Ask HN: Selling my first commercial software and would like some feedback | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Selling my first commercial software and would like some feedback

11 pointsleftnode8 comments

Hi HNer's,

My goal since I started developing software 11 years ago was to some day release my first piece of commercial software. My goal for 2011 was to do it this year. Well, in the second week of 2011, I've done it.

Today I launched Kwolla, a piece of social networking software so you can build your own social network.

You can browse to http://kwolla.com to check it out.

I'm rather proud that I finally have a piece of software I can market, sell, and hopefully make money off of.

Right now it sells for $149, but if you use the coupon code HACKERS20, you'll get another 20% off. There is an easter egg in the site and if you find it, you get a coupon code for 30% off.

I want your opinions on how I can improve my chances of selling my software and making it enticing to buyers. It's perfect for a wide array of uses: setting up a social network for your office, or fraternity/sorority, a book club, a Linux Users Group, and so on.

In addition to Kwolla, I wrote the software behind the site which powers the PayPal integration and digital downs. I plan on releasing that soon so other developers, musicians, authors, or otherwise digital content creators could easily set up a site to handle sales of their products.

If there's any glaring omissions I've made or you have any and all input, I'd love to hear it.

Thank you for your time.

http://kwolla.com

$150 seems expensive. It would be better if you create a service based on kwolla that allows users to easily setup their own social network. You host the social network for them, and charge a monthly fee like $9.00 starter and premium $39 etc. The thing is that most average users don't like to setup and config servers, thats why email services and blogging services are so popular.

Hackers are usually the early adopters and they are the ones that will recommend your product to mainstream users, but the thing is that hackers don't like paying for software. Hackers don't like licenses. I think its a good idea to make kwolla open source, so that users can host it themselves for free or pay you to host it for them and provide support.

Making it open source also helps you develop a community around the product. You get users contributing code, fixing bugs, writing documentation, beta testing new features etc. With open source you also get viral distribution, lots of goodwill and free marketing. This is similar to Automattic's business model with Wordpress and Wordpress.com.

Because Kwolla existed as an actual site before (http://www.prospectvista.com) that didn't go anywhere, we had discussed open sourcing it. One of my main goals for 2011 was to have a commercial product, and this (and the shopping cart running the kwolla.com site) is it.

I'm considering making it a SaaS type product, that might work out very well.

Everyone is telling me $150 is too steep, so I'll lower the price too.

Thanks for your input.

There is way too much stuff on the Tour and Features page. Features is especially bad.

I think it is great to have that kind of indepth information, but probably on a deeper page. A prominent link from the homepage should give a higher level view. There also looks like there is a bunch of stuff the average person (your customer) wouldn't understand.

Here is just a short list of things: MVC, entire open source bit, under templates I'd remove everything except the talk of 19 languages and email templates. Vanity URLs, search indexer, drm, etc.

Keep that info available, but put it on a deeper page.

I'd figure up like 5-10 big features, figure out what benefits they offer and sell on those benefits.

Frequent use of the word module. Instead of telling me you have a built in message board, you're telling me a forum module is available.

Over all, it is way way too jargon heavy.

Let me browse the kwolla code online rather than having to download it.

Kwolla logo on the purchase page doesn't link back to the index page (though this may be by design)

Make the Live Demo link more prominent... And when I go to it make me already logged in so I can get started, rather than telling me what username and password to use.

Wow, thanks for all of the feedback!

Yes, the logo on the payment page intentionally doesn't link back. It's an anti-pattern, and I'm playing around with if it actually will work or not.

I'll be working on the copy extensively this weekend, again, thank you for the feedback.

$150 seems expensive, any selling points over http://lovdbyless.com ?

It's not a huge selling point, but Kwolla also gives users some basic statistics and analytics on their profile. It also handles conversion of video itself without having to first upload it to Youtube.

Elgg would be the PHP version, it's free and open source. The code is very poor and it's hard to author on. Kwolla is very clearly written and easy to write modules for.

The two biggest paid competitors are Ning and SocialEngine. Both have more features, but are more expensive. Ning is hosted and not as customizable (since you don't have the source) and SocialEngine is more expensive (but it's an impressive product nonetheless).

If anyone is still following this thread, I changed the layout of the site, made an overview page, and lowered the price to $79.

If you're interested in a free copy of the software, email me vmc@leftnode.com.

And a clickable link: http://kwolla.com

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