

Ask HN:  Feedback Please - TapInko.com - keltecp11
http://www.tapinko.com

======
nikron
It says I can't see go to the webpage because I'm not using a supported
browser. I'm using Firefox 3 on linux. However, I can see the webpage if
javascript is off, but not much is there.

~~~
keltecp11
We will enhance the site as we continue to move forward, thank you for
pointing this out.

~~~
johns
If you get errors reported like this to your customer support, try answering
with a more personable response. The way you phrased this comes off as
dismissive and doesn't specifically address the issue reported.

~~~
patio11
Would you have preferred "You use a niche browser on a niche operating system
which our analytics indicates less than 1 out of 10,000 visitors use,
accordingly, we're spending our engineering resources elsewhere and I would
not expect resolution of this anytime soon. Toodles"?

~~~
johns
Actually, yes. That's way more personable and less canned. I also said, "if
you get emails _like_ this" meaning similar in nature, not necessarily subject
matter.

------
halo
Nice idea. Reasonable implementation. Ugly design.

Poor colour choices, inconsistent fonts and poor and inconsistent layout
decisions preclude it from looking professional. It all feels a bit 90s and
clunky, frankly, and would put me off using your site.

Grey buttons in the top-right look incredibly tacky and don't match the rest
of the site. The entire black-to-grey gradient strikes me as a bad idea,
especially as white-on-black text isn't something business websites generally
do. Navigation and how people use the site is generally poorly thought out
(although the map is decent enough), and relies too much on clunky search
functionality with poor usability, especially when you have so little content.
The use of overflow: auto for the results instead of letting it go down the
page is a poor design decision and that, combined with the "register" popup,
reminds me of a spam site rather than a legitimate company. I'd have a serious
rethink about most aspects of the design, with a combination of looks and
usability in mind.

As others have commented, using browser sniffing to block access to your site
is extremely bad form, not least for the simple reason that you'll never be
able to keep up with browser variations and end up with annoyed users. I
remember the problems it caused 10 years ago with the browser wars. Get rid of
it, support the 5 major browsers and assume that everything else is out of
your hands.

When you visit the site, you've got a lot of space going "Advertising made
easy", "The advertising marketplace" and even "Register Today!" text, but what
you really need is a box summarising exactly what your service actually does
rather than using vague slogans. The fact I had to click through to understand
fully the purpose of the site is a bad sign.

------
ckinnan
I've bought a lot of advertising over the years and would use a site like
this.

Homepage has too much nagging to register without a clear value proposition or
explanation of the site's purpose. It isn't clear what the service is from the
overly broad homepage taglines: "Advertising Made Easy" and "The Advertising
Marketplace". (The domain name doesn't convey either but it is brandable). I'd
tighten that tagline into something more specific and compelling.

You might want to start by focusing on a specific geographic market (i.e.
Philly) or vertical (i.e. political ads) or type of advertising (i.e. print)
or even just college papers and expand from there. (I bet a lot of consumer
product companies would advertise in college papers if it was easier to do)
Newspaper or radio remainders would be good now that Google is exiting.

The calenders don't work in FF 3. Also, white text on a black background is
tough to read and is unprofessional to me. The FAQ page javascript is an
annoying and unneeded interface.

Happy hunting and let us know how it goes!

~~~
keltecp11
Thanks, your feedback was great. Please check back when you need to place/sell
ad space and let me know if you have any further questions, comments, or
concerns.

------
brianlash
This is a really timely product given the recent discontinuation of Google
Print Ads system. Nice effort.

My only recommendation: I'd like to see what the My Inko control panel will
look like before I decide to sign up for an account.

~~~
keltecp11
Sure... We built MyInko to be extremely easy and intuitive... my suggestion is
to create an account and go ahead and click on MyInko... there is a video you
can watch in the very bottom of the Inventory screen... but the other tabs are
equally as easy to navigate. Thanks again.

------
GavinB
I was a little confused when I first arrived on your site. All of the
different words and taglines danced around what it is you really do. It says
"Advertise Here," "Advertising Made Easy," "The Advertising Marketplace," etc.
The big map could have been from any number of businesses.

Since this is the internet and advertising is everywhere, seeing the words
"advertisement" don't really tell me anything. Is it online? Print?
Billboards? Your home page doesn't say.

You need to make it extremely clear what you're selling and to whom--something
like "Buy Real-world ads online."

~~~
keltecp11
Do you like the saying: "Advertising Off-line"?

~~~
GavinB
You might combine that with your current tagline to make this: "Offline Ads
Made Easy." You still need to imply that you're letting people buy something
or making the buying process simpler.

If you settle on a tagline you might think about using some imagery that
represents what you do -- college newspapers, billboards, restaurant menus,
etc.

A picture may not be worth a thousand words but it can usually replace a
paragraph . . .

~~~
keltecp11
Thanks Gavin... great advice.

------
natch
Holy crap, that is an excellent idea.

Poking around a bit, my only suggestion so far is to make the text font size
bigger on some of the text-heavy pages (FAQ) and make the line lengths
shorter. Lines of text should be around 65 characters long.

~~~
keltecp11
Thanks Natch, let me know if you would like to watch one of our interactive
product demos

------
bemmu
If I wanted to advertise in the US, I would probably use this to get ideas on
what kind of ad spaces are available and what their ceiling prices are. Then I
would call them and try to negotiate. In my limited magazine advertising
experiences I've found that list prices can be a multiple of what you'll get
after a bit of haggling.

~~~
keltecp11
It is no secret in the industry that the prices listed are NOT the prices
agreed upon.

We have taken this into consideration and you can use the messaging tools of
TapInko to 'haggle'. Have a look, let me know your thoughts.

The goal really was to keep it easy.

------
ryanspahn
<http://browsershots.org/> may prove helpful to see how others using all the
various web browsers are viewing Tapinko.

~~~
keltecp11
Great site Ryan... thanks.

------
pedalpete
You've done a good job with simple layout on the main page, but I had no idea
what you were all about when I first hit the page. Your titles say
"advertising marketplace" and "advertising made easy". I suspect that most
people visiting a website are accustomed to think online advertising. But you
are focused on print. So why don't you actually say 'print' advertising
anywhere on the main page.

That is my biggest complaint. I have no idea what this is all about unless I
dig deeper (which most people won't do).

~~~
almost
I had the same experience. The first page you see doesn't explain what it's
all about except to say advertising and to show a map of the US. From that I
immediately think it's about geo targeted online ads.

------
huhtenberg
You may want to photoshop the foot of 4th dude out:

<http://www.tapinko.com/images/thedudes.jpg>

:)

~~~
keltecp11
Good eye...

------
ecommercematt
Good concept, and an impressive, if glitchy implementation. When I switched
tabs in my browser and came back later, it reloaded the home page, rather than
displaying where I left off.

Also, you misspelled "Worcester" in the description of "The Towers" at
Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

------
latortuga
"Select a state or search below to advertise:" Where do I select a state?
Typing NE in the giant search box didn't yield Nebraska search results,
however I then spotted the state drop down (not on the home page!)

"Search returned 1 results:" takes up a TON of screen real estate relative to
the total area allocated for search results. Using the back button breaks
search results filtering (at least state-based) - look at how Mint elegantly
handles this use case.

Something about the spacing or presentation of the search results is
irritating to me but I can't put my finger on what. The resulting pricing
pages, by contrast, are quite nice and present the information in a coherent
way.

------
bbuffone
The UI is kindof cramped.

When I see the screen there isn't any statement containing information about
the site. I see the info in the browser's title but not on the page.

The page doesn't fit in a 1024x786 monitor. Site gets an F(37) in yslow (too
many files). Not a big fan of inner scrollbars when clicking on a state, it
would be better to utilize the browser window's scrollbars. No easy way to go
back to the map unless I click home again.

The login bar clutters up the screen. Might be better as a popup dialog.

~~~
keltecp11
Thanks for the feedback... this is great advice.

------
samueladam
FireFox on Debian (IceWeasel) is not recognized as FF3 and I'm being asked to
upgrade.

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008122010
Iceweasel/3.0.6 (Debian-3.0.6-1)

~~~
keltecp11
Sorry, we will open up the platform soon. Bug checking and time have limited
the site for right now, but thank you for pointing these out.

~~~
blhack
If some of us using an older browser is going to break stuff serverside then I
think you've probably got some _major_ issues to work through.

Howabout a "No, thanks. I'll risk it. LEMME IN!" button?

------
auston
Your UI needs a little work.

The results to be specific, they don't tell me much without reading for more
than 10 seconds, try showing ad rates, available slots, etc.

~~~
keltecp11
So give a little break down in each search window.... but do you think a more
interactive and sophisticated search would help here? I was thinking of
allowing users to target specific outlets based on the markets they desire to
capture.

------
spoiledtechie
Awesome Idea.

~~~
keltecp11
Thanks. Interested in trying it out? I think you might see us help your
drinkingfor.com venture.

------
shizcakes
Being asked to upgrade from FF3 B4 Pre. Fail.

------
dexen
I wish I could access the site with Konqueror. But it redirects the browser
forcibly to `please upgrade your browser to' page.

You could at least give some way to ACK the message and go ahead anyway,
without fiddling with user agent settings.

------
jimboyoungblood
Good idea, but the site is a bit busted. The registration lightbox wasn't
dismissed after I signed up.

It would be nice to be able to easily compare the rate cards of different
publications.

~~~
keltecp11
Hmmm thanks Jim... it's definitely supposed to close after you register.

------
mattmaroon
Not sure what the name means. Kinda odd.

I looked in my area (Ohio) and you seem to have multiple listings for the same
person. The college newspapers and other local rags are a great idea.

~~~
keltecp11
Hey Matt, those different listings are the same person but different
advertising opportunities and outlets. The next version of the product will
join all the opportunities under individual accounts.

Thanks,

-Pete

~~~
mattmaroon
Ah, that would be helpful.

------
DTrejo
When I search something it says "Want to sell through the TapInko network?
Click here."

Since the words are already a blue hyperlink, you can probably leave off
"Click here."

------
zavulon
I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.7, which I don't want to upgrade. So I'm just going to
join the others in "Please add the 'Try anyway'" link

------
DTrejo
When I click on "sign in" it does not auto-focus me to the username box.

------
cool-RR
Screencast not working for me (Firefox 3.0.8)

------
kbrower
post a username and password so we don't have to sign up?

------
keltecp11
TapInko is the online Market Place for Traditional Media, we were a DreamIt
Ventures company last summer and have spent a considerable amount of time
understanding the 'offline' advertising world. Though this is the first
version of the product, we have many features in the works. I will be giving
an online WebEx tutorial this Friday at 3:00 pm (est) and invite anyone to
watch. If you are interested please shoot me a message.

Thanks,

\- Pete Groverman - Pgroverman@tapinko.com

Some things about the venture:

1) We have an executed agreement with The Greater Media Group of Freehold NJ,
they have begun creating profiles for their different outlets

2) We are based out of Philadelphia

3) Our goal is to make advertising...easy

4) Buyers of Adspace can use their same account to also become Sellers of
Adspace (ie. a restaurant desires to place an advertisement but also sell
advertisements in their menus)

5) How We Differentiate from Google Print Ads:
<http://www.phillypreneurs.com/2009/02/david_vs_gooliath/>

6) If you have a publication or outlet that you would like to sell advertising
on (even as a sticker on the back of your computer) please feel free to make a
profile.

7) Business Model: No setup costs, no annual subscription fees, we charge only
7% per completed transaction to the seller. This charge includes all banking
fees and credit card costs.

------
keltecp11
If you have any interest in being part of a startup and like the concept, we
would love to hear from you as well... definitely trying to build out the team
and find some 'A' players.

Thanks,

-Pete

