I don't have 404,722 users but I do have a great app. How do I get to 404,722?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3868877

by luke5dm • 14 years ago

14 13 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

You can check out the app here: http://www.typeli.com

bobbydavid2• 14 years ago

Congrats, looks like a cool app.

My first thought is "why do I need this?" Your site doesn't answer that for me.

The intro video certainly sells me that it's cool, so that I am trying hard to think of a reason that I need this "note-taker". Then I think... note taking? These are made to look so fancy. Am I showing these notes to other people? Are these notes for myself? Why do I care how pretty my own notes look?

I conclude either (a) I'm just not someone who needs beautiful notes when I'm jotting things down, or (b) I'm missing something about what the product is for. Either way, I decide not to buy.

And speaking of buy, I would like the BUY button at the top to be emphasized more, rather than carrying the same weight as the "T" icon on the left. Also, when I scroll down to the bottom, I'd like the page to conclude with another BUY button. If you sell me while I'm scrolling down, are you really going to make me scroll back up to buy?

luke5dm5• 14 years ago

Interesting. I will definitely add the buy button at the bottom, and make the top one larger. That's a very good suggestion.

As for the app itself, it's a little weird because I think the real power of it lays in the way it organizes your notes, and gives you quick access to anything you want. When showing it to people however, it was the autocomplete and somewhat the beautiful design that created the "wow" effect. So with that said, I'm still not sure what the best sales pitch should be.

bobbydavid2• 14 years ago

Glad to help :-)

Personally, I would drop "Powerful Shortcuts" and "Convenient Both Ways" as neither one adds much for me. The first seems obvious -- not like a cool feature. The second just makes me nervous -- are you likely to forget implementing the use of the mouse?

That might give you room to include some sample uses. Or direct improvements on my life. Something that's less focused on how great your product is, and more focused on how great my life will be when I buy it.

SuperChihuahua• 14 years ago

You sell like a mad-man as no-one has ever sold anything before! If you don't know how, Ive tried to collect some videos about it here: http://www.ideaoverload.com/Find-ideas/Finished-ideas/Media-...

luke5dm5• 14 years ago

Great! Thanks so much.

tomg• 14 years ago

Would it be possible to provide a free version? Perhaps one that prevents you from saving your notes, or only lets you make one page, or some other limitation that lets me try it out before committing $9?

I say this because $9 is, IMO, a pretty steep price for something that for a lot of people is replacing the free/included TextEdit.app or Stickies.app.

However, it may totally be worth it (and $9 is definitely an acceptable price for quality software), but I feel like you might be losing out on a lot of sales because people can't experience the "wow-factor" first hand. I've spent a lot of money on todo/notes/GTD style apps and have yet to find the right "fit" so for customers like me it'd important to be able to see if it's right for me before buying.

Good luck!

luke5dm5• 14 years ago

Tomg, bobbydavid, SuperChihuahua.... thanks for your feedback. Send me your emails (http://www.typeli.com/support.html) and I'll send you promo codes so you can get the app for free.

dawson• 14 years ago

Looks really impressive, well done! Can you export? PDF would be useful, if it kept the formatting, and perhaps markup too.

luke5dm5• 14 years ago

Thanks. When you print you can choose "save as pdf" and it will format it nicely.

AznHisoka• 14 years ago

Your app looks like a vitamin, not a painkiller so the price wouldn't justify it for me. I agree with other poster - you need to communicate WHY I should buy it. How will it make my life better? How will it get me richer, laid more, etc?

niico• 14 years ago

Holy shit, your app is great!

Congrats!

You did all by yourself? Drop me a line

luke5dm5• 14 years ago

Thanks.. yeah, all my work

billsinc• 14 years ago

It's very nice looking and I might have paid for it a couple years back but honestly I do most of my note taking on my iPad now.

I don't have 404,722 users but I do have a great app. How do I get to 404,722?

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