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I did a Show HN on my side project, AutoMicroFarm, two years ago (although I have been working on it and posting to HN about it much longer than that). Thanks

I did a Show HN on my side project, AutoMicroFarm, two years ago (although I have been working on it and posting to HN about it much longer than that). Thanks to HN, I was able to get into the YC fellowship program. After launching and not getting any traction, I almost quit. However, I realized I did not know how to do marketing, sales, or customer dev (the "people want" part of "Make something people want"). It wouldn't be fair to the idea of AutoMicroFarm, or to myself, to quit without trying to learn marketing/sales/customer dev and applying it to AutoMicroFarm. So this year, I hired a business coach (https://solacelessons.com/ https://solacelessons.com/) and continued working on AutoMicroFarm. I can't claim it's successful in any meaning of the word yet, but I have a solid framework in place for my social media/email/blog outreach, I am talking to people to figure out what they want, and starting to make revenue--all while having a day job, a side gig (both related to web dev), and a family. I've been really happy to make this progress while keeping the hours spent on AutoMicroFarm to 5-10 hours per week.

gbersac 8y ago
The website of your coach is ugly !!! But your project seems interesting.
- ph0rque 8y ago
  One of the most valuable lessons my coach taught me is, "get better at being good enough". She practices what she preaches ;)
  - blensor 8y ago
    As I am getting older that's exactly my take on how to achieve something useful. As software devs we sometimes try to outhink the problem by solving every non existent problem that might occur down the road and also doing it in an as elegant way as possible. But the fact is that "down the road" will never come if you never leave the garage. One example is a little fun halloween project I did last year. It's nothing more than a simple servo that opens a box after a voice command through amazon Alexa. I a don't do much in the way of motors and electronics. So I tried to find a way to elegantly mount the servo in the box and build something that pushes the lid upwards. In the end I thought what the heck I'll just glue it down with endless amounts of hot glue hoping that it will stick. A year later when I wanted to retire my box to save some space it turns out that the glue stuck so well that I had to cut it out. So even if it is not elegant and could gave been done in a much more elegant way it worked and nobody cared how it was done. No matter how elegant your solution, most of the time you are judged by the result not the how. Here is the link to the box I was talking about https://youtu.be/BdbjoniAP0s https://youtu.be/BdbjoniAP0s
- solacelessons 8y ago
  Thanks for checking out my site. I’m excited for AutoMicroFarm’s project to take off! It’s much needed in this world.
- maceurt 8y ago
  Idk, I think people seem to care about having a good looking website more than having a website that is practical. It conveys all the information you need on it right on the home page which imo is more important than being pretty. Though, the person who made the website forgot to make a landing page for the redirect on the "I want it!!!" button lol.
  - solacelessons 8y ago
    Thanks for the heads up on the button. I’m not having any issues with it though.
Kagerjay 8y ago
No offense, but your website is just as ugly as your business coaches pink shadow on dark blue text is just... like really? I'm getting nausea just looking at your coaches site There are so many great wordpress themes and premade static page templates you could use, why are the fonts on your site so terrible? The vertical spacing and kerning make my eyes bleed, especially on the FAQ. Are you sure your business coach actually knows what they are doing? Even the font on your logo is terrible too Federant, serif...?, the font is extremely dispropionate to the logo. There is simply too much crap going on in your logo as well, the roots are distracting and don't scale well for small image sizes. Doesn't YC fellowship recommend business coaches already as part of their program? Maybe design isn't your thing, but you should seriously consider paying a professional to redo your entire branding and website. Its hard to have a social media / email / blog outreach strategy when these essential requirements aren't met yet. Its a oneclick install in many instances, adding a few images, and some text and that's it I don't know how long you've had your business coach either, or what things she has outlined and actionable steps moving forward. Nor do I know what things you have gained since then. So I don't really know either way. But if website / logo redesign wasn't one of the lowest hanging fruits / highest priorities on that list then I question the coaches' effectiveness. Its cheap, fast, and easy to get a nice site done these days with existing templates. Also, why do I get the feeling this comment's intention is just to solicit traffic to your coaches site. Well for one, why does she already know about this comment on hackernews?
- solacelessons 8y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. I agree that if a site doesn’t resonate with me, I don’t generally use their services.
  - Kagerjay 8y ago
    If you want to do a quickfix on your site, just change these things: "You’ve been told to TALK to your audience, but it’s NOT WORKING" → change it as a background color div "Hell YES I Want It!!!" → remove the pink shadow as well I get that pink and blue are your colors, but those colors don't pair well together used that way. Either that just reduce the pink shadows by a large margin. These are the changes it should look like https://i.imgur.com/G0ekTgX.png https://i.imgur.com/G0ekTgX.png This is all the code I modified https://i.imgur.com/sIMnapZ.png https://i.imgur.com/sIMnapZ.png and here https://i.imgur.com/LY6Jci8.png https://i.imgur.com/LY6Jci8.png It still has the correct callout to action but doesn't induce any nausea to your users. I made the fix very quickly, but you should get the general idea. There might be minor tweaks you can make from the suggestions I indicated If you want to implement these changes on your wordpress site, you can simply just copy paste everything I've written and paste it in your css file, or forward this whole message to your developer. These are just my personal opinions though, your free to do whatever you want
eganist 8y ago
The fact that solacelessons created an account and replied less than a half hour after this comment plus the fact that the business coach's site was directly linked makes this seem to me like a less-than-genuine endorsement. I'm not going to specifically make that assertion (because, well, I could easily be wrong); I'm just saying how it comes across to me-the-reader. :/
- solacelessons 8y ago
  It’s an interesting point. I thought it was nice that my client let me know he shared about me on HN and I inturn am supporting him. When comments popped up about my site, I felt the need to acknowledge what people were saying. How is this “less than genuine”?
- ph0rque 8y ago
  Yes, after I made the comment, I let me coach know, who registered on HN and answered some questions. How is this less than genuine? Would a disclaimer help? Perhaps something like, "This post may contain a direct link to providers of products and services that I personally have found helpful. I was not prompted to add the link, and receive no financial renumeration for adding the link. However, I may do so in the future."

gbersac 8y ago

The website of your coach is ugly !!! But your project seems interesting.

ph0rque 8y ago
One of the most valuable lessons my coach taught me is, "get better at being good enough". She practices what she preaches ;)
- blensor 8y ago
  As I am getting older that's exactly my take on how to achieve something useful. As software devs we sometimes try to outhink the problem by solving every non existent problem that might occur down the road and also doing it in an as elegant way as possible. But the fact is that "down the road" will never come if you never leave the garage. One example is a little fun halloween project I did last year. It's nothing more than a simple servo that opens a box after a voice command through amazon Alexa. I a don't do much in the way of motors and electronics. So I tried to find a way to elegantly mount the servo in the box and build something that pushes the lid upwards. In the end I thought what the heck I'll just glue it down with endless amounts of hot glue hoping that it will stick. A year later when I wanted to retire my box to save some space it turns out that the glue stuck so well that I had to cut it out. So even if it is not elegant and could gave been done in a much more elegant way it worked and nobody cared how it was done. No matter how elegant your solution, most of the time you are judged by the result not the how. Here is the link to the box I was talking about https://youtu.be/BdbjoniAP0s https://youtu.be/BdbjoniAP0s
solacelessons 8y ago
Thanks for checking out my site. I’m excited for AutoMicroFarm’s project to take off! It’s much needed in this world.
maceurt 8y ago
Idk, I think people seem to care about having a good looking website more than having a website that is practical. It conveys all the information you need on it right on the home page which imo is more important than being pretty. Though, the person who made the website forgot to make a landing page for the redirect on the "I want it!!!" button lol.
- solacelessons 8y ago
  Thanks for the heads up on the button. I’m not having any issues with it though.

Kagerjay 8y ago

No offense, but your website is just as ugly as your business coaches pink shadow on dark blue text is just... like really? I'm getting nausea just looking at your coaches site There are so many great wordpress themes and premade static page templates you could use, why are the fonts on your site so terrible? The vertical spacing and kerning make my eyes bleed, especially on the FAQ. Are you sure your business coach actually knows what they are doing? Even the font on your logo is terrible too Federant, serif...?, the font is extremely dispropionate to the logo. There is simply too much crap going on in your logo as well, the roots are distracting and don't scale well for small image sizes. Doesn't YC fellowship recommend business coaches already as part of their program? Maybe design isn't your thing, but you should seriously consider paying a professional to redo your entire branding and website. Its hard to have a social media / email / blog outreach strategy when these essential requirements aren't met yet. Its a oneclick install in many instances, adding a few images, and some text and that's it I don't know how long you've had your business coach either, or what things she has outlined and actionable steps moving forward. Nor do I know what things you have gained since then. So I don't really know either way. But if website / logo redesign wasn't one of the lowest hanging fruits / highest priorities on that list then I question the coaches' effectiveness. Its cheap, fast, and easy to get a nice site done these days with existing templates. Also, why do I get the feeling this comment's intention is just to solicit traffic to your coaches site. Well for one, why does she already know about this comment on hackernews?

solacelessons 8y ago
Thanks for the feedback. I agree that if a site doesn’t resonate with me, I don’t generally use their services.
- Kagerjay 8y ago
  If you want to do a quickfix on your site, just change these things: "You’ve been told to TALK to your audience, but it’s NOT WORKING" → change it as a background color div "Hell YES I Want It!!!" → remove the pink shadow as well I get that pink and blue are your colors, but those colors don't pair well together used that way. Either that just reduce the pink shadows by a large margin. These are the changes it should look like https://i.imgur.com/G0ekTgX.png https://i.imgur.com/G0ekTgX.png This is all the code I modified https://i.imgur.com/sIMnapZ.png https://i.imgur.com/sIMnapZ.png and here https://i.imgur.com/LY6Jci8.png https://i.imgur.com/LY6Jci8.png It still has the correct callout to action but doesn't induce any nausea to your users. I made the fix very quickly, but you should get the general idea. There might be minor tweaks you can make from the suggestions I indicated If you want to implement these changes on your wordpress site, you can simply just copy paste everything I've written and paste it in your css file, or forward this whole message to your developer. These are just my personal opinions though, your free to do whatever you want

eganist 8y ago

The fact that solacelessons created an account and replied less than a half hour after this comment plus the fact that the business coach's site was directly linked makes this seem to me like a less-than-genuine endorsement. I'm not going to specifically make that assertion (because, well, I could easily be wrong); I'm just saying how it comes across to me-the-reader. :/

solacelessons 8y ago
It’s an interesting point. I thought it was nice that my client let me know he shared about me on HN and I inturn am supporting him. When comments popped up about my site, I felt the need to acknowledge what people were saying. How is this “less than genuine”?
ph0rque 8y ago
Yes, after I made the comment, I let me coach know, who registered on HN and answered some questions. How is this less than genuine? Would a disclaimer help? Perhaps something like, "This post may contain a direct link to providers of products and services that I personally have found helpful. I was not prompted to add the link, and receive no financial renumeration for adding the link. However, I may do so in the future."