Zap: Payments for the universe | Hacker News Reader

Zap: Payments for the universe

paywithzap.com

20 pointssjtgraham30 comments

Ok so I submitted this with the title "What are your tactics for landing page conversion? I'm trying novelty" hoping to get feedback on my approach and start a conversation around general tactics. Unfortunately someone with admin changed the title to "Zap: Payments for the universe".

This was also intended as an experiment to how an extremely sceptical audience would react to such a spartan page with a novel visual effect as a differentiator. Now the experiment has effectively been torpedoed by this change, and now looks super corny.

Hopefully this comment gets enough up votes to stay reasonably visible so the community know what is up.

Actually now your experiment will give you more clear data about reaction (conversion).

And data about admin abuse.

There's a tiny chance that I use some throwaway email just to see what's next, knowing your original title. Without knowing that, there's no chance - I simply ignore a meaningless and containing zero information page which asks for my email.

So this could be a test only if people wouldn't know that, so the title change did you some good.

Apart from simultaneous banishment this from the front page. Net bad.

Looks cool, but the ultimate tactic for landing page conversion is actually having content.

Why bother with a empty landing page like this? Would it really be so bad to wait a little until this company actually has something to show for itself?

I agree. Cool tricks are great, but nothing beats content.

Thanks for the feedback. I want to address your point now, but I'm going to wait a moment for a reason that I will explain at the same time.

I don't want to put my email address into something without first knowing what it is.

Entirely valid, and I appreciate that. How often in general do you enter your email into a landing page, even when you have very comprehensive information about the nascent product in question?

I routinely sign up for e-mail lists if it's a product I'm interested in and want to know more about in the future. A text box in front of a slogan and a cool background? Not so much.

I don't like it at all. Don't even know what I'm supposed to be looking at. Why would I give my email address?

If your tagline is "Payments for the Universe", does that mean it'll be available outside of the US?

Yes!

Awesome! Signed up to be notified, would love more options to open up here in Canada :)

This is why you should have content on the page.

I know this looks cool and all but what about including more information below the fold? It wouldn't interrupt the cool design and would give more information to folks like me who don't just sign up for every service for the hell of it.

The lack of information conveys a lack of product, regardless of how true that might be. No screenshots, no information on features, not even a contact or Twitter. I'd really rather get more information before I start getting emails about the service. This is especially true when there are already viable options like PayPal and Stripe, where I can go and find full feature lists.

Hmmmm, email harvesting as a substitute for products/services.

I'd love a great payment service that works outside of the USA. But without at least a bit of an outline this could as well be a email harvesting operation.

Oh god it's working.. I want to put my email in, just in case something happens. But er, I'm not going to. I need more info about the service first :-)

Haha I thought it was a search bar. When you visit the page the text field already has focus so I had no idea I was suppose to type an email.

Thanks. What browser are you using?

Wonderful, mysterious... I really like it!

Was hoping it would go into warp when I entered my email. Was disappointed. Thankfully I used a fake email.

Wow, that's a great idea! Do you mind if I implement that?

For any finance-related company the most important thing is trust. Are you sure you can build it this way?

I really don't get why this post come on front page of HN and what am I learning from the site.

this is genius, love how stars in the nearfield are moving faster. this is straight dope.

Would have loved to see more than moving stars and a signup box.

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