31–35 of 35 posts
Up and Down the Ladder of Abstraction: http://worrydream.com/#!2/LadderOfAbstraction This should be required reading for every developer. While the redesign looks better, I'm somewhat turned off because it follows the same design strategies as used by low-quality info products: * Cheesy book shot. At least it's not a fake "book generator" box. If this will be delivered as a PDF, why not use the Acrobat logo below a t…
Sean Fioritto was the first person I met at BaconBizConf while waiting outside the doors on morning #1. Confident, smart, and altogether friendly guy. I was impressed the level of demonstrated grit he showed when he volunteered his site for a teardown. He was over there just scratching notes away while they punished him. We could all use that kind of grit. More of us would launch great products if we did. Pat Pohler…
None of us panelists ever said "This is terrible" or anything of that sort, or insulted anyone/anything, or discouraged any of the volunteers, etc. We said "This doesn't work" "That won't work" "That's weak" etc.… and then gave lots of supportive suggestions to make it better. The worst possible thing anyone said is when Patrick said [paraphrasing] "Please don't take this personally, but if your target market is designers, you need to have more of a… design."
Genuinely asking "Why would I be interested in this?" is not only not brutal, it's not even a criticism.
I guess more people need to experience actual brutal criticism in order to see how our teardown was anything but!
Sean Fioritto was the first person I met at BaconBizConf while waiting outside the doors on morning #1. Confident, smart, and altogether friendly guy. I was impressed the level of demonstrated grit he showed when he volunteered his site for a teardown. He was over there just scratching notes away while they punished him. We could all use that kind of grit. More of us would launch great products if we did. Pat Pohler…
It's so weird for me to hear from people who were at BaconBizConf and thought the teardowns were "brutal" or "punishing." None of us panelists ever said "This is terrible" or anything of that sort, or insulted anyone/anything, or discouraged any of the volunteers, etc. We said "This doesn't work" "That won't work" "That's weak" etc.… and then gave lots of supportive suggestions to make it better. The worst possible t…
Then again, there's something to be said for being willing to be scrutinized by your heroes. Therein lies my admiration for Sean.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's so weird for me to hear from people who were at BaconBizConf and thought the teardowns were "brutal" or "punishing." None of us panelists ever said "This is terrible" or anything of that sort, or insulted anyone/anything, or discouraged any of the volunteers, etc. We said "This doesn't work" "That won't work" "That's weak" etc.… and then gave lots of supportive suggestions to make it better. The worst possible t…
I guess I did make this overblown using those terms. And yes, when is Patrick ever 'punishing'? Heh. Then again, there's something to be said for being willing to be scrutinized by your heroes. Therein lies my admiration for Sean.
I have a huge amount of respect for people who:
A. Ask for feedback. B. Publicly! C. Act on the feedback.
That's why Sean is awesome :) He did a GREAT job incorporating our feedback into something that's 10x better than before.
All looks very sensible, but I'd be interested to see a split-test. You never know what will or won't convert...
The funny thing is I agree, but I don't think I'll do it. The old version is just so bad I feel like I'd be throwing away money. I'm not internet famous so traffic is hard for me to come by. Can I justify a split test? So the question becomes do I trust the experts? I do. Therefore this landing page is my new baseline -- I'll split test from here.
FWIW, looking over the "after" page myself, I'd agree that it's a much more solid longish-form sales page. You'll probably be fine using that as your baseline!