ryanio

Dang I wish these guys would use a nice, bold headline to demonstrate the value prop! The website doesn't say much more than we already know.

"A motorized standing desk for just $399." would've grabbed my interest right away.

Yeah he uses a lot of marketing speak.

But as you can see my article, I don't recommend any of his products. I don't really believe in his whole mycotoxin kick.

But it doesn't mean you can't learn from other things he's saying!

High fat diets have been heavily researched and are generally regarded as safe and healthy. See here: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/high-fat-diet-healthy-safe/

It's not a perfect 1:1 replacement as you can't just drink Bulletproof Coffee to get all your nutrients. But, start your day with a cup of it to boost nutrition, focus, and satiety. Follow with a normal lunch and dinner.

Did you think this article was scummy? Probably not, it provided some real value and insight. And guess what, it was a piece of content marketing for his new book. I was pleasantly surprised at the end with his CTA (call-to-action).

Marketing is just finding a way to communicate your value proposition to your target market. Yes, there are plenty of scummy ways out there -- but some awesome real-world examples come from our favorite tech startups like 37signals (e.g. their books) and Atlassian (e.g. their git tutorials).

That's the great thing about the inbound/content marketing movement these days -- you are typically not paying people to read it, so you first and have to step back and think, "what can I write about that would grab the genuine interest of people I want to reach?"

Just some thoughts from a product marketing manager at a startup in NYC.

Definitely the next feature I'd like to add in. I wanted to get the MVP out as quickly as possible before iterative improvements became crippling to shipping :)

I find it odd that the hacker community likes to completely disregard non-technical people[1]. It's situations exactly like this where it would bring a huge amount of value to have someone dedicated to marketing/community outreach and evangelism for the product.

Even though it's a technical project, explained well and with patience even the most non-technical person could wrap their head around it and develop a plan to get it to market.

Being both a dev and a marketer, I've found there are two, entirely separate brainstorming mindsets: product design and development, and product marketing and execution. It is incredibly taxing and inefficient to frequently switch between these two mindsets, which is why I believe most developed companies evolve into having two distinct departments: product development and product marketing. I'm working on my own startup now in RoR doing exactly this (i.e. trying to switch between the two roles frequently) with much frustration. Luckily I have a great business partner that is entirely focused on strategy that can knock some sense into me when I become too bogged down in the development/coding thought pattern.

Going to a business school with essentially zero CS majors, I personally know a dozen people that would be interested in jumping in on a project like this, not even for the lucrative rewards of success but the experience of working on such a project and jumping into the tech world.

Just some thoughts...

[1]: Most recent example I've stumbled upon: "No marketers/MBAs/designers/unicorns/whatever." Source: http://hackerho.us/

Very slick. Wish there was more room for the question titles while browsing, but love the clean interface and left/right swiping navigation. I'll definitely be popping open this app when out and about to absorb some insights from the top gurus in the RoR community. Cheers.

I don't see anything wrong with having a genuine appreciation for a quality product. You, my friend, are a hater :) And you can put down your pitchfork.

In regards to your actual addressable comment, yes people have more choices. That's called competition, and there's a lot of GOOD competition out there. I'm speaking to Apple's communication strategy that's lacking in certain areas that are really making holes in their public perception.

Our mobile devices have long since evolved from portable telephones. Especially for people in the younger demographic like me (I'm in college), my colleagues can (and do) live off their phones. They send and receive email, communicate socially via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, play games, takes notes, and compile to-dos and calendar appointments. It's quick, efficient, and painless.

Before you know it, our phones will soon be replacing our credit cards (i.e. wallets) and opening doors for us (i.e. our keys). Mobile phones are arguably one of the most important things we carry around with us in our daily life, and it won't be going away anytime soon. And whoever innovates fastest to add more value to our lives, wins.

See it live here: http://ebay.com/feed

(Had to read through the whole thing to find out where it is!)

The YouTube team has just done a phenomenal job scaling to demand and building a simple, no-frills-attached platform. What does YouTube fail on that we need an alternative for? Fast download speeds, speedy uploads, many ads that YOU CAN JUST SKIP (!!), it seems like they have nailed the perfect spec and product. Plus, I don't think many could even dream of competing with the technical demands that YouTube probably sees every minute on their servers.

TL;DR: One article converted because they were talking about and pitching their service throughout the whole piece (4 calls to action), while the other was about their experience of hiring family members with no real discussion or pitches about their business (0 calls to action).

Duh?

This guy needs a few lessons on effective public speaking and presentation, this introduction video of him makes me cringe.. I couldn't watch more than just a few minutes of it. Oh, and a web designer couldn't hurt either, who's going to read those walls of text?

It would be neat to bypass the facebook group method and just have a website that you can request people's phone numbers (just a simple submit form). Then the numbers aren't publicly available for everyone to snoop.

The reason people make the group or event is because when you invite everyone they get a notification and a lot more people see it rather than a status update (that maybe <10% of your friends see). So maybe creating an event or group then linking to givemeyournumbers.com/john_smith

My favorite is definitely Trance Around the World http://trancearoundtheworld.com -- I actually themed the music on this site to kind of fit in a similar flow, I always feel like a productivity robot when listening to TATW

I'm a college student with a bit too much time this summer. Thought of this site on a plane ride a few months ago and finally decided to put it together, let me know what you think! Should be great coding music.

As a student about to enter the work force, I'm personally having an internal struggle with which lifestyle to choose to pursue. There is the go-big-or-go-home obsessive startup world work mentality, versus another side of the online world which I feel Hacker News glosses over without much recognition: building lifestyle passive income businesses online. There are countless amounts of people easily making 6 digits online, so it can't be an argument that people need to work this hard to earn a living. It's rather silly how easy it is to make money online with a simple product.

So if money isn't the problem, then why do people work their asses off until they break down or burn out? Is it just a social norm that people have to keep getting bigger, growing, hiring more, and raising more money?