

Ask HN: What do you think about my startup, scription.tk? - Hackingroelz

I&#x27;d like feedback on the website and tips for promoting it. Thanks for looking into it.
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S4M
Clickable: [http://scription.tk](http://scription.tk)

I am trying to understand what you do exactly. From your FAQ, here is how you
describe yourself:

    
    
        Q: What is the scription service?
        A: scription allows anyone to create the software they need. While many companies
        and people will charge you a lot to write simple pieces of code, we provide a low-cost
        service. This allows anyone to get the software they want, even if there isn't enough
        demand for it.
    

So unless you managed to write a program that can write custom programs, you
are something like a consultant, and a very cheap one. When you say that "most
requests can be made" (unless projects that are too big or involving mobile
app), what does it mean? Can you write some custom crypto modules? An excel
plugin? You don't provide any example of things that you have already done, so
why would I trust you? (In fact, I wouldn't trust you because your prices are
very low, so I am suspecting something might not be right).

------
leap_ahead
I see you're accepting PayPal. Keep in mind they're known to arbitrarily
freeze accounts so this is a risk for you. Also businesses in Europe prefer
wire transfer rather than anything which is rather a customer payment
solution. I assume you're in Europe or targeting European clients since you're
billing in Euros. You may want to register a company and open a bank account
instead.

The largest problem however is that you're anonymous. While this may work in
countries like Russia and Ukraine which are used to everyone hiding from
everyone, this is unlikely to take off with German customers for example. They
want to know your name, your official address, your phone number, the official
registry number for your company, the bank account number and the location to
settle legal disputes clearly stated. Your photo and the listing of your
diplomas and certificates would be needed as well. The .tk domain name doesn't
really help either. You GMail free email address makes no sense given that you
already own a custom domain.

As it is, you appear to be just another guy from a freelancing site who's
trying to stand out against the crowd. But since you're anonymous, I can't see
why anyone would fall for you.

No offense intended, just a honest opinion of your offering.

P.S. Your copyright notice also makes little sense. It basically says that the
domain name owns the copyright which is not possible. A natural person or a
legal entity can hold the rights, a domain name is an object and cannot own
anything. You may want to put in there your name or the name of your company,
if you've got one registered.

------
neilm
The problem is: you are too cheap. A programmer in Europe can earn much more
than 12 euros an hour, but you're not charging more. It makes me wonder why.
The only reason I can think is that you're inexperienced, just starting out.
That doesn't tally with the statement that you can do any kind of code. I've
been programming for many many years and I would still be wary about saying I
could do 'anything'. There are lots of hard problems in Computer Science.
Mobile app development is not one of the hard problems, so I would wonder why
you would exclude that and not, say, massively scalable cloud computing, 3D
rendering, etc.

I would suggest you be a bit more specific about what tasks you want to do,
and double or triple your prices. ;-)

I wish you very good luck with the company though!

~~~
Hackingroelz
Thanks, I really appreciate the feedback! I'm certianly not trying to say I
can code everything, but I thought making list of things I can do would
exclude a lot of other stuff that I might still be able to do. I'm working on
something of a porfolio right now, so I suppose that shows what I can do, but
still doesn't really exclude everything else.

------
wingerlang
Is the .tk domain not considered unprofessional nowadays? It reminds me of the
crappy websites we made back in, what, 2003?

~~~
hsx
That was exactly my first thought too. The site itself seems a little
unprofessional, as do the services they seem to be providing. The scope is too
big, I think.

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ofcapl_
Okay, here's my first feelings: for me it looks like regular company website,
but with very specific kind of storytelling (a bit of gamification maybe) -
the customer has a feeling that it is not just a regular company website, but
in the end I think it is just like that :)

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Mithaldu
10$ per hour for a programmer? As a programmer (none of my contracts is below
65€ and i'm not that well-paid) myself i feel giving you any money would just
aid the exploitation of decent programmers or get me really shitty results.

~~~
cmdrfred
Outsource your job, this is a amazing money making opportunity.

------
auganov
Isn't your TLD one of these popular with scammers? Not such a huge deal but
that was my first thought :-D

Anyways it looks like a consulting operation.

------
onion2k
Without any examples or testimonials (that I can check) there's no way I'd use
your service.

~~~
Hackingroelz
I've thinking of putting up examples, but since I've just started I don't
really have examples of things requested and some of the other things I've
developed I can't really post much more than screenshots of (which means it
would be hard to know whether they were made by me). Would this still improve
the chance of you using my service? Thanks for taking the time to give
feedback on my website.

~~~
onion2k
If you're in the position to be selling code to people then (presumably) you
believe your code is good enough for people to buy. As such the examples need
to be code. If you haven't got examples then you're going to have a tough time
persuading people that you're capable of fulfilling their requests.

This is the same problem people have when they apply for development jobs. The
solution is to write some code you can show people. Get a side project, or do
some work for free (or cheap enough that people will pay even without seeing
examples of previous work), or ask people you've worked for previously for
permission to use what you wrote as examples of what you can do. Don't just
say "I haven't got anything." That won't work.

------
mazsa
I have a tip for promoting it, contact me: scription at myusername dot com

