I am a fan, but your recent rash of "sites" is worrisome. You launched: HipHopGoblin (<1 year, down), CustomerFind (1< year ago), NYC-Chicago-Bus (49 days ago), EndAnts (23 days ag), CompassionPit (5 days ago!) and now this, AwesomenessReminders.
When do you even have time to improve, even promote, projects if you're tossing them on a weekly basis? It takes time to make anything monetizable, at least you need to create it first.
I think you're just an small sample of a generation of people who are coming to see businesses as just "idea + landing page". Sell, then build. A/B test today and build when the money piles up. etc. etc.
Slow down, for your own sake. Maybe even work on something you actually care about.
HipHopGoblin had a lot of potential, I used to listen to it; so you're at least capable of discovering and executing good ideas. You just need patience, and maybe someone to ask you "how's it coming?". Perhaps .. ProgressReminder?
I wonder why this has gotten 28 points. WHY should he slow down? I have done many many things myself and some have become very profitable.
From my experience, the fastest route to success is to do what you like. If this guy likes to start a new startup every week then he should go for it. If someone likes to do one thing for 50 years he should go for that. Neither of them would be wrong.
Starting and testing new ideas on a regular basis is all well and good until the quality starts to suffer. CompassionPit looked much better and the concept sounded less like it was conceived by the Onion
I know a few people who have made significant amounts of money online, and the "throw lots of things at the wall and see what sticks" definitely works.
maybe he is creating a bunch of sites in the hope that one of them goes viral? such a strategy may have merit. it's very much hit or miss. but if he keeps trying he may have a hit eventually.
There's surely a market, that point I do get, (how big I guess we'll find out) but sometimes I don't get this kind of allocation of resources. Just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you should.
Anyway to the point: the site is awful. Bright yellow background? It's too simplistic (too 90s) and it just seems like a "scammy" site--which ironically (by some's standards, anyway) it might as well be.
You could pay someone to remind someone you care about. Like, if you were going on a long journey or travelling, or lived in a different time zone from someone special to you.
Or you could send an email. Wouldn't it be worth more if you reminded them rather than a hired stranger reminding them, even if you can't remind them every day or every month?
I love this idea, I want to do it. However, the biggest thing missing that I see here is the ability to a) tell you what timezone I'm in and what (approximate) time(s) I'd prefer the call to be made at; and b) leave a short note with additional information that will help you make the call.
For example I would consider getting this for my business partner because I think it would make him laugh, but I would want to tell you to call around 9:30 am EST and explain that he's my business partner and that if he asks why the heck you're calling him, to just say that his employees think he's super.
So, I'd be happy to buy this (for a family member), but I can't tell when you'll call, and I can't tell how I get it to stop once I do buy it. Every day for a month is gonna be a bit much; by the end of it, they might be willing to pay to stop it.
Also, some kind of sample recording would be great. Is it gonna be cheezy? Cheeky? I'd like to know.
I'm not sure that I get it. Isn't this a bit shallow? Surely it takes some of the joy out of being told that you're awesome if you have to pay people to tell you that you're awesome? A bit like paying people to be your friend?
Eh, no offense intended -- I was being short and direct, not getting personal.
But, this is one of those quirks of "geekish" conversation that can really, really irritate non-geeks (or, geeks like me that aren't in geek-mode): someone mentions a personal issue, and the geek -- who has probably at some point tried every non-obvious solution to some problem only to discover that it was the obvious solution that worked -- asks the person if they've considered the obvious.
The problem is that this often doesn't translate well to non-technical matters. By asking why I don't just call them and say the same thing myself, you're implying that it's the obvious solution that I haven't considered, or that you have some unique insight into a personal situation, even though you have zero information about it.
That didn't offend me, but it is something that can bother people sometimes. This time I just chose the most direct method of letting you know that you didn't know enough to even ask such a question. I didn't have the time nor inclination yesterday to write anything longer, but I didn't want to leave your question unanswered since so many people seemed to think it was legitimate.
Thanks for your geeky response - upvoted with a smile.
>you're implying that it's the obvious solution that I haven't considered
I didn't mean to imply this. I was (and remain) genuinely curious as to why you think hiring someone to tell a family member they're awesome would be more effective than simply calling them up and telling them yourself.
I took your reply as rude because you had introduced a personal issue on a public forum but didn't define your boundaries of what aspects you were willing to discuss publicly; and when I inadvertently crossed one such boundary you cut the line of questioning off abruptly rather than offering an explanation.
Again, thanks for clarifying where you were coming from.
Someone in "non-geek mode" would just explain the situation, rather than go to all the trouble of typing in an elaborate explanation of geek vs. non-geek culture (and still not explain anything).
Hmmm. The best citation you can come up with for your claim on your about page that "Getting positive social feedback, via a daily reminder call, is instrumental to progress." is a book on personal development by Steve Pavlina?
My understanding is unwarranted ego-boosting can actually be harmful. But that does not mean people won't use the service.
Positive social feedback is super useful in achieving goals.
Also, I totally agree that it's key to have a balanced and accurate sense of self. But the vast majority of people are affected by social feedback. c.f. this study at Wake forest University http://psp.sagepub.com/content/29/5/623.abstract.
Positive social feedback is useful, but I think that I would take issue with the definition of social here. Social means genuinely social, not a paid reproduction of social. I would think that people who would genuinely enjoy this service may have some self-image and narcissism issues which would be better served by spending the money addressing those.
This is the same kind of awesome as claiming to be an amazing Casanova due to having slept with many prostitutes. It's not always about the action, but the intention.
I think this is more interesting as a one time thing. Sort of like a slightly more modern singing telegram. I just can't imagine enjoying getting that call every day.
"You're good enough, you're smart enough, and, gosh darn it, people like you."
I actually like the overall idea but the general site layout needs a lot of work. Here's a few quick things that came to mind for me -
1) I would not trust your site with my phone number in its current state. Consider emphasizing the fact that phone numbers will only be used for the sake of these calls and not resold (way too many of those ringtone sites resell phone numbers and consumers are now wary of any similar looking services).
2) consider adding some sample calls for people to listen to, I think this may boost your conversion rate.
3) Can I request to be called at a certain time or timeframe? I wouldn't want to be woken up
4) I could see a lot of people opting for a one time payment to get a single phone call to test the service out, you may want to consider adding that as an option.
Definitely a novel idea. From the feedback, your idea seems to have passed the test. There are some people interested in it, but they seem to be put off by the "creepy" design and lack of information.
The uniqueness of your site will be your strongest selling point... at least it's very possible it will grab you a ton of traffic. However, as it stands right now, that's more of a risk. Forgive me for being blunt: the site looks crappy.
I highly suggest taking it offline and cleaning it up a bit. List your features, the benefits, the options you have -- do any of these things -- before releasing it into the wild. You want to make the first wave of virality as advantageous as possible.
As far as the idea -- it's quick, easy, and instantly profitable. It's recurring. It (tries to) make people feel good. The idea "feels" right for this moment of time in the internet -- it's something I feel would be blogged about and gazed at because it's both absurd and potentially useful. All-in-all, really a stellar project to make some quick money.
Please, clean the site up before going any further. Since it's just 1 page, why not pay a designer? You can definitely find one that would be excited to work on this. Just do something to improve the appearance. I want to see this succeed.
Edit: And, personally, I think that stock photo kicks ass. It's the right tone - absurd, yet promising to be fun and exciting.
So my friend described it as an "almost ironic Saturday Night Live" type look. I'm inclined to agree, especially coupled with what has been described as the "1996" style design. But you know what? I have no idea whether that matters or not. Once I start throwing traffic at the site (tomorrow, maybe?) I'll be able to A/B test: what's better - overpriced stock photo, or picture of actual awesomenessreminder greeters?
This is a really really weird idea and I can't take it seriously at all. But, I just thought you might want to add a "Call Me Now" button so that people can test it out immediately and see what this is all about.
Create a community - I'm sure if you created a separate section for people who would love to call your customers (and maybe even make a couple bucks), it would be therapeutic for them as well:)
Would also be a good idea - maybe just for the fun of it - to have a stepped pricing plan.
So for $2 a month, someone will call you once a week and tell you that "You're adequate". :)
Seriously though, a cheap pricing plan (something less than a beer) for someone to do something similar via Social Media (Twitter, Facebook) might work too.
That was a fun hack. When i originally launched it - it proxied all the updates through the users accounts. ;) needless the users were like "wtf." heh. I removed that feature
Did you do any testing on this - as in, having a person use the service for 2-3 months? My feeling is that it might take off as a novelty, only to wear off quickly.
Please tell me this is not real and website feels like spammy ebook sale websites, especially the colour scheme, use a theme from or CSS template to fix it quickly.
You know I would love a recommendation of a good theme. Once I get the site ready to start throwing traffic at with AdWords, I'll A/B test and post results on HN.
Amazed at e no of replies received. Guess simplicity rules! Can't wait for the results. It would be great to see some number on signs/subscription/cancellation, etc.
I think this should be a "Review My Idea" given how the site looks quick and dirty.
I like the idea, but I'm not sure I'd actually want someone calling me with regular reminders. Personally, I'd probably get pissed off and stop picking up the number. like the idea mentioned by pwim; make it a one time thing. I'd pay for that. You could always have the option of a subscription based or single use.
This would be a lot better if it was some sort of gift app. You pay someone to call your friend and the caller tells your friend that <name of the person who paid for this> thinks you're a really great friend and an awesome person.
This has its downsides as well but, in my opinion, it's a lot better than some kind of self help service which might make people feel even worse.
yes, about 18 paying subscribers so far, => $169/month revenue after paypal fees. zero paid traffic sent so far. when i did a dry-run with adwords, a diff domain & unbounce, the economics looked favorable too so hopefully paid traffic is like gasoline on the flames.
I would rather have someone tell me why I am awesome... search the internet, find famous relatives that I didn't know I had, ... but this might be borderline creepy, since someone is stalking you.
I think it's a tad disconcerting that there is an empty blog... This seems like an easy blog topic to have some posts already made and, if a feature doesn't "work", why link to it?
Ah, and all action links go to your Twitter profile. Well, I guess that makes it clear to be an HTML mock-up. God help you if your "idea" goes viral right away ;)
I like the functionality of it, this can also be used like an on-demand personal assistant with a few tweaks... I do not like the UI, but as long as it works is all good.
Personally, I think it's brilliant. Even love the hokiness (assuming that's on purpose). It'll get passed around for fun, and a certain amount of people will try it.
you know, that's actually an interesting quirk in human psychology, and one that i'm going to have to figure out how to confront in my marketing messages. the truth of the matter is that you wouldn't get tired of it. it's just that in your mind, you imagine the succession of day1,day2,day3 consecutively, but in reality, a lot of your exposure burnout "resets" in a 24 hour period.
I am a fan, but your recent rash of "sites" is worrisome. You launched: HipHopGoblin (<1 year, down), CustomerFind (1< year ago), NYC-Chicago-Bus (49 days ago), EndAnts (23 days ag), CompassionPit (5 days ago!) and now this, AwesomenessReminders.
When do you even have time to improve, even promote, projects if you're tossing them on a weekly basis? It takes time to make anything monetizable, at least you need to create it first.
I think you're just an small sample of a generation of people who are coming to see businesses as just "idea + landing page". Sell, then build. A/B test today and build when the money piles up. etc. etc.
Slow down, for your own sake. Maybe even work on something you actually care about.
HipHopGoblin had a lot of potential, I used to listen to it; so you're at least capable of discovering and executing good ideas. You just need patience, and maybe someone to ask you "how's it coming?". Perhaps .. ProgressReminder?