phil_KartMe

Thanks for the comment. It's definitely not you.

I was trying to imply that you can sign up and try KartMe really, really quickly.

perhaps sub header should just focus on free.

"Just click a button to organize favorites in lists. Start KartMe to try for free!"

i need to start a/b testing asap!

feedback definitely welcome on this forum :)

"Wishlist for the World" ?

funny. i definitely hear different allusions depending on the audience. i guess i'm not surprised no one here focused on "kart wheels"

Added.

Thanks.

Maybe i should say: "The easiest way to create a shareable list of real world stuff"

Adding now :)

really well said!

I clearly struggle to simplify the message. Thanks for encouraging me to focus on this.

Any ideas for what one thing i should ask users to do on the homepage?

So helpful! Thanks!

I've enjoyed Hacker News the past year as I worked on KartMe, and now would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this free service for easily organizing and sharing favorite books, restaurants, gadgets, recipes and more. Thanks!

* What would get you to use KartMe every week?

* What would get you to tell a friend about KartMe today?

1) solve a problem burning enough for early adopters that they'll be willing to invest time to figure out how to use the poorly designed product

2) try to offer users just 1 action per page

3) watch logs and talk to customers to see what is/isn't being done as desired. adjust size/color to get results.

4) invest in UI pro when ready to move beyond early adopters to a mainstream audience. design does matter.

i'm using jing by techmsmith too. in addition to allowing you to create and save screencasts, -it hosts shared images and videos, providing unique urls -you can write write on screengrabs

its a freemium, but i have yet to need the -mium.

also, here is a podcast by stephen blank that a friend just recommended http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2048

how did you use mechancial turk with your product? would you recommend i test a consumer web app with it?

its tricky when users and customers can migrate back and forth between the roles (e.g., linkedin's freemium model)

some businesses that might fit the criteria are LinkedIn, digg (profitable without growth investments), gawker media, and techcrunch

that said, i consider advertisers, investment professionals, and hr recruiters "users"

i loved the simple goal of "two great conversations a day". it wasn't obvious to me.

and reminders of "obvious" advice are helpful to me, particularly when delivered at the right time. in regards to making me think, relevancy matters just as much as controversy.

considering finding a niche group that you can really saturate with marketing in multiple forms (flyers, bookmarks, display ads, PR in industry magazines, etc.), and who then might talk about your product.

but if its a tech product targeted at an audience you can't reach online, be prepared for very low conversion rates from offline forms of marketing.

as a customer, i would be very upset if something was taken away from me, unless initially it was clearly labeled a trial (and beta does not equal trial--gmail is still in beta).

could you let them use the pro version they have for free (version 1), and offer them a discount in 6 months for upgrading to Version 2? or offer them a maintenance & support package for a fee?

agree. high quality comments on related blogs can be very effective. and it can't hurt to define 'related' broadly.

can you invite them in waves? send 500 invites, see how many join on day 1, maybe assume 50% more will join over the next week. Repeat to get to the number you want in the beta.

also, many will sign in once or twice and never come back. not all beta members will be active members.

Be open & honest with those you turn down. until you can invite them, keep them in the loop with a periodic newsletter. maybe even poll them if you need customer input.

writing a blog can demonstrate your subject matter expertise to investors, employees, and business partners. philmichaelson.com has very small readership, but the leads its generated have already been worth the effort.

Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook don't allow you to share the same length and quality of content outside your friend network

a couple of questions:

target market: do you want university students' friends as your earliest members?

incentives: do you want to pay for referrals or active users (e.g., the friend uploads a pictures, posts a review, etc.)?

there is someone in a big company who gets in trouble if they buy a start-up for more than $50M and it doesn't meet forecasts each of the next few of years

make sure to think about a downside scenario. what happens if they get an exclusive partnership, and then don't use your application? how can you exit the partnership?

might consider including a minimum revenue stream necessary for the partner to maintain exclusivity. or a term for exclusivity (e.g,. 18 months).

i keep waiting for the gmail+gears hook, so i can use gmail offline. than google apps starts to become the MS Office killer.

anyone know what i can do to get gmail to work offline?

This post from eastcoastblogging looks like a summary of this great article from jason calacanis on pr: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/jason-calacanis-on-how-to...

customer risk. assuming people know what they want.

specifically, do the potential customers who i interview really know how they want their information management problems solved

payoff: tbd

-Art of the Start

-How to win friends and influence people [this title pains me]

-Tipping point

-Design of every day things [not business..but product]