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I'm a pregnant hacker. Please review my side project.

babyli.st

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Re: I'm a pregnant hacker. Please review my side project.

#111

Post by capstone »

I had had the same idea when I was pregnant but there were several key problems that I concluded were unsolvable. I am both curious and skeptical as to how/whether you address these. (I am basing my questions on an understanding that yours is a registry and not a simple a wish list, as per your own description).

1. How to mark items as purchased. Relying on gift givers to "reserve" and "unreserve" items may be a step up from restaurant reservations but that's not saying much. I wouldn't be surprised if your honor system led to close to half of every registry ending up in a black hole of forgotten reservations.

2. How to keep up with out-of-stock items and price changes. Baby registries usually span months, so how do you deal with outdated information or dead links? From my own Amazon baby registry experience, about 30% of my wish list went MIA by the time of the actual baby shower, when most of my friends and family made their purchases.

3. How do you deal with bad UIs. Drawing again from my Amazon experience, a lot of older relatives almost bought the wrong item because of all the "you might also like" items all over the screen. I wouldn't be surprised if a large chunk of your purchases got diverted by bad 3rd party UIs.

4. Varied URL standards. For example, some shopping sites get product options from user session so non-logged in URLs link to an item's default color and size. So once you are off to a 3rd party website, there is no guarantee the gift giver would buy the correct item.

As far as I can see you've built a wish list that you are marketing as a registry and I am not sure if that's a good thing. The key feature of a registry is that a retailer makes sure that the correct items get purchased (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_registry) so I think there is a broken promise there.

Re: I'm a pregnant hacker. Please review my side project.

#112

Post by SoftwareMaven »

axod wrote: post #77
subpixel wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The url really doesn't matter. The name does, and it's great. My advice would be to use the proper spelling ('Babylist') in general - especially in your html titles - and in no time you'll be #1 for the term, regardless of spelling: http://bit.ly/h5fizW

> The name does, and it's great. People will go to babylist.com. They will probably copy the concept if it takes off. Bad idea.

"People" will Google "babylist". Remember that the vast majority of the people using the web have no idea what a browser is, much less a URL. Even when they have a URL, that ubiquitous google box is the place it gets put.

Re: I'm a pregnant hacker. Please review my side project.

#114

Post by dayjah »

natgordon wrote: post #36
dayjah wrote: post #17

Keep an an eye on the domain, all too often people type 'bitly . com' when I say 'bit . ly' - do you have babylist.com?

I know. I contacted the owner of babylist.com (it's a mirror of babylist.co.uk) and they never got back to me.

once all the referral cash starts flowing you can just buy it :)

In the mean time work out a way to ensure as few people as possible have to verbally pass the domain on, think about tools which enable you to let the interested party notify their friends that this is their list; easy things like publishing to facebook, twitter, email, etc.

(some of these may have been done, sorry if they are - I didn't take the time to look it over to thoroughly).

Re: I'm a pregnant hacker. Please review my side project.

#115

Post by klapinat0r »

natgordon wrote: post #8
imperialWicket wrote: post #6

We recently experienced similar frustration with the lack of a good universal registry mechanism for babies. While this makes sense, in the same way that most stores try to keep all registries internal, from a consumer standpoint it remains quite lacking. I think it's great. Color scheme and style are very appealing and appropriate. The one awkward point for me is the "plus any other online store" tag after the notew…

Great feedback. It was an after-thought because the first people who looked at it were like "oh, i can only register at those 6 stores". Thanks.

Seems very, very promising. It's simple, it's easy to use and looks both nice and cute (as in, not some website from 10 years ago without a single retouch); in a twitter'ish way, if you know what I mean.

I have a question about the logos, as this is a subject I myself always fear when creating a new side project: Is it safe to have other companies' logos on ones site (as listed on yours), or is it possible to face infrightment allegations? Thinking about issuing a .us based project, I'm a bit afraid of somebody suing me for something like that.

Thanks, and congratulations!

Re: I'm a pregnant hacker. Please review my side project.

#116

Post by ruchi »

fabiandesimone wrote: post #75
sanj wrote: post #63

One followon idea. If you know the approximate birthdate of the delivery, you can contact customers a year later suggesting first birthday present ideas. And second birthday ideas. And third birthday ideas. You get the idea.

Just make sure something like this does not happen: "9 – BabyCalc.com – If you were about to have a baby you could go on this site and punch in some numbers then it would email you as your baby was growing and let you know what was going on… “like 10 days until you should be able to tell the sex of your baby!” or “Babys heart beat starts today” ect.. stuff like that.. I paid to have the backend developed and the site…

It's a valid concern. I think they can have a workaround this problem by offering a discount on say diapers or some kind of other fringe benefit to parents confirming the birth.

Re: I'm a pregnant hacker. Please review my side project.

#117

Post by phlux »

jat850 wrote: post #82
phlux wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There wasnt an unsubscribe? I understand how that can make one feel - but I dont think that focusing on miscarriage or SIDS is the right perspective.

I think (understandably) no prospective parent, upon losing their baby for any reason, is going to have "oh yeah, cancel those website reminders" at the forefront of their minds. Certainly, all it would take is probably the first email from one of them to arrive, but subscribing after the fact doesn't un-kick you in the teeth.

Of course I agree with you - but is that chance that one of the subscribers to your service losing their child reason enough for you to NOT create the functions described?

That was my point. I have a 6-year old and a baby currently loading with delivery in July. I also have a very dear friend who lost her second child to SIDS.

We are getting the "Your baby is currently the size of an avocado" emails -- We like the service.

The fear of a customer of such service's potential pain, while real and however small, shouldn't deter the availability of the service.

Re: I'm a pregnant hacker. Please review my side project.

#118

Post by pbhjpbhj »

bm98 wrote: post #37
natgordon wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear you. I think the one thing that makes this different is that I'm not going after the universal wishlist market, just the baby registry market. When you go to create a baby registry you're not like "oh, i need a wishlist of items for the baby". I'm just starting to market this with people in the pregnancy/baby space, and so far they seem to think this is a totally original idea made just for them.

FYI - I just received an invitation to a baby shower with a reference to www.amazingregistry.com. Your site looks much more pleasant than theirs, and you have a more narrow focus... but since their URL ended up on a real baby shower invitation, I'd say they are your competition.

>since their URL ended up on a real baby shower invitation

Sounds like there's an angle there for promotion - printable invitations, email invite list that tracks responses, free printed snail mail invites (team up with a print house that would take that opportunity) ...?

Re: I'm a pregnant hacker. Please review my side project.

#119

Post by gcheong »

frossie wrote: post #93

Here's my number one feature request that wishlists never seem to support: partial contributions. This is even more the case with baby registries, where families might want help with high-cost items (carseats, cribs etc) but where well-wishers are generally going to contribute something in the $20 range. Ideally, I want to be able to contribute $20 towards that $80 carseat. If A, B & C also contribute, the item shoul…

That sounds like a good idea. Maybe some kind of integration with a WePay type service?

Re: I'm a pregnant hacker. Please review my side project.

#120

Post by 2arrs2ells »

frossie wrote: post #93

Here's my number one feature request that wishlists never seem to support: partial contributions. This is even more the case with baby registries, where families might want help with high-cost items (carseats, cribs etc) but where well-wishers are generally going to contribute something in the $20 range. Ideally, I want to be able to contribute $20 towards that $80 carseat. If A, B & C also contribute, the item shoul…

I like the idea, but doing it would involve a lot of payment processing shenanigans (not an unsolved problem by any means - i.e. kickstarter - but definitely a significant hurdle for a weekend project).
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