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Comment by dmje | Hacker News Reader

Sometimes the hostile responses on here really floor me. Maybe think before you type something like this. This is a really solid, incredibly professional and really not very expensive product. I use it all the time. The guy shipped something, and he shipped something great. You may not like countdown timers but jeez, ease off a bit maybe?

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It's not hostile, it's helpful.

For everyone who takes the time to explain why they bounced, 1000 people did so without taking the time to explain.

I am sure the majority of people here who saw this hit back the second they saw the ticking countdown timer. Few bothered to come back and advise against it.

CAPS, "fake", "BS"...

...pretty hostile

"BS" very clearly refers to the timer not the site. But I've removed it anyway.

INSTANTLY is appropriate emphasis. It's important to convey that when you see a 'clickfunnels' countdown timer you don't look past it.

It's "hostile" in so far as they are being brutally honest. You pull this kind of crap, and you get called out for it. This has all the professionalism of a late night infomercial. DON'T DELAY, CALL TODAY!

End of story.

The notion of a sale for software and especially the countdown timer is a deliberate trick designed to separate people from their money. Just because many businesses engage in these kinds of dishonest tactics doesn't mean that people will just accept them. People don't like being tricked - it's a very legitimate criticism.

It's not a trick. It's a sale. Have you never seen anything go on sale before?

An analogy to help explain:

You see someone dressed as a hotdog holding a giant promotional "50 OFF, TODAY ONLY!!!" sign outside a restaurant.

Is that restaurant somewhere you'd consider taking a client for fine-dining?

Yes.

[Edit] - no, obviously not "for fine dining", but jeez, the guy is asking $49, not $4900! Who said anything about fine dining...?!

No, but I might just dip in there for lunch. Why does it have to be taking a client out for fine dining?

I think you've got a lot to learn about sales, marketing, and business in general

Very well said!

Developers are also a very marketing-averse group.

Tbh my guess is the founder of this product never got feedback from devs before doing that landing page.

The tool could be superb. Kind of doesn't matter. Pattern recognition kicks in.

Maybe they built a great product. If that's so they camouflage its value by making it look like some ebook with a scarcity timer.

If this is a trick then you could arguably put pretty much any marketing into the same category. Looks nice? Cheaper than competition? Has newsletter? Great SEO? Really well authored content? Lovely video? Are these all "tricks" too? Because at some level, yes, you're being manipulated by pretty much anything that triggers desire.

Seems entirely legitimate to me that people can choose whatever tools they want to sell the thing they've spent loads of time working on. And in the same way it's also entirely legitimate for you and others to simply choose not to buy.

The point isn't that this is "immoral".

The advice is simply that it's self-sabotaging to choose the design language of low-value infomercial type websites.

He seems to be doing ok. Quotes from Brad Frost. Revenues of ~$700k. I'm not sure that much sabotage going on, tbh ;-)

Honestly, I have no idea why HNers are so hostile about such a cheap product. If you like it, just buy it whether you want to treat it as a tool, a toy or whatever. If you don't like, just leave it alone.

Exactly this.

Unfortunately HN audience can smell BS really fast and these kind of tactics fall in the BS category, hence get called out. Maybe in other lay person spaces it won't be.

I mean is it really that BS... you're literally getting it for half price now, which you (but not necessarily YOU) may regret later on when you do want to get the product.

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