

Show HN: OS Pre-Launch Page with Heroku and Campaign Monitor - maxdemarzi

While procrastinating doing the ironing today I whipped up a Sinatra/Heroku/Campaing Monitor application for a Pre-Launch Page.<p>If you're following MVP/Lean Startup principles or preparing for launch, you should start gathering interest for your application.<p>In 5 minutes or less your new idea can start collecting e-mails (assuming you promote it).
Easy to follow directions are included.<p>http://vouched.heroku.com &#60;-- Example (actually this is mine.  Vouched: Recruitment with Social Proof).<p>On github: https://github.com/maxdemarzi/Camel
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craigkerstiens
Nice example, very quick and simple and well worth people setting up while
they're still prelaunch. I'd also recommend starting to add in your meta tags
and ensure you're submitted to search engines, meanwhile tracking with some
more generic web analytics tool such as google analytics. Campaign monitor is
great, but even on your landing page it can be worth while to measure
conversion.

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iworkforthem
easy to click: <http://vouched.heroku.com>

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bmelton
It's an attractive page, but I'd venture to say it's either not very usable,
or there's a formatting issue on Chrome 9 with Vista.

On the page I see, there's the header, and a rocket that takes up the entire
page. The signup form itself is actually below the fold, and has no margin
below it, so it appears to be absolutely positioned with bottom: 0;

This makes it easy to overlook which, arguably, is the number 1 point of the
site -- to harvest emails.

If you put the signup form, perhaps with a translucent background (and of
course rounded corners) sitting about halfway down the rocket, I think it
would look even more appealing than it does now, and be TONS more usable.

Here's the screen as I see it on my computer: <http://twitpic.com/46zq4o>

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maxdemarzi
The dangers of big monitors. I made the rocket smaller.

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bmelton
Much better, thanks. I should probably have mentioned that I was using my
laptop, and hence, the widescreen monitor.

If it were me, I'd still move the contact info higher up on the page. Perhaps
if that were floated left (or right) and sat next to the rocket, or even if it
hovered over it; Really though, I'm just picking nits.

