Ask HN: Judge my Upcoming App's Landing Page

> I think that your efforts are spent much better focusing on figuring out the marketing for your app within the app store itself.

> figure out a way to get as many blogs/news sources to cover your app release as possible

I totally agree on both of these points. However, I feel like creating, and iterating the message on this landing is time spent focusing on the app store marketing I'll end up using as well as time spent improving my pitch to journalists. Case in point: this is my first attempt at pitching the concept of Wanderous and, over the past hour reading everyone's comments, I've learned that it was pretty much a failure. This is a good thing. An amazingly good thing. Because if this was the pitch I started sending to journalists the concept would not be communicated clearly and my promotion efforts would flop.

When I say "gem" or "point of interest" people are thinking "single restaurant" or "single attraction" The key part of my pitch that I'm screwing up is that Wanderous is about neighborhoods or simple scenic areas in general. The POIs are algorithmically determined by high densities of shared photo geotags and other social activity.

So for example, there are 100 POIs in San Francisco. One of these hundred is called "Nob Hill" and happens to be 1 block from Granite Rock Climbing Gym... but Granite Rock Climbing Gym doesn't rank in the top 10 most popular sub-places in my Nob Hill POI (eclipsed by Grace Cathedral and other famous/notable buildings). But that area is quite scenic and worth visiting (according to Wanderous).

Thanks, you're dead-on with all of your points.

You're surrounded by scenic, interesting, and happening places and don't know it. Wanderous helps you discover and explore these places by guiding you to them and showing you what's there.

The target user is travelers and locals alike. I think I'd prefer to appeal to local (read: everyday) users over travelers. I'll have to think about this one.

Which is better for the landing page: this colorful screen shot that makes user's ask.. what're all those goodies? vs. a detailed screenshot showing a New Expedition being created? I went with this in hopes of it being more alluring and visually appealing. The Expedition creation screen looks a bit boring and less appealing but would help convey the concept.

99% of users don't want to create content, so I wouldn't emphasize that as a use case if you want the page to convert.

A slideshow might be better, maybe? Show the broader map, zoom in, show the most amazing/scenic/interesting place?

Have you heard of "Not For Tourists" guides? Worth googling and stealing some verbiage. Remember: your established competition has probably been testing headlines for months/years!

The "I'm surrounded by scenic, interesting places that I don't know about" problem isn't one that I feel like I have, but I'm just one guy.

Try enlarging the template preview at: http://unbounce.com/landing-page-templates/#mobile-apps

They have good advice on there. From a copy and screenshot perspective I think the major points have been covered.

Final advice: Make some tweaks based on the suggestions posted here (a more clear value prop is needed, if only that), ship the sonofabitch, and then implement the suggestions and A/B test them to find out which ones are working. Do this for as long as it takes.

THEN GO BE A ROCK STAR and happy shipping!