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Ask HN: My site isn't sexy or social, but I'm very proud of it: what's next?

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Re: Ask HN: My site isn't sexy or social, but I'm very proud of it: what's next?

#21

Post by dmazin »

redrory wrote: post #20

Hey, Firstly congrats. Getting your first app "out" is hard. You seemed to do that with flying colors :) What's the technology behind the site? Do you have a blog? I'll love to hear more send me an email (my HN username at gmail.)

Thanks!

I built it on Rails. After building out a good amount of functitonality in PHP I decided to take a chance with Rails. Amazing decision as it was a huge return for the time investment (45-ish hours to learn). I don't have a blog, as blogs don't seem to have that much worth in terms of marketing unless they are amazing. I'm opinionated, sure, but you can find most of those opinions on Signal vs Noise :)

Re: Ask HN: My site isn't sexy or social, but I'm very proud of it: what's next?

#22

Post by dmazin »

lylejohnson wrote: post #19

Thankfully, I am long past the point where I have to worry about my GPA. But there was absolutely a time in my life when I would have used something like this, had it been available. I can tell you that my wife's a schoolteacher, and that her school system has a web-based system where parents can log in and check on their kids' grades. She has a lot of parents who check that site religiously. All that is to say that…

Is it Moodle? There are already plenty of ways to check one's grades, actually. Colleges often use Blackboard - although I think students and professors alike would agree that using Blackboard is only a little bit better than having cancer. I want to fill in the gap where there is no system offered or it's incomplete, leaving students on their own. Of course, there are already two players - Schoolhouse, a quite sexy (if over-featured) Mac app, and some outdated online grade tracker.

Re: Ask HN: My site isn't sexy or social, but I'm very proud of it: what's next?

#23

Post by lylejohnson »

dmazin wrote: post #22
lylejohnson wrote: post #19

Thankfully, I am long past the point where I have to worry about my GPA. But there was absolutely a time in my life when I would have used something like this, had it been available. I can tell you that my wife's a schoolteacher, and that her school system has a web-based system where parents can log in and check on their kids' grades. She has a lot of parents who check that site religiously. All that is to say that…

Is it Moodle? There are already plenty of ways to check one's grades, actually. Colleges often use Blackboard - although I think students and professors alike would agree that using Blackboard is only a little bit better than having cancer. I want to fill in the gap where there is no system offered or it's incomplete, leaving students on their own. Of course, there are already two players - Schoolhouse, a quite sexy…

It's called iNow (or maybe STI iNow). Am having trouble finding a link for the company because most of the Google search results are for various school systems that have implemented iNow.

Re: Ask HN: My site isn't sexy or social, but I'm very proud of it: what's next?

#24

Post by dmazin »

lylejohnson wrote: post #23
dmazin wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it Moodle? There are already plenty of ways to check one's grades, actually. Colleges often use Blackboard - although I think students and professors alike would agree that using Blackboard is only a little bit better than having cancer. I want to fill in the gap where there is no system offered or it's incomplete, leaving students on their own. Of course, there are already two players - Schoolhouse, a quite sexy…

It's called iNow (or maybe STI iNow). Am having trouble finding a link for the company because most of the Google search results are for various school systems that have implemented iNow.

Here it is: http://www.sti-k12.com/publicsis1.asp

Interestingly, I've had a family friend starting out as a teacher say that she can't find a good, intuitive gradebook. Maybe there's a market for that as well. I think it's fair to guess that this kind of software is made for buyers, not teachers, and may not address their needs very well. I could be totally wrong.

Re: Ask HN: My site isn't sexy or social, but I'm very proud of it: what's next?

#25

Post by exline »

I think there is a viral angle. There were a group of friends at college, all CS majors and we competed on our grades. We all wanted to one up each other.

I can see the ability to have a score board of some kind where you can share your grades with friends. This could help spread the word a bit.

Re: Ask HN: My site isn't sexy or social, but I'm very proud of it: what's next?

#26

Post by michaelpinto »

dmazin wrote: post #16
michaelpinto wrote: post #14

1. I'd listen to some actual students and find out what the selling points are to them, and do some A/B headline testing ("Pain-free grade calculation" seems better than "Do you know what your grades are?") 2. That url is terrible — you need the words "grade tracker" in it: http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/how-to-choose-a-new-domain/ 3. You should allow a signup via Facebook (especially for college kids) 4. Maybe have a…

When I was starting out, I was so excited to do A/B testing. I was going to A/B every word on every page. The truth of the matter is, A/B is worthless when starting out because you need a hundred conversions or so for both A and B to have statistical significance. I'm getting less than 20 visits per day, but with a very good conversion rate, actually. As for the URL - well, I'm not really into making a micro ISV/SEO-…

1. I don't mean A/B testing on the web — I mean in person. It's part of figuring out your pitch — which is really figuring out what the site is.

2. Having a good url is a form of communication, or branding. It took my over a minute to understand what your site was — people start with the name of the site and work their way down. If you hear of a url and don't get what the site is off the bat you've failed before you've started.

3. You need to learn what your personal preferences are don't matter — so while geeks may like pictures and text normal people might not. Geeks loved MS-DOS which is why Windows conquered the world...

Re: Ask HN: My site isn't sexy or social, but I'm very proud of it: what's next?

#27

Post by dmazin »

michaelpinto wrote: post #26
dmazin wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was starting out, I was so excited to do A/B testing. I was going to A/B every word on every page. The truth of the matter is, A/B is worthless when starting out because you need a hundred conversions or so for both A and B to have statistical significance. I'm getting less than 20 visits per day, but with a very good conversion rate, actually. As for the URL - well, I'm not really into making a micro ISV/SEO-…

1. I don't mean A/B testing on the web — I mean in person. It's part of figuring out your pitch — which is really figuring out what the site is. 2. Having a good url is a form of communication, or branding. It took my over a minute to understand what your site was — people start with the name of the site and work their way down. If you hear of a url and don't get what the site is off the bat you've failed before you'…

1. Good point.

2. I get your point, but are you talking about choosing something like achievergradetracker.com for the primary URL?

3. You have another good point, however I think that personal preference is more important than people admit. If we didn't infuse some personal preference, especially for aesthetics, into web design the whole web would look like fucking infomercials, which probably convert like Jesus. I guess that's kind of irrelevant as a video walkthrough is really something I have no good reason for not trying.

Re: Ask HN: My site isn't sexy or social, but I'm very proud of it: what's next?

#28

Post by lylejohnson »

dmazin wrote: post #24
lylejohnson wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's called iNow (or maybe STI iNow). Am having trouble finding a link for the company because most of the Google search results are for various school systems that have implemented iNow.

Here it is: http://www.sti-k12.com/publicsis1.asp Interestingly, I've had a family friend starting out as a teacher say that she can't find a good, intuitive gradebook. Maybe there's a market for that as well. I think it's fair to guess that this kind of software is made for buyers, not teachers, and may not address their needs very well. I could be totally wrong.

> I think it's fair to guess that this kind of software is made for buyers, not teachers, and may not address their needs very well. I could be totally wrong.

No, you're spot on. She hates working with iNow, and we have yet to talk to a teacher who likes working with it. Seems safe to assume that the buyer was someone who will never have to use it.

Re: Ask HN: My site isn't sexy or social, but I'm very proud of it: what's next?

#29

Post by dmazin »

lylejohnson wrote: post #28
dmazin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here it is: http://www.sti-k12.com/publicsis1.asp Interestingly, I've had a family friend starting out as a teacher say that she can't find a good, intuitive gradebook. Maybe there's a market for that as well. I think it's fair to guess that this kind of software is made for buyers, not teachers, and may not address their needs very well. I could be totally wrong.

> I think it's fair to guess that this kind of software is made for buyers, not teachers, and may not address their needs very well. I could be totally wrong. No, you're spot on. She hates working with iNow, and we have yet to talk to a teacher who likes working with it. Seems safe to assume that the buyer was someone who will never have to use it.

Seems to me like there's a pretty big, unserved market of teachers who want good and intuitive course management tools. Maybe they're so ignored and frustrated that they'd be willing to pay for such a tool that doesn't completely suck.

Re: Ask HN: My site isn't sexy or social, but I'm very proud of it: what's next?

#30

Post by dmazin »

exline wrote: post #25

I think there is a viral angle. There were a group of friends at college, all CS majors and we competed on our grades. We all wanted to one up each other. I can see the ability to have a score board of some kind where you can share your grades with friends. This could help spread the word a bit.

I'm a little scared of being too social.
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