If I had a million dollars (to grow Logos Bible Software)...

Not knowing all the market data and technical issues in play, I would prioritize the following.

1. Mac developers to get L4mac up to complete parity ASAP.

2. Marketing  with direct representatives to Mac community.

3. Creating marketing opportunities in Christian high schools (users of the future), colleges, and Bible Schools).  Based on my learning style, asking folks to watch a video about Logos 4 is less effective (I think) than sending reps to do a direct demo, but I have no stats to back up my perception.

4. Website improvements to ensure pre-pubs and all orders can be downloaded with L4 and no more requirements to ship. Also integrating POS options for locked books into the L4 UI.

5. Hire part time web developer/moderator just for the Forum ( and wiki) which is a large part of the Logos support strategy and needs some attention.

Blessings

Bob Pritchett said:

What's your idea?

Although no one "paid" me to watch a video, a Christian Book Store owner did give me a "free" sampler. (He paid for it). Back then (15 years ago?) Logos 1?, 2? was not too much more than a concordance program. In addition a fellow seminary student recommended it in a very winsome NON pressurized way.

To keep any recent momentum gained from Logos 4 perhaps it would be good to:

A. expand customer service (to deal with 'shell-shocked' former L3'ers) &

B. add extra programmers (to get the " former" features implemented ASAP.)

OR Use the $1 , 10 or ? millions to answer the 2 main responses I meet in trying to attract folks to Logos:

1. It is too confusing (I realize Logos 4 was an attempt to deal with this)

2. It is too expensive. ( I finally settled on Logos in spite of that - after checking out most of the competition - because of its HUGH library of search-able resources).

Thanks for asking.

Steve

ps. And yes, I realize that NONE of this is "cutting edge."

JimVanSchoonhoven said:

but people do not see the need for it, or they do not  know the product  is out there and what is possible.

I believe your efforts need to be on going out to the body of Christ and teaching them how they can study the scripture on a level they had never even dreamed was possible.  Offer to send out well trained part time or full time trainers, to come to their fellowships and introduce them to electronic bible study.  Show them a whole new level of training can be done in the local fellowships, if pastors, elders and others can be shown how they can go deeper into God's word than ever before, and that everyone can do it. 

AMEN! Preach it Brother!

Sorry, got carried away, but this is exactly where my heart is. The way to grow Logos Software is to grow the market. People need to have a hunger for God's Word before Logos is anything more than another gadget sitting on the shelf. How many Bibles are sold, how many are actually read. I have upgraded my package twice in the last two months, yet my Logos sat untouched on my computer for the previous year. Why did I upgrade now? I have rediscovered my love affair with God's Word. 

Bob Pritchett said:

• Keyboarding the entire Patrologia Graeca

This and the entire Loeb classical library.

Bob Pritchett said:

Hiring 15 new sales representatives for one year

Building Logos compatible editions of 300 public domain books and giving them away to get people on our platform

  If you can't cut the base collections' current prices, then significantly expanding the bundled-in books would be very nice.  I realize that when PBB's come to v4 we'll already have many of these--but perhaps not to the degree of sophistication a "logos" resource would bring.

  Last year, I lobbied a Lifeway editor to publish his portfolio via Logos, but was unsuccessful.  Adding company reps to woo major publishers who aren't fully on board yet would be nice/explain community pricing/pre-pub development financial models. 

  AudioVisual media is a mostly untapped area for v4, yet it is increasing in leaps/bounds elsewhere--I'm especially impressed with some search engine's ability to search video clips for words.  I have some T-N logos 3 resources that came with videos and audio files, but they've not integrated into v4 (at least yet).  It would be very nice to be able to purchase (for example) Adrian Rogers' mp3 sermons via Logos and be able to include their contents in searches.

  Finally, your retrospective elsewhere on electronic publishing was very interesting...but I'd still like to see a future where I could add my wife as a logos-differentiated co-user (without a full re-purchase of all resources).  Similarly, it would be nice to have a financial model for installing v4 (or later) in a church library for multi-user use.

Hello Bob,

I like some of the ideas and suggestions others have made.  Here are the ones that stand out to me:

• Add software developers & code writers for development (on both the Windows & Mac sides)

                 This will help in getting the Logos product fully ready & stable & "out there" - available for purchase.

• The idea of giving away a "free" sampler (a very basic Logos 4 with
  just a few resources) - a platform from which people can either build a
  resource library (one piece at a time) or an upgrade path to one of the
  main base packages.  Make it available in the Christian bookstores, for
  example & on the Logos website.

                 This would go a long way in developing a very good "word of mouth" reputation for Logos.

• Use the $1 - or - 10 million to answer some of the main concerns my friends at church always bring up when I try to tell them
  about Logos:
  • 1. It is too confusing / complicated
    
  • 2. It is too expensive
  • 3. People do
    not see the need for it, or they don't understand what the software is fully capable of.

These are major hurdles for Logos, it seems to me - and hence my suggestions below:

• Direct these newly hired software developers to make Logos 4 easier to use for new users:

In order to make Logos 4 less confusing for the new user,
without dumbing down the product, just create a few default (&
un-deleteable) layouts that - by default - come up when you run some of
the major features; like the Passage Guide, Exegetical Guide, Bible
Word Study, etc., so that any new user can easily use the major
features of Logos 4 without a bunch of major configuring.

You know,
like the default layout that automatically comes up when you type in a
passage or topic on the home page. There could even be a few default (but very basic) "collections" that are preset in the base packages. 

Or maybe the whole program could have some preset settings for different types of users.  For instance, there could be a mode for new users with default layouts and settings just for new users.  There could be a mode for intermediate users and one for advanced users, each with its own default layouts & settings for the major features. One check box for each in the program settings to turn on or off these settings.

Of course there would have to be the option to turn off
all of these default layouts and settings - so that more/most advanced users (i.e.; Power Users) can still customize to their hearts desire.

Let's face it, Logos 3 and 4 are
complicated to use.  But that's actually a very good thing.  After all,
the more things you want a software to be able to do, the more
complicated it becomes to use it, and this baby can do a lot! 

But this - "it's too complicated" - issue could easily be "side stepped" (again, without dumbing down the product) by creating these default settings for new, intermediate, and more advanced users.

And making Logos 4 easier to "get into" (using these settings) would boost your bottom line because more people would buy and use it - which in turn would lead to sales of individual resources, also boosting the bottom line.

• Try (either through sales and/or specials etc.) to see what the effect for
  Logos would be if you charged less for individual resources and base
  packages. 

I bet you might be surprised to find out that many
more people would be interested in purchasing your product and you
might just make more money because your target demographic has changed
from a relatively small one (basically Seminary students and pastors, etc) to a huge one (anyone in the Church with a serious desire to study).

Just my thoughts on the issue.

sdahlinghwa

PS: I also think that TomReynolds (above) has some excellent and serious ideas.

I would like to see Logos improve its search engine (i.e. use a customizable
version of the Wolfram Alpha engine) where one could ask full sentence
questions in plain English (i.e. who is Jesus?) and get an answer that is not
just a collection of link with Jesus as the main topic. If the question is
poorly phrased or ambiguous for the program, a list of options could be given
to clarify the query. The answer to the query will also give the sources and related
topic and info

This should be in a way easier to implement than for what a
general search engine has to do since it is limited to the field of religious
studies and more importantly to the resources Logos possesses that could be
tagged accordingly.

It would be helpful to a lot of new users that are intimidated by
the current setup and could improve the usefulness of resources that currently
lack a good index (i.e. the Theological Journal Library). One should also be
able to customize these searches by collection and so on

I would also like to see the ability for Logos to completely
replace my print books, especially when it comes to reading a book cover to
cover. This might include the need to make it compatible with popular e-reader
or next-gen tablet/slate PCs. But I would like to see an e- reader that is
multi-platform (i.e. could also run on Android or Linux) and rivals the
experience that one has with reading a print book for an extended period of
time (or at least with reading from an e-reader like the Kindle).

This might need more than money, but I would like to get electronic
books as the same time the print version is published and see Logos expands its
offerings when it comes to books that are not part of a series (less profitable
I know, but needed if Logos really intends to replace print libraries). I would
like to be able to go entirely digital.   

Alain

DominicM said:

First: fill the holes in your package base:

You need a introductory level product like the old $9.99 one nelson used to do, with say ASV,KJV, a couple of comentaries, strongs and a bible dictionary, which we can give away ad-nausium, and from tiny acorn mighty oaks grow..

and a second product somewhere around the $100 mark, I have people that want to use Logos 4 but the current base packages at $200 are too expensive for them.

secondly, dont waste your money producing a myriad of PD stuff, give us enhanced PBB tools to do it ourselves, you'll get a much broader depth/range of literature

thirdly, your money has to go into honoring God, being the best you can be (striving for excellence) which includes becoming/securing your position as market leader in both PC/Mac environment,  and also leading the way for everyone else to follow.

fourthly, maybe put 5-7% of your book budget aside to develop those titles which should be in electronic form, but arent financially viable under normal circumstances.

 

I agree with these concepts.

But, I would also suggest that Logos will probably always be primarily a tool for power users. They have the needs that Logos is able to supply and are willing to budget their resources to purchase them.

Although cheap starter packages will be one way of getting new customers started, I am not sure how many people will really invest the time to learn and use the power Logos provides. I think $100 probably represents a real commitment level to learn to use Bible study software.

Keep the quality of product uppermost.

The launch of L4 had too many hiccups.

One of the biggest trends in software over the past few
years has been the efforts different companies have expended to open up at
least a portion of their systems to allow the development of a third party
marketplace for add-in products.  This
has developed to the point that one of the metrics being used to judge how good
a new smart phone is how many apps are available for it in its corresponding “app
store”.

For Logos, the most obvious way this could occur is by
creating a commercial level of PBB and create a marketplace in which they could
be sold.  This potentially increases the
number of people promoting the Logos platform (come and buy my book – oh by the
way you need to download Logos to read it) and a corresponding level of new
users to market your premium titles to. It also increases the number of titles
available on the platform to increase the chances there might be at least one
book that a person deems interesting enough to download. Logos can derive revenue
both from the initial PBB creator license as well as a commission on each
individual sale, as well as the additional cross sell opportunities. For
instance, let’s say a person wanted to market a study guide / series or something
like that. It is likely the original content references a number of strategic
titles which Logos has already developed. By allowing the writer to bundle
those additional titles (at a price of course) that adds value to that “product”
as well as increasing the value of the sale to Logos.

 I realize there are
issues such as possible copyright infringement issues, quality control, etc but
nothing that I can think of that couldn’t be overcome through a judicious mix of
policy enforcement and limiting of liabilities. For something like this to
work, it would need to be possible for the free Logos download to be able to
display these commercial level PBBs (at least – if not even lower levels of the
PBB license).

Bob-

Based upon reading the other responses, I would like to amend mine.

I think that acquiring the resources must be a tough one.  But if you could do it more quickly, that would be a benefit and increase your revenue stream sooner.

Also, if you could get the existing publishers to respond more quickly in releasing their product to iPhone for example, that would be good PR for those that jumped on board early on. 

I am still waiting on Concordia Publishing to release the rest of my Lutheran resources.  I do not know what throwing money at that problem can actually do.

In terms of investment, I think that Jeremy is spot on with his recommendation of a Resource Store where people can cheaply publish their own works (for profit or non-profit if they choose). Perhaps Logos could even partner with or do something like Lifeway's self publishing http://www.CrossBooks.com/ to produce the most cost effective small runs of printed books that are published.

I would also expand the store beyond self published original works and allow individuals to publish public domain works that they have taken the time to tag as Logos resources.

This might mean expanding the capabilities of the PBB tool to include the ability to OCR and tag PDF files.

I think their could be a lot of synergy with all of the full copies of public domain books now available on sites like Google books and archive.org by opening up these capabilities to users and incentivizing them with a store to sell tagged books.

I'm sure there are legal issues and quality control issues but that is a direction I would think might have some potential for future growth.

Terry Poperszky said:

I have upgraded my package twice in the last two months, yet my Logos sat untouched on my computer for the previous year. Why did I upgrade now? I have rediscovered my love affair with God's Word. 

This desribes me as well...

TomReynolds said:

If it was 10 million I would suggest that you licence/develop more foreign language Bibles and other resources. You have room
to grow in the western world but long-term growth will come through overseas
sales. MS/SAP/IBM are making a bundle selling software to Indians, Chinese, Europeans,
etc (even taking piracy into account). I think you should look at providing
access to every language over x-amount of world population. You can see a list
by popularity on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers.
It would make it better for missionaries and also people of those backgrounds who
have moved to North America. I know you have made inroads with Spanish and I
can only assume that hasn’t been very profitable by the lack of resources
appearing. Consider another language (that has no competitors) and seek to
become the go-to software for scholars and pastors in that language.

I agree with multilingual, international Logos suggestion. Not only to get all the Bibles of all languages possible, but to make it possible to have localized Interface. I remember time when Microsoft did that move and that had been a decisive factor making MS Office #1 office application.

I like also a PBB improved version idea because it would help to get some books in the local languages working in Logos, that would never get the enough commercial attention from Logos.

Another thing I would suggest very much would be much more sophisticated book reading environment (including the voice reading), working on all platforms (iPhone, newly coming Tablets, etc.)

There have been some great replies so far ...

I particularly agree with the ideas of ....

   1) Filling in the base product range, especially at the low end (although there is also a "need" between Platinum and Portfolio).

  2) Providing more public-domain free resources (either user-generated, or Logos generated)

  3) Working to bring all newly published Christian books into Logos at the same time as the print version, at least from the main publishers ... ideally, by the publishers themselves, else Logos will be snowed under.

 4) Treating your workers well

I would also add ...

Giving some of the academic publishers such good deals that they can't refuse to let you put their journals, etc, in Logos format. Especially CUP!

Expanding to  include more general knowledge and fiction (Encyclopedia Britannica, or equivalent) - sermons sometimes require all kinds of knowledge and quotations.

Making sure Logos is available / usable on the latest electronic readers

Trying to bring down the cost of resources.

Personally, I'm not sure advertising is the way to spend your money ... In the computing world, the C programming language and Unix did so well because it was essentially given away free to universities ... so all students learnt it ... and then C was bundled with all operating systems / computers, so that the first compiler that was written for a new computer was always a C compiler. In the same way, getting a good free Logos library out to "everyone" is a better sales technique than training days or paying people to watch videos - especially if the plan is to take over the world!

Hope my ill-informed ideas spark some better-informed ones of your own!

Bob Pritchett said:

What's your idea?

Start developing a version for the Apple Tablet. That thing is going to be somewhat popular. You obviously can't start programming, but you can start thinking about the UI.

Well...there is a reason I'm not a large business owner...I'm not market savvy...

But my observation is this:

Logos appeals to a certain type of person:

The bible geekoid, and the bible geekoid who is in seminary.

Of all of the people who attend either my church or any church I'm familiar with locally, which would be about 500 people or so...

I'm one of 4 who use Logos.

Why?

I think that Logos is marketed to geeks...it's very powerful and so the average person asks:

"What would I do with that?  I have my strongs and my Adam Clarke commentary...why do I need that complicated bit of software?"

There is a mainstream nitche that's not tapped into...the average church goer.

I"m not sure if it's that they just don't care enough because they think that just listening to the pastor and then reading a devotional is enough each week, or they just aren't aware OF WHY they'd want this tool!

How about a campaign? Sell the idea to churches to have a "logos seminar' to show what can be done for the average church goer...and then show how affordable it is....

I wish I knew WHY it's only geeks....

Hi Bob,

Thanks for asking us.  As the leading Bible software vendor in the world, I would like to see Logos use your resources to tackle really big challenges and problems (BHAG's).  So here are my biggest frustrations as a Bible software user:

1) The need to keep using multiple Bible programs.  Can Logos use your position of influence and leadership to come up with a business and technical solution for the various major Bible software to work more seamlessly, and lessen the need for users to invest in overlapping resources from different Bible software vendors?

2) There are still many significant Bible resources not available in e-format.  Can Logos work with more publishers who are not currently not publishing electronically or doing so for very few of their available resources?  I'm really at a point that I don't want to buy physical books anymore (except for the occasional casual reader).  My ideal is whenever a new Bible-related work is published (Bibles, study Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries, scholarly resources), it will be published simultaneously in paper and electronic formats.  Amazon is starting to do that with many new books available simultaneously in Kindle format.  Would like to see that happen with Bible-related works.

3) [This might be controversial.]  I see the current desktop software model becoming obsolete within this decade or sooner.  Regardless of whether "cloud software" will become ubiquitous soon, I think the current L4 model of frequent downloads and client-side indexing should be (optionally) replaced by simply logging on to a website and running my Logos software from within a browser.  Then I don't need to worry about huge downloads and long indexing, and I still get Google-like (or better) response times, and any software improvements are automatically released on your server side.  For those who are in parts of the world where there is not reliable or constant internet access, the offline model should still be an option.

On the marketing side, I see the chain of influence going this way: Seminary professors => Seminary students => become Pastors => Ministry leaders => Congregation.  So I would invest in marketing to the seminary crowd as the movers and shakers of the Christian ecosystem.  Shipping free CD's to pastors and others might simply be thrown away (remember the AOL free disks?).  To market to the pastoral and ministry leaders, I would invest in a team of people who would go to different churches and set up Bible software demo tables and Q&A/troubleshooting clinics (e.g. during churches' Sunday School promotion day or Christian Ed Sunday etc).  For the masses, with the (almost complete) demise of Christian bookstores (at least in my part of the USA), you may want to consider making an entry level package available through Walmart, Target, Sam's Club, Costco, BJ's, Best Buy, etc.

On the global side, I agree with previous comments that Logos as the market leader should consider doing more to serve the worldwide church by a) making Bible tools available to missionaries, and b) making a big push for international Bible versions and resources. 

Peter

If you have a million/10 million to spend, you should

1. Scour forums for the most requested features

(Hint - NOTES has popped up again and again and again and again and again for about the last 5 years for both Libronix 3 and Logos 4) and give the users what they want (Hint: NOTES are deemed by your users (if not you) to be so important that users have even created a Wiki page suggesting alternatives - if you created a word-processor, OneNote alternative built in - just think of the forum traffic you would stop! - even this forum provides better options than notes in Logos!!)

********************************************************************************************************************

** If you have happy users they are your best PR people                                                                                        **

** - word of mouth / reviews probably bring as much income as direct advertising without the direct cost.  **

*******************************************************************************************************************

2. Provide  free packages for seminaries , libraries etc so that everyone is so accustomed to using Logos 4 that Logos becomes synonymous with Computer Bible Study - and that , to them, there is no other option (Think about why Internet Explorer dominates the browser market)

3. Similarly provide cheap base packages to all Christian book shops in US, UK, Europe, Australia etc

4. Make it your goal for every Bible-believer (your target market?) to have heard of Logos, know what it is AND key features ("Oh that's the one with loads of books, it's instant search, super quick loading, very cheap, great note-taking ability, staff responsive to suggestions etc") and not to have ANY negative reviews!

PS I don't think encouraging people to watch an introductory video is as effective as giving people a free base package to install (and thus have on their systems) and use!

PeterLi said:

3) [This might be controversial.]  I see the current desktop software model becoming obsolete within this decade or sooner.  Regardless of whether "cloud software" will become ubiquitous soon, I think the current L4 model of frequent downloads and client-side indexing should be (optionally) replaced by simply logging on to a website and running my Logos software from within a browser.  Then I don't need to worry about huge downloads and long indexing, and I still get Google-like (or better) response times, and any software improvements are automatically released on your server side.  For those who are in parts of the world where there is not reliable or constant internet access, the offline model should still be an option.

I second this, and for a different reason that Peter suggests: It opens up a secondary line of income for Logos - The 'subscription' model. Instead of paying thousands of dollars to get the Portfolio Package, why not have a subscription whereby you can pay $X per month? For a lot of income-starved students and pastors, this may be an excellent way to get access to a large library. Being able to select between a one-off (purchasing) or an ongoing (subscription) charge would be useful to many, and the subscription can help others trial Logos, decide if they want to make the purchase. It should open up the customer base of Logos greatly. I'd also happily pay an amount every month to sponsor a poor pastor or student's access to the service.

Library.logos.com is an excellent start, making it into a 'cloud' version of v4 would make it spectacular.

I've been thinking about this since I noticed the post and it had only one or two responses. I wanted to jump in but honestly couldn't come up with anything. I thought about it.

What I would like to see someone do ... and you have the resources to do it ... is create a digital Bible study institute. Sort of like a Bible college but focusing on how to study in the modern age. Don't know if a million would be enough. But this would be an online college or institute that would train people to do Bible study with their computers using something like Logos. You would have courses in language study, hermeneutics, preaching, theology, history, just like a traditional school, but all of it would be focused on using your software to get at the info isntead of traditional methods. And it would be all done via online interactive software like go to meeting or something else.

The point is that most brick and mortar schools don't really get this world like you do. You could partner with some of the best minds in the various areas, but pull them into digital format.

If that is too ambitious, how about a video series online that teaches someone how to preach a sermon using digital resources. Kind of like the one you are already doing for language study, only in the preaching realm.

Bob Pritchett said:

what would be the best use of a $1 million investment at Logos, and have the greatest return?

Since you're assuming Mac Parity and all are up to date I'll move past that:  I have three options.  You pick one you like.

• China I do not know your market saturation, but given the global market trends I would suggest developing Chinese resources, bibles etc.  Of course we're talking about a closed nation generally, but none-the-less at least looking towards China makes sense.
• Marketing.  That means sales reps, as well (as was suggested earlier) more corporate liaisons to woo publishers to seek after Logos for their digital editions.
• Starter Pack.  You mention building 300 PD books to give away.   Don't.  As Dominic Stated, "give us enhanced PBB tools to do it ourselves".  If we get the PBB tools, and you put a reading key in that starter pack I suspect you won't have to worry about developing any PD books again. 
  
  You also mention giving things away, I don't think you need to give anything away.  If you want to give away a pack like the 9.95 pack you sold a few years ago, you'd still have a minimum ROI.  But the lowest level Logos package is still high - it comes with a lot of significant buy in. So Let us develop some PD books which have broad appeal but you develop a starter pack around the $50-$75 level with a PBB key.  You know the numbers for book costs there, but that would be IMHO the key to partner with marketing with.  There's a mental break-over that suggests a $49.95 package beats out a $50 package and a $75 package kind of stands on it's own.  I'd head for the $49.95 myself, in fact I'd buy and gift that one more than once if I could.  It would be very hard for me to afford many gifts at the higher price point, and I just can't do it at the current price points.  (But I want to).

Bob Pritchett said:

And what if was $10 million?

I think in addition to the passage and exegetical gude, you should add a third eisegetical guide.

Just think of the sermon possibilities.

Just kidding.  I couldn't resist. [:)]

Joe Miller said:

4. Website improvements to ensure pre-pubs and all orders can be downloaded with L4 and no more requirements to ship. Also integrating POS options for locked books into the L4 UI.

5. Hire part time web developer/moderator just for the Forum ( and wiki) which is a large part of the Logos support strategy and needs some attention.

I think it would be worth spending the entire $1 million (or more) to completely redevelop your websites. The way I see it, your website is your shopfront and at present it is functional but ugly - 'busy-ness', colour coordination, font selection and consistency, lack of graphics.

When purchasing bible software I'm sure people take into account all sorts of factors - and hopefully fully explore the capabilities of the program - but first impressions are very important! To be sure it could be a whole lot worse (gramcord.org) but it could also be a lot better! The marketing material like the videos is very slick and well done, I think the website needs the same treatment. As a sort of thought experiment; put your feet in the shoes of Jo Lay-Christian -a very large market- go to logos.com and the website for the very recently released program aimed at this market.. what do you think? On the one hand some of the web based stuff Logos is doing (library.logos.com, cloud syncing) is cutting edge and revolutionary.... ... but some money needs to go into the design side of things too [:)]

As well as the aesthetic improvements, I think it would be worth investigating web-based mechanisms like formal bug reporting, support systems that allow for submitting support tickets online (depending on how you currently manage your customer support it could have some follow through cost savings), a better forum platform.

That's my 2 cents...

I must say that I haven't used my Logos in a doctoral program for about 3 years and only came back to it because the competition dont have the journal base (i.e. Galaxie products).  From my perspective more marketing, free programs, more cutting edge bells and whistles, more pressure to upgrade to packages with thousands of items I dont need, and public domain items that everyone has won't get me to open up my pocket book anymore.  The only reason to use this product for me is a) ease of use to find info. for my D. Min, b) library with enough relevant resources to assist in the writing process, c) stable program, and d) a sense that the company wants more from me than another sale.  I appreciate the resources that I can get from Logos but I don't nee/want an advanced vision on a cutting edge interface.....just one that works.