Here’s a case study in banging my head against a problem for years that I just couldn’t quite convince myself to let go of.
It all started way back in 2008 when I was studying for an information security certification, CISSP. During the last couple of weeks, I created a massive deck of 3×5 flashcards to study.
That worked out great. I passed the exam and put the cards in a drawer. The next year when I was studying for my PMP certification I repeated the process with the same result.
After a while, I figured those cards would be useful for others to study. So I wanted to put them online. I built out a static website (CoolFlashcards.com) and put those cards up and started creating more decks. Topics like Multiplication Tables, Periodic Table, US History, US Presidential Facts (surprisingly very popular).
I got some SEO traffic but really started to see users multiply when I enabled visitors to create their own flashcards. At one point I was earning around $80 per month in Adsense revenue.
I thought, “Awesome! This is about to take off and I’ll be all set!”Then, POOF! My traffic dried up and I was spending more on hosting the site than I was earning.
I was sure it was a product feature issue. I spent four years trying to tweak it and get back the growth spike I had seen early on. I re-worked and refined everything. Nothing tome back in the game.
What I finally realized was that I didn’t have a feature problem. I had a marketing problem. I had never taught myself how to market a product online so I lacked confidence in that skill.
Instead, I decided to go with what I was confident in, technology, and keep hammering away at that with my forehead.
Now, I’m building my marketing toolset and growing my confidence with each small victory. Eventually, I will be bold enough to tackle this product again because I do believe in it.
I just need to let people know that I do.
If you’re curious about the site it’s still up, https://CoolFlashcards.com. It’s just not very active at present.
