4 ms·

Ask HN: Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke

20 points by JangoSteve 17y ago

JangoSteve 17y ago
I'm very interested in seeing what everyone's take is on my new webapp, as I don't think I could ask for any better feedback than from the people here. It's far from complete in terms of functionality, but it does essentially what I needed it to do. I'm currently using it for both of my companies, and have a few friends in the area using it for their companies as well. I figured I'd throw it out there to get a feel for how useful people think something like this may be. If it is, in fact, useful to some, then I can start putting more time/effort into developing it further.
icey 17y ago
I think it looks pretty good over all. You might want to put a video demo on the front page or something. There's a lot going on in your front page; I like something that succinctly tells me what the product is and why I should be using it.
- JangoSteve 17y ago
  Thanks, I actually had a demo video, but the quality wasn't that great and it was with the old design. I was going to go through and remake the video if there was any interest at all. If there isn't, then I wasn't going to waste my time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G75KhTQWyDA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G75KhTQWyDA In the meantime, here is the demo video I had... do you think I should put it back on the homepage? Would it serve to help sell the app or drive people away because of the quality?
officemedium 17y ago
I'd recommend making the design a little more "welcoming". It's very bare and plain - makes the site look cheap which reflects on the service. I'd also recommend simplifying the information and features on the home page - try to really get across what your app does, what it will help us do, and why we should use it, as quickly and easily as possible.
- JangoSteve 17y ago
  Thank you very much, I definitely agree with trying to simplify the information and features on the home page. I actually had a much different design at first, but it seemed too busy and not clean enough. For the redesign, I went for a much clearer and minimalistic approach. I suppose it's a matter of taste really, can't please everyone :-)
  - aw3c2 17y ago
    Make sure to be careful with fonts. Currently there are many different colors and fonts. I would try to reduce that. The monospaced typewriter font looks very bad to me, it has that nervous jitter. Makes it look a bit unprofessional to me. Warmer colors would help. I wish I was a designer and able to help, but I can only give this criticism. Take it if it has a use, ignore if you think it does not!
jsm386 17y ago
It seems that your 2nd to last how it works image ('Turn leads into sales') implies that you're pulling The Federal Reserve out of a CNN article as an example of how the app works to generate one type of personalized email. Maybe you want a more realistic example? I know it's not a big thing, but it just struck me as a really odd example.
- JangoSteve 17y ago
  I totally agree, and that is one of the first details I'll fix if the app proves viable for anyone other than myself and friends ;-)
jrockway 17y ago
I read that is Pb-mining. I thought it was a new World of Warcraft-like game. Incidentally, cold lead fits in the microwave.
shpxnvz 17y ago
Sounds interesting, and I was about to sign up for a free account to give it a whirl until I saw that the basic (and even some paid) accounts have no security. I know that some well-known companies get away with this, but to me it says that you believe security for my personal information is something to be bartered for. As soon as I have to start wondering under exactly which circumstances your company is going to try to protect my data, you've lost my trust. Of course this is only my personal opinion, but for what it's worth I won't do business with anyone who treats my security as an option.
- JangoSteve 17y ago
  That's an interesting point of view. I didn't really put much thought into security, because nothing in this app contains secure information really (besides perhaps the password to login). It wasn't so much a matter of your security being an option, but rather a matter of the intended customer type. For instance, the only information that could realistically be considered to need security in this app is the specific leads you generate/contact. However, the only companies I've ever worked for or with that consider their leads to be top-secret are large corporations. Hence, the reason the subscription level that includes enhanced security is the "Corporate" account. But I can see your side as well.
  - shpxnvz 17y ago
    the only information that could realistically be considered to need security in this app is the specific leads you generate/contact How about payment information? Should I expect an unencrypted form submission when I hand over my credit card details? My password gets submitted as plain text and emailed back, will my credit card number be handled the same? From ten seconds on the landing page, and looking at the insecure signup form, I can't tell - and that's probably not what you want your potential customers to be worried about. I'm not trying to be negative, and from the looks of it I don't think you can actually provide a credit card anywhere on your site yet so you still have time to sort it out, but please give some serious thought to basic security before you start asking people to send you their credit cards.
Vindexus 17y ago
The home page doesn't really tell me what it does. It's all marketing style corporate speak that I don't really understand. You should really change your tagline to be more of a description of your service than a marketing phrase. "Since cold leads don't fit in the microwave" tells me nothing about your service. "LeadNuke is the missing link in your existing sales pipeline; it helps you kick-start the sales process." That doesn't really tell me anything either. "LeadNuke is a streamlined process that helps you find, track, and follow-through with news articles, blog posts, and RSS feeds from your industry, turning them into meaningful sales leads. LeadNuke helps you generate qualified leads and initiate a dialog with prospects who actually need your product or service." This also doesn't really tell me much. I looked down your home page further and I'm guessing this is some sort of email marketing service. You should definitely use the word email in your descriptions so people know that's what it is.
- JangoSteve 17y ago
  All that marketing style corporate speak is because it's a product aimed at the marketing people. I agree about the tagline, that was me having a bit of fun.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago
    Even so, consider simplifying it thusly: LeadNuke helps you generate qualified sales leads from online news articles and feeds If this is what it really does, it would have explained it to me immediately.
NEPatriot 17y ago
Here are my $.02. Great idea. Warms leads are very valuable and if you can help you have a winner. Your voice came out very well. I am wondering why the videos are hidden on the pricing page? I'm a big believer in showing the video up front so I can take 2 mins to decide if this is for me. I'd also recommend a shorter video that highlights how you take an rss feed and turn it into a lead in order to demonstrate value. Once I've determine this product could be of value to me, then I might want to get details about how it works.
swombat 17y ago
I read through most of the first page and I'm still not quite clear what this app does. Where does it get the leads from? Do you have to generate the leads yourself? If so, is this basically a CRM tool? (in that case, why call it something else?)
- JangoSteve 17y ago
  It's more of a plugin for CRM's than a CRM itself... it fits in between the general market and your existing CRM. I.e. it helps you filter out warm leads from the general market, so you can initiate contact with them and then funnel them into your CRM. It helps you keep track of random leads you come across, and it also imports leads from any RSS feed that you feed it. This includes Google Alerts, job posting boards, etc. The idea is that eventually, it will have the ability to crawl the web on it's own so as not to need a Google Alerts feed. It also keeps track of how many useful leads come in through each feed, so that you can decide which feeds to keep and which ones waste your time.
jordanf 17y ago
First thought: your logo looks like an envelope stuffed with excrement. Also, my eye is drawn the the sad faces on your landing page. Without reading, it looks like a feature list for your product, not a comparison. It took my awhile to figure out that I had to click to see the good.
- mos1 17y ago
  Until I read this comment, I didn't notice it was clickable at all. I was just really confused about the message.
og1 17y ago
I also thought the name was referring to the element. One thing I think should be changed is the section that compares "Traditional Email Marketing" vs. "The Lead Nuke Way". I don't think most people are going to realize that you click to view the information for "The LeadNuke Way". And with how the headings are setup it looks like you are saying your service has Low Conversions, Wasted Effort, and Risk of Spamming.
teye 17y ago
Tell me exactly what your product does in the tagline. Make this sentence shorter and sweeter and put it center stage. LeadNuke is a streamlined process that helps you find, track, and follow-through with news articles, blog posts, and RSS feeds from your industry, turning them into meaningful sales leads.
prodigal_erik 17y ago
The phrase "(less) risk of spamming" doesn't sit right with me. If I don't have an ongoing relationship with the recipient, nor do I know for a fact they have solicited such messages, I am definitely spamming, not merely risking it. Then again, your target market might not believe they're doing anything wrong.
bryanh 17y ago
Cool concept! I like the idea and just signed up. Will definitely give it a spin and give some deeper insight. The design is sparse (almost in a good way). If I were you, I'd think of some ways to tighten up the feel. Rip off some other webapps' design features (header/footer style). I know this is sort of a "feeling it out" run so carry on. :-)

20 points by JangoSteve 17y ago

I'm very interested in seeing what everyone's take is on my new webapp, as I don't think I could ask for any better feedback than from the people here. It's far from complete in terms of functionality, but it does essentially what I needed it to do. I'm currently using it for both of my companies, and have a few friends in the area using it for their companies as well. I figured I'd throw it out there to get a feel for how useful people think something like this may be. If it is, in fact, useful to some, then I can start putting more time/effort into developing it further.

icey 17y ago

I think it looks pretty good over all. You might want to put a video demo on the front page or something. There's a lot going on in your front page; I like something that succinctly tells me what the product is and why I should be using it.

JangoSteve 17y ago
Thanks, I actually had a demo video, but the quality wasn't that great and it was with the old design. I was going to go through and remake the video if there was any interest at all. If there isn't, then I wasn't going to waste my time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G75KhTQWyDA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G75KhTQWyDA In the meantime, here is the demo video I had... do you think I should put it back on the homepage? Would it serve to help sell the app or drive people away because of the quality?

officemedium 17y ago

I'd recommend making the design a little more "welcoming". It's very bare and plain - makes the site look cheap which reflects on the service. I'd also recommend simplifying the information and features on the home page - try to really get across what your app does, what it will help us do, and why we should use it, as quickly and easily as possible.

JangoSteve 17y ago
Thank you very much, I definitely agree with trying to simplify the information and features on the home page. I actually had a much different design at first, but it seemed too busy and not clean enough. For the redesign, I went for a much clearer and minimalistic approach. I suppose it's a matter of taste really, can't please everyone :-)
- aw3c2 17y ago
  Make sure to be careful with fonts. Currently there are many different colors and fonts. I would try to reduce that. The monospaced typewriter font looks very bad to me, it has that nervous jitter. Makes it look a bit unprofessional to me. Warmer colors would help. I wish I was a designer and able to help, but I can only give this criticism. Take it if it has a use, ignore if you think it does not!

jsm386 17y ago

It seems that your 2nd to last how it works image ('Turn leads into sales') implies that you're pulling The Federal Reserve out of a CNN article as an example of how the app works to generate one type of personalized email. Maybe you want a more realistic example? I know it's not a big thing, but it just struck me as a really odd example.

JangoSteve 17y ago
I totally agree, and that is one of the first details I'll fix if the app proves viable for anyone other than myself and friends ;-)

jrockway 17y ago

I read that is Pb-mining. I thought it was a new World of Warcraft-like game. Incidentally, cold lead fits in the microwave.

shpxnvz 17y ago

Sounds interesting, and I was about to sign up for a free account to give it a whirl until I saw that the basic (and even some paid) accounts have no security. I know that some well-known companies get away with this, but to me it says that you believe security for my personal information is something to be bartered for. As soon as I have to start wondering under exactly which circumstances your company is going to try to protect my data, you've lost my trust. Of course this is only my personal opinion, but for what it's worth I won't do business with anyone who treats my security as an option.

JangoSteve 17y ago
That's an interesting point of view. I didn't really put much thought into security, because nothing in this app contains secure information really (besides perhaps the password to login). It wasn't so much a matter of your security being an option, but rather a matter of the intended customer type. For instance, the only information that could realistically be considered to need security in this app is the specific leads you generate/contact. However, the only companies I've ever worked for or with that consider their leads to be top-secret are large corporations. Hence, the reason the subscription level that includes enhanced security is the "Corporate" account. But I can see your side as well.
- shpxnvz 17y ago
  the only information that could realistically be considered to need security in this app is the specific leads you generate/contact How about payment information? Should I expect an unencrypted form submission when I hand over my credit card details? My password gets submitted as plain text and emailed back, will my credit card number be handled the same? From ten seconds on the landing page, and looking at the insecure signup form, I can't tell - and that's probably not what you want your potential customers to be worried about. I'm not trying to be negative, and from the looks of it I don't think you can actually provide a credit card anywhere on your site yet so you still have time to sort it out, but please give some serious thought to basic security before you start asking people to send you their credit cards.

Vindexus 17y ago

The home page doesn't really tell me what it does. It's all marketing style corporate speak that I don't really understand. You should really change your tagline to be more of a description of your service than a marketing phrase. "Since cold leads don't fit in the microwave" tells me nothing about your service. "LeadNuke is the missing link in your existing sales pipeline; it helps you kick-start the sales process." That doesn't really tell me anything either. "LeadNuke is a streamlined process that helps you find, track, and follow-through with news articles, blog posts, and RSS feeds from your industry, turning them into meaningful sales leads. LeadNuke helps you generate qualified leads and initiate a dialog with prospects who actually need your product or service." This also doesn't really tell me much. I looked down your home page further and I'm guessing this is some sort of email marketing service. You should definitely use the word email in your descriptions so people know that's what it is.

JangoSteve 17y ago
All that marketing style corporate speak is because it's a product aimed at the marketing people. I agree about the tagline, that was me having a bit of fun.
- HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago
  Even so, consider simplifying it thusly: LeadNuke helps you generate qualified sales leads from online news articles and feeds If this is what it really does, it would have explained it to me immediately.

NEPatriot 17y ago

Here are my $.02. Great idea. Warms leads are very valuable and if you can help you have a winner. Your voice came out very well. I am wondering why the videos are hidden on the pricing page? I'm a big believer in showing the video up front so I can take 2 mins to decide if this is for me. I'd also recommend a shorter video that highlights how you take an rss feed and turn it into a lead in order to demonstrate value. Once I've determine this product could be of value to me, then I might want to get details about how it works.

swombat 17y ago

I read through most of the first page and I'm still not quite clear what this app does. Where does it get the leads from? Do you have to generate the leads yourself? If so, is this basically a CRM tool? (in that case, why call it something else?)

JangoSteve 17y ago
It's more of a plugin for CRM's than a CRM itself... it fits in between the general market and your existing CRM. I.e. it helps you filter out warm leads from the general market, so you can initiate contact with them and then funnel them into your CRM. It helps you keep track of random leads you come across, and it also imports leads from any RSS feed that you feed it. This includes Google Alerts, job posting boards, etc. The idea is that eventually, it will have the ability to crawl the web on it's own so as not to need a Google Alerts feed. It also keeps track of how many useful leads come in through each feed, so that you can decide which feeds to keep and which ones waste your time.

jordanf 17y ago

First thought: your logo looks like an envelope stuffed with excrement. Also, my eye is drawn the the sad faces on your landing page. Without reading, it looks like a feature list for your product, not a comparison. It took my awhile to figure out that I had to click to see the good.

mos1 17y ago
Until I read this comment, I didn't notice it was clickable at all. I was just really confused about the message.

og1 17y ago

I also thought the name was referring to the element. One thing I think should be changed is the section that compares "Traditional Email Marketing" vs. "The Lead Nuke Way". I don't think most people are going to realize that you click to view the information for "The LeadNuke Way". And with how the headings are setup it looks like you are saying your service has Low Conversions, Wasted Effort, and Risk of Spamming.

teye 17y ago

Tell me exactly what your product does in the tagline. Make this sentence shorter and sweeter and put it center stage. LeadNuke is a streamlined process that helps you find, track, and follow-through with news articles, blog posts, and RSS feeds from your industry, turning them into meaningful sales leads.

prodigal_erik 17y ago

The phrase "(less) risk of spamming" doesn't sit right with me. If I don't have an ongoing relationship with the recipient, nor do I know for a fact they have solicited such messages, I am definitely spamming, not merely risking it. Then again, your target market might not believe they're doing anything wrong.

bryanh 17y ago

Cool concept! I like the idea and just signed up. Will definitely give it a spin and give some deeper insight. The design is sparse (almost in a good way). If I were you, I'd think of some ways to tighten up the feel. Rip off some other webapps' design features (header/footer style). I know this is sort of a "feeling it out" run so carry on. :-)