

Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings. Inquire within.) - mikegreenberg

Hi. Every once in a while, I like to offer my time to help other passionate people be a little more successful with their goals. If there's anything I can help you with, just ask here. No strings.<p>If you'd like my help: Be specific about what you're trying to fix/solve/accomplish. The more details you provide, the better I can help you out. Also, I should be able to do your request within 10-15 minutes (a soft time limit so I can spread the love a little quicker).<p>I've done this before, and it's worked out well for everyone. Check out some of the previous "No strings" sessions I've done to get an idea of how I can help. (http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=mikegreenberg)<p>Cheers
======
mrbonner
Hi Mike, In my career as a software engineer I've spent a lot of time with
front-end technology. I admit not an artistic person but whenever I go I tend
to be the guy who knows more about html,css,javascript than anybody else in
the team. So I often end up coding the UI as well. Not that I hate coding UI
stuff but I think I am not an artistic person -> I can't be a great UI
developer. I'd like to hear from your opinion for reluctant UI developers out
there. Thanks

~~~
mikegreenberg
So I'm actually in a similar position. Most of my company does lower-stack
development (MAC protocols). But we still have to provide a lot of user facing
technology. When we do, I'm that guy. I'm not traditionally a UI guy, but I
find interfaces really interesting. I end up getting a lot of opportunity to
try new things and play with large amounts of data. But enough about me.

If you're really not interested in doing UI work, you should reconsider your
current professional station and see if there are options which are better
aligned with what you're interested in. There's no reason you should be
dragged into projects that don't have any appeal. I'd be willing to bet that
in the long term, you will grow miserable.

If, in fact, you enjoy these UI opportunities, I wouldn't worry about your
lack of expertise getting in the way. If they're willing to let you tinker
around with projects like this knowing your skill level, I think this can only
improve your skillset and help you be a more well-rounded developer. (It's
hard to deny that a good knowledge of how interfaces work will pay of with
good design decision during initial development.)

There are amazing resources out there to help you learn good UI practice. I've
mentioned some in other answer here. I have more if you're interested. (Or
checkout my bookmarks at <http://pinboard.in/u:mikegreenberg> )

------
jfsantos
I think I have a little problem with focus. I've recently graduated, and I'm
very interested in a lot of different areas. For some of them, the interest is
because that area is fun, for others it is because it will look good on my
resumé. It's not that I could not make a career based on the things that are
fun, but sometimes it looks more risky.

The problem is that I oscillate my focus through all these areas. You can't
exactly call it focus :) It is hard to develop further in one area or another.

Do you have any advice for me? Thanks!

~~~
adriand
I know you're not asking me, so I'm going to give some totally unsolicited
advice (which everyone knows is the best kind).

Ship something. Either commit to someone that matters that you will finish
something useful to them (e.g. a client, a partner, a spouse, etc.), or commit
to releasing something to the general public (e.g. an open source project), or
commit to showing off something you built at a democamp or conference.

Like you, I am interested in many different areas. I also tend to start a lot
of projects that I never finish. However, because I am a web developer by
trade, I also have a lot of projects that I must finish, and many times it is
the last, difficult, 20% of a project where I gain the most understanding and
knowledge.

To truly grow you have to commit to do something hard and then you have to
follow through on it. There is no substitute for that. The great thing about
being interested in computers and programming (because of this forum I assume
you are) is that it is very easy to combine multiple interests into single
projects. If you are interested in biology and robotics, for example, it will
not be difficult to conceive of a programming project that includes both.

Good luck. I look forward to hearing about your launch.

~~~
jfsantos
I wasn't asking you, but I'm glad you answered. Great advice. Thanks!

------
mcrittenden
I would appreciate any feedback on your idea for the direction to take my file
hosting site <http://fileslap.com>. Sales have been slow (though lots of
people are using the free account) and I've been considering trying to find a
niche to target with it. Does any industry or space come to your mind that
could benefit from a service like <http://fileslap.com>?

~~~
mikegreenberg
File hosting is pretty much commoditized. Your value-add is previewing
specific types of files in-browser and without downloading. The breadth of
your supported filetypes is pretty good.

The file hosting part of your service might SEEM like a natural combination,
but I don't think it necessarily needs to go together. I think in-browser
previews is a more interesting problem (of the two) and would probably be more
interesting to find useful ways of connecting a "quick preview" solution to
what already exists on the net. I'm thinking browser extensions which tie into
the API for specific sites. Like a "Preview" button for Dropbox web interface.
Or for Gmail attachments (for the ones Google doesn't already support).

IMO: Start exploring the area around instant previews of anything on the web.
Consider how you might improve the interactions. Look in that general
direction. Unless you can think of some compelling way to improve file
storage/hosting, I'd drop that part completely or piggyback on someone who is
already established.

~~~
mcrittenden
This is brilliant feedback. Thanks a ton, I'll mull it over.

------
Random_Person
Actually, I have a stupid question that I've been afraid to ask because...
well... I dunno actually. I suppose because with a few minutes of Googling, I
could figure it out. But, here goes anyways:

I'm actually in the market for becoming more awesome. I just sold my first
Board/Card game to a publisher, and it's time for me to start working on my
brand. What I need: a space on the internet.

I'm currently teaching myself HTML/CSS so I can code up a site. What I need,
but haven't even started figuring out:

-what is my best option for registering my domain name? namecheap comes up a lot... I'd like whois obfuscation as I don't have an actual business location/phone.

-who should I register my DNS with? Do I buy this in a package when I register the domain?

-since I'm doing plain HTML, should I look at a host that offers basic web-hosting or a vps for future proofing? Who should I go with for hosting?

-I'm expecting a very small amount of traffic. Should I just go with a service that does all of this on the cheap?

It's almost crunch time for me to start doing press releases... so, I've been
putting this lesson off until after I have a site coded. Thanks!

~~~
civilian
Woah! I have a couple friends who want to do board/card game development. Any
tips for them? How did you break into it?

My thoughts: \--I have my domains registered with Namecheap.com and it works
fine. Avoid GoDaddy, I've heard some nonspecific bad things about them.

\--My hosting is off of webfaction, but I'm also using Django. Even though
you're doing plain HTML, you should find a host that could support Ruby or
Django

\--Cheap is great and all, but you'll only be saving five bucks a month. For
the hassle, just go with something in the normal market.

~~~
Random_Person
First off, thanks for the tips. I wouldn't mind having Django/Bottle/Flask
support as I do write python code. I assume that if a basic HTML service
becomes obsolete for me, changing DNS to point at new service is relatively
quick?

Heh. I didn't expect I'd get questions in this thread. :)

My biggest advice is not surprisingly, make games and more importantly PLAY
those games. Play them a lot with many different groups. Give your games to
people you don't know and let them try to figure it out from your rules.

There is no substitute for failure here. Success at designing games only comes
after many failures. I've designed about 40 in 10 (or so) years and I'm only
actively trying to sell 4 of those. The others? There's good ideas in there,
but they would all need a serious revisions as they are either broken, or just
not fun to play.

If other people can't understand the rules, figure out how to write technical
manuals, or find someone else to do it for you. When you are licensing a game,
the publisher is buying your rules. If the rules are not written well, they
will get passed on.

I broke in by sending intro letters to publishers. I've been sending them for
about 6 years. I researched publishers on boardgamegeek.com first to find
companies that print similar products. After I targeted four or five
companies, I sent introduction letters. This is the board game equivalent of a
pitch. Be polite. Show excitement. Be short. If they like it, they'll ask for
more. If not, move on.

Make sure you have a professional, presentable prototype!

If a publisher asks to see the game, send your prototype and forget about it.
The publisher that is producing my game took two and a half years to accept
it. That's fairly normal in the industry. Publication schedules are years in
advance. Unless you have a name behind you, or your game jumps on a new hot
theme, you aren't going to be rushed to the front of the line. It's okay to
email them every 6 months or so, but don't be a nuisance.

And finally, like everything else: network, network, network. Go to
conventions and shake hands. Go straight to the publisher and shake hands. Get
involved with design discussions on boardgamegeek.

------
Omnipresent
I would like some insight into the design/look&feel of my site:
<http://citybee.heroku.com>

I plan to change the deal page that currently looks like livingsocial. Also,
I'd like some external thoughts on whether or not to pursue the daily deal
site. We plan to give the deal for free, customer pays the merchant direclty,
we charge the customer in the end a 15% of all total sales and we further
commit to spend 50% of that 15% to sponsor an event at their location. This
event will act as a promotional event where our site's users can come for
free. This way we are further helping the businesses to build their brands.

~~~
mikegreenberg
\- First thing I noticed was a sluggish scroll. Not sure why it's like this on
your site, but take a look at LivingSocial or similar to see how they get
their page scroll smooth. ([http://livingsocial.com/deals/123805-20-to-spend-
on-grocerie...](http://livingsocial.com/deals/123805-20-to-spend-on-
groceries/))

\- I think the layout is lacking. There no isolation of different parts of the
page. There's no way for me to subconsciously divide the content. Look at
Groupon for a good example on how they "divide" content.

\- There's not much else to the layout here, but with deal sites going like
crazy, ever effort you can take to differentiate your look will help you out.
(Since there's not much else you can do, aside from...)

\- Your business model! I actually like the idea of reinvesting part of your
profits back in the company. However, I'm not clear how this works. The
merchant handles sales and you ask for a 15% cut from the merchant? Then use
7.5% of that for a promotion at their place? Do business need help building
their business in this way? Do they want promotional events? I think this has
potential, but I'm not clear how this works from what you described.

------
rheide
Thank you. I am awesome enough.

~~~
mikegreenberg
Feel free to share the wealth. ;)

------
CharlieA
I'd be totally rapped if you could help me get some more people to come
experience wicked beats with me at my new turntable.fm-like site: Vye VJ --
(<http://vyemusic.com/vj/#/Astral-Hellcat/>) -- or even if you just check it
out yourself :)

Any feedback you have on the idea/design/execution would be incredibly helpful
and greatly appreciated also.

HN Post: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3004684>

~~~
mikegreenberg
Overall, Good Job!

I have some gripes, but on the whole, it seems solid. Here are some of my
issues:

\- Some of the user experience things surprised me. For example, the chat
feature isn't obvious. I didn't know it was there, what it was for, where my
text went (because it didn't show at the bottom for some time). These
shouldn't be questions the user is asking.

\- Consider a brief interface tutorial. Something like javascript pop-ups that
user can close sequentially when describes specific parts of the screen.

\- There should be a way to kill a song, remove songs from your own queue if
it's not playing.

\- The heart the bottom is a meter, but that's not obvious at first. And the
"YES" and "NO" is not clear how that affects the room's state. Does it down
vote a song? Does it stop their next song from playing? Will it stop the song
eventually?

I think you're on the right track! :) And awesome that you pulled this off in
48 hours.

~~~
CharlieA
Thanks very much, I'll put those things right and have another crack at
seeding it with users in a little bit.

Appreciate the advice, and really cool of you to help people out like this --
if I can ever return a favor just ask ^^

~~~
mikegreenberg
Want to help me build a web scrapper (preferably in python)?

~~~
CharlieA
Absolutely -- I've never worked with Python before, though I'm not opposed to
learning; but how much help I could provide as a complete novice is another
question.

I'm fairly proficient with front-end / design, though if there's anything on
that side I can help with?

~~~
mikegreenberg
Please email me at <my initials> at nobulb.com. :)

------
chetane07
Hey Mike, thanks for the offer. I'd like your feedback on the design of the
landing page of my site: <http://www.myzeek.com/>

\- What do you think of the design? (I'm not a designer) Does it looks
cool/boring? \- What do you think of the structure of the content? \- Do you
understand the product, and would you be tempted to sign in for the beta?

Any feedback is very useful and highly appreciated :) Thanks.

~~~
mikegreenberg
Quick note: In your header line, remove the "s" in "any devices".

The design isn't bad. It's simple and straightforward. There's nothing special
about it and it's not going to turn any heads. There's not much content and I
don't think you could present the information much better than you already do.
I'd consider making your call-to-action (beta signup) a little more obvious.
And maybe move the "login with dropbox" to the top and make it less "in your
face". You want new signups to be top priority.

I don't like that I have to keep my music in the Public folder. I think
Dropbox might not like this on my account because they will perceive this as
sharing my music publicly. How do you intend to handle this? Do you think this
could be in a private folder instead?

I don't think I'd necessarily go for this. My reason is probably something you
should be concerned about as well. As cloud services become more prevalent,
and online music streaming services do a better job of managing large
catalogs, users will no longer need to maintain a large library for
themselves. This is my scenario.

While I'm a self-proclaimed audiophile, I've retired my MP3 collection some
years back in favor of services like Pandora, Grooveshark, Spotify, and Amazon
MP3 which do a decent job.

If you're going to continue developing this product, I'd focus on finding
something to differentiate yourself in a big way. Hope this advice helps. :)

~~~
chetane07
Thanks Mike for the feedback, truly helps. I will be incorporating the
suggestions over the next few days.

------
revorad
Mike, thanks very much for this kind offer, really appreciated.

Could you please have a quick play with my new site <http://giniji.com>? I
would like you to answer a few simple questions:

    
    
      How fast/slow/responsive is the site for you?
    
      Is it clear what it's for?
    
      Would you recommend it to a friend? 
      If yes, why? 
      If not, why not?
    

Thanks a ton!

~~~
mikegreenberg
My pleasure. :)

\- The site, on a cold start, took 5.95s before onLoad() fired (as reported by
webkit). Most of that was spent loading your jQuery core and plugins and
jQueryUI. See if you can minify and concat all of that together.

\- I like the simple UI. It seems like it's a buying assistant. I assume
you'll ask basic questions and spit out some results. Let's see.... PS: a
weird character showed next to the currency symbol (Â£ )

\- Your images load up pretty fast! Quite happy with the snappiness of the UI.
(You even did some planning for smaller screens...nice.)

\- It might be nice to have a way for the user to browse laptops without
having to scroll all the way down the page to select a different one. (Might
even be nice to have images in the results on the right.)

\- Now sure about the search bar across the top. I'm assuming eventually I'll
be able to shop for other items and this is a placeholder for when it is
complete?

Would I recommend it to a friend? As it is today, I'm not sure. I don't
immediately see any value here. Sure the site is pretty quick. But I think the
way online commerce has come along in the past decade, you're going to have to
bring a lot more to the party than just a fast web page. Not to mention that
people go to different websites for very specific buying experiences. (Newegg
handles laptop buying very differently than BestBuy...even though they both
have similar gear.) Unless you're going to specialize on just one product or a
VERY specific type of individual, I think it'll be hard for you to compete
with that. I'm curious if anyone has said this to you yet, or if this is
something you've considered.

~~~
revorad
Mike, thanks a lot for the detailed feedback.

Minifying and caching stuff is on my checklist. I purposely put the site to
test in its unoptimised state to see how it performs and get some numbers
based on my current hardware configuration.

The next update makes it easier to browse laptops, so you won't have to scroll
much or at all.

You're right about the search bar on the top. I intend this to be a general
shopping site, and will add other product categories sooner than later.

It's interesting to know that you don't see any value. I'd spell out the value
proposition, but I'd rather people recognise it on their own.

Specialising along some vector is probably going to be crucial to get traction
initially. In addition to product category and customer profile, I have couple
of other options in mind. I'll choose one or two of them.

Can you say what you think are the specific buying experiences people go to
Newegg and Bestbuy for? Any other examples would also be useful.

Once again, thanks a lot.

~~~
mikegreenberg
I want to clarify my statement about not seeing value. I'm talking
specifically about ME, as a technically savvy individual, not getting value
out of this. Typically, I'm already aware of the technical landscape of
laptops, specifically. And if I'm making a big purchase in an industry/market
I'm not already familiar with, I prefer to do my research manually and make a
personally well-informed decision. More about my process is found here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2771521>

This may still be valuable to another individual with different research
habits and time limitations.

Regarding buying experiences at different websites... I think each website
attracts a specific type of buyer. Newegg has a very technical audience, and
as a result, you're able to refine purchases by VERY specific features and
specifications. People who purchase at BestBuy are looking for convenience.
You'll notice their buying flow is focused more on that (by offering in-store
pickup for free, for instance).

Another example might be Zappos...who has a customer base which really
appreciates how they offer a worry-free shoe buying experience. They offer as
much media as possible at point of sale, but more importantly, the user is
reassured at each step of the process that if they don't like something,
returns are easy and free.

Each retailer specializes on specific parts of the market and for you to be
successful, you need to identify what type of buyer you are trying to attract.
And (most importantly) IF that type of buyer operates the same way across
different types of products/verticals.

------
adriand
Hey Mike, thanks for the offer. I want to start selling more consulting
services in addition to web development services at my company. I wrote a
draft that describes those services today and I would love to have you review
my draft and tell me how you would change it. This ought to take less than 10
minutes. If you're in, email me at adrianduyzer [at] gmail.

~~~
chexton
I would love to know the approach you are going to take for expanding to
include consulting and the specific things you plan on targeting to consult
on...I am also a web developer and have considered expanding to do the same
but am not sure where to begin :)!

------
chetane07
Hi Mike, thank you for taking time to answer. I made a website
(<http://www.letschattr.com>) which lets Facebook users anonymously chat with
other random users wanting to connect. My question is how do I go about
launching such a website, where I need a minimum amount of people
simultaneously on it to work?

~~~
mikegreenberg
These sorts of sites are hard, because you really need to have a steady flow
of traffic to make them interesting for anyone. These sites will typically
have a way to ping their users when there's something interesting on the site
instead of requiring them to sit around and wait.

Also, you'll have to work really hard to make sure the site attracts people
stay as long as possible... maybe with some game element involved.

Maybe when the site is dead, users can be contacted and meetings arranged out-
of-band. Or arrangement specific times when users can come to the site for a
specific reason or event. I'm really not sure. :(

------
oppositionradio
Can you share a few thoughts about trends that are coming macro or micro which
we all should be watching both for disruption and opportunity? Within tech,
broader socio-economic changes, global changes etc? To help us better "future
proof" ourselves and our passions.

~~~
mikegreenberg
I am personally interested in online identity and something I've been watching
very closely for the last few years. I think the opportunities here are going
to be the next "thing" this decade...such that I've started developing some
ideas I've had.

(I also think currency and government are seeing huge change right now as
well. I'm most hopeful about the potential change here.)

------
civilian
Could you do a code review of ~140 lines of python code? civilianjones <at>
gmail.com (I've already submitted the code as part of a technical interview--
but if there are any mistakes or tough questions, I'd like to be ready to talk
about them.)

~~~
jasonwiener
i'm not mike (obviously). but if you'd like eyes on the source still, i'd be
happy to help.

~~~
civilian
Cool. shoot me an email!

------
Macshot
Could you tell us what you think about the concept behind NoBadGift.com
(kickstarter for gifts and events) and flaws you can see in our approach. Also
any suggestions for our home page to draw in users. Thanks a lot

~~~
mikegreenberg
Sure. Before the thoughts. Consider skimming through this book. It has a lot
of helpful thoughts and practices when dealing with web design and layout.
<http://designingfortheweb.co.uk/book/>

\- I'm going to disregard your overall design on the site. I'll just say it
could use the help of a professional designer rather than go down a laundry
list. It's not HORRIBLE, but a lot could be done here to improve readability
and visual navigation on the homepage. Consider it seriously before any large-
scale launch.

\- HOLY RUN-ON SENTENCES! Try to craft more succinct sentences. Get the the
point so I can understand it and move on. Your front page suffers from this as
well. Don't make me guess what you're doing, sending me through tours and
about pages is sure to lose conversions. Never underestimate the power of
copy.

\- Feature a screenshot or a walk-through of your service in SIMPLE steps on
your homepage. People need to get it in 5-6 seconds, or you've already lost.

\- I think the videos are a good idea, but you have them buried in the footer
of your page. WHY?! Maybe you thought that was where they made the most sense,
but don't position them as tutorial videos. They are advertisements. Dub some
music/voiceover on it and use it (appropriately) on the home page "below the
fold".

\- There's no reason why all of your "How it works" couldn't just be on the
homepage. Use a slider or a fun interaction to invite users to switch between
"Gifter" and "Giftee" steps.

\- Get rid of the huge login box. Or at least make it smaller. You could use
that real estate for something better.

~~~
Macshot
Mike thank you for the advice. we really appreciate it. I guess as a
developers these are things we just didn't have the "eyes" for. You have been
a huge help

------
jawns
Hi Mike,

Would you mind giving a shout-out to Correlated (<http://www.correlated.org>)
on your social networks?

~~~
mikegreenberg
I don't do promotions but I will offer some criticism if you'll have it. I
think your project is interesting (from an implementation perspective), but I
think you need to find a more interesting way of collecting your data. (I
don't see myself visiting yourself to see one stat and answer one question
once a day.) If you found some way of offering more immediate gratification
for its use or be able to respond more directly to the user when they provide
some resource or data, then I might be more compelled to participate in a
novel/curiousity-satisfying capacity.

------
consultutah
Could you suggest some ways to improve the first impression of
<http://testplanmanagement.com>?

~~~
mikegreenberg
Ways to improve on first impression...

\- Screenshots are good. But I'm not really sure what I'm looking at. You're
only cycling through two shots here, so maybe sit them side by side (or
stagger them) with bullets which identify specific ways this interface makes
Test Plan Management easier. (Ideally, your "Features" page would be covered
here.) Take some time going around and checking out other people's landing
pages. Read case studies. Take notes.

\- Your primary call-to-action should be sign ups. Make that button the only
thing the user sees when they land. Give them NO other distractions other than
going toward the action you want them to take. The tour button should be a
less visible link. If the user wants more information, they can scroll down to
get your Pricing, Contact, etc. The only exception to this might be your
login.

\- I think your pricing page is a little complicated. The only metric which
changes from plan to plan is the number of users. Eliminate this WHOLE THING.
Here's how your flow should work: Signup starts a personal account. They can
add users if they want and make sure they are aware of the price for the
number of users they want. If they add more than 5 plans, then tell them you
have to charge at this point. Trial plans, different tiers, etc ALL confuse
the user and don't help your conversions at all.

\- As mentioned, the name could use work. It doesn't have to be flashy. But it
SHOULD be memorable.

~~~
consultutah
Thank you so much Mike! I'll dig into your suggestions!

------
brianbreslin
Awesome. Was just talking to mike about this last night over beers.

~~~
mikegreenberg
He was literally hovering over them the entire time holding his glass of water
just so he could make this claim. ;)

------
pitdesi
Mike - this is really awesome of you to do. Current need: We're launching a
payment gateway, called Samurai (<http://feefighters.com/samurai>) next week.
Unlike other gateways (Authorize.net, Braintree, Cybersource, etc) is that
it's modern (not clunky), super developer friendly, and cheap. Also other
things, like you can route payments intelligently and it'll emulate other
gateways. We have over 40 users in the beta- it is doing thousands of
transactions per day successfully, and our beta customers love it.

We want to make the launch a success but don't have much planned other than an
HN post. Ideas? (I'll drop you a line with a beta invite so you can see it
too... anyone else who wants one can drop me a line to move up but please fill
out this form beforehand
[https://docs.google.com/a/transfs.com/spreadsheet/viewform?f...](https://docs.google.com/a/transfs.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFJNMEE1enhlVDYtX2l0eUxCLVc1N1E6MQ))

We could use your help in thinking about how to gain customer traction... Any
tips/thoughts you have would be useful and much appreciated.

~~~
mikegreenberg
Off the top of my head, here's an idea: Hopefully, you're involved in your
industry's various online communities. Offer them an opportunity to try your
gateway with waived/reduced fees for some time in return for using them as a
case study. You potentially gain a customer, get free advertising (via their
word of mouth), and extra fodder to throw around during your launch. They get
reduced rates, personal help with getting your software integrated and
potentially have a better experience handling transactions (right?).

Alternatively, you could pull some stunts. I'm sure you're familiar with
WePay's shenanigans. I think your FeeFighter's culture would do well with this
sort of promotion. Think of something clever. (I've got nothing right now.)

Launching a product like this is tough. You have to literally be in the right
place at the right time. I'm certain you've prepared for this. I got your
email and will kick the tires over the weekend. If you don't hear from me,
reminders are welcome.

------
gdhillon
Hi Mike, Could you please provide some feedback on our landing page
(<http://www.diglig.com>). Mainly looking for advise on does our landing page
explains the idea and what are your thoughts on the UI design look/fell. What
would you suggest on improving it.

Thanks,

~~~
mikegreenberg
After reading more carefully you're some sort of recommendation/search engine.
You take gobs of information about me and find the appropriate resources I
need for the task I'm trying to accomplish. You don't make this immediately
obvious... but I'm not certain how you might do this without more knowledge
about how your product will work. I think the main thing is you need to offer
a clearer value proposition. You help me do things, but how are you improving
that process from the way I do it today?

Regarding optimization of your landing page, you probably should be spending
more time working on the product. The formula for a good landing page is never
entirely clear, but as long as you have your basic value-proposition you will
attract good potential users. After you have your value prop identified and
stated, optimization becomes an exercise in representing it in ways that
appeal to the greatest number of people.

The feel of the site is slightly better than average. It's not bad, but the
person who designed it either didn't spend much time on it or didn't
understand good design principles (or both). But for a landing page (which is
temporary), I think this is more than sufficient. If you have the resources to
throw away (I'd first ask, why do you have resources to throw away?), then go
ahead and do more with this site. But you really should be focusing on getting
that product shipped.

------
diolpah
Thank you for offering this valuable service. I was quite surprised to see
this.

Do you have any suggestions for improving the customer experience on
<http://www.ties.com/> ?

~~~
mikegreenberg
I'm happy to help. Understanding your customer "experience" is going to be a
bit of undertaking for a larger site like this, but I'll try to give some
pointers based on the surface experiences that most users will likely come
into contact.

First, not sure if this is your site, but the domain and layout and everything
is excellent! This site has clearly been around the block. (Evidence in the
copyright notice.)

...

Seriously, I played around with the site for a solid 2 minutes and haven't
found anything jarringly wrong! I'd be willing to go out on a limb and say
this site is on par with the likes of Amazon in regards to site's
organization, intuitiveness, and consistency.

I'm happy to take a little more time with this over the weekend to really dig.
I'd hate to have you walk away empty handed.

~~~
diolpah
Thank you for your comments. If/when you do find more, I look forward to
hearing it.

~~~
mikegreenberg
Alright. At this point, your infrastructure and business model are probably
pretty solid. I'd say the next thing you should really focus on is growing
your LCV (lifetime customer value). Here are some ideas on how to do that:

\- Recommendation engine. Something that suggests ways for users to spend more
money on your site on a more regular basis. Netflix and Amazon do this by
developing an algorithm which tracks their purchases and makes strong
recommendations for the future. You could go further and let user's recommend
ties to each other. The incentive for this might be some kickback on the sale
or that they are ranked as being "More Dapper" than the next guy. (Not sure if
guys would be into this, but ladies certainly might.)

\- You have a "Make your own tie" solution. Why not model this a little more
off "Threadless.com" and let users design their own ties for public sale.
Users submit designs and only the most popular ones get made en masse and
offered to the public. They get a kickback whenever their design is chosen.

\- Invite more participation from users but having them cleverly modeling
their ties for use on the site. GIve them a buck or two for any modeling
picture they send in. (Again, similar to Threadless.)

\- Neckties have a novel appeal that let users really express themselves.
Manpacks uses a subscription model that users buy so they don't have to think
about their next purchase. If they don't like it, they can send it back free
of charge? Also, let user's organize their own personal sense of style on the
site by recommending "Tie Packs" which can be themed or for specific purposes.
(Men are lazy and would probably buy a batch of ties rather than picking out
their own.)

\- Start refining your retention programs. Send INTERESTING emails to your
users with promotions and discounts. Test some unique campaigns across the
internet. Do some unique online events which get people talking about your
brand and website. (Think Old Spice here.)

Hope of these ideas help.

------
Hisoka
Do you think almost everything about modern society is unfit for humans?
(granted, we have medicine, and other benefits, I know)

Examples: 1) The stuff we eat isn't meant for us to digest (junk food, fast
food).

2) Food was scarce in caveman days so overeating wasn't detrimental. Now food
is abundant, and more tempting, so it leads to obesity

3) We don't need to hunt for our food, and sit for 8 hours a day.

4) We live in crammed cities, everyone is a stranger, and everything seems
impersonal. Back then we lived in a tribe, or close community and everyone
depended on each other for survival.

5) Temptations are all around us, from sex to alcohol, drugs, food, etc, which
puts a strain on our willpower. In the past, such temptations weren't present,
so the dopamine rush we get from having sex, or eating food just allowed us to
survive. Now, it leads to cheating on partners, overeating, etc.

Your views?

UPDATE: Not sure why I'm being downvoted. I'm not being intentionally
negative, or anything. He asked if anyone wanted help, and I need arguably the
MOST help out of all the people asking questions. I'm pretty depressed about
the state of the world and want to know what I can do to change that.

~~~
civilian
So your first question was a leading question, and it was different than your
(much more interesting) second question of "How do I help the world?"

There's been an idea bouncing around HN that writing software can be a
service. I can't find the post, but there have been stories of everyday
businesses wasting gobs of time doing things that software could be written
for. (Really dumb things like: Having a secretary spend 3hours/day printing
out plumbing contracts.) These things save people time and reduce boredom.

Also, I agree that we eat too many unhealthy things, but I think you might be
taking it too far. This TED talk is good:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/heribert_watzke_the_brain_in_your_g...](http://www.ted.com/talks/heribert_watzke_the_brain_in_your_gut.html)
It makes the claim that we aren't omnivores, we're cook-ivores. (We eat cooked
food.)

I really agree with #4. It's why I go to Burning Man-- to live in a tribal
setting, if only for a week.

