4 ms·

At what point is it okay to post you have started a new website / business on hacker news? Here goes my karma. Since we are doing shameless plugs here are my t

by agentgt 15y ago

At what point is it okay to post you have started a new website / business on hacker news? Here goes my karma. Since we are doing shameless plugs here are my two (and yes I quit very high paying jobs ... 1.5~2 times more than @gozman ...): http://snaphop.com http://snaphop.com http://evocatus.com http://evocatus.com

gravitronic 15y ago
Generally it seems the consensus is: - make it obvious you are posting your own material (using phrases like "Show HN" or "I" in the title) and not try to hide that fact - provide insight into "how" you've done it or how you are doing. - don't do it more than once. Follow those and HN will not downvote you to oblivion.
lucaspiller 15y ago
Good stuff, but I'm a bit confused by what SnapHop is. From the landing page it sounds like you are an agency, but you talk about a platform. What exactly (i.e. not marketing speak) does the platform let me do? Where can I see it in action?
- agentgt 15y ago
  Signup an see! I'll upgrade your account also for free and give you SMS if you blog about us. Yes we need a better video somewhere. We kind of went the enterprise route as our competitor did (http://44doors.com http://44doors.com) where showing less unfortunately pays you more.
  - winterchil 15y ago
    For what it's worth "sign-up and see" is an awful response to a potential user being confused about what your service does. I think you should consider changing your landing page to make it explicit how you can help local businesses. That may mean removing some of the myriad of use cases you describe. My $0.02, obviously feel free to ignore.
- agentgt 15y ago
  Also as another explanation is that we don't think people need mobile versions of their websites or a mobile app. We think business need mobile campaigns and that most content should be more campaign centric for business. A campaign mobile landing page is different than an app in that your trying funnel users into a transaction (signup/buy/opt-in). If your users want an app you already got them.
mladenkovacevic 15y ago
I haven't been here long enough to know what the decorum is so hopefully somebody else will answer you, but you already did a couple of things I probably wouldn't do myself: 1) Plug your business in the comments section of another post (unless it's somehow related). You will likely not get as many people seeing it and also it's kind of rude considering it diverts attention from the OP. 2) Post 2 unrelated links at once. Again, the feedback you get will not be as focused, lowering the quality of the discussion that is generated. As far as your sites it seems like you might be offering two interesting services, but the presentation is too cluttered and spammy looking in order for me for to follow through in navigating your sites. The design of both sites evokes associations to those ad-filled parked-domains making me immediately think "I probably don't want this". Simplify would be my suggestion.
- agentgt 15y ago
  1) Whoops. As my wife can tell you I'm often completely oblivious of my rudeness. Do you think I should delete the post? It was an honest question. 2) Yep your right. I blame my multi-tasking (programming while reading hacker news). Your suggestion is extremely appreciated. The design is somewhat pinterest inspired which seems to attract people like my mom but infuriates programmers.
  - mladenkovacevic 15y ago
    No no don't delete it. It was a valid question. I'm not an authority on these matters but that's just my opinion. And yeah, like the other person who relied to you, I initially though Snaphop was some kind of marketing agency and Evocatus was a little too much all at once. Although with the right intro header it could work. Pinterest has this very prominently on the first page "Pinterest is an online pinboard. Organize and share things you love". That's all I need to know to start off with. Your intro header didn't jump out at me like that. Maybe it's the colours or it could also be the actual copy.
crgt 15y ago
Snaphop.com's display breaks for me in mobile Safari. May be worth looking at again given that the focus of the site is on mobile marketing.

by agentgt 15y ago

gravitronic 15y ago

Generally it seems the consensus is: - make it obvious you are posting your own material (using phrases like "Show HN" or "I" in the title) and not try to hide that fact - provide insight into "how" you've done it or how you are doing. - don't do it more than once. Follow those and HN will not downvote you to oblivion.

lucaspiller 15y ago

Good stuff, but I'm a bit confused by what SnapHop is. From the landing page it sounds like you are an agency, but you talk about a platform. What exactly (i.e. not marketing speak) does the platform let me do? Where can I see it in action?

agentgt 15y ago
Signup an see! I'll upgrade your account also for free and give you SMS if you blog about us. Yes we need a better video somewhere. We kind of went the enterprise route as our competitor did (http://44doors.com http://44doors.com) where showing less unfortunately pays you more.
- winterchil 15y ago
  For what it's worth "sign-up and see" is an awful response to a potential user being confused about what your service does. I think you should consider changing your landing page to make it explicit how you can help local businesses. That may mean removing some of the myriad of use cases you describe. My $0.02, obviously feel free to ignore.
agentgt 15y ago
Also as another explanation is that we don't think people need mobile versions of their websites or a mobile app. We think business need mobile campaigns and that most content should be more campaign centric for business. A campaign mobile landing page is different than an app in that your trying funnel users into a transaction (signup/buy/opt-in). If your users want an app you already got them.

mladenkovacevic 15y ago

I haven't been here long enough to know what the decorum is so hopefully somebody else will answer you, but you already did a couple of things I probably wouldn't do myself: 1) Plug your business in the comments section of another post (unless it's somehow related). You will likely not get as many people seeing it and also it's kind of rude considering it diverts attention from the OP. 2) Post 2 unrelated links at once. Again, the feedback you get will not be as focused, lowering the quality of the discussion that is generated. As far as your sites it seems like you might be offering two interesting services, but the presentation is too cluttered and spammy looking in order for me for to follow through in navigating your sites. The design of both sites evokes associations to those ad-filled parked-domains making me immediately think "I probably don't want this". Simplify would be my suggestion.

agentgt 15y ago
1) Whoops. As my wife can tell you I'm often completely oblivious of my rudeness. Do you think I should delete the post? It was an honest question. 2) Yep your right. I blame my multi-tasking (programming while reading hacker news). Your suggestion is extremely appreciated. The design is somewhat pinterest inspired which seems to attract people like my mom but infuriates programmers.
- mladenkovacevic 15y ago
  No no don't delete it. It was a valid question. I'm not an authority on these matters but that's just my opinion. And yeah, like the other person who relied to you, I initially though Snaphop was some kind of marketing agency and Evocatus was a little too much all at once. Although with the right intro header it could work. Pinterest has this very prominently on the first page "Pinterest is an online pinboard. Organize and share things you love". That's all I need to know to start off with. Your intro header didn't jump out at me like that. Maybe it's the colours or it could also be the actual copy.

crgt 15y ago

Snaphop.com's display breaks for me in mobile Safari. May be worth looking at again given that the focus of the site is on mobile marketing.