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Thanks! What web business is it?

by bkovitz 18y ago

bayes 18y ago
Nothing very interesting to the high tech sophisticates of Hacker News, I suspect. We're a one stop shop for artists who want their own websites - we'll register their domain name, sort out their hosting, give them access to our CMS so they can create and maintain their website. But the point of my post is that as long as you KNOW WHO YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE, you can be creative and find cheap ways to reach them. It costs us almost nothing to get some postcards printed up and spend a few hours enthusing about our service to artists at a local exhibition. And I'm sure you can do the same, even if your service is less tightly focused. If it's aimed at students and young people, think about legitimate ways (that won't get you thrown off campus) of handing out fliers to students at your local university. Then think about how you enthuse and incentivise your friends and friends of friends to do the same thing at the universities and schools they go to all over the country. If it's aimed at small businesses, write to or call in at one hundred local small businesess. It may sound hopelessly inefficient and low-tech, but it will get you your first customers. And we've found that word of mouth does work (despite what Seth Godin says). The other thing I can't emphasise enough for a subscription service is that it needs to be REALLY easy to sign up for and try out - Paul Graham has written an essay on this I think.
- bayes 18y ago
  Realise that may not be very helpful if you're shy. That's probably a whole other issue to work on.
  - bkovitz 18y ago
    I've actually had some success on the shyness front. I did two things here: took a course on improvisational comedy, and hung out with some pick-up artists who showed me how they start conversations with women. These things got me into the mindset of "when something looks like I couldn't possibly do it, test that hypothesis." Last Saturday, I actually got a date by walking up to a woman on the street and asking her! Later that night, I had dinner with her and her family. Even a year ago, this would have been unthinkable.
    - bayes 18y ago
      Well done - that's impressive.
- bkovitz 18y ago
  Interesting stuff, and thanks for the reminder about keeping the sign-up process super-simple. We are indeed aiming to make something super-simple. Getting to know the customers is top priority--hence this post.
  - bayes 18y ago
    One other thing I've learnt - think carefully about how technical your users are. When I started out I knew my users wouldn't necessarily know what HTML is, or CSS, or DNS, or FTP. But I did assume they'd know how to crop a photograph; have some understanding of what a web browser is; know the difference between the browser address bar and the Google search box; and know that you may need to press Refresh to see changes to a page. All those assumptions proved wrong for a significant minority of my customers. Which (at the risk of stating the obvious) isn't their fault for being non-technical. It's my fault for not understanding my customers.

Thanks! What web business is it?

by bkovitz 18y ago

Thanks! What web business is it?

bayes 18y ago

Nothing very interesting to the high tech sophisticates of Hacker News, I suspect. We're a one stop shop for artists who want their own websites - we'll register their domain name, sort out their hosting, give them access to our CMS so they can create and maintain their website. But the point of my post is that as long as you KNOW WHO YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE, you can be creative and find cheap ways to reach them. It costs us almost nothing to get some postcards printed up and spend a few hours enthusing about our service to artists at a local exhibition. And I'm sure you can do the same, even if your service is less tightly focused. If it's aimed at students and young people, think about legitimate ways (that won't get you thrown off campus) of handing out fliers to students at your local university. Then think about how you enthuse and incentivise your friends and friends of friends to do the same thing at the universities and schools they go to all over the country. If it's aimed at small businesses, write to or call in at one hundred local small businesess. It may sound hopelessly inefficient and low-tech, but it will get you your first customers. And we've found that word of mouth does work (despite what Seth Godin says). The other thing I can't emphasise enough for a subscription service is that it needs to be REALLY easy to sign up for and try out - Paul Graham has written an essay on this I think.

bayes 18y ago
Realise that may not be very helpful if you're shy. That's probably a whole other issue to work on.
- bkovitz 18y ago
  I've actually had some success on the shyness front. I did two things here: took a course on improvisational comedy, and hung out with some pick-up artists who showed me how they start conversations with women. These things got me into the mindset of "when something looks like I couldn't possibly do it, test that hypothesis." Last Saturday, I actually got a date by walking up to a woman on the street and asking her! Later that night, I had dinner with her and her family. Even a year ago, this would have been unthinkable.
  - bayes 18y ago
    Well done - that's impressive.
bkovitz 18y ago
Interesting stuff, and thanks for the reminder about keeping the sign-up process super-simple. We are indeed aiming to make something super-simple. Getting to know the customers is top priority--hence this post.
- bayes 18y ago
  One other thing I've learnt - think carefully about how technical your users are. When I started out I knew my users wouldn't necessarily know what HTML is, or CSS, or DNS, or FTP. But I did assume they'd know how to crop a photograph; have some understanding of what a web browser is; know the difference between the browser address bar and the Google search box; and know that you may need to press Refresh to see changes to a page. All those assumptions proved wrong for a significant minority of my customers. Which (at the risk of stating the obvious) isn't their fault for being non-technical. It's my fault for not understanding my customers.