Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups

copyhackers.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 99 posts

Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups

#31

Post by MartinCron »

jonnathanson wrote: post #27

Copywriting is taken for granted. Period. It's taken for granted in the Fortune 500 world, where marketing departments view it as a cheap commodity. And it's taken for granted at a lot of tech companies (Apple's being a notable exception). But it shouldn't be. And a project like this one -- not to mention the founder/author's innovation and tenacity -- will help turn the tide. There's certainly a fair amount of dark…

Another example of an organization that takes copywriting seriously is Zappos. I actually read what they send me because it's generally pretty good.

Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups

#33

Post by jeffool »

bloggergirl wrote: post #29
jonnathanson wrote: post #27

Copywriting is taken for granted. Period. It's taken for granted in the Fortune 500 world, where marketing departments view it as a cheap commodity. And it's taken for granted at a lot of tech companies (Apple's being a notable exception). But it shouldn't be. And a project like this one -- not to mention the founder/author's innovation and tenacity -- will help turn the tide. There's certainly a fair amount of dark…

Wow, jonnathanson, you couldn't be more spot-on! That's unfortunately how I see it ---- the Fortune 500 world forgets that copy can have a huge impact on sales/signups. (On the other hand, Groupon takes writing very seriously... but I haven't heard that they pay very well; I'd be interested to hear how they compensate writers.) You should do a post on the subject!

The company I'd like to know about is Woot.com; they need to pay their writers by the truckload. I hit that site every day.

Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups

#34

Post by jonnathanson »

bloggergirl wrote: post #29
jonnathanson wrote: post #27

Copywriting is taken for granted. Period. It's taken for granted in the Fortune 500 world, where marketing departments view it as a cheap commodity. And it's taken for granted at a lot of tech companies (Apple's being a notable exception). But it shouldn't be. And a project like this one -- not to mention the founder/author's innovation and tenacity -- will help turn the tide. There's certainly a fair amount of dark…

Wow, jonnathanson, you couldn't be more spot-on! That's unfortunately how I see it ---- the Fortune 500 world forgets that copy can have a huge impact on sales/signups. (On the other hand, Groupon takes writing very seriously... but I haven't heard that they pay very well; I'd be interested to hear how they compensate writers.) You should do a post on the subject!

Pay is a big issue. Hell, it's probably the primary -- if not sole -- reason why I haven't grown the stones to toss aside my golden[1] corporate shackles and ply a trade I actually love. I flirted with copywriting, be it on a consulting basis, or perhaps in-house at a former employer. But, as we know, a lot of companies just don't take it seriously; that attitude is reflected in the pay scales.

That's why I have a boatload of respect for you and for this project. It's up to writers to differentiate commodity wordsmithing from genuinely powerful work. And it's up to a few daring employers to know the difference, and to demand it. Your startup makes a fairly bold declaration of the importance of an underappreciated skill. And it's positioned well, in a market full of entrepreneurs who are more open to new ideas than most F-500 middle managers would be.

[1] OK, maybe they're only electro-plated. At any rate, they glitter significantly less than Goldman, for instance.

Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups

#38

Post by izak30 »

bigiain wrote: post #26
nnythm wrote: post #18

it is disconcerting to have your password emailed to you. are you storing the passwords in cleartext? Would definitely prefer if you didn't.

I'd guess that's the standard Wordpress account reg email - Wordpress _does_ email you a cleartext password, but it does also hash the password and only stores the hash. I think it's a reasonable tradeoff - those of us with properly managed password storage can delete the email, but the 99% who _don't_ use some form of password safe can keep using their email archive as their place to look up passwords they've forgot…

I know this is "standard wordpress". The problem with this is that your email isn't secure password storage, neither is the delivery of your email. Reset forgotten passwords, don't store or transfer them in plain text. Please.

Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups

#39

Post by JoshTriplett »

whazzmaster wrote: post #23
camz wrote: post #11

I think the site is buckling under the HN stress lol, especially the checkout cart. I doubt that this would be an issue under normal circumstances, but I just wanted to let you know that the site is getting tons of attention. Congrats! =D

I really wanted to purchase but would rather not send CC info over non-SSL connections. Are you going to be putting the store on SSL at some point? Or maybe it is supposed to be but there are some fallbacks being used under the current heavy load.

AFAICT the credit card processing all happens through PayPal. However, I don't particularly want to provide all the other billing information on a non-SSL page either.

I tried manually going to https://www.copyhackers.com/ , but that tries to serve an SSL certificate for webcopygirl.com (which looks like a parked domain).

Configuration problems, or lack of SSL certificate? If the latter, do you already know about StartCom (https://www.startssl.com/)? They provide domain-validated certificates for free.

Re: How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups

#40

Post by bigiain »

izak30 wrote: post #38
bigiain wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd guess that's the standard Wordpress account reg email - Wordpress _does_ email you a cleartext password, but it does also hash the password and only stores the hash. I think it's a reasonable tradeoff - those of us with properly managed password storage can delete the email, but the 99% who _don't_ use some form of password safe can keep using their email archive as their place to look up passwords they've forgot…

I know this is "standard wordpress". The problem with this is that your email isn't secure password storage, neither is the delivery of your email. Reset forgotten passwords, don't store or transfer them in plain text. Please.

You're right. Except most of the world doesn't know it (yet).

_Lots_ of (mainly non-technical) people _do_ use their email archive as their "(not so) secure password storage".

As someone who regularly deals with website owners with non-technical audiences, I see all the time that this decision by the Wordpress devs is almost certainly a sensibly pragmatic choice. Those of us who know and care about password security can deal with it - delete the email when it arrives, if you're particularly paranoid go back and change it (I'm pretty sure Wordpress only does this on signup, not on password changes).

Until my mom uses 1Passwork or KeyPassX or PasswordSafe (or an equivalent), I can easily see why many many Wordpress site owners think this is the right compromise between password security and useability.

Post reply on HN