I've never really utilised a helpdesk in any way, shape or form. I don't know why - I've always been of the opinion that questions are better asked in an open forum where the benefits of the question are plain to see;

• people don't keep asking the same questions
• search engines pick up the questions and answers

But, after my experiences of providing support over the past year, I can tell you that you can have all the FAQs under the sunb, previouis posts stickied, search facilities - and still people will be lazy and just post the question without checking to see if it's been asked and answered already.

Update on the latest project

For that reason, myself and my partner decided to forego a forum on our project. And instead use a helpdesk.

Some days ago, WillB posted up a WSO for his "3 pillars" helpdesk at a very good pricepoint. It was too good an offer to miss, so I picked it up. Particularly as the code can be used on multiple websites, and Will promises a future "pro" update for free! Bargain!

I've now got the Helpdesk installed and working on the new domain. Next up I need to package up the products and decide which downloading service to use. JC's Secure Delivery service is is looking favourite at the moment as it's so damn easy to set-up and use.

After that, it'll be time to tie up the bonuses. I haven't discussed this with my partner, but I am thinking of having these as a seperate (free) download. This will allow us to create a mailing list as we go along. Dunno, that idea might not work out in practice, we'll see.

Once that's done, it'll be time to create a sales page. I'm not (and never have been) a fan of those extra long sales pages, so that'll definitely not be happening. Most likely a letter shaped webpage, with an intro, screenshots, maybe a video and an outro. Obviously also some payment/download links.

It's all coming together!

Coming Soon

I will post up a review of the tools we're going to be using for this project. Watch out soon for a review of "3 pillars helpdesk" and "Secure Delivery" (really, I should already have done this as I've been using it successfully for 3 months or more!)