Thanks! It can be a little disappointing not making a big splash but I just hope that little post helps others in similar situations remember to keep the longer view.
I can almost 100% guarantee you that having an automatic slider killed a lot of upvotes for you. I'm not trying to be a dick, I've actually seen this over an over, and I experience it as a user - if I see a Show HN, I'm upvoting unless I have a reason not to. I despite automatic sliders, and yours is particularly egregious. Long term, it's a tiny mistake in what seems to be an otherwise interesting project, so I'd do a way with it immediately to avoid the distraction.
Upside really is, hey! Feedback! That's what HN is good for, not finding users!
Truly and honestly, if you don't have a product that is perfect for the HN crowd as a niche, it's still important to get on the front page if you can take feedback well. It's the best you'll ever get, it actually may make or break your business. If you don't get it here, get it elsewhere and fast.
I completely agree. There is a paragraph of text that you can't even read because it moves to the next slide too quickly. Since I couldn't read it, I stopped trying and left the site.
In addition to removing the slider, it also could help to find a way to quickly sum up the benefits of the site using a very short sentence instead of a paragraph.
Not only that, but there's plenty of data showing that sliders are horrible for conversion. I guess could I pull better sources, but here is one with a bunch of links I found with a bit of light searching:
...which is strange since sliders are among the most popular premium plugins for WordPress. In fact, many of then earn six-figures on ThemeForest alone.
I think it's a pretty neat idea! Might have to get a few friends tomorrow and try it out.
One minor suggestion - when I went to the homepage using Firefox, I was a little confused how to get to the actual functionality. From a cognitive standpoint in the age of the internet, it's 'a lot' of work to scan through the list of supported platforms, realize your current platform isn't in that list, and guess that there's only a way to get to the real functionality if you switch to one of the platforms on the list.
Potentially, depends how it would look visually I guess. You could just display a little message saying the platform isn't supported yet and linking to the FAQ perhaps.
I am interested what happens when you don't initially make it to the front page, but then your postmortem does, and it links you to your original project. What is the conversion % of people who then check it out?
I'm even more interested in the conversion rate for the front page HN generated visitor boom, and actual long term gain. But that might be too hard to measure.
I myself always visit the sites but I cannot remember I have been using one for longer than a day.
Aside from just having a good article/project, it takes good timing, good luck, and sometimes some good upvotes from friends to make the front page. I've had a few things which I was sure would take off not make the front page, including a combined ruby and rails security vulnerability, as well as a project with plenty of publicity and 50,000+ views on XDA.
Your landing page is not the thing. And you get the right feedback to tell you that: no votes. So why complain about it instead of working on it? You seem to have spent a lot of time on your tool. Landing page is were you have to work on now!
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[ 0.86 ms ] story [ 102 ms ] threadbtw: You summed it up pretty nice in your blog post!
Truly and honestly, if you don't have a product that is perfect for the HN crowd as a niche, it's still important to get on the front page if you can take feedback well. It's the best you'll ever get, it actually may make or break your business. If you don't get it here, get it elsewhere and fast.
In addition to removing the slider, it also could help to find a way to quickly sum up the benefits of the site using a very short sentence instead of a paragraph.
http://conversionxl.com/dont-use-automatic-image-sliders-or-....
My 1st two start-ups made the front-page.
My current and I think best yet hasn't had the same good fortune.
good luck to you!
Our web app turns a crowd & their devices into a huge stereo system; all devices play same audio in sync.
http://SpeakerBlast.com
We think it's cool, but maybe people don't see it being useful? We use it at home to fill our house with audio.
One minor suggestion - when I went to the homepage using Firefox, I was a little confused how to get to the actual functionality. From a cognitive standpoint in the age of the internet, it's 'a lot' of work to scan through the list of supported platforms, realize your current platform isn't in that list, and guess that there's only a way to get to the real functionality if you switch to one of the platforms on the list.
Hmmm so do you think we should use images of the supported platforms/browsers instead of all that heavy text?
I myself always visit the sites but I cannot remember I have been using one for longer than a day.