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Hey everyone! I've just published a beta of my new app for writers, it is a simple tool meant to help you develop a daily writing habit, track your progress, a

Hey everyone! I've just published a beta of my new app for writers, it is a simple tool meant to help you develop a daily writing habit, track your progress, and achieve your writing goals. I'm looking for some feedback: - What are your first impressions? Does it look useful? - Is the functionality easy to understand? - What can I do to make it better? Any ideas on design, functionality, onboarding, marketing, etc would be very helpful. - Any other thoughts/suggestions/advice?

lbotos 8y ago
Feedback: - Consider a contrasting color for some of the elements. You have a pretty monochromatic palette and it unintentionally reads as "plain". - Chunking. I think you can cut down that home page a ton, and get to the point clearer. It will feel more "marketing fluff" but fight that urge. It's not to make it fluffy, it's to simplify the things to parse. For example, if you remove: "You're looking at a very simple but powerful tool that will help you: Develop a daily writing habit. Massively increase your writing output. Master the art of writing in a fun and engaging way! If that sounds interesting - read on to learn how it works." and start with your second paragraph, It's so much stronger: " Write every day, skyrocket your productivity There are three ways to increase your writing productivity: Write more consistently. Write more words. Write faster. Let's see how this app will help you to improve each of these metrics.
- rayalez 8y ago
  Thank you for your advice! I definitely should get better at writing a copy. I'll try to trim it down, make it stronger and clearer. I'm thinking I will add a bright theme, some people may prefer it and it will have stronger contrast.
  - jen729w 8y ago
    Make friends with a copy editor - or hire one if you can afford it. My partner is one, and she went through a project of mine the other week. So much got cut, and initially I was a bit offended. I didn't think it read like "me" any more. Then I read it again a few days later and, holy moly, I realised how much better it was for it.
    - lbotos 8y ago
      This is such great feedback. Relevant to this product/project, one of the hardest things to learn is "how to write" in the sense of actually getting the words out on the page. Once that becomes habit, the real challenge is learning how to edit. That hack and slash is really hard, but it makes for really powerful pieces.
ChristianGeek 8y ago
Great idea, but charging more than it costs to get Office365 was an immediate nope for me.
- rayalez 8y ago
  Well, at the moment I'm giving away free lifetime accounts just for some helpful feedback or social media sharing =)
  - ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
    Just from a marketing perspective... We don't need to know that on your landing page. That's your business plan, and honestly you might not even follow it. By the time you get to that point, you may have chosen to go with an ad model, or you may have added some new features that make this clearly worth $10 per month, and VERY different from Office 365. Just remove that bit. Use this space to share with me the appeal of your tool RIGHT NOW, not the potential cost of your tool at some future point. I'm excited to try your product. I've been struggling to get into a writing habit and definitely could use something like this!
- pier25 8y ago
  I love the idea, but I agree that the pricing is just wrong. At $120 USD per year it's probably one of the most expensive and less featured text editors in the market. How much would this cost if it was a desktop or even a mobile app? Probably much less than 1 year of the service.
Double_a_92 8y ago
I honestly don't understant what it does. What is a "daily writing habit"? Is this meant for authors? Is it a speed typing thing?

lbotos 8y ago

Feedback: - Consider a contrasting color for some of the elements. You have a pretty monochromatic palette and it unintentionally reads as "plain". - Chunking. I think you can cut down that home page a ton, and get to the point clearer. It will feel more "marketing fluff" but fight that urge. It's not to make it fluffy, it's to simplify the things to parse. For example, if you remove: "You're looking at a very simple but powerful tool that will help you: Develop a daily writing habit. Massively increase your writing output. Master the art of writing in a fun and engaging way! If that sounds interesting - read on to learn how it works." and start with your second paragraph, It's so much stronger: " Write every day, skyrocket your productivity There are three ways to increase your writing productivity: Write more consistently. Write more words. Write faster. Let's see how this app will help you to improve each of these metrics.

rayalez 8y ago
Thank you for your advice! I definitely should get better at writing a copy. I'll try to trim it down, make it stronger and clearer. I'm thinking I will add a bright theme, some people may prefer it and it will have stronger contrast.
- jen729w 8y ago
  Make friends with a copy editor - or hire one if you can afford it. My partner is one, and she went through a project of mine the other week. So much got cut, and initially I was a bit offended. I didn't think it read like "me" any more. Then I read it again a few days later and, holy moly, I realised how much better it was for it.
  - lbotos 8y ago
    This is such great feedback. Relevant to this product/project, one of the hardest things to learn is "how to write" in the sense of actually getting the words out on the page. Once that becomes habit, the real challenge is learning how to edit. That hack and slash is really hard, but it makes for really powerful pieces.

ChristianGeek 8y ago

Great idea, but charging more than it costs to get Office365 was an immediate nope for me.

rayalez 8y ago
Well, at the moment I'm giving away free lifetime accounts just for some helpful feedback or social media sharing =)
- ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
  Just from a marketing perspective... We don't need to know that on your landing page. That's your business plan, and honestly you might not even follow it. By the time you get to that point, you may have chosen to go with an ad model, or you may have added some new features that make this clearly worth $10 per month, and VERY different from Office 365. Just remove that bit. Use this space to share with me the appeal of your tool RIGHT NOW, not the potential cost of your tool at some future point. I'm excited to try your product. I've been struggling to get into a writing habit and definitely could use something like this!
pier25 8y ago
I love the idea, but I agree that the pricing is just wrong. At $120 USD per year it's probably one of the most expensive and less featured text editors in the market. How much would this cost if it was a desktop or even a mobile app? Probably much less than 1 year of the service.

Double_a_92 8y ago

I honestly don't understant what it does. What is a "daily writing habit"? Is this meant for authors? Is it a speed typing thing?