Ask HN: Review My App | "LifesBook" = Twitter + A Diary
8 comments
First off: You stole Tumblr's icons. That's a really, really shitty thing to do. They paid good money for those icons and you blatantly ripped them from the site.
Not just that. You copy your "translucent borders" from Facebook, your "close window" dialogue from the original lightbox and your feedback tab links to Getsatisfaction. The one original idea you had, putting notebook lines in the background, you couldn't even bother to sync up with the size of your font. (Aviary does this but they actually sync up the lines.)
Second off: How is this better than Tumblr? Do you know what Twitter is without ultrasimplicity? It's a downgraded version of a regular blog. That's why "Twitter+this" startups fail. Twitter is only good because it's so simple.
I use my blog as a diary. I write 20-30 posts a day about whatever comes to mind in the hopes that I can preserve it as a diary for half a century and then figure out a way to make use of it. Why would I pay $10 a month for something that gives me less than I've already got?
Third off: I like the header design but it's hard to navigate. I'm also a little offended that as your "famous diary person of choice" you picked Anne Frank, whose diary is most famous because the person that wrote it died. What's the implication? "You'll die so write stuff down?" For an online service, that's pretty obnoxious.
All that stuff aside, it looks nice, though I wonder just how much of this design you ripped off sources of which I'm not aware. (I could swear that font looks remarkably close to the "sparse black-on-white" that Posterous uses.)
Not just that. You copy your "translucent borders" from Facebook, your "close window" dialogue from the original lightbox and your feedback tab links to Getsatisfaction. The one original idea you had, putting notebook lines in the background, you couldn't even bother to sync up with the size of your font. (Aviary does this but they actually sync up the lines.)
Second off: How is this better than Tumblr? Do you know what Twitter is without ultrasimplicity? It's a downgraded version of a regular blog. That's why "Twitter+this" startups fail. Twitter is only good because it's so simple.
I use my blog as a diary. I write 20-30 posts a day about whatever comes to mind in the hopes that I can preserve it as a diary for half a century and then figure out a way to make use of it. Why would I pay $10 a month for something that gives me less than I've already got?
Third off: I like the header design but it's hard to navigate. I'm also a little offended that as your "famous diary person of choice" you picked Anne Frank, whose diary is most famous because the person that wrote it died. What's the implication? "You'll die so write stuff down?" For an online service, that's pretty obnoxious.
All that stuff aside, it looks nice, though I wonder just how much of this design you ripped off sources of which I'm not aware. (I could swear that font looks remarkably close to the "sparse black-on-white" that Posterous uses.)
Continuing use, signed up despite myself:
Wow, you are ripping off Tumblr bigtime. Those are its "submit" buttons, too. What's the red-box-with-x design from? I know it's a generic icon, so is the red-border layout just generic or is that ripped off, too?
Your search is broken - you should also not require me to open a pop-up box to get it - and surprise! The search field is ripped off of Tumblr! This is the moment where I fire off an email to Marco to let him know somebody's stealing his designs.
You're using some sort of CMS for this, because I just got an error sign trying to search. So you're prepackaging somebody else's code here to make money?
Get an actual FAQ.
Your welcome email: "My name is Peter Nicholls I am the founder of LifesBook so id firstly like to give a big thanks to you for signing up!"
Fix your spelling, fix your grammar, and fix your punctuation. This is your creation: show it some respect. Also, why pound signs for header info? Isn't bold better for that? Or better yet, CSS maybe?
Tumblr's buttons give me indication that I've clicked them. Yours are totally static. (I don't know why I go on giving feedback, since it looks like you utterly stole this idea. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.)
Why does deleting a post give me a JS prompt instead of one of your Facebook pop-up prompts?
Why does a text post give me a "WWW" symbol? They have a goddamned TEXT BUTTON. Can't you even rip off their paid-for design well?
"Dam" is spelled "Damn".
This site is very slow for some reason.
Wow, you are ripping off Tumblr bigtime. Those are its "submit" buttons, too. What's the red-box-with-x design from? I know it's a generic icon, so is the red-border layout just generic or is that ripped off, too?
Your search is broken - you should also not require me to open a pop-up box to get it - and surprise! The search field is ripped off of Tumblr! This is the moment where I fire off an email to Marco to let him know somebody's stealing his designs.
You're using some sort of CMS for this, because I just got an error sign trying to search. So you're prepackaging somebody else's code here to make money?
Get an actual FAQ.
Your welcome email: "My name is Peter Nicholls I am the founder of LifesBook so id firstly like to give a big thanks to you for signing up!"
Fix your spelling, fix your grammar, and fix your punctuation. This is your creation: show it some respect. Also, why pound signs for header info? Isn't bold better for that? Or better yet, CSS maybe?
Tumblr's buttons give me indication that I've clicked them. Yours are totally static. (I don't know why I go on giving feedback, since it looks like you utterly stole this idea. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.)
Why does deleting a post give me a JS prompt instead of one of your Facebook pop-up prompts?
Why does a text post give me a "WWW" symbol? They have a goddamned TEXT BUTTON. Can't you even rip off their paid-for design well?
"Dam" is spelled "Damn".
This site is very slow for some reason.
One final thing, because I've hit the wall of your featureset: don't make me click to four pages to get to settings. Put it all on one page unless you have a good reason to do otherwise.
The tumblr icons are all removed, I just put this site together quickly and admit it was the wrong thing to do, I apologize.
Im not sure about the facebook stuff your talking about I also thought using lightbox and Getsatisfaction the way I have is ok.
Header was never ment to offend, its was just a bit of fun. As most people would assume I am not implying that you die if you use this service. Has also been replaced.
I put the site together in a few days and design is not my strong point. The orignal diary type design is shown here: http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/design-watercolor-e.... I have permission to use this stuff, including the 404 page.
I honestly dont expect a HN user to use this site, its more geared towards people that havnt got a clue what wordpress or tubmlr is.
Im not sure about the facebook stuff your talking about I also thought using lightbox and Getsatisfaction the way I have is ok.
Header was never ment to offend, its was just a bit of fun. As most people would assume I am not implying that you die if you use this service. Has also been replaced.
I put the site together in a few days and design is not my strong point. The orignal diary type design is shown here: http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/design-watercolor-e.... I have permission to use this stuff, including the 404 page.
I honestly dont expect a HN user to use this site, its more geared towards people that havnt got a clue what wordpress or tubmlr is.
"I honestly dont expect a HN user to use this site, its more geared towards people that havnt got a clue what wordpress or tubmlr is."
If the people you are targeting do not know what Wordpress or Tumblr are, how in the internet world would they stumble upon you before first landing on one of those sites?
If the people you are targeting do not know what Wordpress or Tumblr are, how in the internet world would they stumble upon you before first landing on one of those sites?
Then you have to ask yourself whether or not people will pay $10 for a web site without first looking to see if there are major competitors who offer a service for free.
First, as always, congratulations on launching and getting something out the door. I think that's one of the hardest things to do, so kudos to you for getting something out there.
I kinda like this idea though I'm not sure I'd pay $9.99 a month for it. Also, if you were industrious enough you could do this yourself with a private WP blog that you email posts to, but obviously not everyone knows how to do that.
A few thoughts about your web site that after a first look.
1.) The first thing that grabs my eye is the "A Diary + Twitter = LifesBook" yellow block in the center of the page and it immediately confused me. I first thought that the app somehow integrated with Twitter and then thought "There's no way I'd post my private thoughts to a Twitter stream." At this point, peeps who feel the same way might move on.
2.) The phrase "(SMS type functionality)" in the yellow box only confused me more and I still have no idea what it means even after realizing that you can text thoughts to your service.
3.) The next block under the yellow block focuses more on features than benefits. I wouldn't lead with "SMS Diary Entires", "Memory Bank", and "Locked and Secure". Those don't mean much to me as the user. Try something like "Post from Anywhere", "Never Forget a Thought", and "We Keep Your Secrets" instead.
4.) Small typo under the Spare Change heading on the home page. You end with "Seriously just got nuts." I think you mean "just go nuts", right?
5.) Others may disagree, but I don't love the name. I think my biggest fear of using a service like this is that I'd be posting my most private thoughts out into the cloud, so a name that somehow let me know that you're storing my secrets as securely as possible would be a plus. Sorry I don't have a good name suggestion right now, but it's something to think about.
Anyway, best of luck to you. I think if you keep tweaking and iterating you'll find something that people really dig.
I kinda like this idea though I'm not sure I'd pay $9.99 a month for it. Also, if you were industrious enough you could do this yourself with a private WP blog that you email posts to, but obviously not everyone knows how to do that.
A few thoughts about your web site that after a first look.
1.) The first thing that grabs my eye is the "A Diary + Twitter = LifesBook" yellow block in the center of the page and it immediately confused me. I first thought that the app somehow integrated with Twitter and then thought "There's no way I'd post my private thoughts to a Twitter stream." At this point, peeps who feel the same way might move on.
2.) The phrase "(SMS type functionality)" in the yellow box only confused me more and I still have no idea what it means even after realizing that you can text thoughts to your service.
3.) The next block under the yellow block focuses more on features than benefits. I wouldn't lead with "SMS Diary Entires", "Memory Bank", and "Locked and Secure". Those don't mean much to me as the user. Try something like "Post from Anywhere", "Never Forget a Thought", and "We Keep Your Secrets" instead.
4.) Small typo under the Spare Change heading on the home page. You end with "Seriously just got nuts." I think you mean "just go nuts", right?
5.) Others may disagree, but I don't love the name. I think my biggest fear of using a service like this is that I'd be posting my most private thoughts out into the cloud, so a name that somehow let me know that you're storing my secrets as securely as possible would be a plus. Sorry I don't have a good name suggestion right now, but it's something to think about.
Anyway, best of luck to you. I think if you keep tweaking and iterating you'll find something that people really dig.
Thanks for the great feedback!
Regarding 1,2 and 3, I agree Ill look into changing this now.
5. I see what your saying but I think its possible to put these concerns to rest by building a strong brand based on things such as security. I don't think a new name is what should express that, I think thats the brands job.
Regarding 1,2 and 3, I agree Ill look into changing this now.
5. I see what your saying but I think its possible to put these concerns to rest by building a strong brand based on things such as security. I don't think a new name is what should express that, I think thats the brands job.
Iv killed the site, clearly lots of things i need to fix. lesson learnt.
Best of luck to you! When you do your next thing, absolutely feel free to submit - don't let criticism this time stop you.
Meta-feedback:
To be successful, you need the tenacity to keep going and the humility to realize where you erred. Welcome to the crucible.
What could you do next time to avoid these particular responses?
To be successful, you need the tenacity to keep going and the humility to realize where you erred. Welcome to the crucible.
What could you do next time to avoid these particular responses?
"As you would expect after a user has been using the site for a few months the data (their entires) we store for them becomes really quiet valuable to the user."
True enough, but please don't hold your users' data hostage.
True enough, but please don't hold your users' data hostage.
Oh I don't plan to at all
We don't care what you plan to do. We care what you have in place already that allows data portability.
I guess this is as good a time as ever to be concise and blunt. You have competitors that do exactly the same thing, better, for free, that have traction, and a recognizable brand. Good luck.
good luck, but I dont think u will find many customers for this due to the fact that:
wordpress if free & twitter is free and lets u keep your updates private if you want i believe
it does look very well done though
wordpress if free & twitter is free and lets u keep your updates private if you want i believe
it does look very well done though
I see what your saying and thats why I am looking for feedback on a business model
http://www.lifesbook.com
WHAT THE SITE DOES
LifesBook is a private online diary (or journal) that works much the same way twitter works (in terms of SMS and hopefully user frequency of posts).
To make an entry all you need to do is send in an SMS, make as many entries as you like whenever you like! If you start to get lazy with your entries (like you would with a normal diary) don't worry we can kindly remind you.
THE BUSINESS
So I think this is the kind of app that a few months ago you would see with no business model apart from ads, basically fuck that. I have gone for the typical subscription based approach set at $9.99 per month for now, I hope to get this cost down and I will be able to when I get a bit of the economies of scale loving.
I aim to and hope that I have created such a good product that $9.99 seems like great value. As you would expect after a user has been using the site for a few months the data (their entires) we store for them becomes really quiet valuable to the user. This makes me want to extend the trial period from the current week to as long as possible (eg 3 months) but SMS costs are just to crazy to be able to do that right now.
What do you think about this business model and approach?? Its an app that I think allot of people would use if free but how can i make that financially viable? I don't think I can so thats why iv done what iv done.
FEW MORE THINGS
Due to the SMS cost I currently only have a UK number available, this may mean it will cost a user outside of the UK more to send a text in. I am not to sure. But either way I plan to add a US number as soon as its financially viable, I am guessing thats within the month.
Search has just died on us in production, its a hosting issue and we are on to it.. Decided to release anyways. Meh
FEEDBACK
I want as much feedback as possible and not just on the app I also want feedback on the business behind it.