4 ms·

I think you need to put more effort into selling yourself as a usability expert. I'm not going to pay $450 to have just some guy look at my web site. But if yo

by catone 18y ago

I think you need to put more effort into selling yourself as a usability expert. I'm not going to pay $450 to have just some guy look at my web site. But if you can justify to me why you're an expert whose opinion I need to hear, then you'll have better luck selling to me.

nonrecursive 18y ago
One idea I've had for accomplishing this is to do free or reduced-cost reviews for a few (prominent) sites, then post their testimonials along with their reviews.
- nickb 18y ago
  And your credentials are? If you expect people to fork over $450 for 20 min of your time, you better be: 1) an expert in usability and have few papers written on it 2) have many years of actual usability studies and design 3) have designed interfaces yourself and have examples of UIs you've designed. Just getting testimonials for 'reduced pricing' won't cut it. What you need is a resume/cv. All these big usability experts sell themselves first and their work second. You need to sell people on why they should trust you. This startup is basically just selling of your services. Here's some ideas. Start by writing whitepapers & studies of other sites. Do them for free. Just pick any known site and say what you'd do differently. Do this for a lot of them. Make a blog and do a study every day. Make a wiki with usability practices. Start recording videos of random users using some site and criticize them. In short, work on your credibility since that's what you're selling.
  - nonrecursive 18y ago
    Thanks for the input. I should point out that it's not 20 minutes of my time. I spend around 15 minutes recording the video, then go through the site and reflect on some of the issues I initially encountered, and explore the site in greater depth (I realize that this isn't mentioned on my site). Then I organize my thoughts and findings in pages that are meant to be easily referenceable. After that, I talk to the client for 20 minutes as well. The fact is, I am not a big usability expert. I have given a couple talks on the subject and written a few blog articles on the subject (one of which A List Apart was interested in publishing). I've also done a number of usability tests for companies that I have worked for. Therefore, my thinking is that a more feasible approach in the short term is to show that I actually produce good results. Establishing that I'm an expert is something that will take time. Thankfully, I enjoy usability and will enjoy establishing expert status. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for otherwise convincing people that they should go with me, I would appreciate it. It's interesting to me that nobody really cares about the "usefulness guarantee".
    - nsrivast 18y ago
      Maybe you should put it above the fold, or at least before you name your price. But hey, I'm no usability expert either.
      - nonrecursive 18y ago
        Yeah, the order of elements is something I'll have to play with.
    - wheels 18y ago
      Your usefulness guarantee isn't reassuring because it says, basically, "If you find my help completely useless you get a refund," rather than, "If you find my help not worth $450, you get a refund." Also the block on "how usability helps" basically says nothing. It might as well just say, "Usability is good!" You're going to have to fork over a lot stronger value proposition than that before getting someone to pay for the service. Don't just get reference customers; get reference customer numbers. "With Really Cool Customer Foo, signups went up by 128% within two weeks." The selling yourself bit, I'll be a little harsher (in hopes of helping), it basically says, "I've done this for some of my buddies sites and they think it's neat." Again, not a strong value proposition. Just cut that part out if you don't have a better case to make; that portion actually makes you sound less qualified that I would have assumed by default.
  - nonrecursive 18y ago
    >> This startup is basically just selling of your services. Here's some ideas. Start by writing whitepapers & studies of other sites. Do them for free. Just pick any known site and say what you'd do differently. Do this for a lot of them. Make a blog and do a study every day. Make a wiki with usability practices. Start recording videos of random users using some site and criticize them. I didn't notice this at first. It's very useful advice. Some of it I've already started (writing whitepapers & studies). My friend and I have been talking about putting together a wiki with usability practices. In the mean time, I have had a few people request the service because their web developer (whom I showed the site to) recommended it to them. Hopefully word of mouth will continue to bring in business and increase my cash flow. Over time it will be great to build my credibility in the ways you mention. In the short term, it's also pretty important to me to start gaining paying business.
- catone 18y ago
  That's not a bad idea, just make sure that a positive testimonial isn't a prerequisite for getting a free review.
- tstegart 18y ago
  I think your site would work much better as a blog highlighting other people's usability. I think it would be a great idea to review other people's sites and make comments about them. Don't portray them as low cost or free, just do it. No one wants to see an average review though, thats no fun. Find sites with HUGE usability mistakes and highlight them and why. Some of the better rants on http://demogirl.com/ http://demogirl.com/ can be used as an example. Having a blog also makes you an authority, which gets you to expert status where people are comfortable paying you for your services. I know blogs are a lot of work, but once you get going and have been doing it for a while it really pays off.

by catone 18y ago

nonrecursive 18y ago

One idea I've had for accomplishing this is to do free or reduced-cost reviews for a few (prominent) sites, then post their testimonials along with their reviews.

nickb 18y ago
And your credentials are? If you expect people to fork over $450 for 20 min of your time, you better be: 1) an expert in usability and have few papers written on it 2) have many years of actual usability studies and design 3) have designed interfaces yourself and have examples of UIs you've designed. Just getting testimonials for 'reduced pricing' won't cut it. What you need is a resume/cv. All these big usability experts sell themselves first and their work second. You need to sell people on why they should trust you. This startup is basically just selling of your services. Here's some ideas. Start by writing whitepapers & studies of other sites. Do them for free. Just pick any known site and say what you'd do differently. Do this for a lot of them. Make a blog and do a study every day. Make a wiki with usability practices. Start recording videos of random users using some site and criticize them. In short, work on your credibility since that's what you're selling.
- nonrecursive 18y ago
  Thanks for the input. I should point out that it's not 20 minutes of my time. I spend around 15 minutes recording the video, then go through the site and reflect on some of the issues I initially encountered, and explore the site in greater depth (I realize that this isn't mentioned on my site). Then I organize my thoughts and findings in pages that are meant to be easily referenceable. After that, I talk to the client for 20 minutes as well. The fact is, I am not a big usability expert. I have given a couple talks on the subject and written a few blog articles on the subject (one of which A List Apart was interested in publishing). I've also done a number of usability tests for companies that I have worked for. Therefore, my thinking is that a more feasible approach in the short term is to show that I actually produce good results. Establishing that I'm an expert is something that will take time. Thankfully, I enjoy usability and will enjoy establishing expert status. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for otherwise convincing people that they should go with me, I would appreciate it. It's interesting to me that nobody really cares about the "usefulness guarantee".
  - nsrivast 18y ago
    Maybe you should put it above the fold, or at least before you name your price. But hey, I'm no usability expert either.
    - nonrecursive 18y ago
      Yeah, the order of elements is something I'll have to play with.
  - wheels 18y ago
    Your usefulness guarantee isn't reassuring because it says, basically, "If you find my help completely useless you get a refund," rather than, "If you find my help not worth $450, you get a refund." Also the block on "how usability helps" basically says nothing. It might as well just say, "Usability is good!" You're going to have to fork over a lot stronger value proposition than that before getting someone to pay for the service. Don't just get reference customers; get reference customer numbers. "With Really Cool Customer Foo, signups went up by 128% within two weeks." The selling yourself bit, I'll be a little harsher (in hopes of helping), it basically says, "I've done this for some of my buddies sites and they think it's neat." Again, not a strong value proposition. Just cut that part out if you don't have a better case to make; that portion actually makes you sound less qualified that I would have assumed by default.
- nonrecursive 18y ago
  >> This startup is basically just selling of your services. Here's some ideas. Start by writing whitepapers & studies of other sites. Do them for free. Just pick any known site and say what you'd do differently. Do this for a lot of them. Make a blog and do a study every day. Make a wiki with usability practices. Start recording videos of random users using some site and criticize them. I didn't notice this at first. It's very useful advice. Some of it I've already started (writing whitepapers & studies). My friend and I have been talking about putting together a wiki with usability practices. In the mean time, I have had a few people request the service because their web developer (whom I showed the site to) recommended it to them. Hopefully word of mouth will continue to bring in business and increase my cash flow. Over time it will be great to build my credibility in the ways you mention. In the short term, it's also pretty important to me to start gaining paying business.
catone 18y ago
That's not a bad idea, just make sure that a positive testimonial isn't a prerequisite for getting a free review.
tstegart 18y ago
I think your site would work much better as a blog highlighting other people's usability. I think it would be a great idea to review other people's sites and make comments about them. Don't portray them as low cost or free, just do it. No one wants to see an average review though, thats no fun. Find sites with HUGE usability mistakes and highlight them and why. Some of the better rants on http://demogirl.com/ http://demogirl.com/ can be used as an example. Having a blog also makes you an authority, which gets you to expert status where people are comfortable paying you for your services. I know blogs are a lot of work, but once you get going and have been doing it for a while it really pays off.