Starting Referly (YC S12) Took Me Three Years | Hacker News Reader

Starting Referly (YC S12) Took Me Three Years

daniellemorrill.com

73 pointsunnamed25 comments

Interesting that however fast the startup world runs there are often ideas that are sat upon for years that still remain viable, without direct competitors coming on the market (and the idea still being one that is good). I bet it's a fairly common story of "I've been thinking about this for years and STILL no one has done it. Let's do this."

It seems that the domain was purchased before the idea (http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8141/7217323514_0acc02941b_o.p...) so I'm not sure this is the case in this particular instance.

No, the idea was formed in October 2009 (or maybe a bit before). The following screenshot of Gtalk logs shows that she knew it was for that specific idea.

You could be right (http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7228/7217382732_b147182406_b.j...) but I guess it didn't sound concrete in the first chat log. Anyhoo, will be interesting to see how this develops further!

the domains I am mostly proud of are: examinationunderoath.us [no plans], medicaresetaside.us [no plans], geektalk.info [minor project], binngle.com [search], onlinked.in [redirector], streamenizer.com [deadpooled streaming app for 4 video chats], thumbkissing.com [future apple app]

what about you?

I've bought a few domains (nothing special) for general ideas but I haven't had the time to polish off anything to do with them disappointed in self. Hopefully one day soon I can also Show HN, but for now, they can sit dormant while I appreciate others!

reminds me of this blog post by patrick collison (pc) that i've always liked (it's stuck in my head, so there you go): http://patrickcollison.com/blog/2009/10/surprises

Reminds me of http://www.viglink.com

Basically Referly and Viglink add their affiliate codes to links for applicable ecommerce sites, collect commissions and pay link publishers (sharers and bloggers) a cut.

I'd prefer to just run a plugin on my machine and circumvent both of them by taking a commission on the purchases I make through any of those merchants as paid out by the plugin creator. Would end up like a custom linkification on ecommerce links https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/linkification...

In all cases I wonder what TOS dictates for applicable sites. I think with Amazon they don't allow manipulation of urls containing affiliate codes already implanted.

add: if there is an idea I'd like to see, it'd be some sort of automatic coupon code insertion at the end of a checkout on any number of sites. Perhaps a way for those codes to then be verified to have worked. If the system worked, that would arguably distribute benefits rather than concentrate them as with Viglink and Referly.

Coupon codes are a popular and useful segment but as yet unreliable and unconsolidated.

Coupon codes, vounchers et al all have one simple aim - to segment the market into two different purchase price points. (there is a spolsky article on this somewhere)

Anyway the point is there is extra effort in collecting codes, clipping the vouchers etc. If you get the voucher automatically added then there is no benefit whatsoever to the company, do it enough, the coupons go away.

Who will collect the codes? Will you enter them into the plugin?

Just have a plugin like https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bugmenot/ that works with http://www.bugmenot.com and instead of suggesting logins it suggests coupons. (add: in fact look at bottom of bugmenot -- retailmenot - wow, never knew about it: I wonder if it works well with the plugin)

I don't know how the mechanics of the plugin are going to work but it'd do 3 things: suggest codes for the correct field, send used codes back and whether successful or not, also check whether used codes are already in database. Who supplies the codes? E-commerce sites to distribute a new coupon codes, and they could also tag certain fields for the plugin to suggest upon and tell it their coupon submit page. What happens if ecommerce sites don't actively participate: it doesn't matter people will give to get. In fact, there could be a karma system: supply a working coupon and get karma the more it is used. Use someone else's coupon and lose karma.

The only hard bit is working out where a code must be entered and determining if it was successful - but sites don't change that much and that could be crowdsourced.

So if you made it "social" then the plugin would feedback to saversrus.com where your account would say

- saved 15$ today - your code uploads were used by 235 people and save them 3457$

I like it :-)

Yeah, so do I, the issue is gaming, verification and security. I just don't know how it could be pulled off without underlying sites cooperating with custom markup. Maybe if people gave their logins to shopping sites to saversrus, it could go in and check underlying records for the savings made and coupons used.. like how billguard checks banking sites for errors in credit card bills. At least here a plugin wouldn't need to be used or it could be an alternative to one, and backoffice logins could be used to check purchases and coupons that occurred in the past.

I think referly actually uses the viglink api to do what it does

Take a look at http://www.retailmenot.com/ for coupons. There's no browser plugin that I'm aware of, but I've used a number of their coupons successfully.

Its a great idea but the product seems only half done... I signed up and could only share links but I couldn't (as a product vendor) tell referly how much I'd pay for signups or register with the site in anyway.

It only seems to allow you to share links at this time, not register your product.

Not yet announced but http://refer.ly/business.php

this is what confuses me about refer.ly. This has been an idea she has had for years, she gets into YC and launches in such a half assed way. I can totally understand the whole "launch fast" mantra, but when you've sat on an idea for 3 years you can wait an extra 2 weeks to make your product usable.

They have all this initial buzz (which is not guaranteed, ever) and it's totally wasted. I signed up as a user and I can't even use the product because it doesn't do what it's supposed to, there aren't any rewards, as you've pointed out businesses can't sign up... seems silly to me. If you're going to launch like this you need to be constantly working, I made a suggestion in the last thread (a simple ui change that would make the product at least usable for me) and it hasn't been done, it's a product I want to use but can't. In it's current form it's just a glorified URL shortener with the promise that in the future we'll get rewards, that's it. I feel like I'm being overly negative but the poor execution really rubs me the wrong way because this idea has a lot of potential.

Without using it I assumed they would be just using affiliate networks, as in they work with all the merchants on an integrated affiliate network, rather than making their own connections to merchants (which would really just make them another network)

What rubs me the wrong way is they have all this initial buzz based on just imaginary fluff - they don't even have a full product out yet.

Also how many middlemans can you have in a transaction? You got the affiliate network. You got Viglink, You got the person who referred the customer. Then Referly finally gets whatever is left.

True but this launch and then build is common practice these days. In fact, many product launches on tech crunch, et al do this also.

When launching a company/service/product the most difficult part for me has been creating something that people actually want to pay for and reaching those people. Launching barebones and selling the vision proves that the product is worthy first.

wandered into your starting referly through hacker news (new giget button) and sounded interesting. for a simple tech user, the entry to site was simple, all the material interesting, like the disclosures & credits (shows ethics & professionalism). probably spent 40+minutes enjoying your material... as well as learning the higher complexity of launching what you want. especially interesting was your doorbell system... sort of the reverse of getting called by an alarm system...much liked the way you instructed it.. just a note from new mexico. my name is margarita, 60+ grandmother... it was real...nice....glad to read you. sonrisas (smiles) /ms

Interesting that the tone of most comments is critical of the launch, the readiness, the lack of business sign up.

But the comment from someone, abuela, whom I guess is slap in the middle of the target demographic (silver surer, family connected) is supportive and shows serious commitment

I think the marketing message over the last three years may have passed the point where HN first views make a difference

Something is evolving. It might be YC, and HN needs to keep up. Fascinating.

Awesome write up, Danielle. I'm heavily rooting for you (because you're a [late] self-taught programmer and have an incredible drive!) and I wish you good luck! Go Refer.ly! :)

Content of this blog disappears on an ipad :|

Thanks for reporting, working on a fix.

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