Ask HN: please review my app/site: cardealerquotes.org

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2424029

by farout • 15 years ago

4 7 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hi,

Here is my baby. I would appreciate any feedback. It is a lead generation site to get quotes for folks that are looking to buy a car. It is targeted to men in their 35-50s who are going through a midlife crisis.

Thank you taking the time to help me understand if I am doing this right.

farout4• 15 years ago

I beg your parton. This is not spam. I worked hard on this. There are several companies that in the lead generation business as viable business model.

This is not spam.

I am asking for technical and design feedback, if you want to use that is up to you.

I did market research, I did design, yeah the coding part is dirt simple, but this is a real business that I am trying to start.

apowell• 15 years ago

I hope the following is helpful. If you want rainbows and butterflies, avert your eyes now...

I don't see anything about this site that makes me want to type in my personal info, and the "schtick" is a turn-off. Are you, or have you previously been, a middle aged man going through a mid-life crisis? If not, then your caricature of their desires seems overdone. Plus, the divorce stuff is a major turn off to those who are still married.

Why does the M3 page mention an Eclipse, NASCAR, and a 6.4L V6?

You have some rendering issues in Chrome on Mac. Haven't tried any other browsers.

Most importantly, as a dealer considering this website as a source of leads, I wouldn't think the leads are serious inquiries with purchase intent. That's going to make it a tough sell.

farout4• 15 years ago

I want truth - I do not might failing as long I am learning. I appreciate you taking time to help me.

-this is a lead generation site for the car dealership industry; the phone is optional, but this is how this business will make so if you want to save some easy money 1 minute could save you several grand. Internet surely are always discounted than floor prices.

I thought I was helpful with the divorce stuff - but several people have told me and you are confirming it - to keep it more on the positive note. I am not a middle age guy - I read a lot of books about them and am married to one so I am trying - was going for the wild look - perhaps I have overdone it.

M3 - cut paste errors; will correct;

The browsers I have testing on are IE8, Safrai, and Firefox. I will take a look at Chrome.

Hmm - I do not understand what you are saying - why do you think these leads are not serious inquires with purchase intent. My competition websites are one page with very little info except the same signup form. In less than 2 years they are bringing $5M/year And they are spending $55K/week on adword campaign.

I can not afford so I am trying to do this organically initially. Albeit a klutz attempt.

JonLim• 15 years ago

A couple of things...

- Did you steal your header image from somewhere? It looks like you took a screenshot and managed to leave a fragment of the scroll bar in it...

- Why are there blog posts completely unrelated to cars in the front? In fact, they are so far from cars that they somewhat alienate me (because they are about shoes, sex, and/or being bald.)

- Links shouldn't shrink the way they do when you hover over them

- I might deserve a sports car, but I don't know if you deserve my personal information

- I think your entire page seems to have an a case of identity confusion; it isn't sure what it wants to be and it reflects that very obviously

Hope that helps.

farout4• 15 years ago

-learnt photoshop; created them from scratch; finally 6 months of learning paid off; I am proud of them; I did some shrinking and cutting when I was porting from them the older versions of the website - I will take a look at the scrollbar issue.

-the ideal customer profile is 35-50 year old men going through midlife crisis therefore focused on women and cars.

-will look at the links

-"I deserve" Hmm. Interesting. I was trying imagine the thoughts in the users head. They are not giving me info for nothing - it is to get a car for less with little to no work. They benefit that 1 minute may convert into $1k or more in savings since Internet quotes are less than floor prices.

-I agree - this is my fourth mockup so ... I am iterating. I am going try a number of suggestions that I recently got.

I appreciate your feedback. It helps me understand where I am not making this easy for the user: a person who wants to buy sports car asap and wants to save a little money without much work.

krsgoss• 15 years ago

At first glance I thought it resembled a Maxim-esque portal site as opposed to place to get the lowdown on a car. It seems like you're trying to do too much here with the various content categories.

Why not just focus on the niche of affluent people seeking expensive sports cars? Carwoo for higher end vehicles maybe that cater to a more affluent demographic?

Maybe profile a car each week as a way to drive quote requests. I'd focus solely on that aspect before adding anything else. Kudos for starting though... keep at it and good luck!

farout4• 15 years ago

Ha - that was exactly what I was trying to mimic - Maxim. The ideal customer profile says that is the magazine the user reads - so I was so happy when you said this. My other websites with more like consumer reports. You think this would be easier for me after doing 30 iphone apps and several commercial websites, but I always had other people to bounce ideas off so... I never realized how much easier that was.

You are nth person to say that the site is too busy - I will doing another one - thank you since I am never sure if it is too little or too much. Of course judging other people's work I am always sure. :-)

The ideal customer profile is for a man in midlife crisis purchasing sports cars in the $30-$59k range. There are fewer buyers in a more affluent market and they require more finessing (at I thin they do). I am trying to go for the easiest market to access and convert.

I will adding 100+ sport cars by the end of next week. I will be only focusing on the personality of the car owner as it related to a specific model.

Thank you for your suggestions and encouragement. Selling enterprise sw is cakewalk compared with this. I do not mind criticism; it is all those endless long arguments that I have with myself on which way to go. I am going just have to choose a way - right or wrong and then fix as I go along.

Ask HN: please review my app/site: cardealerquotes.org

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