
Ask HN: Review my side project - lachyg
Hey HN,<p>I've recently read the '4-Hour Body' and got pretty inspired. Started the diet and muscle program. Have seen great results so far. Then saw a supplementation chapter, and decided to see about creating the actual stack. I then contacted a company who was making it, and worked out a dropshipping arrangement and set up http://paggstack.com/ (the name of the proposed stack).<p>My questions for you guys are:<p>- What do you think of the site? Do you think it looks professional? Would you make any changes?<p>- Do you like the concept of it?<p>- Any specific tips on marketing it? I know supplements and stacks are usually looked upon as spammy, but I want to do the best job at removing that image.<p>I'm mainly targeting SEO and Twitter at the moment.<p>Btw, I'm doing this to fund my main startup.
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paraschopra
Lachy, I think the site is beautifully designed and you got yourself a great
domain name.

I am not sure number of visitors from search are you normally getting but I
see you are already #1 for the term PAGG Stack, which is great. You can
perhaps try to rank for other related terms for 4HWW by starting a blog or
knowledgebase?

Good luck with this project! If you get enough traffic, you will certainly
make great revenues from this site.

EDIT: clarified

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terryjsmith
My first thought on entering the site was "What is PAGG?" I'm not sure if
you're just targeting people who have read the book specifically, but even
renaming your "What does the PAGG stack consist of?" to "What is the PAGG
stack?"/"What is PAGG?" or adding a page and a link (I'm envisioning a "What
is PAGG Stack?" link up by the cart) that describe the basics would be super
helpful.

~~~
lachyg
Sure thing. I'll add that. The market really is though people that already
understand it (that's the way they'd find it). Will definitely still add it
just to capture other customers.

~~~
terryjsmith
Awesome. If you do some long tail SEO and set up a blog, capturing any of the
current interest in the "Four Hour Body" craze going on right now could be a
boon; you could potentially capitalize on people who haven't even read the
book by marketing it as a "key component" if that's true (again, having not
read the book).

~~~
notahacker
Needless to say the blog should also make frequent references to Tim Ferris'
book and relevant anecdotes and tips in it (and of course an Amazon affiliate
link for those that haven't bought it yet). I'm slightly surprised there's no
mention of "As recommended by Tim Ferris' / Four Hour Body" in big letters
above the fold in your current home page design. You ought to be able to pick
up links from health-related blogs/forums as well as search traffic from
people specifically looking for "PAGG stack", and immediate context is
invaluable to keep the bounce rate down.

Whilst we're at it, other generic marketing suggestions:

\- draw more attention to the savings for 2 and 3 month supplies

\- offer an auto-rebill option (assuming your drop shipper and supplier is
happy with it). Chances are some of your target market are people that quite
happily get their Acai Berry supplements sent to them on a regular basis.

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revorad
Have you contacted Tim Ferriss himself? One blog post from him will probably
get you more business than any amount of SEO or tweeting? Even if you can't
get that, you could probably get some good advice since he's been in this
business for a long time.

~~~
lachyg
Will do.

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Encosia
The design looks great; not spammy at all.

At a glance, I was confused by the table near the bottom. The large heading
says "What does the PAGG stack consist of?" and the following paragraph is in
a low contrast/small font, so I jumped almost directly from the heading to the
table. That gave me the impression that the table was describing what you were
selling (i.e. 7 bottles for $92 instead of $111), which isn't the intended
effect.

An H2 more in line with the rest of the section or a prominent table caption
might be a good idea.

Also keep in mind that the largest group of people buying supplements (at
least in the US) have aging eyeballs. The size and low-contrast of your P text
is going to be challenging for many of them.

~~~
lachyg
Will execute these suggestions when I wake up tomorrow morning.

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dholowiski
While I don't like the industry or the product, the site looks very good, and
very reputable. If I was into that kind of stuff I wouldnt hesitate to order
from that site.

Out of curiosity, since you're selling a supplement, do you have to carry some
kind of liability insurance?

I would contact Timothy ferris, he might give you some free publicity, since
this is essentially what he did with brainquicken.

~~~
lachyg
I'm only dropshipping, so I imagine it would be like buying Panadol at
Walmart, you would be suing Panadol, not Walmart. Please correct me if I'm
wrong.

~~~
sorbus
I'm pretty sure that if Walmart sold something which was dangerous they would
end up being sued along with the manufacturer; not saying that it is
dangerous, just that you might have some liability. I am, however, not a
lawyer, and the best advice I can give is to find a lawyer and talk to them
about it. Don't put it off, because even if there are no potential legal
issues you are probably much, much better off knowing that for sure instead of
guessing.

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aamar
Site looks really good. A few minor observations:

\- Details page: Policosanol is listed in the table as 23mb instead of 23mg.

\- Blue box around product photo is distracting.

\- Main body font feels a little too small generally.

\- Possibly too many parentheses on Detail and Contact page.

\- A few punctuation errors, e.g. "The possibilities are endless and the
potential is unlimited." should have a comma before "and" whereas "Buy now,
and" lower down should not.

\- Front page: I found the "swallow 8 more pills per day" to be confusing. It
would be clearer if you listed the # of pills per day that you'd have to
swallow using the separately-purchased products and total those up in the
table above that pitch.

\- Odd that the 110% guarantee is referred to on the Contact page and nowhere
else that I can see.

\- The chat plugin floats onto an awkward space on the iOS Safari.

Again, terrific job. Good luck with this and the main startup.

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kilian
Looks great, very clear but I have a few nitpicks:

\- On first visiting the site, "no items in Cart" just kind of floats there on
the right. I have no interest in having a cart at that moment, so just hide
that text until there is something to display.

\- Don't start chatting with me immediatelly, it's kind of disconcerting
(Though it was nice talking to you. Stick to two minutes waiting time or wait
for them to engage you ;)

\- It seems very much geared to technology minded people, with detailed
comparison on costs, # of pills etc. Not everyone has read 4HB, so give us the
cliffs note so we know what these pills are for.

\- I think the two main buttons switching to each others color on hover is
kind of ugly, and I'd use a third color on hover for both.

In any case, good idea, good website. I hope it's a success for you!

~~~
lachyg
Fixed the cart. Will look into the others in the morning :-)

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sz
Just some immediate first impressions.

\- The logo looks small and isolated from the rest of the page.

\- The text in the navigation tabs looks strange, maybe it should be centered?

\- The boxes with the slight shading are missing vertical borders, which looks
unfinished.

\- The circles with the prices are not ordered numerically, which was
confusing at first glance. Also the text labels in the image are too small.

\- The font size for the description paragraphs is too small; looks like fine
print.

\- The colors for the Buy/Learn buttons at the top are badly chosen; when I
hover over one, it looks like they're both active or inactive since they're
the same color. There should be four different colors or they should be
identical.

\- Not sure why "Required" was abbreviated to "Req'd" when adjacent cells have
much more text.

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brm
Any chance you'll go into detail on what it was like to work out the
dropshipping arrangement?

~~~
lachyg
'Course. I don't think it'll be the great story you're after though. Initially
I contacted the private label nutra companies, but the MOQ was like $5k, and I
didn't want to risk that.

So I found a company that was going to be doing it, talked to them and became
friends. Then we just negotiated a price per sale, and how we would do
shipping (I'd just email them a daily xls).

Very simple. Contact, negotiate, execute.

~~~
paraschopra
Great, I know it may not be possible for you to reveal here, but if you are OK
with it may I ask what sort of margins such these dropshipping arrangements
offer?

~~~
lachyg
Well... I went for around 30% but I researched and decided that that was not
nearly good enough, and went for closer to 60% due to their high profit
margins.

This will allow me to market it more affectively.

~~~
paraschopra
Correct me if I am wrong: do you pocket $55.2 (60% of $92) for every sale you
make? That is way higher than I imagined!

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lachyg
Clickable: <http://www.paggstack.com/>

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nkohari
I think you should emphasize The Four Hour Body link more, because it's
confusing what a PAGG stack is. That being said, be careful to put a
disclaimer that the site isn't affiliated with the author/publisher.

~~~
lachyg
Will add that now. Thanks for the reminder.

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katpoteri
The design looks awesome - perfect for your target demographic - well done.

I noticed that you have taken the brand images from 4hourfatloss.myshopify.com
- are they just placeholder images for now? Are you planning on creating your
own label brand?

For your phone number - get a Skype online number with voicemail that gives
you a toll free United States number - or a number in any country you like. It
will cost you a small monthly fee for this service but will provide great
benefits to the perception & customer service of your product.

I would suggest some targetted Facebook ads too to drive traffic.

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zitterbewegung
I really like your live chat(got to talk with you directly :-) ). Also, I
mentioned with you that you should try reddit.com to advertise but don't be
too corporate. Looks GREAT!

~~~
lachyg
Will definitely take you up on your offer to help write it! I lurk reddit but
would probably fail at writing!

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randomtask
Do you really need the word "hack" in the slogan? Seems like it would confuse
the majority of people who may be unaware of its meaning in that context?

"Short-cut to the Ultimate Body" seems sufficient.

~~~
lachyg
Good idea, fixed.

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JamesDB
Really smart site design. Looks really professional.

Perhaps remove any doubt about spamminess (a word?!) by putting a telephone
number for people to ring. Might increase conversions slightly.

~~~
lachyg
Unfortunately, being in Australia, opposite timezones, and prices, wouldn't
really work.

~~~
paraschopra
Let it go to voicemail. People won't actually call; only the presence of a
phone should increase conversions.

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Ryan_IRL
The design is great and I think you've done a good job at avoiding that spammy
look (envisioning stock images of people with perfect teeth looking right at
the camera).

~~~
lachyg
Thanks. I hear that's great for conversions, but I just can't force myself to
do that.

~~~
notahacker
I love to see an A/B test of the spammy look vs polished minimalism

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lachyg
I'm afraid I'm not even going to try the spammy look. I can't do that.
Supplements is a stretch for me.

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olalonde
I would make 2 most important words "losing weight" more obvious.

