

Ask HN: Probably a dumb idea to lose focus, but.. - jackcouch

I am experimenting with an offer and wanted to publish this without bothering my developers or messing with our production servers.<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.google.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;monchilla.com&#x2F;drawings&#x2F;d&#x2F;1xrOqlfrBiw-XPs3_Yarf4X58VVlU_BqF7NNMl1o26FA&#x2F;edit<p>I thought that would be easy, but after an hour of digging I gave up and was about to pass it off to my team and than I realized this would be impossible for most of my users (small business owners - non tech) so I thought I might pay someone to build a real simple UI that would allow users to specify a background image and change the 6 lines of text and then publish it on our servers. Here is why it might be a good idea:
1. Its cheap and would give some free value to my target market (Most of my users don&#x27;t have a web page).
2. If it is hosted on my domain I might get some SEO benefit and some exposure since my domain name would be in the url.
Here is why it probably isn&#x27;t:
1. Its a distraction from the problems I&#x27;m trying to solve for my users.<p>Let me know what you think and if you don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s stupid, if you want some side work ;)
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krapp
What it looks to me like you kind of sort of have is a really basic brochure
site service. I could definitely see this doing well with local clients and
small businesses.

Looks like it would be ridiculously easy, too. If you can make some money on
it than why not?

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akbar501
It may be a good idea, or it may not.

You should discuss this with your clients. Also, set some price for it (people
tend to discount the value of free, plus just b/c your customers will accept a
free x does not mean they value x). My $.02.

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jackcouch
That's a good idea. I actually just bounced it off one of my users and they
thought it would be great, but I often get flattering responses when I ask my
users if they would like X because they already like us for solving a real
pain.

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jackcouch
I just realized you're saying I should give them a price even if I plan to
give it away for free. That's smart. Thx.

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carbocation
If you are looking for for-hire development with a small scope and clear
objectives, might be worth checking out elance or odesk.

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jackcouch
Do you think it would be a useful tool even for a more high tech (non dev)
audience? Could you imagine a need for a quick and easy splash page in the
next 12 months or would you just write the html and use your own web server?

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carbocation
I would probably pay $4 for a nice pre-made bootstrap theme (e.g.,
[http://wrapbootstrap.com/preview/WB07T0755](http://wrapbootstrap.com/preview/WB07T0755)
) and throw it up on one of the servers I have around.

