5 ms·

Ask HN: Please review my site http://tweetingmachine.com

5 points by mootothemax 17y ago

TweetingMachine has been my weekend project, mostly to learn Twitter's API after some previous freelance requirements. It's a crowded marketplace, but there seem to be enough people out there wanting to use such tools; do you think there's room for me if I keep adding more features? http://tweetingmachine.com

Roridge 17y ago
There is always room for more, HN has taught me that. Nice work for a weekend product. How does your system handle spam? e.g. if I schedule a tweet every 1 second to 20 accounts that may get your oAuth or ip blacklisted from Twitter. I could only see what the Pro cost is very small at the bottom of the screen. You should make your pricing structure more obvious, and I would like to select which version im signing up for before I sign up for it.
- mootothemax 17y ago
  Right now I handle spam by not having a recurring tweeting function ;) You have to manually send each tweet, however that's not to say someone determined (not to mention, also very bored) couldn't sit there constantly hitting the send button. I'll look in to this. I'm going to play around with where else to put the price as you're right, it's a bit hidden at the moment. Currently, the only way to pay is to log in with a Twitter account first and then upgrade from there. I'm thinking about an option to "sign up for premium" where after signing in with Twitter the user's taken to a payment page. Do you think that'd be a good idea?
  - roundsquare 17y ago
    But I can schedule tweets right? How does this work?
    - Roridge 17y ago
      I suspect his application saves the datetime of when the tweet is to be made and simply submits it at that given time.
      - mootothemax 17y ago
        Got it in one, although before a user can schedule tweets they have to tell us what their local timezone is. So that, plus some funky timezone fun inbetween :)
    - mootothemax 17y ago
      You can :) You set a date and time for a tweet to be sent (as well as which Twitter accounts for it to be sent across), and then TweetingMachine waits until that time to send it to Twitter. Job done!
  - Roridge 17y ago
    Yes, I do. So If you allowed me to click the option I wanted (e.g. free or pro) then you could record that selection as session data in your web app, then take me to the Twitter page. Then like you say, take me down a altered registration path if I chose pro.
    - mootothemax 17y ago
      I'm going to get on and do this, thanks for the suggestion :-)
      - Roridge 17y ago
        you're welcome. I am currently working on my own Tweet Suite, shall have to let you know when it's ready so you can repay the favour ;)
revorad 17y ago
Since the marketplace is crowded with free tools, why don't you just sell a pro version? It will differentiate you and make you focus on making something worth paying for. Please don't hide that cost at the bottom of the page. Put it on top, make a video to tell me why I really really need to buy this beautiful thing.
- mootothemax 17y ago
  Those are good points, thank you. I hadn't considered going pro-only, as I'd thought users might like to play with the system first before paying and this might get more signups. Hmm... I'm tempted to do an a/b split test and see... I'm going to make the pricing more obvious, and will knock up a features video at the top as well.
  - revorad 17y ago
    The most important question is: do you want users or customers? You may be trying to be benevolent by giving away your work for free, but don't forget that making money enables you to be more benevolent in the long run. </mega visionary sound bytes>
    - mootothemax 17y ago
      Right, I'm sold, Pro-only it is! I think I might do some coding tonight... :)
      - revorad 17y ago
        Awesome! By the way, how are you finding Poland?
        mootothemax 17y ago
        Poland rocks and I love it here, although the language is still breaking my head on a regular basis ;)
coryl 17y ago
The good thing about models like this is they're easy to scale, and they're relatively low maintenance. You could get rid of free accounts, and only offer Pro accounts with a 2 week free trial (pending payment w/ cancellation at end of term).
- mootothemax 17y ago
  You're now the second person to mention only offering Pro accounts, I think this might be the way forwards :)
c1sc0 17y ago
You're falling in the same trap all other tweet scheduling services are falling into: I have to explicitly state when I want each tweet to be sent. Here's my dream tweet app (running from the command line): username:~ machine$ schedule_tweets textfile_with_tweets_one_per_line X X is the time interval at which I want the tweets to run. Basically what I want is a service where I can add tweets to a queue, set it to 'post one tweet per hour' and let it run ...
- mootothemax 17y ago
  I'm on the verge of adding a similar service: enter as many tweets as you fancy, and then select the interval between each tweet. Would that be something you'd be interested in? For that matter, it wouldn't be a pain to offer a CSV-style upload option either.

5 points by mootothemax 17y ago

Roridge 17y ago

There is always room for more, HN has taught me that. Nice work for a weekend product. How does your system handle spam? e.g. if I schedule a tweet every 1 second to 20 accounts that may get your oAuth or ip blacklisted from Twitter. I could only see what the Pro cost is very small at the bottom of the screen. You should make your pricing structure more obvious, and I would like to select which version im signing up for before I sign up for it.

mootothemax 17y ago
Right now I handle spam by not having a recurring tweeting function ;) You have to manually send each tweet, however that's not to say someone determined (not to mention, also very bored) couldn't sit there constantly hitting the send button. I'll look in to this. I'm going to play around with where else to put the price as you're right, it's a bit hidden at the moment. Currently, the only way to pay is to log in with a Twitter account first and then upgrade from there. I'm thinking about an option to "sign up for premium" where after signing in with Twitter the user's taken to a payment page. Do you think that'd be a good idea?
- roundsquare 17y ago
  But I can schedule tweets right? How does this work?
  - Roridge 17y ago
    I suspect his application saves the datetime of when the tweet is to be made and simply submits it at that given time.
    - mootothemax 17y ago
      Got it in one, although before a user can schedule tweets they have to tell us what their local timezone is. So that, plus some funky timezone fun inbetween :)
  - mootothemax 17y ago
    You can :) You set a date and time for a tweet to be sent (as well as which Twitter accounts for it to be sent across), and then TweetingMachine waits until that time to send it to Twitter. Job done!
- Roridge 17y ago
  Yes, I do. So If you allowed me to click the option I wanted (e.g. free or pro) then you could record that selection as session data in your web app, then take me to the Twitter page. Then like you say, take me down a altered registration path if I chose pro.
  - mootothemax 17y ago
    I'm going to get on and do this, thanks for the suggestion :-)
    - Roridge 17y ago
      you're welcome. I am currently working on my own Tweet Suite, shall have to let you know when it's ready so you can repay the favour ;)

revorad 17y ago

Since the marketplace is crowded with free tools, why don't you just sell a pro version? It will differentiate you and make you focus on making something worth paying for. Please don't hide that cost at the bottom of the page. Put it on top, make a video to tell me why I really really need to buy this beautiful thing.

mootothemax 17y ago
Those are good points, thank you. I hadn't considered going pro-only, as I'd thought users might like to play with the system first before paying and this might get more signups. Hmm... I'm tempted to do an a/b split test and see... I'm going to make the pricing more obvious, and will knock up a features video at the top as well.
- revorad 17y ago
  The most important question is: do you want users or customers? You may be trying to be benevolent by giving away your work for free, but don't forget that making money enables you to be more benevolent in the long run. </mega visionary sound bytes>
  - mootothemax 17y ago
    Right, I'm sold, Pro-only it is! I think I might do some coding tonight... :)
    - revorad 17y ago
      Awesome! By the way, how are you finding Poland?
      - mootothemax 17y ago
        Poland rocks and I love it here, although the language is still breaking my head on a regular basis ;)

coryl 17y ago

The good thing about models like this is they're easy to scale, and they're relatively low maintenance. You could get rid of free accounts, and only offer Pro accounts with a 2 week free trial (pending payment w/ cancellation at end of term).

mootothemax 17y ago
You're now the second person to mention only offering Pro accounts, I think this might be the way forwards :)

c1sc0 17y ago

You're falling in the same trap all other tweet scheduling services are falling into: I have to explicitly state when I want each tweet to be sent. Here's my dream tweet app (running from the command line): username:~ machine$ schedule_tweets textfile_with_tweets_one_per_line X X is the time interval at which I want the tweets to run. Basically what I want is a service where I can add tweets to a queue, set it to 'post one tweet per hour' and let it run ...

mootothemax 17y ago
I'm on the verge of adding a similar service: enter as many tweets as you fancy, and then select the interval between each tweet. Would that be something you'd be interested in? For that matter, it wouldn't be a pain to offer a CSV-style upload option either.