Product creation usually begins with a question.

In the case of the WF Thread Downloader it was a simple question my friend and JV partner, Tom, asked on an onging Skype chat in which we both participate. Tom asked, “anyone know how to get all posts in a Warrior Forum thread to display in the printer friendly view? I don’t want to have to create 19 pdfs to get one thread!”

His question was answered with resounding silence.

On the ongoing Tom/Elmer Skype chat I offered a possible in place solution–without first checking it–that proved not to work. (Once again I’ve learned the definition of assume.)
Over the next couple hours or so Tom and I chatted back and forth about the benefits and necessary features of a forum thread download utility. All the while he was diligently coding. He would code, test and send me the output to compare with the original work. Before long the “proof of concept” product was up and running.

Less than two and a half hours after posing his question Tom made this post in the group chat: “to answer my own question, I didn’t find any way to get all posts in a thread, so I wrote a program to download all pages in a thread … problem solved”

Over the next few hours, as group members had the chance to drop in, the comments–all positive–began arriving.

Three or four of our non-Mac using friends offered to test the WF Thread Downloader for us.

Now the work begins in earnest…

If there is one takeaway (so far) from this little tale, it’s this: (And it has nothing to do with programming skills or ability.)

When faced with a question that doesn’t seem to have an easy answer keep searching. Tenacity pays!

IMRPT v1.1 is now live!

Everything I wrote below–has it been almost a month?–regarding IM Research Power Tool v1.0 applies just as much, if not more so, today as it did then.

Willie Crawford, Kevin Riley, DrMani, Ken Leatherman, Chris Sutton, Patrick Pretty, Michael Oksa and Bev & Rob Clement, John Rogers, Mary Murtha, Steve Wagenheim, Charles H. Smith, Kevin Rogers and a host of others…

What do all these folks have in common? They’re all marketers–successful ones. Some write, others code and still others are generalists.

If there is one thing they have in common it’s caring. They care about their customers and their friends.

One other, rather important, point of commonality: They are all members of The Warrior Forum. Arguably the absolute best interactive community for internet marketers.

Why am I saying nice thing about these folks – aside from the fact they’re deserving?

Saturday evening my JV partner, Tom Launder, and I launched a new product, IM Research Power Tool. We’ve been working on it for quite a while and it was time to realize the fruits of our labor. We offered it for sale through a WSO on Warrior Forum. Simultaneously I sent messages to some of my friends on Skype. They loved the product! (In all fairness some had received pre-launch copies for review and testimonial purposes)

The important thing here is, even the folks without advance copies thought it was great! For that I have to thank Tom. He programmed it to be lean, mean and bug free! (He had the hard job–all I have to do is sell it. Easy to do with a great product.)

Before we knew it Willie “tweeted” about it and DrMani re-tweeted it. Kevin Riley and Ken Leatherman each sent a special mailing to their lists. Others told their friends and posted – some more than once – complimentary comments in the WSO thread.

Sales hit and surpassed our initial target. Then they went through our “best case scenario pie-in-the sky” number.

Needless to say we’re ecstatic!

We’re also grateful, humbled and surely blessed to have friends such as these.

Thank you all!