Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi Brian,

After looking at the site, you offer absolutely "no reason" at all as to why anyone should sign-up.

The homepage gives no indication about what you do, who you are, and no reason whatsoever as to why I should leave my email address and name in the sign-up box.

I didn`t see any of the "viral techniques" that you mentioned...did I misunderstand something?

You should have some actual content on the homepage written in a way that would get your "targeted prospects" excited enough to be notified when the site is up and running...

Cartess


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Website Startup Coach: Step-by-Step Coaching to Help You Build a Profitable Business Online!

Hi Brian--

 I agree with Cartess.  You need to offer them some reason to part with their email address.  What freebie can you offer them that that would find valuable enough to sign up for your list?

Donna


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Donna Gunter, Internet Marketing Coach
http://www.OnlineBizU.com
Get your gift for StartUp Nation members, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit

Hello Brian:

In addition to what has already been said, I suspect the seven  sign-ups you have are of poor quality. In other words, the type of individuals who will basically sign-up for anything.

Dale King

 

 

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alright, so i`ve nailed at least part of the problem- the design. i had a very strong debate with my designer that no one would figure out where everything on our site actually was! if you clicked "bored?" link on the right (which doesn`t even look too much like a link) you`ll end up here: www.kicknote.com/content

and actually we are in the process of eliminating that front page with the clipboard completely, so if you didn`t understand the last statement i just wrote, that`s why.

there are a few things that we are giving away, but aren`t requiring emails for at the moment. if you go to www.kicknote.com/content/useful_links you`ll see 2 guides that are helpful to both aspiring artists going into the studio and recording engineers who are interested in building a custom microphone. heavily branded of course.

the viral techniques lie on the page at www.kicknote.com/mocknews . people can make up prank articles about their friends getting in trouble for illegal file sharing or getting kicked out of their band. these have been very well received so far and have spread relatively effortlessly.

i agree we don`t say much about who we are, only a short little blurb on the bottom describes what we expect a fan, artist and business to be, and then a "more" button gives a brief conceptual description of our service, but nothing specific. we really can`t unveil our full concept until we launch as we have a few competitors who are already active and may take advantage of this edge. there`s little we can do about that except keep secret.

so what is our best bet? make users register via email for the guides that we provide? place the box in a more prominent place? change the design?

also, what do you think is more important to devote resources to, getting this splash page right or finishing the site as soon as we can? as you can see, i`m at a tough point in this journey and resources are limited. VC`s or more angels would be greatly appreciated!

brian
www.kicknote.com

I get the message, "Are you interested in doing something like this?" It`s not so much a message as a general question. Suppose I say "yes." Then what? What do I do? Where`s my next action step? How do I proceed?

There may be a way to sign up, but it`s not very obvious. I didn`t see it, really. I clicked on Artist, read the text, thought it was kind of cool...true enough...and went to the More. That was the end of the line.

Here`s a more psychological thought. I was struck in your post here on SuN about your use of the phrase "to allow....the music industry to run more efficient by bringing together fans, artists and businesses directly without the need for huge corporations."

"Allow?"

Take another look at how those big corporations got so big in the first place. Who "allowed" them to gain control, and why are so many independent sites springing up these days?

I guess the point here is we will continue to drive traffic to the site although we`ve got very little to offer right now. We have been getting linkbacks to the "useful resources" section, which are important to us as well.

I agree that the email box is hard to find. I think our temporary solution is to have an exit popup (but not really a popup, it`ll stay in the same window and just kind of hover- AJAX for web geeks). This will hopefully engage the reader at least a little more to sign up, although it won`t be super-effective, until we`ve got something of more value to give.

Craig- I use the word "allow" to give a sense that we`re going to be hands-off in this whole thing. Just like SuN "allows" entrepreneurs to come together, and does not force anything, we will do the same for the local music industry. Your reference to big industry illustrates my point further- they were allowed to take control because they had the massive resources to connect artists to listeners, and that was necessary at the time they started.

Now those things are no longer necessary, but by default they`re still in control. We want to instill a message of freedom of choice. We`re not in control, we just give you the tools and put you in control.

Again, I appreciate everyone`s feedback. It`s good to get an outside perspective on things. Check back over the weekend if you want to see the changes we`ve made. 

Brian

www.kicknote.com

What if you change your phrase (in your mind) to something like "We offer" instead of allow? Like SuN offers a community forum for entrepreneurs.

Where I`m going with this has to do with the idea that depending on the way you phrase your core mission statement, you end up having all sorts of unconscious effects on everything you do to make it into reality.

As you can see on your current alpha version....you`re not offering anything. You`re allowing people to read stuff, develop an interest, and you`re remaining hands-off. Great...except there`s nothing to do. :-) Y`know?

In my opinion, driving traffic to a site when everything is so vague and there is nothing to do ... this is a waste.

When are you launching?

Can you not just launch and then build your traffic?

It`s like ... sending people there to get nothing and do nothing ... you`re wasting their time.
And it`ll be that much harder to convince them to come back later. You`re the boy who cried wolf.

Why? That makes absolutely no sense. You`re not only wasting your time and your visitors time, you`re damaging your credibility as well. Information travels at warp speed on the Internet. Everything you do, whether it`s good or bad is like the shot heard `round the world.

Once word gets out that you offer zero in the way of useful content or information, people are going to avoid your website like the Bubonic Plague.

Get your house in order first, then worry about traffic.

Dale King

-------------------------

If you`re tired of all the money-making
hype, lies and scams...read this!
Click here for more details!

I liked the layout of the site.  Your post got my interest. No clue what the website was about.