Suggestions on Releasing my startup

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2318446

by JordanCharters • 15 years ago

7 13 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hi Everyone,

My web-startup will be opening in a Closed Beta stage soon and even before then I wanted to get ideas for its release and how I could really become noticed.(especially when publicly released).

Developing the website and its features is going well however my downfall has always been marketing.

I have indeed found many websites that have huge communities of members that would fit perfectly into our sites niche and have started the process inviting them to also comment on the sites idea etc..

However I am looking to get 'noticed' by people and/or other sites and wondered what path you think I should follow whether it's particular websites to submit to, people to see and contact etc..

I appreciate any feedback including any suggestions to the site. The sites name and Beta page design is fairly self-explanatory of what the sites about but contact me if you would like to know more!

http://www.wheresyourduckbeen.com

kkowalczyk• 15 years ago

Upfront apologies for being harsh, but you asked for feedback.

You can start by improving spelling and grammar. Both the website and this message has jarring grammatical errors. Even "Where's Your Duck Been" doesn't look grammatical.

After that you can work on your messaging. "Share Photos - Be Creative - Be Inspired!" - the only information in that slogan that says anything is "share photos".

You should better explain how your website is different than any other photo sharing website. "community of members following an idea worldwide" is nonsensical as is pretty much the rest of the copy on the website. Your blog posts aren't much better either.

With such a terrible level of writing don't expect to be taken seriously by anyone.

revorad2• 15 years ago

Even "Where's Your Duck Been" doesn't look grammatical.

It's short for "Where has your duck been?" There's nothing grammatically wrong about that.

On the other hand, "doesn't look grammatical" is not exactly the Queen's English.

JordanCharters5• 15 years ago

Thank you for the feedback. I completely understand your judgment on the grammar and I'll try to improve it.

Also I agree the "Share Photos - Be Creative - Be Inspired!" doesn't tell you much so I'll see what else I can come up with.

Thanks again and I hope you come back again soon when the sites open :)

petervandijck• 15 years ago

Agreed with the writing. You're clearly not a native speaker, and that's ok, for coding. But the writing on the site is terrible and a turn-off. If you can't find someone to dramatically improve it, then remove it.

If you're serious about this, there are services out there that improve your writing. Or ask for free help.

You should spend at least a week fulltime just on improving the writing.

mryan• 15 years ago

Like kkowalczyk says, you really need a copywriter or proof reader to go over the text on your site, the grammar and spelling errors ("see'ing") are very noticeable.

With regards to the idea - it seems as though you are building a site which replicates a single Flickr search ("rubber duck travel" [1]). I think it will be difficult to build a community around this - if people want to see pictures of a rubber duck travelling, why not look at the thousands already available on Flickr? Apart from selling rubber ducks, what "community" will your site provide that existing ones do not?

Finally, just a personal observation - signing your blog posts as "CEO" strikes me as odd for a few reasons. I believe a CEO usually reports to a board of directors, and you probably don't have one of those yet :-) "Managing Director" is the British equivalent, but "Founder" sounds less pretentious/optimistic.

[1] http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=rubber+duck+travel...

JordanCharters5• 15 years ago

Thanks for the reply.

I agree you can easily search for photos of ducks on sites such as Flickr however I just wanted to create a that members already following this pattern of taking photos of their ducks around the world could use to share with other members following the same idea.

Flickr is filled with millions of members and millions of photos so a member not looking for photos of ducks may still get them as a search result, meaning they wont have any relation to the photo or probably wont have an incentive to comment it, follow the user etc moving them onto another photo instead.

The simple idea that the duck in each photo relates to not only yourself but other members, other photos and the whole site itself. No completely random un-related photos being posted up which members think to themselves "why was this posted?" hopefully you get my point.

Thanks again for the feedback, and I'll be sure to get out of the habit of using CEO too.

sagacity• 15 years ago

Clickable:

http://www.wheresyourduckbeen.com

JordanCharters5• 15 years ago

Thanks

revorad2• 15 years ago

This is a pretty fun idea. I think you will get better feedback once the site is open. You could improve the copy as per others' suggestions, but you got the point across to me at least.

Good luck!

JordanCharters5• 15 years ago

Thank you for the reply. I agree once its open the rest of the site can get the feedback needed although right now I'm looking for marketing suggestions etc.

I'm glad you seem to enjoy the sites idea and we welcome you back anytime :)

SoWink• 15 years ago

From an absolutely marketing stand point, the most effective way to get yourself out there is via viral marketing. In order for that to work, you need either some or ideally all of the following, a large extended social network, established expertise in your field, a strong web presence in your respective niche and most importantly, are willing and able to promote yourself offline - basically be charming and not awkward. I find that the latter is the most effective as people actually see the people behind the product.

pkamb• 15 years ago

"Drop the 'wheresyour'. Just 'duckbeen'. It's cleaner." - JT

JordanCharters5• 15 years ago

JT - Justin Timberlake, The Social Network. haha nice comment ;)

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