Re:Show HN: Multisell app source code
by kolinko on Sunday September 18, 2011 @11:19AM
(#3010359)
I like the idea. Did you try advertising this on iPhone Dev Sdk forums?
To be quite frank - I won't put any of my sources there until there is anything there already (not enough time to take chances with unknown sites).
Another thing - I think what prevents most of the developers from sharing their sources is insecurity about the quality of their source code. They think: "cool, but I'd have to do SO MUCh work to make the source readable.."
If you could somehow make the site more friendly for less than perfect sources (for example - allow the developers to mark their sources quality, so someone with poorer quality code will just upload it and mark as poor quality, instead of waiting god-knows-how-long to clean up the code).
I personally wouldn't mind buying poor quality code, but - as I said - plenty of developers will be ashamed to sell it.
Finally, a little bit of business advice - I suggest you focus on just one platform (iOS!:). The thing is - you NEED the critical mass for this site to work. If you focus all your strength on just one platform, you'll get to the point where you have a critical mass so much sooner. Handling PR/community building for just one platform is a full time job.
Also: read up about usability, because your site is lacking. The "buy" button is barely visible for example. Also - one of the main traffic sources for a site like yours will be (as much as I hate to admit it) SEO. Your site is so unoptimized - you could at least have more friendly URLs.
Plus - avoid a syndrom of "empty links". You should minimize the amount of times user clicks a link and gets an empty page.
Right now for example, you have a hundred categories on the right bar. Almost each one of them leads to an empty page - drop the categories until they are really necessary for navigation.
The site design is ugly as hell, but I think that's actually a good thing - don't bring in the designer before you have the business up and running... It's much harder to make serious changes to the site once the pro design is there.
Having said all that, I think there is a need for a site like this. Good luck!
To be quite frank - I won't put any of my sources there until there is anything there already (not enough time to take chances with unknown sites).
Another thing - I think what prevents most of the developers from sharing their sources is insecurity about the quality of their source code. They think: "cool, but I'd have to do SO MUCh work to make the source readable.." If you could somehow make the site more friendly for less than perfect sources (for example - allow the developers to mark their sources quality, so someone with poorer quality code will just upload it and mark as poor quality, instead of waiting god-knows-how-long to clean up the code). I personally wouldn't mind buying poor quality code, but - as I said - plenty of developers will be ashamed to sell it.
Finally, a little bit of business advice - I suggest you focus on just one platform (iOS!:). The thing is - you NEED the critical mass for this site to work. If you focus all your strength on just one platform, you'll get to the point where you have a critical mass so much sooner. Handling PR/community building for just one platform is a full time job.
Also: read up about usability, because your site is lacking. The "buy" button is barely visible for example. Also - one of the main traffic sources for a site like yours will be (as much as I hate to admit it) SEO. Your site is so unoptimized - you could at least have more friendly URLs. Plus - avoid a syndrom of "empty links". You should minimize the amount of times user clicks a link and gets an empty page. Right now for example, you have a hundred categories on the right bar. Almost each one of them leads to an empty page - drop the categories until they are really necessary for navigation.
The site design is ugly as hell, but I think that's actually a good thing - don't bring in the designer before you have the business up and running... It's much harder to make serious changes to the site once the pro design is there.
Having said all that, I think there is a need for a site like this. Good luck!