

Ask HN: promoting and positioning very early stage web apps? - kickstand

I'll put the "TL/DR" version up front: When following the "it's never too early to launch" philosophy, how do you position the application to visitors or potential customers?<p>I hear PG and others saying often that you can't really launch too soon; that you should launch as soon as your app is remotely useful; in fact that if you were not uncomfortable with the state of the product when you first launched you waited too long.<p>I've done that, launching the first iteration site of a site in the past week. While the feedback (quite limited so far) is helpful and interesting, frankly I am a bit uncomfortable with the state of the product. The site has some utility but it should be obvious to anyone who spends any time on there that this product is in what I'd consider a pre-beta state.  It's not that the site is buggy or that there are dead ends or "coming soon" links or anything like that.  The features that exist in the live version are relatively polished. It's just that the site is clearly "light" on features and content.<p>I want the feedback from having my application live, but I'm afraid my app isn't complete enough yet to justify promoting it very much. But without promotion I won't get much feedback.<p>(One answer is laboratory style user testing, paper prototyping and the like, but I could have (and to a limited extent, did) do that without launching.  I believe there's something valuable about the real world context, but I'm not entirely comfortable with the initial impression I'm giving to visitors.)<p>So, how do you position a very early phase site with customers/visitors/users?  I guess we could slap a "beta" sticker on the logo, but that feels like the modern equivalent the "under construction" digging guy from the 90s--it indicates "broken and likely to stay that way" as much as "early stage and dynamically improving".  Besides, is "beta" is just a term of art for our industry? Does the public at large relate to "beta" in a meaningful way? I'm not sure my target market does.<p>Is there a way to say "yes, we know it is lame right now but just you wait and see" without turning off potential users or looking unprofessional?  Is there a way to send a strong enough message to invite the public at large to check out the site without setting them up to say, "lame, call me back when it's ready?"
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vyrotek
I've been thinking about this as well for my application.

One idea that came to mind was creating a 'splash' page with summaries and
stuff along with a button/link asking the user if they wanted a 'sneak peek'
at what we are currently working on.

This way users know they are looking at something that is being worked on and
hopefully encourages them to return and see if new parts are finished yet.

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kickstand
The "private beta" approach seems like a great idea for sites that require or
encourage a form of registration. I'm glad it's working out for you Travis. My
problem is that my app is more casual than that--registration is maybe a phase
2 or 3 feature for me, the site is more of an information resource and I don't
want to ask visitors to register for that up front.

I like the idea of a "sneak peek" splash page, as vyrotek suggests. It's a
good alternative to "private beta" for registration-free sites. But I'm
expecting visitors not to enter the site via the homepage but by one of the
informational pages (discovered via Google, etc.), which means most visitors
won't be coming through the front door. Still, I think this might be a good
approach if I can figure out how to present it.

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spokey
Different account, but OP here. (I've lost my password for the original
account, and evidently HN does not have a password reset function.)

For what it's worth, for the time being I've gone with a prominent ajaxy
Feedback "drawer" in the lower right corner of every page: a bit of text and a
form by which users can send us a message. Similar but not quite the same as
the User Voice tabs.

When closed, the drawer simply says "Feedback?" in big, yellow on red letters.
When open, the copy is describes the site as a "sneak preview release".

Hopefully this is prominent enough that users will see the message at one
point or another, but without introducing a gateway, splash or interstitial
page.

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Travis
We've had very good luck with making our system an invite only beta. The main
site is setup to very clearly explain our product, and it has a form to fill
out requesting an invite to the beta.

Then we go through the requests and slowly grant access to the early stage
product. We can both filter users (to make sure they're our target group) as
well as convey to them that this is super early stage of development.

Plus, there is definitely a psychological influence of people getting an
invite to a beta; we've had a much higher percentage of invited users create
beta accounts compared to just allowing anyone to create an account.

