[deleted]
How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups
71–80 of 99 posts
Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups
#72Immediately went to go buy the bundle of 4 books (good copywriting!)
But, some friendly startup advice:
1. There should be no reason to ask for my address and phone number and such for a digital purchase with PayPal as the purchase option. Your close rate would go up if you just let people go straight to PayPal -- and ask for those details after the purchase is done (eCommerce companies learned this a while ago).
2. You shouldn't have PayPal as the purchase option. It sucks for a number of well documented reasons, and there are better options now.
3. Once I tried to complete the PayPal transaction, got this error message: http://screencast.com/t/c5crNpyDg
Happy to try again when you're ready. Just ping me.
Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups
#73Can we stop calling it "copy" outside of our niches? For most readers they will infer the meaning you ascribe to the word from reading this article or look it up... there are ample other, non-ambiguous, commonplace methods to refer to text (that is one).
Its easy to slip on stuff like this when you are immersed in your speciality and don't often talk to people outside of it... although as a programmer at least I have the excuse of there not already being multiple unambiguous ways to describe my subject matter. :)
However, I will not be surprised if this usage of copy becomes more popular - both times I've seen it were on Hacker News in the last week.
Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups
#74Immediately went to go buy the bundle of 4 books (good copywriting!) But, some friendly startup advice: 1. There should be no reason to ask for my address and phone number and such for a digital purchase with PayPal as the purchase option. Your close rate would go up if you just let people go straight to PayPal -- and ask for those details after the purchase is done (eCommerce companies learned this a while ago). 2.…
Oh, and one more thing: When creating a user account on your site, the password is emailed out in cleartext to the end user. That's a very bad thing generally, but particularly for the HN crowd.
Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups
#75This itself is a compelling example. The bundle discount + the 50% off further hacker news discount makes it a very attractive purchase, and that itself is a compelling demonstration of his knowledge and reason to buy the books :) He knows how to sell
I'll nitpick too because those are marketing decisions which are only aided by being well described.
I believe you have confused marketing as a whole with authoring the textual element of it... or possibly misinterpreted copy because it has specialised meaning in the context of publishing.
Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups
#76Congratulations! I'm sure there is a market for companies who would rather pay to have it written for them -- I know I'd certainly be interested. Any thoughts on launching a startup that does copywriting for companies/people? Perhaps charge by the word or page?
It's not an unserved market. There have been professional copywriters since the beginning of the last century. It's also not a very well paying market for most writers. Most companies do not value the work of copy writing as much as they perhaps should.
Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups
#77Immediately went to go buy the bundle of 4 books (good copywriting!) But, some friendly startup advice: 1. There should be no reason to ask for my address and phone number and such for a digital purchase with PayPal as the purchase option. Your close rate would go up if you just let people go straight to PayPal -- and ask for those details after the purchase is done (eCommerce companies learned this a while ago). 2.…
Except Paypal is the only viable option if you're from outside the us. If she has used Amazon Payments or Google Checkout, I could not have purchased his books.
Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this is a way to show the author isn't pulling a bait-and-switch or just interested in taking your money. If you're not happy, you can have your money back, period. There is a certain level of trust involved, because there is indeed no way to "return" the ebook (well, set aside complicated and broken solutions like DRM). Most people are honest enough to acknowledge the usefulness of the ebook, and won't ask f…
I know people who do this on $1000+ training courses. It's priced into their business. The refund rates aren't as high as you'd think :-) I do it too but only on small things. I haven't done a single refund yet over several hundred sales. Other than increasing the likelihood of a sale, the benefit of offering a guarantee like this is you get less flack from your payment provider (since they can see you'll refund if a…
Yeah, those things are all true --- I know that the satisfaction guarantee can increase conversions, so that's something I consider from a marketing perspective.
But I really do want people to tell me if the book doesn't meet their expectations and to know that they can get their money back. It just seems wrong to offer no recourse. (Hopefully the ebook samples will help people before they buy, though, so fewer people return products.)
And, yes, there's no way to return a digital copy. It's just a trust/honor thing, I guess. :) You tell me you're not satisfied, and I give you your money back. Done.
Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups
#79Great deal and one of the things I have been needing for my start up (www.flyinghighcoffee.com). I saw a few load issues when checking out but I stuck with it and got it done. Safari won't download the file, though when I try to get it from my iPad.
I just realized there's an app for zip files on the iPad (which I don't have). I already unzipped them on my PC and emailed them to myself. Ignore my nitpick! And thanks for the resource - it looks like it is going to be a great help to me.
I hope it is a great help! Checked out your site, too (I love coffee but am not much of a flyer). Maybe I can offer you some copy optimization tips in an upcoming [video] optimization session, to be posted on my blog. Free, of course. I'd be happy to.
Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups
#80Can we stop calling it "copy" outside of our niches? For most readers they will infer the meaning you ascribe to the word from reading this article or look it up... there are ample other, non-ambiguous, commonplace methods to refer to text (that is one). Its easy to slip on stuff like this when you are immersed in your speciality and don't often talk to people outside of it... although as a programmer at least I have…
Someone posted a similar comment on my blog, too. I hadn't realized that "copy" was such an unknown term that it would require defining or otherwise explaining. That's my bad!
I don't think it's because I'm too close to copywriting (my sisters and brothers constantly remind me that they have no idea what I do) but because I assume people in this particular community will know about "copy" just as they know about "interaction design" and "UI" --- and other terms my siblings don't know.
Or maybe it's because I watch too much Mad Men and assume everyone else does, too. ;) (In which case you'd know that Donald Draper and Peggy Olsen are both [albeit fictional] copywriters.)