BrianAnderson's comments

Way to issue a challenge that all large communities struggle to solve!

So I have two thoughts that I think are in a different vein than many comments below (tried to read them all but may have missed some. Apologize for repeats)

1. Similar to other suggestions, but with a slight twist, modify the up/down votes to utilize the Net Promoter Score methodology. It has its issues but it reduces a really difficult problem to a simple question that provides a broader spectrum than y/s. Could limit the "would highly recommend" super-vote to one story per day so users would save those votes for those articles they find extremely valuable.

Actually, thinking about it. Would be cool to get a view of only stories that people have "spent" their one super-vote as that is signaling extreme importance. I think many people find many stories interesting, but would only find a few EXTREMELY interesting enough to spend their super-vote on.

2. One challenge is that HN has grown in size so much that there is no set of top stories to satisfy the entire group. Would be interesting to provide a view that matches your personal preferences. Reddit does this by subreddit, stackoverflow by tags. My personal background is personalization in the context of eCommerce, which looks more at user segments. So users who find hard-core tech knowledge interesting vs. VC news vs. geographic location. In some ways this is already being done via segmentation in the classic view: http://news.ycombinator.com/classic Are there some other obvious segments on HN?

Going to throw my company, CrowdSavvy into this, though we are early, early stage. Been working on it since mid-2010. Launched to public beta in 2011.

http://www.crowdsavvy.com

By any chance are you in the mobile space? Your feedback seems to be on the fence around the value of the product. What would help tip the scales?

Yep. The reason is we are actually in beta mode right now. More interested in finding early adopters and proving utility than making a quick buck. However at some point we will likely turn on a subscription billing service, then that page will become more relevant.

Hope that helps explain what is going on.

Interesting... I am going to have to setup some a/b testing or just a quick email to a larger group to see how this plays out across a larger data set.

As a separate question: When you hit the page, does the copy below the Ask / Learn/ Win columns help or is it either

a) not helpful text b) your eye didn't even go there

Hi there. Any reason why you feel that would be a good change?

Here is my thinking (So you can see where I am coming from). It is better to articulate the end-goal, or what the client will get in return from using the product, instead of articulating the functional way it goes about to achieve that goal.

You think differently. Any thoughts or experiences on why that may be a better approach?

I would also be interested in hearing what services people use to handle monthly billing as well as plusses and minuses.

For example, is it true with pay pal that on their credit card statement it will say something like Paypal <company name>

I am also about to launch a service with a recurring billing component.

First question is if the app is profitable. If yes, I would look into a process like this: http://taptaptap.com/blog/the-easy-way-to-get-into-the-iphon...

I would first post an explanation to your users as to why you are moving on / seeking other opportunities. Also offer very preferential treatment if any of them are interested in purchasing the app. You are going to have to be very transparent on the fact you are selling because a) The fact that you don't know who to talk with first means it is likely you don't have the proper in's at competitors or obvious interested parties. This was me when I went to sell my first start-up. It makes it harder but a good product sells itself:) b) You need to reach a wide audience. Selling an app is a very illiquid market meaning not a lot of active buyers. By the way, I mean this in a relative sense. Yes, I know there are many apps bought every day but percentage-wise, its low.

Don't bill for travel as income. Either bill it as an expense, or what is often more convienent/easier to manage since the client doesn't worry about it is if you have a car, is take the tax write-ff at 58 cents per mile (or whatever that figure is). For airfare, bill if you are doing work on the plane. The rest is the cost of doing business and should be built into your hourly rate.

If you are under contract, yes bill for the first meeting. If not, depending on the relationship, there are two ways of handling this. The first, and what I do with the clients I am most comfortable with, is simply add those in at a later date as line items. The rationale is because the second way to do it is bake it into your hourly rate post-contract (Notice everything is either they pay directly or indirectly). Many clients, when you explain how you need to structure rates go with option 1, BUT and this is a huge BUT, with new clients, never explain option 1. Sales is all about slanting and simplifying. Trying to sit down and explain this subtlety will likely mean you lose the business.

So moral of the story is the easier it is for the client to do mental math, the easier it is to win business. Trying to explain subtleties that are important to you are a waste of time. Add in a clause to your contract that expenses are not included in your quote and will be billed separately. Depending on your field, you also may want to include things like stock photography, software licenses, and/or hardware are not part of the quote.

Good to hear that I wasn't alone in that thinking!

I would be an interesting experiment in pricing. All things "iPhone" get premium priced (except the amount a user is willing to pay for the app), so I wonder if it could be priced higher, or if since the iPad distribution is much lower, it will result in a lower price point.

Of course it is always easier to wonder when it is not your product that is being impacted :)

I am really struggling with some of the comments on TC. Maybe I am naive, but $50 is a drop in the bucket for the amount of time padpressed could save you plus the increase of your brand affinity.

Given I am going to be launching a start-up soon that is a lot more expensive than $50, wondering what the communities thoughts are.

Does the HN community feel $50 is too high, too low, or just right for padpressed?

Im interested. I travel to msp every week Monday - Thursday so I could do a mid-week meet-up

I just wanted to express my gratitude for putting this together. Hopefully I can get my product out the door and buy some space in this sooner rather than later!

Imagine if del.icio.us was not bought by Yahoo and instead progressed to where we all thought it would be... Basically, it would serve the same discovery mechanism as app store. You could see what other people were bookmarking and quickly add it to your bookmarks. Discovery problem solved!

(Damn you Yahoo and your inability to do the MERGE in merger & acquisition)

I am wondering how many people are like me and see this as analogous to the the codesketch marketing model where you give something away for free in order to generate increased exposure, pr, etc? (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1359313 - btw I think it is a brilliant idea)

If panera was experimenting in a vertical they were not firmly entrenched, I maybe would have a different opinion, but why would Panera really be interested in building a national competitor to their branded stores?

Thanks for posting this for review. Like the concept a lot.

If you have some beta customers, I would recommend you post quotes from them on the site. Nothing will help win over small business owners better than their fellow business owners. If they are willing to share any specific numbers with the outside world, that would help even more. For example, "loyaltyspace has increased my customer frequency rate by 10%". Other people validating your product makes sales SO MUCH easier.

One thing I was hoping to see under the "how it works" section was a qualitative/emotive story that would demonstrate the ROI to the business. This should help sell the product by showing a use case that the business owner would understand and quickly be able to attach numbers to and CLEARLY see how loyalty will make them money.

Each business owner will have different numbers, but each uses the same levers to get those numbers. Identify those key levers and continually emphasize how you help them maximize those levers. For example, key levers could be customer acquisition, customer retention, avg. order size, avg. order margin, etc

Yes, you do need to explain the technical piece as well but my guess is the owner first needs to be convinced that they "need" the product before they dive into the more technical "How do I set this up?"

I think one thing to think about is how, unlike Apple, Google does not want to upset the "apple" cart (yes, I am a literary genius). To them, removing friction in carriers and device manufacturers from adopting Android is critical. Given this caused some stir in the ecosystem, it makes sense to remove the offering so they are seen as more conformist, rather than a change agent. While change agents are good for you and me, well entrenched companies do not really like them. Status quo is very much a preferred state of affairs!

One recommendation I would make is to shift your focus from how you can accomplish the project to how best to deliver the project regardless of the person. I used to have a similar problem (and still do at times) and the reason I could always start but never finish is that I sequenced all the tasks I liked to do early in the project so at the end of the project all I had were things I didn't enjoy.

Now I do two things. First I look how to outsource what I can to other people - for example my sister is very detailed oriented so I pay her to do things that would bore me, like writing instructional copy, disclaimers, terms of service, etc

With those activities I can't get off my plate, I sequence them so I am doing fun and boring activities equally. That way I am not over-burdened with boring, tedious, or difficult tasks.

Make sense?