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Show HN: HTML for Mail

23 points by dshipper 15y ago

dshipper 15y ago
Hey everyone. We built this in a day yesterday by repurposing code from our current startup (Airtime for Email). We're hoping that people find it useful, and that eventually it will be able to help us generate qualified longtail leads from the SEO. We're really new to selling B2B and inbound marketing and I'd love your feedback :)
slater 15y ago
Really not fond of giving out my e-mail address, so here's the direct link for the app: https://s3.amazonaws.com/eyeredux/assets/HTML+for+Mail.zip https://s3.amazonaws.com/eyeredux/assets/HTML+for+Mail.zip
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- dshipper 15y ago
  Fair enough :). Are you saying that in general you don't give your email out, or are you saying you think the value prop for this particular app is too weak to give an email out for?
  - sdfjkl 15y ago
    Download buttons are expected to lead to files that you can download. I don't want to give my email address out unless I actually want to be emailed by you (with something I care about, not with what you think I should be reading). On terrible sites that have not realized such basic facts but have software I really want (VMware for example), I use bugmenot or mailinator. Thereby this sort of thing only serves to reduce the amount of people that try your app and annoy those that want it bad enough into giving you a fake email. And a couple poor sods that get spammed by you later on, either because you decided to spam them, because you took improper care of your contact database or because your company got sold and stripped for assets (customer data = valuable).
    - dshipper 15y ago
      Ok I definitely agree that we should change the Download Now button to something else if it's misleading. Thanks for the feedback!
      - ericabiz 15y ago
        Look into how Traffic Travis does this: http://www.traffictravis.com/ http://www.traffictravis.com/ They built an email list of hundreds of thousands of people who downloaded free software. The list is a more valuable asset to them than anything else.
      - dshipper 15y ago
        will do, thanks for the recommendation!
jason_shah 15y ago
Impressive and wise repurposing. When you said "longtail leads from the SEO", Dan, do you mean that eventually something like this page would rank well for queries like 'html for mail' and related terms (and push leads and traffic to Airtime)? Assuming that's the case, it may help to make more reference to terms like 'Apple' and 'Mac' (on the page and in your HTML) that people may include in a query when looking for something like this. From glancing at the source, it seemed like adding those sort of terms and others from using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) might be useful. Eventually it would be a great case study to see data and how well something like this works for you in driving qualified leads.
- dshipper 15y ago
  That's exactly what I meant by longtail leads. Thanks for the advice, I'm going to spend some time tonight going over keywords to optimize it as much as possible. We're definitely looking to make this into a case-study for inbound marketing if possible, so hopefully in a month or two we'll have some reportable results. Thanks again for the feedback
SeoxyS 15y ago
HTML email signatures need to die. There's nothing more annoying than getting an email with a huge, colorful and distracting signature. Signatures should be plain text and a few lines at most. Apple got it 100% right here in limiting the software. Please stop including entire resumes in signatures. Here's mine, by the way: --- Kenneth Ballenegger www.kswizz.com
- dshipper 15y ago
  Thanks for the comment! I agree to some extent but using HTML doesn't necessarily mean a gaudy signature. For example your two line signature could be reduced to one line by linking your name to www.kswizz.com. I don't think that we should limit use of a technology because it could be used to create something ugly (almost all technology can be used that way) but instead look at what kind of beautiful things it can make.
  - prakashk 15y ago
    your two line signature could be reduced to one line by linking your name to www.kswizz.com. What if the recipient is using a non-HTML mail client?
- sdfjkl 15y ago
  "Sig dashes" are the closest to a standard signature delimiter and consist of two dashes followed by one space and a newline (http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3676#section-4.3 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3676#section-4.3). They are widely supported by email and usenet software (Pine, mutt, Gmail, etc.)
mdesq 15y ago
Access to the site is blocked by my employer due to a perceived security threat. "...this web site ( http://htmlformail.com/ http://htmlformail.com/ ) has been blocked because it has been determined by Web Reputation Filters to be a security threat to your computer or the corporate network. This web site has been associated with malware/spyware." Maybe something you want to track down, in case the site somehow became listed in a malware database. Sometimes removing sites takes manual effort.
- dshipper 15y ago
  Oh wow thanks for the heads up. I wonder how that could have happened - we just launched the site today. I'll definitely look into it. Is it possible that a previous owner of the domain used it for malware?
  - mdesq 15y ago
    Could be. I've seen hacked sites get cleaned up and two years later still be stuck in these databases. Integration with some antivirus programs can make it so that large numbers of people are effectively blocked from visiting the site.
mnutt 15y ago
You can use HTML in Mail.app signatures already; you just have to copy some HTML from your browser and paste it into the signature field. But considering how bad Mail.app's signature UI is, this is pretty handy.
- dshipper 15y ago
  Thanks I'm glad you found it useful!
nrj 15y ago
HTML is not for e-mail. That's what web browsers are for.
- dshipper 15y ago
  I'd like to respectfully disagree. I think it's akin to saying "web browsers are not for running applications; that's what operating systems are for" 10 years ago. Email has a huge amount of potential to be used as a medium beyond just plain-text and I think that's a trend that we'll start to see manifesting itself more significantly over the next few years.

23 points by dshipper 15y ago

Hey everyone. We built this in a day yesterday by repurposing code from our current startup (Airtime for Email). We're hoping that people find it useful, and that eventually it will be able to help us generate qualified longtail leads from the SEO. We're really new to selling B2B and inbound marketing and I'd love your feedback :)

slater 15y ago

Really not fond of giving out my e-mail address, so here's the direct link for the app: https://s3.amazonaws.com/eyeredux/assets/HTML+for+Mail.zip https://s3.amazonaws.com/eyeredux/assets/HTML+for+Mail.zip

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
dshipper 15y ago
Fair enough :). Are you saying that in general you don't give your email out, or are you saying you think the value prop for this particular app is too weak to give an email out for?
- sdfjkl 15y ago
  Download buttons are expected to lead to files that you can download. I don't want to give my email address out unless I actually want to be emailed by you (with something I care about, not with what you think I should be reading). On terrible sites that have not realized such basic facts but have software I really want (VMware for example), I use bugmenot or mailinator. Thereby this sort of thing only serves to reduce the amount of people that try your app and annoy those that want it bad enough into giving you a fake email. And a couple poor sods that get spammed by you later on, either because you decided to spam them, because you took improper care of your contact database or because your company got sold and stripped for assets (customer data = valuable).
  - dshipper 15y ago
    Ok I definitely agree that we should change the Download Now button to something else if it's misleading. Thanks for the feedback!
    - ericabiz 15y ago
      Look into how Traffic Travis does this: http://www.traffictravis.com/ http://www.traffictravis.com/ They built an email list of hundreds of thousands of people who downloaded free software. The list is a more valuable asset to them than anything else.
    - dshipper 15y ago
      will do, thanks for the recommendation!

jason_shah 15y ago

Impressive and wise repurposing. When you said "longtail leads from the SEO", Dan, do you mean that eventually something like this page would rank well for queries like 'html for mail' and related terms (and push leads and traffic to Airtime)? Assuming that's the case, it may help to make more reference to terms like 'Apple' and 'Mac' (on the page and in your HTML) that people may include in a query when looking for something like this. From glancing at the source, it seemed like adding those sort of terms and others from using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) might be useful. Eventually it would be a great case study to see data and how well something like this works for you in driving qualified leads.

dshipper 15y ago
That's exactly what I meant by longtail leads. Thanks for the advice, I'm going to spend some time tonight going over keywords to optimize it as much as possible. We're definitely looking to make this into a case-study for inbound marketing if possible, so hopefully in a month or two we'll have some reportable results. Thanks again for the feedback

SeoxyS 15y ago

HTML email signatures need to die. There's nothing more annoying than getting an email with a huge, colorful and distracting signature. Signatures should be plain text and a few lines at most. Apple got it 100% right here in limiting the software. Please stop including entire resumes in signatures. Here's mine, by the way: --- Kenneth Ballenegger www.kswizz.com

dshipper 15y ago
Thanks for the comment! I agree to some extent but using HTML doesn't necessarily mean a gaudy signature. For example your two line signature could be reduced to one line by linking your name to www.kswizz.com. I don't think that we should limit use of a technology because it could be used to create something ugly (almost all technology can be used that way) but instead look at what kind of beautiful things it can make.
- prakashk 15y ago
  your two line signature could be reduced to one line by linking your name to www.kswizz.com. What if the recipient is using a non-HTML mail client?
sdfjkl 15y ago
"Sig dashes" are the closest to a standard signature delimiter and consist of two dashes followed by one space and a newline (http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3676#section-4.3 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3676#section-4.3). They are widely supported by email and usenet software (Pine, mutt, Gmail, etc.)

mdesq 15y ago

Access to the site is blocked by my employer due to a perceived security threat. "...this web site ( http://htmlformail.com/ http://htmlformail.com/ ) has been blocked because it has been determined by Web Reputation Filters to be a security threat to your computer or the corporate network. This web site has been associated with malware/spyware." Maybe something you want to track down, in case the site somehow became listed in a malware database. Sometimes removing sites takes manual effort.

dshipper 15y ago
Oh wow thanks for the heads up. I wonder how that could have happened - we just launched the site today. I'll definitely look into it. Is it possible that a previous owner of the domain used it for malware?
- mdesq 15y ago
  Could be. I've seen hacked sites get cleaned up and two years later still be stuck in these databases. Integration with some antivirus programs can make it so that large numbers of people are effectively blocked from visiting the site.

mnutt 15y ago

You can use HTML in Mail.app signatures already; you just have to copy some HTML from your browser and paste it into the signature field. But considering how bad Mail.app's signature UI is, this is pretty handy.

dshipper 15y ago
Thanks I'm glad you found it useful!

nrj 15y ago

HTML is not for e-mail. That's what web browsers are for.

dshipper 15y ago
I'd like to respectfully disagree. I think it's akin to saying "web browsers are not for running applications; that's what operating systems are for" 10 years ago. Email has a huge amount of potential to be used as a medium beyond just plain-text and I think that's a trend that we'll start to see manifesting itself more significantly over the next few years.