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I have many informational websites like http://www.krister.ee http://www.krister.ee and sometimes I register domains on a whim when I get a really good idea for

I have many informational websites like http://www.krister.ee http://www.krister.ee and sometimes I register domains on a whim when I get a really good idea for a website. I decided to create a simple tool to help manage these microsites and in addition to buying a domain I can immediately fill it with demo-content using markdown. Before I get into feature creep (hero image, forms, analytics) I'd like to work on reaching an audience. Problem is, I'm not sure who would appreciate it. I know it's a useful tool so any tips on how to spread the word is greatly appreciated.

getup8 10y ago
Can you give a quick summary of how it works? Who are you using to host? Didn't see any info in the About section. Realize you're saying you don't want to add any features but some quick mobile optimization to make the links more readable / clickable on a small screen would go a long way.
- kristerv 10y ago
  Sure. It's a meteor.js app with React.js at the front. Namecheap to buy domains and Braintree to handle payments. Hosting on Scalingo (awesome service btw). Hmm.. what else.. the chat plugin is tawk.to - be sure to check that out. I'll be sure to improve the mobile view soon, thanks for the comment!
  - yatsyk 10y ago
    Thank you for technical details! Why do you use braintree but not use namecheap for everything? Avoiding lock-in or some technical reasons?
    - kristerv 10y ago
      I can't recall the exact details, but I did try to use as few services as possible. I think the problem was something about how namecheap's pricing model worked. Or was it the site that didn't have a customizeable paying popup. Not sure, tried quite many different services many months ago.
xchaotic 10y ago
I think there is some overlap with Jekyll. Personally, Jekyll works better for me atm, as it produces static content, can be hosted for free on github or cheaply on s3 and has a bigger community and backing of github engineering. So perhaps, it's worthwhile to try and figure out jekyll-lite or something like that? For me setting up jekyll was a pain, I had to get ruby, rubygems, jekyll itself and then a manual config intervention to make it work for me. If this could be simplified that would be a huge improvement.
- fredley 10y ago
  I've been working on a Jekyll-like system for fun over the past couple of weeks. I've tried to make it as painless to install as possible, but it does require Python 3. https://github.com/fredley/mirage https://github.com/fredley/mirage Was planning on doing a Show HN if/when I'd made it a bit more robust. It makes sites that look like this: http://mirage.mamota.net http://mirage.mamota.net
  - scrollaway 10y ago
    Do you cater only to blogs or to static website in general? I tried both Hugo and pelican but neither really supported general purpose websites. For example, https://hearthstonejson.com https://hearthstonejson.com uses Jekyll and I haven't been able to move it.
    - fredley 10y ago
      Only blogs, I primarily build this for my own use.
      - scrollaway 10y ago
        I will look at it anyway, but the #1 issue with hugo/pelican is that they essentially force you into the "you have posts and you have a homepage that embeds posts" logic. It's super annoying. Jekyll has a ton of issues but it gets it right at least: any page you make becomes a page on the site.
notahacker 10y ago
Your target market is somebody that wants to create lots of minimalist websites quickly. (those creating one personal website whose priority is getting things done likely skip the "evaluate best alternatives" step and go straight to Tumblr/Wordpress or their favourite social network.) Unfortunately, apart from polymaths that just want to share their expertise on as many discrete subjects as possible which I'm not convinced is the biggest target market, it's probably blogspammers and astroturfers...
- kristerv 10y ago
  thanks for the input. You may be right on this one. We'll see.
- frozenport 10y ago
  Also troll websites, for example, http://www.makecppgreatagain.com http://www.makecppgreatagain.com, or http://opisaflag.com http://opisaflag.com
- albahk 10y ago
  Some legitimate use cases: - Single page property websites/subdomains created by brokers (www.123mainstreet.com) - parked domain landing pages
blunte 10y ago
My first thought was Github Pages + Jekyll + a Jekyll template. And then it's been wrapped in a script that has the domain name bonus. Not saying what you're doing isn't a good idea; I'm just not quite sure where the big distinction (and attraction) is. Is it that the process is more shrink-wrapped?
- kristerv 10y ago
  yeah the idea is just to be as simple as possible.
dalbasal 10y ago
Mostly-text websites that aren't a blog. That's quite a lot of categories of things people might like to put on the web that fit that.
shanecleveland 10y ago
I've always thought something like this would be useful if properly narrowed to a particular niche, where creating a simple, informational site quickly and easily is useful (i.e. local restaurant menu). Would likely want to include templating of some kind.

getup8 10y ago

Can you give a quick summary of how it works? Who are you using to host? Didn't see any info in the About section. Realize you're saying you don't want to add any features but some quick mobile optimization to make the links more readable / clickable on a small screen would go a long way.

kristerv 10y ago
Sure. It's a meteor.js app with React.js at the front. Namecheap to buy domains and Braintree to handle payments. Hosting on Scalingo (awesome service btw). Hmm.. what else.. the chat plugin is tawk.to - be sure to check that out. I'll be sure to improve the mobile view soon, thanks for the comment!
- yatsyk 10y ago
  Thank you for technical details! Why do you use braintree but not use namecheap for everything? Avoiding lock-in or some technical reasons?
  - kristerv 10y ago
    I can't recall the exact details, but I did try to use as few services as possible. I think the problem was something about how namecheap's pricing model worked. Or was it the site that didn't have a customizeable paying popup. Not sure, tried quite many different services many months ago.

xchaotic 10y ago

I think there is some overlap with Jekyll. Personally, Jekyll works better for me atm, as it produces static content, can be hosted for free on github or cheaply on s3 and has a bigger community and backing of github engineering. So perhaps, it's worthwhile to try and figure out jekyll-lite or something like that? For me setting up jekyll was a pain, I had to get ruby, rubygems, jekyll itself and then a manual config intervention to make it work for me. If this could be simplified that would be a huge improvement.

fredley 10y ago
I've been working on a Jekyll-like system for fun over the past couple of weeks. I've tried to make it as painless to install as possible, but it does require Python 3. https://github.com/fredley/mirage https://github.com/fredley/mirage Was planning on doing a Show HN if/when I'd made it a bit more robust. It makes sites that look like this: http://mirage.mamota.net http://mirage.mamota.net
- scrollaway 10y ago
  Do you cater only to blogs or to static website in general? I tried both Hugo and pelican but neither really supported general purpose websites. For example, https://hearthstonejson.com https://hearthstonejson.com uses Jekyll and I haven't been able to move it.
  - fredley 10y ago
    Only blogs, I primarily build this for my own use.
    - scrollaway 10y ago
      I will look at it anyway, but the #1 issue with hugo/pelican is that they essentially force you into the "you have posts and you have a homepage that embeds posts" logic. It's super annoying. Jekyll has a ton of issues but it gets it right at least: any page you make becomes a page on the site.

notahacker 10y ago

Your target market is somebody that wants to create lots of minimalist websites quickly. (those creating one personal website whose priority is getting things done likely skip the "evaluate best alternatives" step and go straight to Tumblr/Wordpress or their favourite social network.) Unfortunately, apart from polymaths that just want to share their expertise on as many discrete subjects as possible which I'm not convinced is the biggest target market, it's probably blogspammers and astroturfers...

kristerv 10y ago
thanks for the input. You may be right on this one. We'll see.
frozenport 10y ago
Also troll websites, for example, http://www.makecppgreatagain.com http://www.makecppgreatagain.com, or http://opisaflag.com http://opisaflag.com
albahk 10y ago
Some legitimate use cases: - Single page property websites/subdomains created by brokers (www.123mainstreet.com) - parked domain landing pages

blunte 10y ago

My first thought was Github Pages + Jekyll + a Jekyll template. And then it's been wrapped in a script that has the domain name bonus. Not saying what you're doing isn't a good idea; I'm just not quite sure where the big distinction (and attraction) is. Is it that the process is more shrink-wrapped?

kristerv 10y ago
yeah the idea is just to be as simple as possible.

dalbasal 10y ago

Mostly-text websites that aren't a blog. That's quite a lot of categories of things people might like to put on the web that fit that.

shanecleveland 10y ago

I've always thought something like this would be useful if properly narrowed to a particular niche, where creating a simple, informational site quickly and easily is useful (i.e. local restaurant menu). Would likely want to include templating of some kind.