Ask HN: Feedback Please - TapInko.com

http://www.tapinko.com

by keltecp11 • 17 years ago

34 57 17 years ago

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

TapInko is the online Market Place for Traditional Media, we were a DreamIt Ventures company last summer and have spent a considerable amount of time understanding the 'offline' advertising world. Though this is the first version of the product, we have many features in the works. I will be giving an online WebEx tutorial this Friday at 3:00 pm (est) and invite anyone to watch. If you are interested please shoot me a message.

Thanks,

- Pete Groverman - Pgroverman@tapinko.com

Some things about the venture:

1) We have an executed agreement with The Greater Media Group of Freehold NJ, they have begun creating profiles for their different outlets

2) We are based out of Philadelphia

3) Our goal is to make advertising...easy

4) Buyers of Adspace can use their same account to also become Sellers of Adspace (ie. a restaurant desires to place an advertisement but also sell advertisements in their menus)

5) How We Differentiate from Google Print Ads: http://www.phillypreneurs.com/2009/02/david_vs_gooliath/

6) If you have a publication or outlet that you would like to sell advertising on (even as a sticker on the back of your computer) please feel free to make a profile.

7) Business Model: No setup costs, no annual subscription fees, we charge only 7% per completed transaction to the seller. This charge includes all banking fees and credit card costs.

nikron• 17 years ago

It says I can't see go to the webpage because I'm not using a supported browser. I'm using Firefox 3 on linux. However, I can see the webpage if javascript is off, but not much is there.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

We will enhance the site as we continue to move forward, thank you for pointing this out.

johns2• 17 years ago

If you get errors reported like this to your customer support, try answering with a more personable response. The way you phrased this comes off as dismissive and doesn't specifically address the issue reported.

blhack2• 17 years ago

We're all geeks (and most of us are also programmers and webdevs) here.

Howabout a technical description of whats going on instead of a canned response?

dwillett• 17 years ago

+1 FF3 on linux

rbabich• 17 years ago

I'm getting the same thing, which isn't surprising since I'm using Opera. In general, I think it's fine to say "browser not supported" if that's the case, but it's nice to have a "Try anyway" link. There are too many sites that work fine with a given browser but refuse the user a chance to try. If you give the user a choice, the worst case is that the site really is broken with their browser, and they say "Hmpf, guess they're right" and move on.

I suppose there's a potentially worse case where the site is broken in some subtle way that causes data corruption or the like, but I can't imagine there are many webapps where this is a serious concern.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

Great suggestion. Thanks.

-Pete

whyleyc• 17 years ago

I'm using FF2 and need to stay on it due to certain plugins that haven't made their way up to FF3 yet.

Not letting me even see the content of the site because of this is a sure fire way of losing me as a customer.

auston• 17 years ago

Your UI needs a little work.

The results to be specific, they don't tell me much without reading for more than 10 seconds, try showing ad rates, available slots, etc.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

So give a little break down in each search window.... but do you think a more interactive and sophisticated search would help here? I was thinking of allowing users to target specific outlets based on the markets they desire to capture.

spoiledtechie• 17 years ago

Awesome Idea.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

Thanks. Interested in trying it out? I think you might see us help your drinkingfor.com venture.

samueladam• 17 years ago

FireFox on Debian (IceWeasel) is not recognized as FF3 and I'm being asked to upgrade.

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008122010 Iceweasel/3.0.6 (Debian-3.0.6-1)

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

Sorry, we will open up the platform soon. Bug checking and time have limited the site for right now, but thank you for pointing these out.

blhack2• 17 years ago

If some of us using an older browser is going to break stuff serverside then I think you've probably got some major issues to work through.

Howabout a "No, thanks. I'll risk it. LEMME IN!" button?

shizcakes• 17 years ago

Being asked to upgrade from FF3 B4 Pre. Fail.

brianlash• 17 years ago

This is a really timely product given the recent discontinuation of Google Print Ads system. Nice effort.

My only recommendation: I'd like to see what the My Inko control panel will look like before I decide to sign up for an account.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

Sure... We built MyInko to be extremely easy and intuitive... my suggestion is to create an account and go ahead and click on MyInko... there is a video you can watch in the very bottom of the Inventory screen... but the other tabs are equally as easy to navigate. Thanks again.

bemmu• 17 years ago

If I wanted to advertise in the US, I would probably use this to get ideas on what kind of ad spaces are available and what their ceiling prices are. Then I would call them and try to negotiate. In my limited magazine advertising experiences I've found that list prices can be a multiple of what you'll get after a bit of haggling.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

It is no secret in the industry that the prices listed are NOT the prices agreed upon.

We have taken this into consideration and you can use the messaging tools of TapInko to 'haggle'. Have a look, let me know your thoughts.

The goal really was to keep it easy.

jimboyoungblood• 17 years ago

Good idea, but the site is a bit busted. The registration lightbox wasn't dismissed after I signed up.

It would be nice to be able to easily compare the rate cards of different publications.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

Hmmm thanks Jim... it's definitely supposed to close after you register.

bbuffone• 17 years ago

The UI is kindof cramped.

When I see the screen there isn't any statement containing information about the site. I see the info in the browser's title but not on the page.

The page doesn't fit in a 1024x786 monitor. Site gets an F(37) in yslow (too many files). Not a big fan of inner scrollbars when clicking on a state, it would be better to utilize the browser window's scrollbars. No easy way to go back to the map unless I click home again.

The login bar clutters up the screen. Might be better as a popup dialog.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

Thanks for the feedback... this is great advice.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

If you have any interest in being part of a startup and like the concept, we would love to hear from you as well... definitely trying to build out the team and find some 'A' players.

Thanks,

-Pete

natch• 17 years ago

Holy crap, that is an excellent idea.

Poking around a bit, my only suggestion so far is to make the text font size bigger on some of the text-heavy pages (FAQ) and make the line lengths shorter. Lines of text should be around 65 characters long.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

Thanks Natch, let me know if you would like to watch one of our interactive product demos

pedalpete• 17 years ago

You've done a good job with simple layout on the main page, but I had no idea what you were all about when I first hit the page. Your titles say "advertising marketplace" and "advertising made easy". I suspect that most people visiting a website are accustomed to think online advertising. But you are focused on print. So why don't you actually say 'print' advertising anywhere on the main page.

That is my biggest complaint. I have no idea what this is all about unless I dig deeper (which most people won't do).

almost• 17 years ago

I had the same experience. The first page you see doesn't explain what it's all about except to say advertising and to show a map of the US. From that I immediately think it's about geo targeted online ads.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

Do you like the saying: "Advertising Off-line"?

GavinB2• 17 years ago

I was a little confused when I first arrived on your site. All of the different words and taglines danced around what it is you really do. It says "Advertise Here," "Advertising Made Easy," "The Advertising Marketplace," etc. The big map could have been from any number of businesses.

Since this is the internet and advertising is everywhere, seeing the words "advertisement" don't really tell me anything. Is it online? Print? Billboards? Your home page doesn't say.

You need to make it extremely clear what you're selling and to whom--something like "Buy Real-world ads online."

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

Do you like the saying: "Advertising Off-line"?

GavinB2• 17 years ago

You might combine that with your current tagline to make this: "Offline Ads Made Easy." You still need to imply that you're letting people buy something or making the buying process simpler.

If you settle on a tagline you might think about using some imagery that represents what you do -- college newspapers, billboards, restaurant menus, etc.

A picture may not be worth a thousand words but it can usually replace a paragraph . . .

snowstorm• 17 years ago

When I looked at the homepage, I didn't know what it is for. I had no idea what "outlet" really meant(advertising in mall). Then I looked at the FAQ. I thought it's another online ad network.

Then I looked at inventory in CA. I finally understood that it's for offline advertising.

I suggest you to put in a couple of outlets inside the window when I mouse-over a state in the map on the homepage.

mattmaroon2• 17 years ago

Not sure what the name means. Kinda odd.

I looked in my area (Ohio) and you seem to have multiple listings for the same person. The college newspapers and other local rags are a great idea.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

Hey Matt, those different listings are the same person but different advertising opportunities and outlets. The next version of the product will join all the opportunities under individual accounts.

Thanks,

-Pete

mattmaroon2• 17 years ago

Ah, that would be helpful.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

By the way... the name comes from Tapping Ink - and the 'O' just ties it all together.

Long story short, I liked the Price is Right Game 'Plinko' because it was easy to remember... you get the idea.

ckinnan• 17 years ago

I've bought a lot of advertising over the years and would use a site like this.

Homepage has too much nagging to register without a clear value proposition or explanation of the site's purpose. It isn't clear what the service is from the overly broad homepage taglines: "Advertising Made Easy" and "The Advertising Marketplace". (The domain name doesn't convey either but it is brandable). I'd tighten that tagline into something more specific and compelling.

You might want to start by focusing on a specific geographic market (i.e. Philly) or vertical (i.e. political ads) or type of advertising (i.e. print) or even just college papers and expand from there. (I bet a lot of consumer product companies would advertise in college papers if it was easier to do) Newspaper or radio remainders would be good now that Google is exiting.

The calenders don't work in FF 3. Also, white text on a black background is tough to read and is unprofessional to me. The FAQ page javascript is an annoying and unneeded interface.

Happy hunting and let us know how it goes!

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

Thanks, your feedback was great. Please check back when you need to place/sell ad space and let me know if you have any further questions, comments, or concerns.

dexen• 17 years ago

I wish I could access the site with Konqueror. But it redirects the browser forcibly to `please upgrade your browser to' page.

You could at least give some way to ACK the message and go ahead anyway, without fiddling with user agent settings.

ryanspahn• 17 years ago

http://browsershots.org/ may prove helpful to see how others using all the various web browsers are viewing Tapinko.

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

Great site Ryan... thanks.

zavulon• 17 years ago

I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.7, which I don't want to upgrade. So I'm just going to join the others in "Please add the 'Try anyway'" link

huhtenberg• 17 years ago

You may want to photoshop the foot of 4th dude out:

http://www.tapinko.com/images/thedudes.jpg

keltecp1120• 17 years ago

Good eye...

cool-RR• 17 years ago

Screencast not working for me (Firefox 3.0.8)

latortuga• 17 years ago

"Select a state or search below to advertise:" Where do I select a state? Typing NE in the giant search box didn't yield Nebraska search results, however I then spotted the state drop down (not on the home page!)

"Search returned 1 results:" takes up a TON of screen real estate relative to the total area allocated for search results. Using the back button breaks search results filtering (at least state-based) - look at how Mint elegantly handles this use case.

Something about the spacing or presentation of the search results is irritating to me but I can't put my finger on what. The resulting pricing pages, by contrast, are quite nice and present the information in a coherent way.

kbrower• 17 years ago

post a username and password so we don't have to sign up?

ecommercematt• 17 years ago

Good concept, and an impressive, if glitchy implementation. When I switched tabs in my browser and came back later, it reloaded the home page, rather than displaying where I left off.

Also, you misspelled "Worcester" in the description of "The Towers" at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

halo• 17 years ago

Nice idea. Reasonable implementation. Ugly design.

Poor colour choices, inconsistent fonts and poor and inconsistent layout decisions preclude it from looking professional. It all feels a bit 90s and clunky, frankly, and would put me off using your site.

Grey buttons in the top-right look incredibly tacky and don't match the rest of the site. The entire black-to-grey gradient strikes me as a bad idea, especially as white-on-black text isn't something business websites generally do. Navigation and how people use the site is generally poorly thought out (although the map is decent enough), and relies too much on clunky search functionality with poor usability, especially when you have so little content. The use of overflow: auto for the results instead of letting it go down the page is a poor design decision and that, combined with the "register" popup, reminds me of a spam site rather than a legitimate company. I'd have a serious rethink about most aspects of the design, with a combination of looks and usability in mind.

As others have commented, using browser sniffing to block access to your site is extremely bad form, not least for the simple reason that you'll never be able to keep up with browser variations and end up with annoyed users. I remember the problems it caused 10 years ago with the browser wars. Get rid of it, support the 5 major browsers and assume that everything else is out of your hands.

When you visit the site, you've got a lot of space going "Advertising made easy", "The advertising marketplace" and even "Register Today!" text, but what you really need is a box summarising exactly what your service actually does rather than using vague slogans. The fact I had to click through to understand fully the purpose of the site is a bad sign.

DTrejo2• 17 years ago

When I search something it says "Want to sell through the TapInko network? Click here."

Since the words are already a blue hyperlink, you can probably leave off "Click here."

DTrejo2• 17 years ago

When I click on "sign in" it does not auto-focus me to the username box.

Ask HN: Feedback Please - TapInko.com

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