

Dabbleboard Pro now available - zhyder

http://www.dabbleboard.com/pro<p>We'll be sending the mass email soon, but I wanted to tell you all first. (Dabbleboard had also launched on HN first.) We'd appreciate any feedback about free versus Pro differentiation, pricing, promotion, or anything else.<p>Happy new year!
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iamelgringo
Congratulations, zhyder!

I know that this has been a work in progress for a while. It's good to see you
roll out the premium version. I hope it takes off.

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tptacek
I'm getting leery of this pricing scheme, and wish there was an pay-as-you-go
option; what keeps happening to us with ASP products like this is:

* it sounds great in week 1,

* so we shell out (say) $30/mo for it,

* life intervenes in week 2,

* we've totally lost our groove with the product,

* we forget about it for 2-3 months,

* and the next time we notice it is when we notice the invoices ---

* --- which don't look so cheap anymore, since we haven't been using the product.

Private shared whiteboards, an awesome idea; I wish I could just pay per
whiteboard or something.

~~~
zhyder
A price per drawing (or even a price per minute, since we encourage unlimited
drawings) might make things more complicated for people too tho. As a user, I
think I'd go mad constantly doing the math for how many cents the next few
minutes are costing me.

Dabbleboard is not really meant to be something you'd use just once. If it's
not something people would use regularly, then we probably just need to
improve it further.

~~~
tptacek
A lot of things that are great ideas that deserve continuous use are not
instantaneously adopted by your customers; until they're adopted fully, the
sponsor at those customers has to deal with the risk that they're requesting
budget for something nobody's going to use.

But, not criticizing; just giving a data point.

~~~
zhyder
I know you're not criticizing, and I appreciate the feedback :). I'm hoping
these would help with reducing the risk: 1\. (Uncrippled) Free version 2\.
Ease of upgrade/downgrade/cancellation 3\. 30-day-free-trial (not yet
available) on the Pro versions

The above is pretty standard faire among freemium apps. What makes Dabbleboard
different from Basecamp et al (apart from 37s's incredible brand)?

~~~
tptacek
I have _exactly_ the same problem with Basecamp, which you can take in one of
two ways:

(1) "having the same issues as 37signals is one of those good problems to
have"

(2) "if this causes problems even for Basecamp prospects, maybe there's an
issue with the model"

We bought Basecamp a while ago, and while we haven't chucked it yet, we're not
happy with the purchase, and knowing that we're dropping money on it every
month doesn't make us more forgiving.

Maybe you could do risk-free one month trial thing?

~~~
tptacek
ON THE OTHER HAND

Maybe (in all seriousness) people like us are just the wrong customers for you
at this moment, and there's 5,000 companies who will be less high-maintenance,
and you should just write us off.

~~~
zhyder
Yep, I don't expect you (and other HNers) to be the right customers, but
you're the best feedback-ers!

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skmurphy
I signed up. My use case is probably different from your larger corporate or
workgroup users since I want to use it with clients and prospects so pay per
whiteboard or some other scheme that doesn't have me buying the 100 user model
would be worth a discusion. But it's handy and it feels like a white board
(once I get used to drawing with a mouse). Happy to see you turn pro.

~~~
zhyder
I should definitely clear this up on the webpage (and I'll be putting a video
up as well), but you could certainly manage with even an Individual Pro
account.

~~~
zhyder
Update: I've clarified this (together with redesigning the page). Let me know
if it's clear now.

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ph0rque
Congrats, zhyder!

A few quibbles from someone who likes free things :~):

SVG download & more document formats: make these available for the free
accounts. All the other bullet points are things a cheapskate like me isn't
concerned about not being available in the free version.

~~~
zhyder
SVG download is important as a Pro feature coz it enables data portability,
which I expect businesses to care a lot about. The document-format limitation
you can work-around by printing to PDF first.

But hey, you've been a supporter from the start. I'll send you a promo code
for a free account (once I can do that).

~~~
ph0rque
Thanks!

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staunch
You might want to swap the "Not a registered user? Sign Up" with "Already a
registered user? Login". Depending on how people get in there. Or maybe
there's an even better solution that handles both scenarios better...not sure.

I think the /pro page is overly verbose. But you could probably keep all the
same info if you organized it better. You almost can't spend too much time on
this page because any improvement is going to result in significantly
increased revenue over time. [http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1496-design-
decisions-the...](http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1496-design-decisions-
the-new-highrise-signup-chart)

~~~
zhyder
Thanks, agreed on both points, will improve it. (It's currently sufficient
just for the existing users we'll be emailing now.)

~~~
zhyder
Update: just redesigned the page as you suggested. Also changed the flow so
that it goes to "Sign Up" rather than "Log in" after you pick a plan.

~~~
staunch
I think it's still a bit too verbose and long (off the fold at 1024x768 I
think). But huge improvement. Nice work.

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symptic
Congrats on the progress so far. However, I think you really need to focus on
making the purchase page more structured towards helping the buyer make a
proper decision. Right now it's a sea of text and a row of prices. I'm
inclined to ignore the text and choose the lowest price, even if it's not in
my best interest.

This post at 37 Signals is a great reference for you:
[http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1496-design-decisions-
the...](http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1496-design-decisions-the-new-
highrise-signup-chart)

~~~
zhyder
Just updated the webpage ( <http://www.dabbleboard.com/pro> ). Looks better
than before, but will refine it further. If you still get to read this, do let
me know what you think of it now. Thanks!

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zhyder
We don't have the payment system setup for discount codes yet, but send me an
email if you're interested, and I'll send you an HN-only promo code when the
system can accept it.

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tdavis
Wow, I guess I completely missed Dabbleboard to begin with, but it looks
pretty sweet! Kudos on creating a product -- and actually having a way to
monetize it ;)

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matt1
Kudos on the cool project and +1 for the New Years launch time.

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ashu
Congrats! I continue to be impressed with this product...

