Ask HN: Rate my Startup

10 points by misterhaywood ↗ HN
WeatherLoop° - Receive Weather Texts Everyday (Please provide feedback)

http://weatherloop.com

22 comments

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I found it odd that I needed you to provide me with a link that I expected from the OP.
Ha! I tried when I created the post to no avail. Both he and I created a link at the same time, so I deleted mine.
You can't have a link inside the description of a post. So, I just provided it as a way of helping people get to the page quicker. That's all.
What do you tell people with a bookmark for a weather forecast site in their mobile browser when they ask you why they should use your service instead?
limmeau, great point. This is a push service, requiring little to no effort from a customer after signup. "Set it and Forget it" :-)
Perhaps for people with simple feature phones and little techno-affinity?
It's nice that you accept Canadian postal codes, but you might want to give us the weather in Celcius :)

That said, "bring a coat" is more common advice than "bring an umbrella" so I might switch from http://umbrellatoday.com

Thanks. I'm working on logic to display F/C based on country.
Don't forget about users from other countries who prefer F over C.
Thanks singer. I just added that code to WeatherLoop°
Just finished adding that code. Thanks ultrasaurus for pointing that out.
I think that you should do by default like http://geoipweather.com , and optionally ask for another ZIP and timezone, for a start. Then why would you limit yourself to US and Canada? Weather.com works worldwide. Third, don't nag me : you don't need any info other than an email, and there is exactly 0% chance I give my phone number to some random website. More info, more hassle, less signup.
waazoox, thanks for your feedback. I will definitely look into geolocation. Please forgive, I'm confused by your third point. If there a way to send a text to a mobile phone without a phone number?
Damn you're right, silly me :)
It is an interesting idea.

That being said, I feel like you can't charge people for what you provide. I think it is too much of a limiting factor for the user. Personally, my mind turned off after I looked at pricing. I checked the rest of the site but it was over once I knew you were charging me.

People expect a service like this to be free. It's Chacha vs. KGB, only you don't have the millions that KGB spends on marketing.

That's just my opinion as a member of the freemium or steal-me-sum generation.

This post is about how non-subscription services make money:http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1716778. I hope it helps.

Cheers!

Where does your weather data come from?
I'm conducting AB testing on my weather sources, when I decide on one, I will leave a reply here.
I was just curious. From my experience writing weather apps, I know there are very few sources that will allow you to sell their data without some kind of written agreement.
I can supply you with the current conditions, daily forecast, hourly forecast, and severe alerts (US only) for nearly any city in the world for $0.02 per API call. I have access to more weather stations than any single source in the world. I can return the data to you using the conversion and format of your preference. If interested, you can find my email in my profile.