5 ms·

Show HN: Bootstrapped for 11 weeks - landing page (want feedback)

5 points by iamjonlee 15y ago

Grooovy is a bootstrapped app in its 11th week. We came from a non-technical background and about to launch Grooovy as our first iPhone App. Would like to get all the support and feedback we can get. What would you change about the landing page? Thanks HN! link: www.grooovy.me

benologist 15y ago
It's a landing page, the only thought you should give it is what is the fastest path to deleting it and launching.
- iamjonlee 15y ago
  It might only be a landing page- but I still find it important to generate as leads as possible. We're the type of app that requires a decent number of registrants in order to be fully utilized. Launchingwise, we're already working hard on that. This landing page will also convert to become the product page after the app launches so feedback would still be appreciated.
mjs00 15y ago
You 'buried the lead' in the html head title tag -- "Create friendships in 5 steps" isn't on any of the pages. You might consider a condensed version that has the 5 steps on one page, with just the headings (not all the explanation text), and the call to action. This seems more like a guided tour for someone that wants more information, when you've perhaps got their interest, it will be great for that on your launched website. Even then, you might want to change "step 1" to "step 1 of 5", etc, to let them know it isn't open-ended, and maybe emphasize your 5 step value proposition.
- iamjonlee 15y ago
  Fantastic advice. Never thought about the step 1 of 5 at all. I was hoping that the "Join and Create Events" paragraph would have sufficed for the condensed version with all 5 steps. I was running out of space in the design as I decided to provide support for 1024x768 browsers. I'll make a note of the html title tag- nice catch. Thanks for your feedback!
  - mjs00 15y ago
    >I was hoping ... OK, I can see that now -- I think as highlighted points instead of a paragraph, this would be clearer. And "Grooovy - Create Friendships in 5 Steps" is more impactful and piques more interest (my opinion) as a headline than "Grooovy Lets You Meet New Friends Comfortably at Your Own Pace." Good luck!
LaunchAlready 15y ago
Design wise, it's very clean and clear. People know what to do when they get there. I think it's ready, now comes the hard part. Marketing.
- iamjonlee 15y ago
  Marketing is much harder than I ever imagined. Not even sure where to begin as tweeting and sharing all day hasn't really done much.
  - trienthusiast 15y ago
    Contact relevant blogs (up to you to find which ones) and offer them a reason to post about it. A guy created an iphone app that was relevant to my website users, contacted me offering a few free downloads for my readers. I made an article about it (because I thought the app was cool) and then went around forums/reddit etc telling people the first 5 who would comment on that post would get the app for free. It's a large numbers game... from my blog maybe 1,000 people read the article and of those maybe 20 bought the app.. but the ones who bought it probably recommended it to their friends etc.. contact 50 blogs, it's time better spent than twitting IMHO
    - iamjonlee 15y ago
      Point well made. I'll see if I'm able to contact blogs and see if they would be interested in writing an article about it when the beta's out. I'll offer early testing of the beta so if they do decide to talk about it, they can. I'll start gathering a list. Thank you for the great feedback- very helpful! What's your blog about? Any links?
fezzl 15y ago
Get a new domain name.
- japhyr 15y ago
  Agreed, I went to groovy.me, and didn't notice the third o until I saw the groovy.me site.
  - iamjonlee 15y ago
    Thanks for the honest input! I'm not too worried about the extra o' in the domain name at this point. We're bootstrapped so we need to make sure that we're dedicating our resources towards the more critical areas for now. But i'll definitely look into it soon. Does the domain dribbble.com also make you want to enter dribble.com at first glance?
    - mjs00 15y ago
      This was pretty good on naming, the resources: http://thenextweb.com/2008/10/13/the-15-dumbest-names-for-web-20-startups/0/ http://thenextweb.com/2008/10/13/the-15-dumbest-names-for-we... I agree with the comment above on the name, I think many will simply not see the third letter mid-word in both cases. It's probably something with visual perception where you see what you expect, not what is there (... maybe related to how folks miss their own typos ).
- iamjonlee 15y ago
  Do you not like it just because of the name itself, or are you also having a problem with the o's? If you don't mind, constructive feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!
jnfr 15y ago
Change the appearance of "GROOOVY FOR IPHONE" and "WE'RE LAUNCHING SOON." at the top there. It's a landing page which is supposed to advertise your service and get people excited. You have a neat logo, maybe consider putting that up instead of mimicking the Arial all-caps font you have displaying your main content. I actually didn't realize at first you could "scroll" from step to step ... I thought the '>' arrow next to the e-mail input was supposed to mean "input your e-mail, then we'll show you the rest!". People like to know what they're signing up for before giving away personal information, right? So my suggestion is make the steps more obvious, i.e. put them all on one page or have a way to scroll through the steps with the e-mail input always visible so potential users can sign up the moment they are interested! Hope that helped and best of luck!

5 points by iamjonlee 15y ago

benologist 15y ago

It's a landing page, the only thought you should give it is what is the fastest path to deleting it and launching.

iamjonlee 15y ago
It might only be a landing page- but I still find it important to generate as leads as possible. We're the type of app that requires a decent number of registrants in order to be fully utilized. Launchingwise, we're already working hard on that. This landing page will also convert to become the product page after the app launches so feedback would still be appreciated.

mjs00 15y ago

You 'buried the lead' in the html head title tag -- "Create friendships in 5 steps" isn't on any of the pages. You might consider a condensed version that has the 5 steps on one page, with just the headings (not all the explanation text), and the call to action. This seems more like a guided tour for someone that wants more information, when you've perhaps got their interest, it will be great for that on your launched website. Even then, you might want to change "step 1" to "step 1 of 5", etc, to let them know it isn't open-ended, and maybe emphasize your 5 step value proposition.

iamjonlee 15y ago
Fantastic advice. Never thought about the step 1 of 5 at all. I was hoping that the "Join and Create Events" paragraph would have sufficed for the condensed version with all 5 steps. I was running out of space in the design as I decided to provide support for 1024x768 browsers. I'll make a note of the html title tag- nice catch. Thanks for your feedback!
- mjs00 15y ago
  >I was hoping ... OK, I can see that now -- I think as highlighted points instead of a paragraph, this would be clearer. And "Grooovy - Create Friendships in 5 Steps" is more impactful and piques more interest (my opinion) as a headline than "Grooovy Lets You Meet New Friends Comfortably at Your Own Pace." Good luck!

LaunchAlready 15y ago

Design wise, it's very clean and clear. People know what to do when they get there. I think it's ready, now comes the hard part. Marketing.

iamjonlee 15y ago
Marketing is much harder than I ever imagined. Not even sure where to begin as tweeting and sharing all day hasn't really done much.
- trienthusiast 15y ago
  Contact relevant blogs (up to you to find which ones) and offer them a reason to post about it. A guy created an iphone app that was relevant to my website users, contacted me offering a few free downloads for my readers. I made an article about it (because I thought the app was cool) and then went around forums/reddit etc telling people the first 5 who would comment on that post would get the app for free. It's a large numbers game... from my blog maybe 1,000 people read the article and of those maybe 20 bought the app.. but the ones who bought it probably recommended it to their friends etc.. contact 50 blogs, it's time better spent than twitting IMHO
  - iamjonlee 15y ago
    Point well made. I'll see if I'm able to contact blogs and see if they would be interested in writing an article about it when the beta's out. I'll offer early testing of the beta so if they do decide to talk about it, they can. I'll start gathering a list. Thank you for the great feedback- very helpful! What's your blog about? Any links?

fezzl 15y ago

Get a new domain name.

japhyr 15y ago
Agreed, I went to groovy.me, and didn't notice the third o until I saw the groovy.me site.
- iamjonlee 15y ago
  Thanks for the honest input! I'm not too worried about the extra o' in the domain name at this point. We're bootstrapped so we need to make sure that we're dedicating our resources towards the more critical areas for now. But i'll definitely look into it soon. Does the domain dribbble.com also make you want to enter dribble.com at first glance?
  - mjs00 15y ago
    This was pretty good on naming, the resources: http://thenextweb.com/2008/10/13/the-15-dumbest-names-for-web-20-startups/0/ http://thenextweb.com/2008/10/13/the-15-dumbest-names-for-we... I agree with the comment above on the name, I think many will simply not see the third letter mid-word in both cases. It's probably something with visual perception where you see what you expect, not what is there (... maybe related to how folks miss their own typos ).
iamjonlee 15y ago
Do you not like it just because of the name itself, or are you also having a problem with the o's? If you don't mind, constructive feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

jnfr 15y ago

Change the appearance of "GROOOVY FOR IPHONE" and "WE'RE LAUNCHING SOON." at the top there. It's a landing page which is supposed to advertise your service and get people excited. You have a neat logo, maybe consider putting that up instead of mimicking the Arial all-caps font you have displaying your main content. I actually didn't realize at first you could "scroll" from step to step ... I thought the '>' arrow next to the e-mail input was supposed to mean "input your e-mail, then we'll show you the rest!". People like to know what they're signing up for before giving away personal information, right? So my suggestion is make the steps more obvious, i.e. put them all on one page or have a way to scroll through the steps with the e-mail input always visible so potential users can sign up the moment they are interested! Hope that helped and best of luck!