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Congrats Patrick! For entirely selfish reasons, I hope you start consulting for AdWords/marketing/optimization stuff :-D (If you do, please contact me! (email

by smanek 17y ago

Congrats Patrick! For entirely selfish reasons, I hope you start consulting for AdWords/marketing/optimization stuff :-D (If you do, please contact me! (email in profile)). BCC seems like a great way for you to have learned a lot, but I hope you find a new product that is really worthy of you! Incidentally, is it normal for a company to want you to stick around for 6+ months? I usually give 2 weeks notice, but offer to stay for 4 if needed ...

Tuna-Fish 17y ago
It depends a lot on the job culture. When you are downsized in the US, a security guard escorts you to the door. In Germany, an engineer I know was fired last year (business reasons). He will continue working until june.
- notauser 17y ago
  The UK varies - if you get fired they tend to escort you out under guard. If you leave they work you to the last second of your notice and hope you can be persuaded to stay late and finish 'just one more thing'.
- astine 17y ago
  "When you are downsized in the US, a security guard escorts you to the door." Not when I was downsized. I got a month's grace-period and everyone said goodbye when I left.
- ahi 17y ago
  might labor regulations have something to do with this? German corps might have an incentive to keep him working while he looks for a job rather than having to pay some kind of severance/unemployment? I never really understood the rationale behind laying someone off then escorting them out the door. Presumably its so they don't damage the company in some way because they're pissed. But a major reason people are pissed is because their employer just fucked them over. People can handle being fired for business reasons if it doesn't throw them right out on the street. People can handle "I'm sorry, but we can't afford you past April. Let me know if you need a reference or need to take time for an interview." Apparently, HR is never taught common decency.
gommm 17y ago
I'd also be interested in hiring Patrick as an AdWords/marketing/optimization consultant :-)
tptacek 17y ago
I know you heard from a bunch of people before you met us in Chicago, Patrick, but I'm still going to say "I told you so" on the consulting thing.
- patio11 17y ago
  Incidentally, thanks for opening my eyes about that one.
patio11 17y ago
Life-time employment is sort of on the decline in Japan, and it was never as big as the popular press had it, but be that as it may I have a job which implies lifetime employment and am considered fairly valuable to my company (particularly for my age). I was pretty honest with them when I started that I could promise them 2 ~ 3 years and we'd reevaluate where we were then, and it has been 2.5 years and I have reevaluated. That said, they've been good to me and I don't want to burn bridges or poison the well for their next foreign employee. (By, for example, doing what I'm entitled to under Japanese labor law and just giving them two weeks. Sure, the contract says I can do that, but the social relationship is the real contract. One thing I've learned over the years is that that is true in America, too, but we're less cognizant about it.) So, if they want me to stick around a little while to help them finish a project or two, I'm inclined to attempt to be flexible.
- nailer 17y ago
  Patrick you really need to do some work on the bingo card creator website. Even though I knew you had an online version from your posts here, it took me ages to find out where I could use it on your site. The site seems to suggest that the online version is merely a trial version for the desktop, which I know isn't the case. Rather than: - Buy now $29.95 - Download free trial - Try now no download It might be better to simplify: - Try now - Download now for your PC also you don't have any screenshots of the online version.
  - patio11 17y ago
    I always appreciate people giving me advice on my website, even if I don't end up taking it. It is unlikely that I will take your advice. Here is my reasoning: the audience of my website might hypothetically include programmers who know me from off-site and are looking for the online version, but, well, y'all don't pay my rent. The people who do pay my rent are overwhelmingly non-technical 30 ~ 50 year old women who are arriving from a Google search. The page is optimized for them to comprehend what I'm offering in 5 seconds or less. And what I offer is "A solution for the problem you were just searching for", not a download and not an online version. You are right, some people do get the impression that the online version is the trial and the downloadable (or CD version) is what they are paying for. I get email to that effect. You'll note that that miscomprehension doesn't hurt either the customer or myself -- they get two more-or-less functionally equivalent ways to access the software they paid for, I get $29.95 either way. On the other hand, I have tested more explicit (and longer) explanations of the relationship between the two than what I have currently, and it just decreases conversion rate to both options. There is a lot to be said for being succinct. The Buy button you simplified out of the redesign makes me ~$1k a month -- in a non-trivial number of instances, before the customer has even tried the software. I do not have screenshots of the online version because the primary purpose of the screenshot is to demonstrate that I really have software to sell and am not an Evil Internet Scammer. (I sell to people who fear the Internet and their computers.) Letting them try it instantly assuages that fear for the online version. (Besides, it looks fugly.)

by smanek 17y ago

Tuna-Fish 17y ago

It depends a lot on the job culture. When you are downsized in the US, a security guard escorts you to the door. In Germany, an engineer I know was fired last year (business reasons). He will continue working until june.

notauser 17y ago
The UK varies - if you get fired they tend to escort you out under guard. If you leave they work you to the last second of your notice and hope you can be persuaded to stay late and finish 'just one more thing'.
astine 17y ago
"When you are downsized in the US, a security guard escorts you to the door." Not when I was downsized. I got a month's grace-period and everyone said goodbye when I left.
ahi 17y ago
might labor regulations have something to do with this? German corps might have an incentive to keep him working while he looks for a job rather than having to pay some kind of severance/unemployment? I never really understood the rationale behind laying someone off then escorting them out the door. Presumably its so they don't damage the company in some way because they're pissed. But a major reason people are pissed is because their employer just fucked them over. People can handle being fired for business reasons if it doesn't throw them right out on the street. People can handle "I'm sorry, but we can't afford you past April. Let me know if you need a reference or need to take time for an interview." Apparently, HR is never taught common decency.

gommm 17y ago

I'd also be interested in hiring Patrick as an AdWords/marketing/optimization consultant :-)

tptacek 17y ago

I know you heard from a bunch of people before you met us in Chicago, Patrick, but I'm still going to say "I told you so" on the consulting thing.

patio11 17y ago
Incidentally, thanks for opening my eyes about that one.

patio11 17y ago

Life-time employment is sort of on the decline in Japan, and it was never as big as the popular press had it, but be that as it may I have a job which implies lifetime employment and am considered fairly valuable to my company (particularly for my age). I was pretty honest with them when I started that I could promise them 2 ~ 3 years and we'd reevaluate where we were then, and it has been 2.5 years and I have reevaluated. That said, they've been good to me and I don't want to burn bridges or poison the well for their next foreign employee. (By, for example, doing what I'm entitled to under Japanese labor law and just giving them two weeks. Sure, the contract says I can do that, but the social relationship is the real contract. One thing I've learned over the years is that that is true in America, too, but we're less cognizant about it.) So, if they want me to stick around a little while to help them finish a project or two, I'm inclined to attempt to be flexible.

nailer 17y ago
Patrick you really need to do some work on the bingo card creator website. Even though I knew you had an online version from your posts here, it took me ages to find out where I could use it on your site. The site seems to suggest that the online version is merely a trial version for the desktop, which I know isn't the case. Rather than: - Buy now $29.95 - Download free trial - Try now no download It might be better to simplify: - Try now - Download now for your PC also you don't have any screenshots of the online version.
- patio11 17y ago
  I always appreciate people giving me advice on my website, even if I don't end up taking it. It is unlikely that I will take your advice. Here is my reasoning: the audience of my website might hypothetically include programmers who know me from off-site and are looking for the online version, but, well, y'all don't pay my rent. The people who do pay my rent are overwhelmingly non-technical 30 ~ 50 year old women who are arriving from a Google search. The page is optimized for them to comprehend what I'm offering in 5 seconds or less. And what I offer is "A solution for the problem you were just searching for", not a download and not an online version. You are right, some people do get the impression that the online version is the trial and the downloadable (or CD version) is what they are paying for. I get email to that effect. You'll note that that miscomprehension doesn't hurt either the customer or myself -- they get two more-or-less functionally equivalent ways to access the software they paid for, I get $29.95 either way. On the other hand, I have tested more explicit (and longer) explanations of the relationship between the two than what I have currently, and it just decreases conversion rate to both options. There is a lot to be said for being succinct. The Buy button you simplified out of the redesign makes me ~$1k a month -- in a non-trivial number of instances, before the customer has even tried the software. I do not have screenshots of the online version because the primary purpose of the screenshot is to demonstrate that I really have software to sell and am not an Evil Internet Scammer. (I sell to people who fear the Internet and their computers.) Letting them try it instantly assuages that fear for the online version. (Besides, it looks fugly.)