

The well-deserved success of Mint, and what other businesses can learn from it. - jamesk2
http://www.slate.com/id/2228846/?from=rss

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tptacek
Can I get a success story for ClickTale or CrazyEgg from someone who doesn't
have a straight-up web app? I see how valuable this could be if converting
leads to paying customers just meant moving them to a signup form, but my
conversion process usually involves a phone call at some point.

I have a blog and a product site, and I register people for downloadable
evals. This stuff seems like overkill. Am I wrong?

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patio11
_Can I get a success story for ClickTale or CrazyEgg from someone who doesn't
have a straight-up web app?_

I've been a happy $20 a month user of CrazyEgg for years prior to introducing
my web application, mostly for working on the visitor-to-downloadable-trial
conversion. It works wonderfully. If you search my blog you'll find a few
examples of where it helped me.

Example: [http://www.kalzumeus.com/2007/04/20/crazyegg-vs-google-
analy...](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2007/04/20/crazyegg-vs-google-analytics/)

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steveplace
_first big payoff for a Web 2.5 company._

Why do tech companies and media have to compartmentalize business into
discrete iterations? This isn't software; we have some larger events that can
act as Game Changers, but there's more continuity in the evolution of tech
business than what seems to be perceived.

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fallentimes
It's marketing/douchebaggery and demonstrates a lack of creativity. "Web 2.0"
was coined by a dude trying to sell more books.

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brandnewlow
And it worked, right? Instead of complaining about the way the world works,
perhaps it's more rewarding to exploit it and become better at framing your
work in a way that fits with how the average Joe sees the world.

People reading this should instead take note that Farhad is pushing a web 2.5
theory and therefore might be more receptive to pitches that fit his outlook.

His job is to filter out all the noise to present a semi-coherent view of the
tech scene to upper-to-middle class consumers. Concepts like web 2.5 are his
way of guiding the reader through a world they're probably only visiting.

~~~
fallentimes
I'm not complaing, just making fun of :). It probably worked in terms of
sales. But unfortunately it has the unintended consequences of all these
people trying to coin unnecessary gobbledygook words when simple English will
suffice. Now sometimes reading a newspaper article feels like sitting through
a business school class. IMHO if anything making up terms and introducing more
jargon just makes communication harder.

> _Many of the basics are now essentially free, which means a business built
> on the infrastructure laid down by the first two generations of Web
> companies can gain scale on a shoestring budget, all while giving away its
> products and services for free. Call it Web 2.5._

Or in other words, things have become cheaper and it's easier to start a web
company. Call it technology. Also, this has been true for much longer than the
author acknowledges. He's trying to a fit a company into his cookie cutter
view of the internet while coining an unnecessary word.

Your perspective seems to have more to due with pitching him than the merits
of the article.

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jsm386
I've been contemplating clicktale all week. Had to click on that
headline...wish the article elaborated on some of the ways they used the
heatmaps, user movies, etc to influence their design decisions.

Anyone else have experience with Clicktale or CrazyEgg? Do you find it useful
for improving your visitor conversion rates?

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URSpider94
It's nice to see a company with that kind of valuation and user base not just
blowing cash on Super Bowl ads (I'm looking at you, Pets.com).

