News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:My startup. Comments? by joe on Tuesday September 04, 2007 @04:24PM (#50139)
> What is it about??

That is the kind of feedback I was looking for. One of the things we struggle with is good information presentation.

It's a mailing list management system for bands. Or it was. Now we call it "fan management and data collection", and we have client-side software that lets fans sign up for bands' mailing lists at concerts. And there's more snazzy stuff in the works that we'll be unveiling in (hopefully) a week or so.

Re:My startup. Comments? by falsestprophet on Tuesday September 04, 2007 @07:43PM (#50249)
It is important to note that a pretty design (and yours is really beautiful) isn't necessarily a good design (frankly yours is almost useless). I think your site fails to communicate what you do quickly enough. I lost patience with it; the only reason I lingered was considering your site as a design exercise.

I think that you are squandering almost all of your front page. No one cares about your news; lose it. You are not in the satellite or civil engineering business; lose the logo graphics. No one looks in flash animations for core messages; make it text.

As far as I can tell your business is charging bands fees to make it easier for them to collect fan contact information and helping them contact their fans. I think you should communicate this boldly in the center of the front page.

I have not thought about the copywriting at all but I think you should say:

>Easily collect contact information at the merch table without an internet connection >Contact your new fans with our email, (snail mail), and text messaging software.

You should not distract your users with anything else.

But, I suspect it may be difficult to sell press packs for $6 a month. I think you could make more money from charging them for snail mailings and sms messages (and you better they aren't free). Further, I think you can additionally monetize your users with affiliate programs for t-shirt printing, cd pressing or whatever else bands need.

As far as I can tell, your team's core competency is graphics design. I think you do a fantastic job and I bet a lot of bands would be willing to pay for you to design their logos or websites or t-shirts or album covers. You can leverage your userbase to find new clients.

I wish you the best of luck and I think you have a good shot if you change your front page.

Re:My startup. Comments? by nickb on Tuesday September 04, 2007 @04:38PM (#50153)
Very interesting idea but I'd have to agree with the original poster: it's very hard to figure out what it's about! I went to the site, started reading text to the left and was distracted by the flash animation to the right. So I watched it. And guess what, I couldn't make heads or tails of it! I don't know if it's the style, the fonts or what... but I was clueless as to what the app does. Only when I watched it the second time did I make a connection.

PS: The background of the flash anim is HORRIBLE! It's EXTREMELY distracting.... never use high contrast backgrounds. Never!

Re:My startup. Comments? by henning on Tuesday September 04, 2007 @04:26PM (#50143)
However you choose to describe it, do it using words that your users will use. That is what they will search for and that is what they will understand.