Comment by jaypreneur | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jaypreneur | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Thanks! That's a great link.

I will take that idea regarding a landing page heart. Especially considering it's something I can manage to put together myself. Perhaps even throw a "comments" field for suggestions on what features customers would want? I could even respond to said customers personally in regards to their comments/suggestions. Let me know if you think going that far would be beneficial or bothersome to potential customers (I personally would like that type of attention as a customer).

Anyway, sounds good about not outsourcing. I won't bother with that, especially since my website cannot be implemented properly without a significant amount of time and effort... and therefore, money. I feel as if just a landing page with email and suggestion form would be 100 times more useful than some minimally featured, half-assed version of a website I paid for. Since that website might actually end up turning people away.

Any advice in regards to startup events? For instance, there is one in NYC on October 11. I will go, but I won't know anyone. Now, I'm decently outgoing, so I'll try to introduce myself, but should I try to contact people before attending? Then at least I'll have someone to meet and it won't be as difficult. I don't know.

I understand it's a long road. But it's exciting.

Thanks for the luck. I'll be trying my hardest to ensure success. We'll see what happens.

No problem. Regarding the landing page, just keep it dead simple. The more stuff you add, the higher your bounce rate (people will leave). Just test some minimum feature. You can always follow up with an email with a link to a survey, which you can build on Survey Monkey or something (there may be better/cheaper tools).

For startup events, I would say just go and strike up some conversations. People are generally helpful and will share their experiences. It's a good way to learn. Speaking of, when I was first learning about startups I listened to the podcasts at the Stanford E- Corner basically non-stop: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/

I would consider studying Eric Ries and Steve Blank as well regarding "lean startups". "Four Steps to the Epiphany" and "The Lean Startup" are books worth spending the money on.

It's good that you're in NYC. There's a strong community there.

Cheers!

Another great resource with that ecorner link and book recommendations, thanks. I've already got the books on my kindle now.

I will keep the landing page simple. Although, I'm not testing a feature with the landing page, but more the concept... to see the interest and perhaps even get suggestions based on what potential customers want.

Quick question in regards to the landing page for you (or anyone else reading this thread):

Would it work to have successive landing pages?

Essentially, the first is signing up to show interest for those who want to get notifications, be part of future testing and perhaps give suggestions.

Once you have submitted your email address, there will be a confirmation page. For those willing to go a step further, I'd have an additional CTA, linking you to a short survey.

I know that having both on the first landing page would probably deter people from signing up in the first place. Yet is having the survey on the confirmation page going to guarantee no one will answer the survey?

Just looking for some conventional wisdom on landing pages. That's the best approach I could think of, but I'm open to advice/suggestions. Thanks!

Hey. I tried to respond yesterday but it didn't post for some reason. Successive landing pages is a decent idea. Try to get out and do some surveys in person too. The response rate is higher in person. My cofounder and I gathered 30 responses in the space of two hours by getting out with pen and paper. Our online survey, shared on Facebook and Twitter, got 20 responses in 4 days... not too good. Now, people who actually submit their email address are probably fairly likely to go ahead and do a survey, but there's nothing better than getting out and talking to people. Users stop being anonymous and you can put faces, ages and occupations on those you're building a product for. It's strangely motivating.

Don't say anything on the first landing page about future testing and giving suggestions. I would use that email list solely for the purposes of notifying once the product is launched. Don't send anything to those emails until after the product is launched. It's sort of "the boy who cried wolf" thing. People only want to hear from you when there's actually something they can use. Also, people hate spam and you don't want them to start blocking and deleting your emails without reading them because then they'll never know when you actually launched.

Give your survey takers the option to sign up for future surveys by having an email field at the end of the survey.

Thanks for the suggestions on in-person surveys. I will definitely do that. I've asked various people (family, friends, friends of friends, and others I feel are potential customers), but I think it'd be a good idea to get a formal survey out there. I'll be doing that soon for sure.

Also, I really like the idea of putting another email input to sign up for future surveys. So that I can get the emails of those who are interested for launch and those who want to be a part of the process.

Seriously, thanks for the help!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com