Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Gramlee is an online service that helps people ensure their writing (email, documents, etc.) is powerful, professional and to-the-point.  The site is currently in beta (interpret as "free to use").  It will be going live (paid) soon.

In addition to critiquing the website, I would love to hear your thoughts on:

1. the value the service delivers, and

2. whether you or someone you know would pay for something like this


The bottom line:

Critique the website
Critique the concept behind the endeavor

Thanks everyone.

Rushang

When i visit the site I get a script error. 

urchinTracker();

is causing the problem, there is no such object.

Your site doesn`t work in Internet Explorer 7 - all I see is the background and 2 script errors.

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

Oleg Issers | StartupNation.com Web Team

50% of computer programming is trial and error. The other 50% is copy and paste.

Too much coffee and a late night can do that to you.  ;)

Internet Explorer wasn`t liking the Google Analytics I added to it.  Should be fixed now.  Thanks all!

Graphically the site has a nice look and flow to it.

There`s nothing on the home page that tells me why I would need your service.

I would move the last two paragraphs in "why" to the home page and move your Free Trial/demo to it`s own page.  Perhaps you should drop the "why" page completely and move some of the content to the home page.  Also, this paragraph: " Your written communications speak volumes about you." does nothing for me.  For that matter, neither do the bullet points.

Steve


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

Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

Site worked for me (firefox, mac).

The look is nice.

I agree it isn`t communicating well.

And the problem with pasting in plain text is that I then get it back from you and have to format it with bullets, spacing, bolding, whatever. You should also have a JavaScript code snippet to erase the text when I click into the box. (I can paste that code here if you need it.)

That being said, I love the idea of an inexpensive and fast editing service.

I just wish there was some way for you to edit rich text or work with Word .docs.

It`s an interesting site, but you need to be more specific that real human beans will review the text.

Grammar isn`t like spelling, where there are clear rules in many cases. Grammar is wrapped in context and broken rules, depending on the type of writing. I admire anyone who takes a crack at online grammar management.

On the other hand, people are so used to spell-checkers and primitive grammar checking in things like MS Word, they also tend to want instant reaction and response. To that end, I wonder how many people want to wait for some unstated period to get a reply email?

Do you charge for this? If so, you should say so before someone enters an email address and hits the "send" button.

I`d maybe move the "How" page to the front, show the three steps, then have a large "Begin" button....right there on the home page. As it stands, you arrive at the home page and it`s a sort of mystery. :-) Okay...not a deep mystery, but still.

nhgnikole,

Please post the Javascript that you mentioned.  I was looking around for it but couldn`t find that sort of code snippet.

When the paid service comes around (very soon), there will be a provision to upload an entire document.  This should alleviate any concerns related to retaining text formatting.

In the head, it looks like this:

<script type="text/javascript">
function clickclear(thisfield, defaulttext) {
    if (thisfield.value == defaulttext) {
        thisfield.value = "";
    }
}
function clickrecall(thisfield, defaulttext) {
    if (thisfield.value == "") {
        thisfield.value = defaulttext;
    }
}
</script>

And in the form, it looks like this:

<input type="text" name="email" value="Enter E-mail Address" onclick="clickclear(this, `Enter E-mail Address`)" onblur="clickrecall(this,`Enter E-mail Address`)" />

Thanks nhgnikole.  I found another script this morning that does the same thing. 

Thanks for suggesting the idea in the first place!