

Show HN: My Greg's Pulse. Get text message updates when stuff online changes - grigory
http://gregspulse.com

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grigory
I've been working on this app for the last couple of weeks. This is a first
actual "product" that I've launched, so I'm a bit shaken up by how people
will, or will not, react to it. Any feedback and recommendations are highly
appreciated!

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1tw
It might be a good idea to let users know where the service is available?

(I entered a UK number complete with country code and the site claimed to have
sent me a verification text, but nothing has shown up after five minutes)

~~~
grigory
Thanks for trying this out!

I use Twilio (<http://twilio.com>) for sending text messages, and rely on them
to provide somewhat global support. UK should be supported, but their logging
does show that they couldn't deliver your text message. I filed the issue with
their support system, so hopefully they'll resolve this.

I will add list of countries that are supported though!

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johns
John from Twilio here. We do deliver to a huge number of countries, but
there's issues with some non-US carriers that prevent us from guaranteeing
delivery to non-US numbers. It's unfortunate, and we try very hard to deliver
as many messages as we can but there are some restrictions that are outside of
our control.

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michael_dorfman
Congratulations!

It looks like you have a nice MVP there. Good work.

I found the "Pricing" page to be needlessly confusing. There's a lot of room
for optimization there.

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grigory
Thanks!

I completely agree with Pricing page being confusing... It felt fine when I
initially created it, but hours after launching I want to remake it
completely. There are only two main options to tell people about, and two
different prices - seems like all that text isn't really required.

Also, pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by MVP in this context?

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michael_dorfman
Minimum Viable Product.

In terms of the Pricing page, there are two possible ways to deal with the
problem. One, of course, is to fix the page. The other is to fix the pricing
model.

I assume you've already given your pricing a good deal of thought, and have
some reasons for having priced things the way you did, but off the top of my
head, if it were me, I'd be offering pre-pay options, with steeper discounts
for larger purchases.

In other words: something like 20 messages for $5, 50 for $10, 150 for $20--
and forget about the "monthly" plan altogether.

But, as I said-- that's just a gut feeling, without any real analysis. I
imagine you know what you're doing.

~~~
grigory
Yeah, I've given it some thought. I'm still trying to decide which way to go
(keep current model, or go in a direction that you suggested).

However, your suggestion about dropping monthly plan is interesting. I thought
it would be a matter of convenience for people? Given that they'll be using
the service monthly, of course. Steep discounts does sound like a step in the
right direction.

Thanks a lot for your comments!

~~~
michael_dorfman
Are they really going to be using the product "monthly", or just continuously,
on an ongoing basis?

I was thinking, I suppose, of Google AdWords, which has a pre-pay model-- you
pay a chunk of money (as much as you want, with a set minimum), and they let
your pre-paid funds are getting close to running out, so you can add more.

~~~
grigory
Well, this depends on how people will use the system. Say, you're just
tracking down a used car with best possible price. So you sign up for text
notifications so that you're the first one - and once you bought the car, you
no longer need these notifications.

Other usage patterns might assume regular, monthly usage.

Since I just launched this and have only a handful of users, I'm yet to see
how it'll be used.

Edit: I misread your comment. They will be using this, in the best case
scenario, regularly on ongoing basis - so not "monthly" in a sense of regular
subscription services.

~~~
michael_dorfman
The problem with the "monthly" concept is that it forces me to estimate how
many notifications I am going to get each month, and then choose an
appropriate plan. For me, that was pure friction. In addition, I try to avoid
recurring charges on principle.

So, from my point of view as a potential user, I'd be much more likely to just
pre-pay a fixed amount.

~~~
grigory
Right. For that purpose, the system tells you (when you add links), on
average, how many messages you will get per day. I know it is quite
rudimentary for now, but I will be adding friendlier analyses tools soon,
maybe even on the Pricing page - e.g., tell us what you want to monitor and
we'll estimate which price plan you might want.

Also, I just got my first paid monthly subscription users this morning (1st
day of launch, woot!), so I might be keeping this payment option for now.

However, I try to avoid recurring charges as much as I can myself, so great
pre-paid options are a must.

