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Apparently, the collective unconscious is crying for 20 million web-based todo lists, rather than the 10 million we have already. I say this because I'm workin

Apparently, the collective unconscious is crying for 20 million web-based todo lists, rather than the 10 million we have already. I say this because I'm working on one too. :) > It's by design uncomplicated, not a ton of features for you to get lost in, There may not be a ton of features, but there is an awful lot of "talking" involved before the user gets down to business. I agree with others that you need to minimize this or get rid of it completely. Get to the action ASAP. See Joshwa's comment. > I really just don't know what to do with it, and wonder if what I built is just inherently ungrowable I'm sure you can grow it if you really want, but how much do you want to? It seems like your enthusiasm is already waning. Nothing wrong with letting it coast and seeing what happens. Maybe you'll get excited about it again later. Or, you can dig in and try to market it. Here's an idea I had for my app which you're welcome to use. Let users link their todo list to Facebook, and then automatically post a huzzah to their wall when they complete something. In general, I think your idea that todo lists must be inherently private is wrong, and making privacy the exception rather than the rule might open up some "viral" possibilities. Anyway, good luck. :)

famfam 16y ago
Heh. Well, I think everyone works differently, and everyone finds a different "zone" in various todo apps. You know, they feel right or they don't. So us todo app developers shall not rest until every user class is accommodated :) What's funny is that I thought I had boiled down the homepage to a succinct "sell" explaining the app. But looking at it now, I see that it definitely looks like a "features" page and not a landing page. And there is no reason I can't have an actionable form on the homepage. Still, I have a traffic driving problem, and my homepage optimization problem is secondary. But I think you guys have helped me lift the cloud I was in thinking the front page looked okay. It's actually starting to repulse me now, heh. I know anything can be grown, and I will admit that my enthusiasm is waning, but I think it's because I'm recognizing right now that the main way I have to grow this is by just bombarding productivity/lifestyle bloggers about it. I KNOW that's necessary, and I would feel motivated about it if this was a "business". But it's not, and it's hard to drum up the fire to put on my marketing hat. I was hoping for more of a 2nd order effect from Lifehacker (e.g. smaller bloggers picking up the story and then blogging on their own) but it didn't really happen. I think you're right that I'm wrong about todo lists being inherently private. I'd like to think of something more clever than wall-spamming, maybe achievements or levels etc, so even if you don't share, you still are playing a metagame by yourself on the site which may make it more sticky. Or keeping a history of what you've done so you can feel good about it in the afterglow. Something like that. But I do need to focus on virality, not stickiness. Thanks for the good response!

famfam 16y ago

Heh. Well, I think everyone works differently, and everyone finds a different "zone" in various todo apps. You know, they feel right or they don't. So us todo app developers shall not rest until every user class is accommodated :) What's funny is that I thought I had boiled down the homepage to a succinct "sell" explaining the app. But looking at it now, I see that it definitely looks like a "features" page and not a landing page. And there is no reason I can't have an actionable form on the homepage. Still, I have a traffic driving problem, and my homepage optimization problem is secondary. But I think you guys have helped me lift the cloud I was in thinking the front page looked okay. It's actually starting to repulse me now, heh. I know anything can be grown, and I will admit that my enthusiasm is waning, but I think it's because I'm recognizing right now that the main way I have to grow this is by just bombarding productivity/lifestyle bloggers about it. I KNOW that's necessary, and I would feel motivated about it if this was a "business". But it's not, and it's hard to drum up the fire to put on my marketing hat. I was hoping for more of a 2nd order effect from Lifehacker (e.g. smaller bloggers picking up the story and then blogging on their own) but it didn't really happen. I think you're right that I'm wrong about todo lists being inherently private. I'd like to think of something more clever than wall-spamming, maybe achievements or levels etc, so even if you don't share, you still are playing a metagame by yourself on the site which may make it more sticky. Or keeping a history of what you've done so you can feel good about it in the afterglow. Something like that. But I do need to focus on virality, not stickiness. Thanks for the good response!