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Balsamiq Makes 1.6 Million with 70% Profit in 2009

balsamiq.com

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Re: Balsamiq Makes 1.6 Million with 70% Profit in 2009

#121

Post by bvi »

balsamiq wrote: post #118
bvi wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, just a quick question: Why don't you make it possible for the user to move the UI library pane from the top of the app to the left? It's a little bit of a pain to scroll left/right instead of up/down.

It IS possible! :) Get the latest build, then in the View menu, look for "UI Library Position": http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups/desktop#download

I am officially an idiot. I was trying to drag-drop the pane to the left, instead of doing the most logical thing. :-)

Thank you, kind sir.

Re: Balsamiq Makes 1.6 Million with 70% Profit in 2009

#122

Post by tptacek »

vaksel wrote: post #37
maxklein wrote: post #14

Balsamiq has twice as many twitter followers as Facebook 'Fans'. I'm strongly of the opinion that the word 'Fan' and the way it shows up in your Facebook profile makes Facebook pages a lot less useful for businesses. I want to get info about balasamiq, but I am not ready to describe myself as a fan to everyone on my facebook friendslist, considering that I've not used it. Facebook should allow you to 'friend' a busin…

Twitter is useless compared to Facebook. You get a lot more engagement from Facebook. With twitter your window of opportunity is the 5 seconds that you show up in their feed. With Facebook that time is a lot longer. You can have 10,000 followers on twitter, but only 20 people will see your announcement, since you'll show up in their feed for 5 seconds. Anyone who follows a business account on Twitter, is most likely…

I have repeatedly had exactly the opposite experience: I've gotten hundreds of respondents for surveys, driven traffic to new blog posts, and fully enrolled a class off Twitter posts, and have had Facebook attempts at the same things fizzle. Twitter has been a much more valuable tool for us than Facebook.

Which is fine, because my Facebook list is filled with people I went to high school with, who couldn't give less of a crap about what my company is doing this week.

Re: Balsamiq Makes 1.6 Million with 70% Profit in 2009

#123

Post by mock »

cperciva wrote: post #120
mock wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a number of clients who can't keep their data in the US due to privacy considerations. Sadly, I can't send them to you until you accept Canadian customers. Which is unfortunate, as it's typically Canadian organizations that have this privacy issue with US backup providers. (I recognize why you've made the decision that you did, but it is definitely preventing you from getting a certain class of customer who re…

Privacy laws generally don't care about encryption, so -- since Tarsnap hosts data in the US -- Canadians who are bound by such laws won't find Tarsnap useful anyway.

The common case is not being bound by privacy law, but rather having a pr/marketing/sales challenge due to customer fears of the patriot act being used to nab data in the US. Your service allows me to give them a solid answer as to why that risk has been mitigated while simultaneously maintaining the advantages of S3. If you offered Canada only hosting it would be better still, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for a major cloud provider to offer entirely Canadian hosting.

Re: Balsamiq Makes 1.6 Million with 70% Profit in 2009

#124

Post by Poiesis »

bvi wrote: post #121
balsamiq wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It IS possible! :) Get the latest build, then in the View menu, look for "UI Library Position": http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups/desktop#download

I am officially an idiot. I was trying to drag-drop the pane to the left, instead of doing the most logical thing. :-) Thank you, kind sir.

Stating the obvious, but clearly at that time for you that was the most logical thing.

Re: Balsamiq Makes 1.6 Million with 70% Profit in 2009

#125

Post by Poiesis »

cperciva wrote: post #98
neilk wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a friend who is trying to find a way to make the Tarsnap website look nicer without losing its essential geeky/minimalist character; Maybe you misspoke here, but based on this quote I think your approach could be improved. 1) You went to a friend. Unless this person is an experienced designer of commercial websites, that doesn't sound like the right approach. 2) Your primary concern is preserving the site's "g…

You went to a friend. Unless this person is an experienced designer of commercial websites, that doesn't sound like the right approach. I went to a talented web designer who understands my vision. I think understanding my vision is important -- otherwise I'm likely to pay $$$ only to be presented with a website which I hate and don't want to use.

I think what people are trying to tell you is that--with all due respect--your opinion on your website is not worth a damn.

I mean, if you're interested in pageviews, and revenue--and your comments wrt Balsamiq seem to indicate you are--you need to realize that the aesthetic you're looking for is likely costing you customers and hence money.

Nobody's going to fault you if you prefer to make less money and keep your website any way you want, but if you're going to complain about sluggish growth you've gotta realize that your customers' habits and tastes are much more important than your own.

In related news, the demographic you seem to be targeting is quite possibly either unwilling or unable to pay for it; the former because they'd rather hack something up on their own and the latter because they may not be the decision maker for their organization.

Re: Balsamiq Makes 1.6 Million with 70% Profit in 2009

#126

Post by Poiesis »

cperciva wrote: post #95
jfarmer wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You posted the Tarsnap redesign 111 days ago, here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=820705 As far as I can tell you didn't incorporate a single piece of advice you received in that thread. I'd print out patio11's comment and staple it above my desk. The homepage still looks like the website for any random, academic OSS project. It doesn't say "hardcore," it says amateur, and there's no way I'm trusting you with m…

you didn't incorporate a single piece of advice you received in that thread I filed a lot of it away for future reference, since I figured that having a website at all took priority over making it look as nice as possible. Is [the current aesthetic] for your sake, or for your customers? Both. Whenever I mention the possibility of changing the "feel" of the Tarsnap website, I hear an outcry from my current users. Of c…

regulators need paperwork, and Tarsnap doesn't have it.

Well, if this is a pain point for your customers, then perhaps you should consider paperwork? Would also provide additional peace of mind to those not needing paperwork.

Sometimes the customers you end up with aren't what you had in mind at the outset. Don't know if this is how you'll end up, but you may want to consider it if you end up switching your marketing message from "this is only for true geeks who like to compile their own code. Others need not apply."

Re: Balsamiq Makes 1.6 Million with 70% Profit in 2009

#127

Post by Poiesis »

cperciva wrote: post #24
epi0Bauqu wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried Reddit advertising?

Not yet. I'm thinking about it. EDIT: Ok, finished thinking. Let's see how much traffic $20 gets me.

Good work. For cheap stuff like this, you need to act right away to get data. Thinking doesn't really do anything. I hardly know anything about A/B testing (except what I read here), but I don't think you need to let this test stop you from other tests (just create different landing pages, I think.) You mentioned elsewhere that you were going to wait 'till this experiment ended to start another. Don't delay, do it now.

Re: Balsamiq Makes 1.6 Million with 70% Profit in 2009

#128

Post by Poiesis »

encoderer wrote: post #75
cperciva wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're right on both counts. I have a friend who is trying to find a way to make the Tarsnap website look nicer without losing its essential geeky/minimalist character; if/when he comes up with something I'll definitely be doing some testing to see how it compares. That said, I don't think Tarsnap's conversion rate is particularly bad -- I'd say that most important issue is simply getting people to the Tarsna…

Why not just take a gigantic leap of faith and build a 2nd front-end? I mean, keep the existing website. And create a second one, using more traditional modern UX techniques. In my perfect fantasy here, this new one would be the .com and your current site would be the .net. That's likely not possible so you may need to find a variation of the domain or, hell, a completely new name for this "non geek" version. After a…

I can't agree more strongly here. I elsewhere argue for a website change; this is even a better idea because it'll even more clearly show the difference. And hey--maybe all of us are wrong and the academic minimalist look is more profitable? If this is true, please come back and report it--maybe we're all wrong!

But unless your customer demographics are vastly different than those of many of the people here who earn good money with proven UI techniques, I'd bet you could do better with different marketing (website, etc.). But you don't really have to bet. What'll it cost you, 10 bucks for a domain name and some time? The first rounds don't really even need a designer, though you'll save some time if you procure one now instead of later.

Test, test, test. There are a good number of qualified people (not me) that are giving good advice, but your test results are king. Start running variations, and you and HN can look at the data and start making progress.

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