Hi everyone, Val Sopi here, founder of Handmade Spaceships, Inc. — the company behind products like blogstatic.io and now Subsection.io.
The way Subsection came about is that I was talking to Ricky, founder of Saaswrites, and asking him how to go about writing SEO content for blogstatic, considering that my time is limited.
Ricky's first suggestion was to focus on my existing customers, and the best way to do that is by creating a User Help Guide, which would help my current users find precisely what they're searching for about my product, and *tell* Google to rank it higher for those topics.
Here's that exact discussion on Twitter.
Thanks for asking Val, if I'd start today, here's what I'd do for new SaaS SEO:
— Ricky ? (@rickywrites) July 6, 2022
1. Start below the BOFU
What does that mean?
a. Write user guides for all your smallest SaaS features
b. Optimize them for SEO by adding a benefit to the title.
For example ?
I suggest clicking on Ricky's tweet and seeing the other tweets he added to my initial question, where he explains the blueprint for writing a User Help Guide for your Saas and ranking on Google.
The User Help Guide Theme
After that initial discussion, without the slightest idea for a new product, I started designing the User Guide theme, which I was going to use for blogstatic. For the CMS, I decided on using ExpressionEngine, which is versatile enough to fit any use case.
Everything was ready to go: The theme was finalized, hooked up to the CMS, and ready to be populated with content and launched.
Publishing the User Guide
As I was ready to publish and launch the new blogstatic user help guide, it dawned on me that this new theme could be offered in blogstatic to existing customers. So if anyone wanted to create a user guide for their Saas, they could do so via blogstatic by just changing the theme.
However, that felt like a completely new direction for blogstatic, and it would drastically change the marketing copy on the website.
Also, someone running a blog has different goals from someone needing to write a user help guide for their Saas.
A new product?
As I was thinking about blogstatic offering the user guide as a new theme, a spark of an idea came about that "maybe this new thing" could be a new product on its own and that I could offer to a different niche: Saas companies!
It felt so right.
In all honesty, I did not try to validate or speak to a few potential clients just because it was something I would need for blogstatic, and making it wouldn't take me more than 20-30 hours since the codebase would be that of blogstatic.
Also, as I am creating a portfolio of products as part of Handmade Spaceships, Inc., Subsection felt like a great addition to it.
Off to the races!
In reality, Subsection took me about 50 hours to put together. It was based on blogstatic's codebase, which, to date, has taken me about 500 hours to craft. So, Subsection is sitting on top of a solid, tested foundation, so to speak.
The marketing website would be similar to blogstatic. However, it would contain a brand new logo and a new copy fit for the occasion.
Who is Subsection for?
Subsection is for Saas products. Or rather, companies that build Saas products, sometimes many of them.
Subsection gives these companies the freedom to create multiple User Guides within a single account. The only limit is the number of topics across guides, which are generous if you look at the pricing page.
Why not use Intercom, Crisp, or Helpscout instead?
This objection came about as I showed the website to a few friends.
These apps are so big that Help Guides are not their sole focus, and their innovation in this area of customer care is slow.
Also, they usually serve larger companies, which explains why Help Guides are generally offered in their bigger plans at a higher price.
Smaller Saas companies, who want to do better with their SEO efforts, usually cannot afford those prices, thus lacking behind.
And this is where Subsection comes in: A product that helps Saas companies easily publish multiple User Help Guides and helps them rank early in Google for their existing and new customers down the line.
What else can be done in Subsection?
Another byproduct of this is that Subsection customers can anonymously review their user guide visitors' searches, which in turn will help them improve the guide and their app.
Currently in Beta
Subsection is launching in Beta.
Meaning that invites are limited in number, and I will be accepting only a few at a time.
Grab your invite now and reserve the special pricing!
This is done to specifically serve Saas companies directly benefiting from Subsection. At the same time, I can initially attend to a small number of customers and focus on their needs.
Beta invite-only customers get to receive two specific benefits:
- They get to have a say in the progress of the product
- They get access to special pricing, which will carry on for them even after Subsection is out of Beta
Happy to see you here
If you are currently running a Saas product without a User Help Guide, I would love to see you grab an invite and publish your Saas app's User Help Guide in Subsection.
The cool bit!
Subsection's blog, this one you're currently reading, is published using blogstatic, Handmade Spaceships' other product.
Also, blogstatic is running its User Help Guide on Subsection.
It goes without saying that Subsection is running its own User Help Guide in Subsection.
A family of products indeed : )
