

Ask HN: Teaser page now or wait for launch? - guynamedloren

Background: I've been working on building my first web application for a couple months or so.  One-man show. I'm also learning Ruby on Rails - at the same time. I figure it's good practice to have an actual product to work on while I'm learning the language/framework, especially because this web app is one of the driving factors behind my desire to learn how to program. On top of that, I've got some decent design chops and I've put together what I consider to be a beautiful landing page (with signup, headline, brief desc, etc) as well as a basic user interface page.<p>As long as school doesn't throw my schedule off, I'm shooting to have a very respectable (beta) product launched by Jan 1, 2011 with all core features. I won't release with every single feature I've ever imagined - big fan of the "release early, release often" mantra. Other features will be pumped out after release. Freemium business model.<p>Question: Do I release a "teaser" page right now requesting emails from potential users, or do I just wait for the initial launch? The teaser page would be designed in the likeness of the actual web app with header, info, product description, etc but would have a field requesting emails instead of a signup button (is there an actual term for this type of page?). If I do decide on a teaser page prior to launching, how early is acceptable?<p>I see pros and cons of both approaches, and would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.
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patio11
Put it up now. Text on the Internet (and links to it) starts the clock against
Google not hating your bones. Keep your mailing list "warm" with a monthly
email about e.g. the problem space. Cross post the email to the site.

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guynamedloren
Good ideas - I appreciate the input. Another thought - do I request emails for
beta testers specifically? Or do I request emails from the average joe, go
about beta testing via another route, then inform average joe on the launch
after beta testing is complete?

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aberkowitz
Request emails from everyone; send out an email announcing the beta to each
individual whose address you have collected.

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danielsju6
Get it up and checkout <https://github.com/vinsol/Launching-Soon> while you
are at it; I've been meaning to use this, or a similar gem, on my next
project. Don't spend a lot of time on it, which is were the gem comes in,
you'll be wanting to take it down ASAP.

SEO, audience building, and email gathering are key here. If you don't have a
blog, start one, and just chat about things in the space. Comment on other
people's blogs too, don't run around self-promoting at this point. Starting an
app at day 0 with 20 followers is about a bazillion times easier than having
none.

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sahillavingia
Forget launching. You're just leading yourself up to this amazing day that...
may not be so amazing.

Put it up. Then email your subscribers when you have an MVP. Slowly,
hopefully, the word will get out.

And by the date you'll have originally launched, you'll already have an active
user-base!

~~~
guynamedloren
I may have explained my goals incorrectly in the original post. The idea is to
build a product with a set of core features that I have determined will make
up the MVP[1]. When these features are complete, the MVP will uploaded to
public space known as the internet. Period. Regardless of the date. The date
exists as kind of a personal deadline - a form of self motivation. I'm pretty
sure the app will be done and ready before then. I haven't worked it up to be
some amazing, victorious day. Not into that kinda thing.

My question is simply - do I put a placeholder page and start taking emails
today, or put up nothing at all until the MVP is complete?

[1]There are not a lot of these core features - like 4 or 5. Honestly, a
decent programmer could probably build all of the functionality in a week.
It's a dead simple app.

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bgriggs1
Couldn't agree more about putting it up now. It's such a minimal resource
commitment, and you get to leverage any traffic/press with an incredibly
valuable resource: interested users!

We got 400 beta users from a tech-crunch mention on a pretty minimal "teaser"
beta page. Even though we lost some momentum by not being able to launch
immediately with those users, it's been great to release waves of beta invites
as we iterate.

~~~
guynamedloren
Wow, impressive - you made it on TechCrunch with just a teaser page? How did
they even have enough content to write about you? That's some good hype over a
teaser!

It would be awesome if I could do the same, but I am worried that the teaser
page won't really do the product justice, unless I outline all of the core
features - which I'm a bit hesitant to do. I probably shouldn't be hesitant,
but I am anyway.

Do you have a screenshot of your teaser, or can you describe what kind of info
you included?

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TamDenholm
Put up a page now. Someone actually made a project specifically for collecting
emails on a teaser page but i cant remember the name, perhaps someone can help
me out.

It also worth exploring a test adwords campaign to see how much interest you
can get to validate your idea, it also helps build buzz.

~~~
thetylerhayes
Along the lines of testing, you can do no better than Performable
(<http://performable.com>) for A/B testing of landing pages. Also, read their
blog. It answers OP's question, and so many more.

As for collecting emails on a landing page, MailChimp (<http://mailchimp.com>)
is the best service I can think of for capturing emails in a CAN-SPAM-
compliant fashion and look good while doing it. Campaign Monitor
(<http://campaignmonitor.com>) is pretty good, too.

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endlessvoid94
collect email addresses.

