Clickable: http://www.QTripper.com
Thanks, I had no idea how to do that
I launched 06-10 and constantly feel helpless and lost. What advice do you have?
11–20 of 54 posts
Re: I launched 06-10 and constantly feel helpless and lost. What advice do you have?
#12Make the homepage more focused. Have a primary call to action.
Fake user content, for now, to breathe life into your site. Several respected people on HN have noted this works well.
Issues:
* I'm not exactly sure what I'm getting for clicking on "sign up." Is it only a travel blog platform or is there more?
* I don't care "what's happening right now" on some map. That is prime homepage real estate that is being wasted. Perhaps leave that for when I'm logged in on a "news feed" page; and then only show my friends (via Facebook or Twitter connections); also, you could show other site users in whatever town I'm now in (if I'm traveling now).
* The Hot News and Travel Deals columns are competing for my attention. And I am repulsed from bothering to read them. It's the 50-50 column widths. And there's too many (10); try showing only the top 1 or 2 of each.
* You ask the user "are you a QT?" I don't get it. Maybe I'm missing something.
Credibility: I like to travel, I blog about my travels on my own Wordpress blog, and I read a lot of other people's travel blogs and travel-lifestyle blogs.
I hope that helps.
Re: I launched 06-10 and constantly feel helpless and lost. What advice do you have?
#13Fake it. Create fake users, fake traffic, fake places they've been to, fake trips. Creating fake but believable data will drive real users who think "this is really cool, I love User1023's trip data."
Don't create fake data all by yourself - it will have your hand obvious, rather pay people to create content how only they can do it. You can give them the brief instructions of course.
Re: I launched 06-10 and constantly feel helpless and lost. What advice do you have?
#14If you just focused on providing people with clear information about embassies and visa applications, that would be a HUGE help.
From my personal experience as an Indian with an Indian passport and lots of friends who don't have American or European passports, visas, even for holidays, are the biggest travelling pain. Suffice to say, I travel less because I hate applying for visas, not least because finding the correct information is really hard. If you took some of the pain out of that problem, you will get a lot of users.
I know it's not as sexy as making a social network for travellers who can check in to cool places around the world.
But, it's a real problem and will really help people.
Re: I launched 06-10 and constantly feel helpless and lost. What advice do you have?
#15You definitely need some sort of a mobile app - people usually don't think about their travel much before they actually go. But once on the road they will be more inclined to check your info.
Re: I launched 06-10 and constantly feel helpless and lost. What advice do you have?
#16If you just focused on providing people with clear information about embassies and visa applications, that would be a HUGE help. From my personal experience as an Indian with an Indian passport and lots of friends who don't have American or European passports, visas, even for holidays, are the biggest travelling pain. Suffice to say, I travel less because I hate applying for visas, not least because finding the corre…
An additional meta thought: one key reason for the huge success of social networks is that they've accelerated the flow of information between people all around the world.
So, one heuristic for a good way forward is to look in places where information flow is still slow and broken. Embassies are a good example of that.
Re: I launched 06-10 and constantly feel helpless and lost. What advice do you have?
#17Fake it. Create fake users, fake traffic, fake places they've been to, fake trips. Creating fake but believable data will drive real users who think "this is really cool, I love User1023's trip data."
I've been working as a web dev for a marketing firm for years and this has never occurred to me before. Damnit.
Even if the OP doesn't use this tip, I will. Thanks!
Re: I launched 06-10 and constantly feel helpless and lost. What advice do you have?
#18Fake it. Create fake users, fake traffic, fake places they've been to, fake trips. Creating fake but believable data will drive real users who think "this is really cool, I love User1023's trip data."
I've been working as a web dev for a marketing firm for years and this has never occurred to me before. Damnit. Even if the OP doesn't use this tip, I will. Thanks!
Oh I will!
Re: I launched 06-10 and constantly feel helpless and lost. What advice do you have?
#19Fake it. Create fake users, fake traffic, fake places they've been to, fake trips. Creating fake but believable data will drive real users who think "this is really cool, I love User1023's trip data."
Don't create fake data all by yourself - it will have your hand obvious, rather pay people to create content how only they can do it. You can give them the brief instructions of course.
I've seen places where I can get services. I think it was Odesk.com and I think there are some others. But yes, getting disenfranchised with a project usually involves doing a lot of work yourself!