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A comment on Ask HN: Do online demos without sign-up actually increase sign-ups?.

Re:Ask HN: Do online demos without sign-up actually increase... by nwienert on Saturday July 14, 2012 @11:11AM (#4244362)
I truly think most of the future classes of web apps will operate with auto-generated guest accounts. It's a no brainer. If you truly have a great product, let users dive right in (I don't even believe you should have to click to get to the trial, just dump them right into it!).

It's like bait. Once they begin to use your product and put their data/actions into it, you simply remind them to save it with with their email (and password if necessary to save it). Their investment in trying it is a much stronger motivation to sign up than some features list with a promo video ever could be.

EDIT: Not to mention as we move more towards desktop style web apps, it will be the natural progression.

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Re:Ask HN: Do online demos without sign-up actually increase... by thibaut_barrere on Saturday July 14, 2012 @11:43AM (#4244445)
That's my guts feeling as well.

IMO it splits the difficulty into two steps (starting to use the tool, then sign-up up / paying).

For a product that is easy to get started, it seems to make sense.

Thanks for your feedback!

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Re:Ask HN: Do online demos without sign-up actually increase... by jmonegro on Saturday July 14, 2012 @12:15PM (#4244558)
I remember Stripe used to be like this, but not anymore. I wonder what reversed their decision.
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Re:Ask HN: Do online demos without sign-up actually increase... by pbreit on Saturday July 14, 2012 @12:46PM (#4244651)
Stripe accounts are free and they have a test mode where you can easily create subscriptions and transactions. I think that's beter than a demo.
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Re:Ask HN: Do online demos without sign-up actually increase... by jmonegro on Saturday July 14, 2012 @01:11PM (#4244713)
Yeah, I know, but they used to let you try it without creating an account, and then if you wanted to keep using it you'd just give them an e-mail and a password and you got to keep the API keys and other info.

It wasn't so much a demo as it was an instant trial.

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Re:Ask HN: Do online demos without sign-up actually increase... by zzimbler on Saturday July 14, 2012 @01:32PM (#4244798)
They still let you try it out instantly, they just made the font pretty small on the link to actually do that.

https://manage.stripe.com/register

Note: see the skip this step link

[ Parent | on HN ]