3 ms·

Well, a good site is supposed to grow, right? At the same time, our site isn't really growing - which makes me think there's something wrong with it, somewhere.

by stormen 12y ago

Well, a good site is supposed to grow, right? At the same time, our site isn't really growing - which makes me think there's something wrong with it, somewhere. I have tremendous respect for the people on Hacker News, and I think we need honest advice from intelligent people. Showing HN usually doesn't muster really, really tough criticism.

saraid216 12y ago
> Well, a good site is supposed to grow, right? Why, precisely?
- stormen 12y ago
  Hmm... Because if it's "good", it's of some use to people - and you would think they would start spreading word about the site and its benefits?
  - saraid216 12y ago
    I wouldn't think that. But that's because over ten years of listening to people talk about how companies, markets, and entrepreneurship function have drilled it into me that that's not how reality works. 1. Who is "people"? Who comes to your site? Where do they come from? Why are they here? How many came because a friend told them it was useful? 2. How many "visitors" become "users"? How do you define that? How many of your users find your site useful? How can you tell? 3. How many of those people are telling their friends? How much success are they having? How many of those friends actually become users? Answering these questions, and improving the answers over time, is called "marketing". Most successful web companies have marketers. In your case, what you probably want is a high Net Promoter Score [1]. You should know what yours is. You shouldn't be asking HN for advice; you should be asking your customers what it would take to make them spread the word. (This is essentially what gwintrob's comment above is suggesting. You should do that.) Do you need to give them better features? Do you need to make it less buggy? Do you need to streamline the workflow? Do you need to give them help in explaining it to others? Do you need to suggest ways they can promote you? Maybe what you need is a better site. That's possible. But you need to know. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Promoter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Promoter
gwintrob 12y ago
Got it. It's OK to be honest that things aren't growing without feeling like the site "sucks". Have you tried having a 15 minute Skype conversation with your 10 most passionate users? They can tell you loads about what they love/hate. You'll get some good clues about how to find more people like them and convince them to share it with others.
madaxe_again 12y ago
Technically the site seems just fine. For your $200k I hope it has a robust back-end, as unless I'm missing something, it's functionally simple. Your mobile interface is good - needs a tiny bit of polish around things like the vote counts being cut off on the "list of lists" view. Your featured lists suck. Greatest presidents? What's the utility, other than "oh look"? Find a niche and cram yourself in there, saturate it, then look at other verticals. Right now you're putting the onus on the user to find a use for your service. Don't make them think. Give them a use. Given the extant decent mobile interface, and the general clumsiness/info-overload of the ilk of trip advisor, sculpting for travel lists might be a good niche to push into - best places to eat, stay, see, etc. Cheap to experiment with this and other verticals. Anyway, that's my $0.02, and fwiw I've steered several startups (from a dev/consult for equity corner) to successful exits - just not my own!
- stormen 12y ago
  Thank you very much for this input. Your comment - and others - made us rethink our positioning. I think we're going to steer more towards gaming-, movies- and TV-oriented lists from now on; because that is really where the traction is coming from.
chillingeffect 12y ago
> from intelligent people Dude, the intellectual level of the content on "listnerd" appears to be about 11 years old. I couldn't give a crap about any of that and I tried. How about having an "old folks" section with lists about vitamins, exercises, home improvement tips and plots of long-forgotten stories that deal with emotional complexities... ...You know, stuff people with functioning brain lobes like.

by stormen 12y ago

saraid216 12y ago

> Well, a good site is supposed to grow, right? Why, precisely?

stormen 12y ago
Hmm... Because if it's "good", it's of some use to people - and you would think they would start spreading word about the site and its benefits?
- saraid216 12y ago
  I wouldn't think that. But that's because over ten years of listening to people talk about how companies, markets, and entrepreneurship function have drilled it into me that that's not how reality works. 1. Who is "people"? Who comes to your site? Where do they come from? Why are they here? How many came because a friend told them it was useful? 2. How many "visitors" become "users"? How do you define that? How many of your users find your site useful? How can you tell? 3. How many of those people are telling their friends? How much success are they having? How many of those friends actually become users? Answering these questions, and improving the answers over time, is called "marketing". Most successful web companies have marketers. In your case, what you probably want is a high Net Promoter Score [1]. You should know what yours is. You shouldn't be asking HN for advice; you should be asking your customers what it would take to make them spread the word. (This is essentially what gwintrob's comment above is suggesting. You should do that.) Do you need to give them better features? Do you need to make it less buggy? Do you need to streamline the workflow? Do you need to give them help in explaining it to others? Do you need to suggest ways they can promote you? Maybe what you need is a better site. That's possible. But you need to know. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Promoter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Promoter

gwintrob 12y ago

Got it. It's OK to be honest that things aren't growing without feeling like the site "sucks". Have you tried having a 15 minute Skype conversation with your 10 most passionate users? They can tell you loads about what they love/hate. You'll get some good clues about how to find more people like them and convince them to share it with others.

madaxe_again 12y ago

Technically the site seems just fine. For your $200k I hope it has a robust back-end, as unless I'm missing something, it's functionally simple. Your mobile interface is good - needs a tiny bit of polish around things like the vote counts being cut off on the "list of lists" view. Your featured lists suck. Greatest presidents? What's the utility, other than "oh look"? Find a niche and cram yourself in there, saturate it, then look at other verticals. Right now you're putting the onus on the user to find a use for your service. Don't make them think. Give them a use. Given the extant decent mobile interface, and the general clumsiness/info-overload of the ilk of trip advisor, sculpting for travel lists might be a good niche to push into - best places to eat, stay, see, etc. Cheap to experiment with this and other verticals. Anyway, that's my $0.02, and fwiw I've steered several startups (from a dev/consult for equity corner) to successful exits - just not my own!

stormen 12y ago
Thank you very much for this input. Your comment - and others - made us rethink our positioning. I think we're going to steer more towards gaming-, movies- and TV-oriented lists from now on; because that is really where the traction is coming from.

chillingeffect 12y ago

> from intelligent people Dude, the intellectual level of the content on "listnerd" appears to be about 11 years old. I couldn't give a crap about any of that and I tried. How about having an "old folks" section with lists about vitamins, exercises, home improvement tips and plots of long-forgotten stories that deal with emotional complexities... ...You know, stuff people with functioning brain lobes like.