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Invoice Bubble: Please review and let me know your thoughts

36 points by stulogy 16y ago

uggedal 16y ago
One of the clearest landing pages I've ever seen. The green color gives me associations to safety -- something I'd want in a service which handles my payments.
subbu 16y ago
Beautiful site. How do you provide subscription based payments?
- stulogy 16y ago
  Hey thanks for the comments. So Paypal handle the payments at the moment. Not ideal - but 1) people trust and recognise the Paypal brand 2) it's great for startups because there isn't any investment needed to set it up or integrate it. But you lose out when it comes to the 3.9% they take on the payments. Long term I will probably end up using CheddarGetter or similar.
hristov 16y ago
As of the writing of this post your site is impossibly slow or dead.
- stulogy 16y ago
  Seems ok for me? Since posting this the site has experienced a lot of traffic because it's popping up on lots of feeds so maybe try again in a bit. But I'm not having any problems. I'll see if I can boost resources a little.
- paraschopra 16y ago
  It is on HTTPS, maybe that is why?
  - stulogy 16y ago
    Ahh yes... the whole site is on HTTPS. I'm not sure what the best approach is for the SSL. It looks good when people go to the site and see the seal, they know its a secure site. But it can slow things down. I could make it so that only the actual logged in interface, and the signup page are secure. What do you think?
    - paraschopra 16y ago
      I don't think you should keep the HTTPS in default. It really slows down the speed of the site, maybe just keep it on payment and login page.
    - MichaelApproved 16y ago
      SSL is very resource intensive. I can understand wanting to show security on the homepage but you should definitely turn it off for the site tour and other pages like TOS.
      - qq66 16y ago
        I run a site entirely on SSL using a Redline 3250. It's literally a 30-minute setup -- the server does not know that it is running a secure site. Listed for $35,000 in 2003 - bought mine on EBay for $200.
      - egoz 16y ago
        That site even use https to serve images. Btw, Ask HN: I'm planning to setup a site hosted in linode540/slicehost512 and serve all but images/css/js in https, and expecting about 5k-10k page views a day. Will that slicehost/linode instance be enough?
        apinstein 16y ago
        You can't really serve all but images in SSL as unfortunately browsers complain about this. We tried it but people constantly ask us why they get alerts (IE) and there is a "caveat" to the lock in Firefox. Sad but true.
hcho 16y ago
I am not a native English speaker, I might not get the feel of your domain name right. Having the word bubble in your name doesn't really convey trust to me. Do native speakers feel the same?
- nudge 16y ago
  It doesn't really have any connotations for me in this context. Obviously, if it were to do with investments, 'bubble' would be an odd choice. In the context of invoices I don't think it really means anything.
  - Torn 16y ago
    Agreed, I thought this would be a cool css / js tooltip effect or something.
    - JoachimSchipper 16y ago
      I thought it would be some article about the difference between cash and accrual accounting, and how temporary differences in these numbers can cause (short-term, but potentially fatal) problems.
      - stulogy 16y ago
        :) sorry to disappoint! sounds like a good idea for an article.
        JoachimSchipper 16y ago
        I'm not sure I'm disappointed, really; just slightly surprised. Good luck!
- RyanMcGreal 16y ago
  I'm a native English speaker and that was the first thing that came to mind. If I saw this link anywhere other than an Ask HN post, I would automatically pass on clicking it.
paraschopra 16y ago
Design looks great, though on the home page your two buttons are competing for attention. Ideally, have just a single button there. Or make one larger than the other. I think the homepage is too light to excite a potential customer. Also, somehow I have hard time distinguishing it from other invoicing apps. Maybe you would want to answer why is it different? A small typo in your testimonial. Spelling of definitely here -> "definately switching to this"
- stulogy 16y ago
  Thanks for the feedback, I'll fix the typo. Let me know if you think that Project Bubble's home page is any more exciting. I have spent a lot longer on that one (from a marketing angle): http://projectbubble.com http://projectbubble.com
prog 16y ago
Looks good. I think it would be a good to put the "pricing" button after "take a tour" and "try it free". Right now you need to look hard to find it. :)
binarymax 16y ago
Looks very interesting. I am (slowly!) building a site on the weekends in a similar (non-competitive) area. Do you plan to develop an API?
- stulogy 16y ago
  Yup, building the API and the iPhone app at the moment. Should be ready soon.
nudge 16y ago
Very nice design. A few thoughts: 1. Your testimonials would be better with names, I think. 2. I would like to see some data-export options, just so I know that I wouldn't have to start again entirely if I stopped liking your product. 3. Your pricing page says "We offer a free plan to get you started, then a paid plan that has all the features and no limitations for a tiny $5 per month". This is a little confusing, because you're also offering me a free trial to get me started. Your free version distracts a little from your paid product, which is already very good value. Do you need a free version? Consider dropping the free version entirely, or dropping it from the signup options, so that I get started on a free trial of the full product, but can switch down to the free one if I like. I'm guessing it'll be easier to get people to pay to keep using features than to pay to use ones they haven't used yet and don't know they need (which would happen on the free plan route).
- stulogy 16y ago
  Hey thanks. 1) Yup, ok will put those in. 2) There is already data export for everything. 3) You are 100% right and I need to sort this out. Thanks for your helpful feedback.
ros99 16y ago
Site looks lovely. If you can work out how to tell when an invoice is paid through the system (without trusting the user to tick off the invoice as paid) I would suggest offering the service with no sign-up cost and charge a % of the paid invoices. There's a reason most every payment site does it this way :)
- stulogy 16y ago
  Hey. Yeah that's an option. Last month we helped our users create over $50,000 in invoices (thats invoices that were paid), so a percentage would be an interesting idea. :)
- roqetman 16y ago
  I would also suggest some kind of discount for non-profit organisations - they can be a good way to get your name spread around too.
mootothemax 16y ago
I like it a lot! My only nitpick is on the pricing page: "yearly price." I prefer using "annual" instead of "yearly," but I don't know if that's a cultural thing ;)
- stulogy 16y ago
  Hey, where are you from?
  - mootothemax 16y ago
    England originally, and now in Poland, which has done nothing but utterly confuse my English ;-)
_Lemon_ 16y ago
It's good but I'm not sure on the pricing. (Incidentally why is this "hidden" at the bottom of the front page?) I'm comparing it to Google Checkout as it's what I currently use to take payments. How does it compare? The first thing is that I don't know how you're taking money from the clients or prompting them to pay. Do they pay via PayPal or Google Checkout or do they have options? "get paid online through PayPal" would suggest they do. If so, how do you make money? What's your secret to getting such a low price? I think I'm paying Google several hundred each month to process my payments (PayPal would be the same) so are there hidden charges? Is there an API? It's nice (and crucial for me being able to scale) not having to process all my clients manually. Please correct me if I've completely gone off the plot but this is my stream of consciousness. I do like the front page!
- stulogy 16y ago
  Hey. API is in development yes. Yes well Paypal will take their 3.4% off you, we are literally just storing your invoices and connecting your clients with Paypal. We don't take any payments from your client - it goes direct through to Paypal. Feel free to contact me if you want to talk more about it.
synnik 16y ago
I wonder if invoicing alone is worth paying for... Although I know my feelings are inaccurate, I've never minded invoicing because I am asking for money. I actually somewhat enjoy it. It equates to income. By the time invoicing becomes a serious drain on productivity, I'm already doing well enough to have that function covered either via an accountant or just an accounting software system. So yes, you are solving a problem -- but a pretty darn minor one... will people really pay for that?
hooande 16y ago
This site is great, I plan to use it soon. I wish it said something about paypal more clearly on the home page. Finding out whether or not you provide payment processing options took some looking. Overall it looks great.
stulogy 16y ago
I just put a LiveHelp thing in, so if you want to talk to me about Invoice Bubble you can on the site. I also disabled Forced SSL, so it should be faster now - thanks for your feedback everyone.
- maukdaddy 16y ago
  FYI if I had a business I would not use the service without SSL everywhere. I would not want my invoice data in the clear.
- jmah 16y ago
  BTW going to a page with SSL (like "Try for Free") makes the chat area show "Olark: Upgrade your account". Could be a bit confusing.
jakerella2 16y ago
The site looks nice: clean lines, etc. - but I'm left wondering why I would use your service over Freshbooks, which seems to have more features (all be it only 3 free clients to your 5). I think your "tour" needs to have a lot more information: you show a tiny piece of an invoice, how about a sample PDF? A video intro to the creation of an invoice would be great. Lastly, while live help is always appreciated as an option, I would definitely stray from sending messages to online users in that live help popup without them asking for it... kind of creepy.
ianium 16y ago
Shouldn't SSL be part of the basic package? Having to pay for it seems a bit off, especially for something high in personal data, like invoicing. Edit: looks good, btw
alttab 16y ago
This instantly reminded me of BillMeBob.com However, BillmeBob does nothing but create an invoice. You beat them here by integrating with paypal, but why pay you AND paypal to get paid? You are basically a "value add provider" so make sure your pricing points are right. The "Project Bubble" page does a better job of pricing comparisons. To me, both "Project" and "Bubble" are offputting. When it comes to getting paid, people may not want to use a product called "Project" as it could convey unreliability. You obviously have some affinity for the word "Bubble," so maybe try to find another phrase that more accurately describes your business and is catchy. Otherwise great work on the software, look, and feel! Maybe "PayBubble" or something?

36 points by stulogy 16y ago

One of the clearest landing pages I've ever seen. The green color gives me associations to safety -- something I'd want in a service which handles my payments.

subbu 16y ago

Beautiful site. How do you provide subscription based payments?

stulogy 16y ago
Hey thanks for the comments. So Paypal handle the payments at the moment. Not ideal - but 1) people trust and recognise the Paypal brand 2) it's great for startups because there isn't any investment needed to set it up or integrate it. But you lose out when it comes to the 3.9% they take on the payments. Long term I will probably end up using CheddarGetter or similar.

hristov 16y ago

As of the writing of this post your site is impossibly slow or dead.

stulogy 16y ago
Seems ok for me? Since posting this the site has experienced a lot of traffic because it's popping up on lots of feeds so maybe try again in a bit. But I'm not having any problems. I'll see if I can boost resources a little.
paraschopra 16y ago
It is on HTTPS, maybe that is why?
- stulogy 16y ago
  Ahh yes... the whole site is on HTTPS. I'm not sure what the best approach is for the SSL. It looks good when people go to the site and see the seal, they know its a secure site. But it can slow things down. I could make it so that only the actual logged in interface, and the signup page are secure. What do you think?
  - paraschopra 16y ago
    I don't think you should keep the HTTPS in default. It really slows down the speed of the site, maybe just keep it on payment and login page.
  - MichaelApproved 16y ago
    SSL is very resource intensive. I can understand wanting to show security on the homepage but you should definitely turn it off for the site tour and other pages like TOS.
    - qq66 16y ago
      I run a site entirely on SSL using a Redline 3250. It's literally a 30-minute setup -- the server does not know that it is running a secure site. Listed for $35,000 in 2003 - bought mine on EBay for $200.
    - egoz 16y ago
      That site even use https to serve images. Btw, Ask HN: I'm planning to setup a site hosted in linode540/slicehost512 and serve all but images/css/js in https, and expecting about 5k-10k page views a day. Will that slicehost/linode instance be enough?
      - apinstein 16y ago
        You can't really serve all but images in SSL as unfortunately browsers complain about this. We tried it but people constantly ask us why they get alerts (IE) and there is a "caveat" to the lock in Firefox. Sad but true.

hcho 16y ago

I am not a native English speaker, I might not get the feel of your domain name right. Having the word bubble in your name doesn't really convey trust to me. Do native speakers feel the same?

nudge 16y ago
It doesn't really have any connotations for me in this context. Obviously, if it were to do with investments, 'bubble' would be an odd choice. In the context of invoices I don't think it really means anything.
- Torn 16y ago
  Agreed, I thought this would be a cool css / js tooltip effect or something.
  - JoachimSchipper 16y ago
    I thought it would be some article about the difference between cash and accrual accounting, and how temporary differences in these numbers can cause (short-term, but potentially fatal) problems.
    - stulogy 16y ago
      :) sorry to disappoint! sounds like a good idea for an article.
      - JoachimSchipper 16y ago
        I'm not sure I'm disappointed, really; just slightly surprised. Good luck!
RyanMcGreal 16y ago
I'm a native English speaker and that was the first thing that came to mind. If I saw this link anywhere other than an Ask HN post, I would automatically pass on clicking it.

paraschopra 16y ago

Design looks great, though on the home page your two buttons are competing for attention. Ideally, have just a single button there. Or make one larger than the other. I think the homepage is too light to excite a potential customer. Also, somehow I have hard time distinguishing it from other invoicing apps. Maybe you would want to answer why is it different? A small typo in your testimonial. Spelling of definitely here -> "definately switching to this"

stulogy 16y ago
Thanks for the feedback, I'll fix the typo. Let me know if you think that Project Bubble's home page is any more exciting. I have spent a lot longer on that one (from a marketing angle): http://projectbubble.com http://projectbubble.com

prog 16y ago

Looks good. I think it would be a good to put the "pricing" button after "take a tour" and "try it free". Right now you need to look hard to find it. :)

binarymax 16y ago

Looks very interesting. I am (slowly!) building a site on the weekends in a similar (non-competitive) area. Do you plan to develop an API?

stulogy 16y ago
Yup, building the API and the iPhone app at the moment. Should be ready soon.

nudge 16y ago

Very nice design. A few thoughts: 1. Your testimonials would be better with names, I think. 2. I would like to see some data-export options, just so I know that I wouldn't have to start again entirely if I stopped liking your product. 3. Your pricing page says "We offer a free plan to get you started, then a paid plan that has all the features and no limitations for a tiny $5 per month". This is a little confusing, because you're also offering me a free trial to get me started. Your free version distracts a little from your paid product, which is already very good value. Do you need a free version? Consider dropping the free version entirely, or dropping it from the signup options, so that I get started on a free trial of the full product, but can switch down to the free one if I like. I'm guessing it'll be easier to get people to pay to keep using features than to pay to use ones they haven't used yet and don't know they need (which would happen on the free plan route).

stulogy 16y ago
Hey thanks. 1) Yup, ok will put those in. 2) There is already data export for everything. 3) You are 100% right and I need to sort this out. Thanks for your helpful feedback.

ros99 16y ago

Site looks lovely. If you can work out how to tell when an invoice is paid through the system (without trusting the user to tick off the invoice as paid) I would suggest offering the service with no sign-up cost and charge a % of the paid invoices. There's a reason most every payment site does it this way :)

stulogy 16y ago
Hey. Yeah that's an option. Last month we helped our users create over $50,000 in invoices (thats invoices that were paid), so a percentage would be an interesting idea. :)
roqetman 16y ago
I would also suggest some kind of discount for non-profit organisations - they can be a good way to get your name spread around too.

mootothemax 16y ago

I like it a lot! My only nitpick is on the pricing page: "yearly price." I prefer using "annual" instead of "yearly," but I don't know if that's a cultural thing ;)

stulogy 16y ago
Hey, where are you from?
- mootothemax 16y ago
  England originally, and now in Poland, which has done nothing but utterly confuse my English ;-)

_Lemon_ 16y ago

It's good but I'm not sure on the pricing. (Incidentally why is this "hidden" at the bottom of the front page?) I'm comparing it to Google Checkout as it's what I currently use to take payments. How does it compare? The first thing is that I don't know how you're taking money from the clients or prompting them to pay. Do they pay via PayPal or Google Checkout or do they have options? "get paid online through PayPal" would suggest they do. If so, how do you make money? What's your secret to getting such a low price? I think I'm paying Google several hundred each month to process my payments (PayPal would be the same) so are there hidden charges? Is there an API? It's nice (and crucial for me being able to scale) not having to process all my clients manually. Please correct me if I've completely gone off the plot but this is my stream of consciousness. I do like the front page!

stulogy 16y ago
Hey. API is in development yes. Yes well Paypal will take their 3.4% off you, we are literally just storing your invoices and connecting your clients with Paypal. We don't take any payments from your client - it goes direct through to Paypal. Feel free to contact me if you want to talk more about it.

synnik 16y ago

I wonder if invoicing alone is worth paying for... Although I know my feelings are inaccurate, I've never minded invoicing because I am asking for money. I actually somewhat enjoy it. It equates to income. By the time invoicing becomes a serious drain on productivity, I'm already doing well enough to have that function covered either via an accountant or just an accounting software system. So yes, you are solving a problem -- but a pretty darn minor one... will people really pay for that?

hooande 16y ago

This site is great, I plan to use it soon. I wish it said something about paypal more clearly on the home page. Finding out whether or not you provide payment processing options took some looking. Overall it looks great.

stulogy 16y ago

I just put a LiveHelp thing in, so if you want to talk to me about Invoice Bubble you can on the site. I also disabled Forced SSL, so it should be faster now - thanks for your feedback everyone.

maukdaddy 16y ago
FYI if I had a business I would not use the service without SSL everywhere. I would not want my invoice data in the clear.
jmah 16y ago
BTW going to a page with SSL (like "Try for Free") makes the chat area show "Olark: Upgrade your account". Could be a bit confusing.

jakerella2 16y ago

The site looks nice: clean lines, etc. - but I'm left wondering why I would use your service over Freshbooks, which seems to have more features (all be it only 3 free clients to your 5). I think your "tour" needs to have a lot more information: you show a tiny piece of an invoice, how about a sample PDF? A video intro to the creation of an invoice would be great. Lastly, while live help is always appreciated as an option, I would definitely stray from sending messages to online users in that live help popup without them asking for it... kind of creepy.

ianium 16y ago

Shouldn't SSL be part of the basic package? Having to pay for it seems a bit off, especially for something high in personal data, like invoicing. Edit: looks good, btw

alttab 16y ago

This instantly reminded me of BillMeBob.com However, BillmeBob does nothing but create an invoice. You beat them here by integrating with paypal, but why pay you AND paypal to get paid? You are basically a "value add provider" so make sure your pricing points are right. The "Project Bubble" page does a better job of pricing comparisons. To me, both "Project" and "Bubble" are offputting. When it comes to getting paid, people may not want to use a product called "Project" as it could convey unreliability. You obviously have some affinity for the word "Bubble," so maybe try to find another phrase that more accurately describes your business and is catchy. Otherwise great work on the software, look, and feel! Maybe "PayBubble" or something?