website. I followed the old idea that you build a brick wall one brick at a time, and my wall had no timeline.

These philosophies were critically important in getting me this far with a product I’m still excited about and enough energy to continue. However, as I approach the completion of my project, and launch is in sight, my defense mechanisms are naturally fading away.

I can clearly see each piece of development left; I can see that I need some sort of definitive marketing plan; and if I don’t work at a constant effort, I’ll miss the launch timeframe I had in mind. It’s time to make a list.

Creating a List

Making an actual to do list can be terrifying at this stage because you see how much you still have left to do. I had to take a few deep breaths when I saw the number of outstanding items.

The list can be broken down into a few categories:

• Final development features
• Design features
• Minor bug fixes
• Launch specific (hosting setup, etc)
• Testing
• Marketing

Once a list is in hand, the greatest thing you can do is cross off as many items as possible. Anything that is not absolutely essential should be dumped. After Adam’s recent post, developing half a product, I decided to abandon an idea for a new feature (a difficulty setting).

You can always add things in later that you deem necessary, but the goal is to launch as quickly as possible and get some real user feedback. Don’t set back your timeline just to add in things that don’t add value to your product.

Everything launches with bugs, and that’s okay. Maybe if I say that enough I’ll actually believe it.

Soft Launch

I’m a fan of a soft launch (I’ll let you know if that changes shortly). I hate to say I’d turn down press from major sports blogs for my site right at launch but it would make me quite nervous. If something goes wrong or breaks, you’ll never get that shot again.

A soft launch allows you to put your product out there, get a few visitors, and make any tweaks that are necessary. Then you can call up your favorite niche bloggers, turn on your adwords campaigns, and wait for your huge influx of visitors.

Marketing is an ongoing process anyway. Scheduling your heavy marketing to start a few days after launch provides and extra cushion to make sure all your systems are go without sacrificing much at all.

In the words of 90’s websites, check back soon to see my new site!

Working Against Maximum Revenue
When I was creating content websites and using Adsense as my monetization method, I always turned off the “show ads based on user interest categories” option. It made perfect sense for the sites I was building because they were product based. If a visitor was on my site about power inverters, but had a heavy search history in children’s toys, less costly toy ads may have been shown. Not only are the ads irrelevant to the content the user is actively looking for, but they are irrelevant to the theme of the site overall.

Privacy Issues
From a user’s perspective, people are concerned about the privacy issues of user tracking. Companies like Google have a whole data set categorizing each user’s interests and who knows what else. When used in a friendly manner, it’s no big deal…but as we should learn from all the recent corporations getting hacked by various groups, data can be stolen (or manipulated, or sold, or used in countless inappropriate ways).

Combating these privacy issues is the main feature of a new crop of websites that don’t track your activities, like the Duck Duck Go search engine. A cool infographic about these privacy issues can be found at Don’t Track Us, a side campaign of the DuckDuckGo founder, Gabriel Weinberg.

User Interest Changes Over Time
However, my main issue at the moment is not maximizing my profits anywhere, someone collecting my data, or even the feeling of uneasiness that is felt when you know that large untrusted entities know so much about you–it’s that the ads that the big G thinks I’m interested in aren’t appealing to me at all. I really noticed this when I used my dad’s computer for some quick browsing and sites were showing me ads for awesome resorts I could go to (because my father primarily uses his home computer to set up vacations). I’ve never clicked on ads in such a fury of excitement before in my life. Clearly these ads interest me, but the internet overlords don’t realize it and are wasting potential revenue by showing me other categories.

Categories I have no interest in whatsoever. I’m sure they’re drawn from when I moved into my new apartment–I did a lot of searching for furniture and other stuff for my new apartment. Keep in mind that any searching I did for these items was probably contained within a one or two day window. However, the whole internet must now think I’m some sort of carpet dealer. I now see ads for nothing but Budget rental trucks and Overstock.com rugs.

Here’s a hint, Google, I already bought my damn rug.

The idea of formal ‘game theory’ is fairly broad and not really what I am getting at. I’m really looking at the aspects of an RPG (Role Playing Game) style game that cause people to continue playing it and how it relates to real life. In any good RPG, the player controls a single character and completes some kind of tasks, goals, or achievements. Upon completion, the character receives some kind of experience points, which unlock new tasks, goal, and possible achievements. During the whole process, the character usually develops by gaining more points toward various traits like strength, endurance, magic, etc. and a whole slew of side skills.

This character building idea keeps a player enthralled as challenges become more and more difficult, but the character is increasingly capable of more difficult tasks.

This is basically how most people go through their lives and careers, but they just don’t realize it because it’s not naturally quantified. You don’t increase your CSS skill by one when you learn a new trick, you just learn the new trick. And generally, we don’t have good enough vision to see what the next progression of our lives will be until we’re standing at the edge, staring it down.

People have tried to create websites that feed into this idea (like MotivationRPG and Fitocracy specifically for fitness), but I think that real life is ultimately far too complicated to be contained in such a concept. However, I think it is why people get enthralled with things like competing in sports and competitions. You can build up your abilities and then see results in a usually logical fashion.

Sports aside, it can still be a good strategy to use to motivate you in just about any aspect of life. The tricky part is quantifying skills and using a goal setting system as your vision for progression.

Maybe this was an incoherent ramble, but that’s okay, because I leveled up in MySQL today.