

Ask HN:  Please review re-release of launchly - bdmac97

Full disclosure - nearly two months ago I requested feedback for launchly.  That being said I hope you will still take another look.<p>Recap:  Launchly is devoted to getting web startups (like the ones that come here with posts like this) the feedback and exposure they need to succeed.  Multiple rounds/iterations of feedback are fully supported and encouraged by the system.  We also track all aspects of new launches and provide powerful analytics to help the site owner(s) focus on what matters - delivering value to their customers.<p>In the two months since I first released launchly the site has gone through quite a few changes and I'd like to get a feel for what the HN community thinks of the idea/site as it stands now.<p>Some of the biggest changes are a completely new feedback system with support for screenshots, new category and tag navigation, user profile pages, and by far the biggest of all - a reputation system.<p>I added the reputation system to try to enhance and encourage the community aspects of the site a-la StackOverflow.  Users build up reputation by providing feedback and voting on launches.  They also earn (or lose) reputation by others voting on their feedback quality.  As your reputation increases so does your influence on the site (votes weighted more heavily, limited admin powers granted, etc.).<p>Another big change (which necessitated the reputation system) is the addition of a free Basic launch tier.  When I first created launchly I had only planned to have paid plans.  That hasn't worked out in practice, especially not while trying to build up the community, so I added the new free plan.  The free plan leverages the reputation system by requiring users to spend 100 reputation (it's not deducted, just subtracted from what they have available) for a free launch.  100 rep would not take long to earn (4-5 feedbacks + voting) and it hopefully will encourage community participation and keep the spammers at bay.<p>Anyways, please let me know what you think of the updates and the change in direction launchly has taken.<p>I'd also love to hear any ideas anyone may have on other possible ways to monetize something like this.  Lets face it, even if I get 100 launches a month (which seems high) and every new site opts to go for a $40 paid plan, that's still only $4,000 in revenue per month.<p>http://www.launchly.com
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yannis
Please don't get offended. It is an excellent idea, but I think it needs a bit
of work still. The front page especially. You need to place the screenshots
higher and be more succinct with your message. What you want me to do first?
Provide feedback? Pay to have some unknowns provide feedback for me? Earn
karma? Message is not clear.

People will come to you for two things:

(a) Links, yes unfortunatley

(b) Real reviews

You need to mod submissions. You either narrow it to 'applications' or
anything websites go. Based on the former I would not list any web sites
selling Bollywood or templates.

Go for freemium, free rating and comments, but have some people who are
professional to give a professional assessment and charge for tis perhaps on a
50/50 basis.

Building a community is hard work, but most of the times you need ten or
twenty very active members to provide the catalyst for growth.

Ask the same question at <http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/> also. Here we are
all HN groupthinkers you may get some different angles (usability, SEO,
community) from some really nice people.

Final question to you, would you pay for a review of launchly.com? If yes what
would you consider value for money, if not why not!

~~~
bdmac97
No offense taken. I've got pretty thick skin! Would removal or shrinking of
the banner that explains the site move the screenshots up high enough?

I hope that the submissions will be community moderated soon. Downvoting them
"enough" will remove them now. The Bollywood/template/static sites are
leftovers from before I added the reputation system.

I would certainly pay for feedback on my sites. I have in fact done so with
feedbackarmy in the past but was not impressed by the mechanical turks'
responses so I made launchly to get real feedback from real people (like we
get on HN). I've also used usertesting.com in the past and they were great but
aren't really the same thing (although that's one of the upsells I'm planning
to add to launchly eventually).

~~~
yannis
I would go for almost complete removal of the banner.

I would pay too for the right feedback and I would have loved to have feedback
at earlier stages of a Project as well:) Are we a market large enough? Other
concerns: don't turn launchly.com into a consulting service by crowd voting,
it has a larger potential. I am sure if it can attract the right people and
traffic the money part can follow (think also advertizing from specialists
SEO, usability experts, Coders, VC Funds etc).

~~~
bdmac97
Ok, I will play around with that. I was/am just worried that w/out something
saying "This is what we do" people will show up and go "Uhm... what?" and then
leave.

Maybe a smaller tagline on the homepage not in a banner? The other thing is
that banner is carried throughout the site design (and used as extra
navigation in other areas) so it would be a bit inconsistent without it.

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stijnm
Clickable link: <http://www.launchly.com>

EDIT: Had a quick poke around. Note, I did not look at your previous
iteration. This review reads more as a narrative because I am just flicking
between tabs to add comments.

It looks good. I must say my personal taste is a little more minimalist and so
I find your site a little busy. At the top there are lots of options to choose
from. I wonder if you can't cut down on or combine some of those buttons. Oh,
I know what those buttons do now, they filter the list. Was a little un-
intuitive for me.

Following on from my previous paragraph, why not get rid of all that text
starting "Iterative feedback..." in the middle and just have a separate
'about' page? It takes up space between the list and the filters you can
apply. Oh, you do, have a separate about page ("What's a Launch?"). Hmm, you
need to update screenshots there. Oh, sorry there is a third description of
what Launchly is in the footer when I press 'About Launchly'. Maybe all of
these disparate descriptions can be combined?

Hmm, when I hover over vote up/down a pop-up appears which disappears before I
can move my mouse pointer back over it. Sometimes I can get it to stay and
perform an action - mostly I can't.

Additionally, I may be a little slower in this post-lunch state, but it isn't
that clear to me at a glance what the site offers. Can I build a site using
your tooling? Why do I need you to launch my creation?

Other question raised in my head: Why, for example, is 'Ask HN' not the best
place to get feedback and exposure for my site?

Looking at your pricing - seems a little expensive for me. How can I be
assured the reviewers are going to give me good feedback? Could I not better
spend my USD 40 independently on specific feedback from my site's targeted
usergroup?

On the whole, I like the site, it just feels a little disjointed here and
there and the message of what you do is a little lost in the clutter.

~~~
bdmac97
I appreciate your feedback and thank you for the clickable link.

The banner text is there to try to tell people what the site is about on the
landing page. I didn't want them to have to go to another page to figure that
out since normally I believe that is considered a bad thing if they HAVE to
read an about page. You're right though that the information is a bit
disjointed. The "What's a Launch?" link is meant to be more of a feature tour
(maybe I should just call it that). The About page is supposed to serve as a
standard about page that tells what the idea is, why it's different, etc etc.
Is it not common to have both these days?

I have seen the problem with the voting widget before and will look into it,
thank you! The pop-up is for category voting, the big up/down arrows are for
overall.

To clarify, the site offers a few things:

a) Iterative (multiple rounds) of feedback. The site was basically created
because this seemed to be frowned upon on HN. Maybe I won't get boo'd off
stage this time since it's been two months in between! b) Analytics. We track
a number of specific things pertaining to your launch and then graph them for
you to track how your launch is performing over time. c) Exposure. Your launch
is actively pushed out to our primary audience (and anyone else watching
social media streams). You also get front page attention on our site and
depending on your launch's quality you could make the hottest launch or
highest rated lists as well. If your app is especially standout (like
Guestlist and TweetBlocker) I'll also give it a full review/write-up on the
blog.

HN and an "Ask HN" post are great ways to get feedback and exposure for your
site but I think we can do better!

1) HN's primary function is not to serve as an app review forum so by using
Launchly in addition to HN (all you would have to do is follow on Twitter or
RSS, not visit daily like HN), HN can go back to being about... well... Hacker
News! I'm not saying review my site posts do not belong here but I think there
is room for a dedicated community. 2) Launchly offers analytics that are not
offered here and a comment system that is better-suited to feedback
(screenshot attachments are just the first improvement, more to come). 3) Many
times app launches get lost in the madness that is HN and go without any (or
very little) feedback. Sometimes they end up with very little exposure as a
result (heavy news day for example). That won't happen on launchly so if you
really want feedback, we would be a better option.

At this point in time, Ask HN may still get you more exposure than you get on
launchly because of sheer numbers but we're growing and if people start
participating in the community soon that won't be the case.

The pricing is still in flux and I'm not sure where it will end up. It's
always easier to go down than up though! There is a Basic, free plan as I'm
sure you saw. The Plus plan adds guaranteed feedback plus the full suite of
analytics. I plan to add further differentiators as the site grows.

I will work on decluttering the site, thank you!

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dhimes
Interesting idea!

The home page is neat and clean. One thing I noticed: "Launchly Blog" text in
tab on mouseover becomes hard to read (dark font on dark tab). It renders
differently than the other tabs, so perhaps it's an oversight.

"Iterative feedback & powerful analytics service for new websites" doesn't
quite do it for me as a catch-phrase/title. Maybe something like "Founder
roundtable for web-app startups."

~~~
bdmac97
Thanks for the feedback. I really need to relocate the blog link somewhere
else.

I have been playing with the tagline quite a bit and you're right, I don't
think I've found one that works quite right yet.

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varikin
When clicking through to a site (I looked at Recipe Puppy), You have a
Launchly bar at the top while loading the site in a frame. I don't want to get
into the debate about loading pages like that, but you do have a broken back
button with that bar. I clicked on several links on Recipe Puppy, and the back
button was always grayed out (had started in a new window).

~~~
bdmac97
Hmm, that's not something I've seen happen before. I just tried it on Recipe
Puppy and my back button was functioning normally. What browser were you
using?

~~~
varikin
Safari 4.0.3 on XP

