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Show HN: Our attempt at solving the wishlist problem..

ultimategiftlists.com

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Re: Show HN: Our attempt at solving the wishlist problem..

#31

Post by matb33 »

jbbarnes wrote: post #17
brador wrote: post #14

Not loading, but what is the wishlist problem?

That every Christmas and birthday my family ask me what I want for Xmas/birthday and that I have to email them a bunch of links as to what it is that I want. Maybe it isn't a problem, but it bugs me and my mate so we built something that we found useful that we thought could be beneficial to others. thanks!

Same here... Over 10 years ago my mom gave me a paper list of gift ideas for the whole family. I was supposed to cross off what I was buying to avoid duplicates. Didn't take long for me to write a web app to manage it. I rewrote it last year after 10+ long years of solid usage: http://www.gifttracker.net/

It's a slightly different take on the wish list "problem" in that mine isn't about getting gift ideas, it's about sharing lists and reserving to avoid duplicates.

Re: Show HN: Our attempt at solving the wishlist problem..

#32

Post by JoeAltmaier »

matb33 wrote: post #31
jbbarnes wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That every Christmas and birthday my family ask me what I want for Xmas/birthday and that I have to email them a bunch of links as to what it is that I want. Maybe it isn't a problem, but it bugs me and my mate so we built something that we found useful that we thought could be beneficial to others. thanks!

Same here... Over 10 years ago my mom gave me a paper list of gift ideas for the whole family. I was supposed to cross off what I was buying to avoid duplicates. Didn't take long for me to write a web app to manage it. I rewrote it last year after 10+ long years of solid usage: http://www.gifttracker.net/ It's a slightly different take on the wish list "problem" in that mine isn't about getting gift ideas, it's about…

Pretty clinical approach to gift-giving? Were socks and new underwear on the list? How about a 12-pack of WD-40 for dad?

Re: Show HN: Our attempt at solving the wishlist problem..

#33

Post by BenSS »

Cool implementation, but wouldn't use it personally. Mostly because my immediate family already knows about Amazon wishlists, which also let you add anything (even not on amazon). I'll admit the interface is a lot cooler here. Have you looked at Amazon's implementation?

Re: Show HN: Our attempt at solving the wishlist problem..

#34

Post by matb33 »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #32
matb33 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here... Over 10 years ago my mom gave me a paper list of gift ideas for the whole family. I was supposed to cross off what I was buying to avoid duplicates. Didn't take long for me to write a web app to manage it. I rewrote it last year after 10+ long years of solid usage: http://www.gifttracker.net/ It's a slightly different take on the wish list "problem" in that mine isn't about getting gift ideas, it's about…

Pretty clinical approach to gift-giving? Were socks and new underwear on the list? How about a 12-pack of WD-40 for dad?

Wait until you get married, then you'll understand ;) Wedding registries, baby registries... And in many cases that type of gift-giving extends to Christmas and birthdays.

Re: Show HN: Our attempt at solving the wishlist problem..

#35

Post by jbbarnes »

BenSS wrote: post #33

Cool implementation, but wouldn't use it personally. Mostly because my immediate family already knows about Amazon wishlists, which also let you add anything (even not on amazon). I'll admit the interface is a lot cooler here. Have you looked at Amazon's implementation?

Thanks - glad you liked it. Yep we've had a look and we think one reason that ours has an advantage over theirs is because of the big feature of our site, which may not of been obvious, the 'giftmark' bookmarklet - this means that you can add any items you want when you browse the web rather than just being limited to our default items. If you drag that bookmarklet up to the toolbar and then when you see an item on the web you like, you click the 'giftmark' button and it adds that item to your list (with a picture). With this feature added to the picture based layout we hoped we could get the edge over them - a tough ask i know.

Glad you liked it though. Say if we let you import your Amazon wishlist? Would that make you more tempted to use our service?

Re: Show HN: Our attempt at solving the wishlist problem..

#36

Post by jasongill »

jbbarnes wrote: post #16
Eduard wrote: post #13

I guess the business model here is affiliate marketing. I noticed that the URLs you use to redirect to Amazon.co.uk product pages don't include the "tag=your-associate-id" query string parameter. Are you still eligible for commission?

Yep it is affiliate marketing - we just launched to friends and family here in the UK to begin with but have just applied to SkimLinks so will turn any of our links into affiliate links.

VigLink does the same as SkimLinks (has been around longer too, and is backed by Google Ventures) and they don't make you wait if you're referred by another VigLink member. You can use my referral link (if you'd like) to at least get your monetiziation up and going ASAP. http://www.viglink.com/?vgref=6106

Re: Show HN: Our attempt at solving the wishlist problem..

#37

Post by jbbarnes »

jasongill wrote: post #36
jbbarnes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep it is affiliate marketing - we just launched to friends and family here in the UK to begin with but have just applied to SkimLinks so will turn any of our links into affiliate links.

VigLink does the same as SkimLinks (has been around longer too, and is backed by Google Ventures) and they don't make you wait if you're referred by another VigLink member. You can use my referral link (if you'd like) to at least get your monetiziation up and going ASAP. http://www.viglink.com/?vgref=6106

That's really kind - thank you..

Re: Show HN: Our attempt at solving the wishlist problem..

#38

Post by BenSS »

jbbarnes wrote: post #35
BenSS wrote: post #33

Cool implementation, but wouldn't use it personally. Mostly because my immediate family already knows about Amazon wishlists, which also let you add anything (even not on amazon). I'll admit the interface is a lot cooler here. Have you looked at Amazon's implementation?

Thanks - glad you liked it. Yep we've had a look and we think one reason that ours has an advantage over theirs is because of the big feature of our site, which may not of been obvious, the 'giftmark' bookmarklet - this means that you can add any items you want when you browse the web rather than just being limited to our default items. If you drag that bookmarklet up to the toolbar and then when you see an item on t…

Well, Amazon also has the exact same ability to add anything on the web - add-on/extension available for most browsers. Importing my existing amazon list would be an incentive for me to at least try it in more depth. However, I might view it more an an extension of my current amazon list rather than a replacement.

Re: Show HN: Our attempt at solving the wishlist problem..

#39

Post by lazerwalker »

BenSS wrote: post #38
jbbarnes wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks - glad you liked it. Yep we've had a look and we think one reason that ours has an advantage over theirs is because of the big feature of our site, which may not of been obvious, the 'giftmark' bookmarklet - this means that you can add any items you want when you browse the web rather than just being limited to our default items. If you drag that bookmarklet up to the toolbar and then when you see an item on t…

Well, Amazon also has the exact same ability to add anything on the web - add-on/extension available for most browsers. Importing my existing amazon list would be an incentive for me to at least try it in more depth. However, I might view it more an an extension of my current amazon list rather than a replacement.

For reference: http://www.amazon.com/wishlist/get-button

Re: Show HN: Our attempt at solving the wishlist problem..

#40

Post by blauwbilgorgel »

Well done! Some feedback: Resize your product images ("/images/I/8137AFcYkrL._AA1500_.jpg") or request smaller ones. Remove whitespace before DOCTYPE. Try to avoid session/state URL's: dzYzMzJfNTAzNg==. Specify Canonical or apply www to non-www redirect. The homepage contains content, but this is only accessible with javascript and styling, or without javascript and styling. Consider a warning or giving a user and searchbot access to the content with styles on, but javascript off. Adding to this a matter of taste: The background is like the background for iOS touch browsers when the end of a website is reached. That texture has some meaning attached to it for some, that make it in my opinion rather unsafe, to use for other design elements on the web. There is (possibly due to heavy load) a good 6-7 seconds between the dissapearance of the loading graphic, and the loading of new content "tiles", maybe you can add an onload callback for removal of loading graphic.

And a question: What is your organic SEO strategy? Will all visitors come from social? The website behaves like a web-app, so there is very little content to rank with. Are these personal shopping lists publicly available? What happens if people share these shopping lists? I don't see them indexed (yet), so they might not be flowing any link juice. Could you add a blog or something?

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