Stompernet Launch Crisis – 5 Things We Can Learn
If you spent today awake, you got at least one email about Stompernet’s Stomping The Search Engines 2.0 launch. This is normal for a launch from the largest internet marketing training company, but something crazy happened.
The launch hasn’t come to pass.
Now, don’t get me wrong here, I’ve got nothing negative to say about Andy, Brad, Stompernet or any of their employees or staff. In fact, I want to praise them for effort worthy of applause. They did the best they could and took it on the chin when it didn’t go as planned.
That isn’t easy. They could have waited it out and just said, “Here it’s ready now”. Instead, Andy recorded an apology and put it on the main page.
Instead of giving more of my thoughts, I did a Twitter search for “Stompernet” and found some interesting comments. I’m going to approach those directly.
“Stompernet is delayed a day, I’m sure Joel Comm’s book is the reason”.
Seriously, there is no internet marketing conspiracy. Nobody sat in a room and planned out a delay to get people talking. Gurus don’t sit and plan on how to artificially create scarcity or get more of you to buy their products. Most already want their products.
I mean REALLY… You would think that the stompernet guys would KNOW that a million people would slam their site… Maybe 5million came!!!
You’d think after a half dozen successful launches, the guys at Stompernet would be ready for everything, right? Well, to a certain point, you are right.
However, let’s take a different look. Normally, when the big guys launch something it’s at least a few hundred dollars. What happens with a launch like that is some people come to simply see what’s going on without any interest in buying the product. It’s like a car crash that everybody slows down to watch. Then, of course, there are those that are interested in the product who go to the page and find the buy button as quickly as possible.
Never before has there been such a buzz and mass promotion of a free product. I don’t think anyone could have been reasonably prepared for something like this. I know for a fact that the Stomper boys have been working on this launch for weeks and testing the systems like crazy.
They did their best and it simply wasn’t enough.
Ah those crafty Stompernet Guys again – they have a sudden server issue and needed to collect my email addy – hmmm- anyone else on the list?
This one really pisses me off. It is directly stated on the page that this is not a list that is being built for marketing, but as a courtesy. Those that sign up for that list will simply be alerted when it goes live. Take some time to actually look at what is on the page before assuming someone is looking to spam you.
Honestly, their list is going to be filled with buyers as of tomorrow when this launch happens.
Here is what we should learn from this fiasco.
#1 You can never be too prepared.
#2 Even the best intentions can lead to a negative situation.
#3 Transparency can only lead to good things.
#4 Standing up and saying “I’m sorry” is very powerful after messing up.
#5 Always providing value makes all naysayers look dumb.
If anything like this ever happens to you, follow the 5 steps above to deflate the negativity.
The launch has been pushed back to 2 pm Thursday, Eastern time.
You can see Andy’s apology and the exact layout for the product Stomping The Search Engines 2.0 here.
There is something amazing that happened as a result of this. I saw some amazing people come out of the darkness to support Stompernet with comments like these:
I certainly dont envy the StomperNet team today. Maybe next week, but not today.
Waiting for Andy. Can you imagine how he feels, 2, 4, 6 now 7pm Stompernet 2 taking more time than they thought. Cant wait.
Waiting for Stompernet 2.0 to go live. It’s late! Who cares I get it free for subscribing to a $39 per month course. A no brainer!
That is exactly what I like to see. People like that are the ones I want to be my customers and Stompernet has earned their attention.
Knowledge Can Never Die!
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Hi Ross,
Good post. I agree it’s highly doubtful that they manufactured this in order to get more buzz around their product. They’re offering quite a nice course for free already.
It does puzzle me, though, how many of these launches have technical issues. I remember signing up for Mass Control when it became Mass Server Meltdown. Turns out Frank Kern had put the entire site on some wimpy $50/month GoDadddy hosting package.
You would think they could hire someone who knew how to scale the backend with all the money they’re making from these launches and membership sites.
Still, I don’t see it as a conspiracy. It’s just ignorance.
-Erica
I know about the Frank Kern issue, I remember it clearly. That was definitely not smart.
However, Stompernet has done this so many times that they did setup for their norm.
I don’t think they expected such a rush on this level.
My guess is that it’s because of the difference in the offer. Free is very different from $500 – $2000.
Thanks for your thoughts Erica!
Ross
Yes, I sat at my desk, resetting my Outlook calendar with each announced delay. I didn’t leave the office for hours, not even for a minute, I wanted this so much. As soon as Andy announced they were making more and there would be plenty, I was able to go back to life as usual. It was obviously not a planned outage.
But with an 18 min. video on the front page, and all of us refreshing our browsers constantly to see whether anything had changed, well that combination was a huge drain. No way to refresh without reloaded the beginning of the 18 min. video!
I referred people to it – without being an affiliate.
Thanks for summarizing what we learned. Be prepared, Communicate, Over-deliver.