
What is your "coming soon" page for? - joelg87
http://joel.is/post/6452586162/coming-soon
======
ams6110
_Instead of a “coming soon” page, put up a landing page for your product. Make
it look like the product exists, and then when people try and sign up, show
them a page letting them know that you’re not quite ready for them yet ... By
skipping the “coming soon” page, you gain validated learning about the emails
you collect: they are people who thought your product existed and showed a
real interest by trying to sign up._

On the other hand I'm going to be somewhat annoyed if you lead me on about
your product to the point of my giving you email address, and only then find
out it's vapor.

~~~
joelg87
I can completely empathise with you on that point, but I am not sure it should
stop you going ahead.

I think the important thing is the use of copy and the general feel and style
of the communication you have with users.

If you make it clear that your ability to create a useful product depends very
much on them, I have found it can have quite the opposite effect: they can
really become very loyal fans and encourage you along the way, even before you
have a product. People love to feel like they are part of shaping something,
and when you make it the case that it is genuinely what they are doing, it
works amazingly.

------
asanwal
The Hipster-type examples of the world which gets all sorts of coverage on TC
are the occasional winners and make everyone feel it's easy (success bias).
You don't hear about the hundreds of other folks who put up a coming soon page
and got no love.

And so if you assume that you're site will not get tens of thousands of
visitors like Hipster, Joel's suggestions for a landing page that yields
conversations and validated learning is smart and pragmatic. If you're site
gets the more likely 10 or 100 visitors and you present what your product
does, you'll be getting real "leads" and not just be attracting "promiscuous"
folks who will give their email but who will ultimately never be
customers/users.

Great post Joel.

~~~
joelg87
Thanks!

I absolutely agree. I answered a question on Quora
([http://www.quora.com/When-is-the-best-time-to-actively-
publi...](http://www.quora.com/When-is-the-best-time-to-actively-publicise-
your-beta-signup-page)) along the same lines, this is the key part of my
answer:

Start with 5 or 10 people and get conversations going and you can gain a
massive amount of extremely useful information. Much more than if you gained
thousands of emails but never spoke to any of them.

------
rmason
He should have referenced this article which explains how he came to think
this way. [http://blog.bufferapp.com/idea-to-paying-customers-
in-7-week...](http://blog.bufferapp.com/idea-to-paying-customers-in-7-weeks-
how-we-did-it#more-13)

One of the most useful articles that I've read in the past thirty days. Those
collect email pages have got it all wrong. Channeling PG if they don't want
what you're building, then build something else.

Done correctly like Buffer shows you can not only get emails but validated
emails more likely to result in first customers.

~~~
joelg87
Thanks Rick. I linked to it at the end but admittedly not in a very obvious
way. Thanks for pointing this out.

Yes, I used this technique to launch Buffer and had my first paying customer 4
days after launch.

I think the key thing is to focus on conversations in order to validate what
you're building is something people want.

------
mparr4
It seems to me that coming soon pages can really only be pulled off by people
who already hold some weight in the community. If startup "X" with founder
John Doe throws up a coming soon page and tries to push it in various media
outlets, it's likely to go nowhere.

Targeting "coming soon" pages to the eventual audience of your product (and
including at least a relevant description) not only provides the opportunity
for valuable feedback, but if you aren't a recognizable name it also gives
people a reason to sign up for your product.

~~~
rzazueta
Not sure how much I agree with this. IT's less about making a name and more
about finding out where your target audience is hanging out and communicating
the value of your product in a way that gets them interested.

If you're creating an app for a specific audience, you should be active in
forums, blogs, etc. where your audience hangs out, if for no other reason than
to gather customer validation for your idea, etc. You can gauge interest in
your idea early on by sharing it in these forums. If you get folks invested
early like this, they'll not only want to join, they'll be more likely to
spread the word.

Passively posting a "Coming Soon" page is more or less the second step - the
first is getting in front of your potential audience and engaging with them in
a meaningful way. I don;t think you need to necessarily build a name for
yourself, you just need to put yourself out there.

------
blumentopf
Suggestion: As long as you're not putting anything useful on your landing
page, why not join the This Page Intentionally Left Blank Project?

<http://www.this-page-intentionally-left-blank.org/>

------
karterk
Coming soon page could be valuable if they contain enough information on what
the product is about so that __interested __people could join. This will be a
much more valuable list than when people blindly join in due to hype.

------
gaius
The same could be said for Flash intro movies.

------
Hisoka
Great advice. The problem with just blindly collecting emails is that you may
be able to accumulate a bunch of emails passively. But by the time you release
the product and email all those folks, the conversion rate of people reading
your email, and caring will be dreadfully low.

On the other hand, if you have a conversation with them, and get their
feedback, and make them feel like their ideas will help make the product
better, more people will be interested in trying out your product. Sure, it's
not as scalable, but you're gonna attract more quality users, and those users
will be the same people who will go out and tell others about your product.

You get more validation, more feedback, and more ideas on what critical
features to implement. Just getting email addresses is not as effective.

