Ask HN: Probably a dumb idea to lose focus, but..

2 points by jackcouch 12 years ago | 7 comments

I am experimenting with an offer and wanted to publish this without bothering my developers or messing with our production servers.

https://docs.google.com/a/monchilla.com/drawings/d/1xrOqlfrBiw-XPs3_Yarf4X58VVlU_BqF7NNMl1o26FA/edit

I thought that would be easy, but after an hour of digging I gave up and was about to pass it off to my team and than I realized this would be impossible for most of my users (small business owners - non tech) so I thought I might pay someone to build a real simple UI that would allow users to specify a background image and change the 6 lines of text and then publish it on our servers. Here is why it might be a good idea: 1. Its cheap and would give some free value to my target market (Most of my users don't have a web page). 2. If it is hosted on my domain I might get some SEO benefit and some exposure since my domain name would be in the url. Here is why it probably isn't: 1. Its a distraction from the problems I'm trying to solve for my users.

Let me know what you think and if you don't think it's stupid, if you want some side work ;)

krapp 12 years ago |

What it looks to me like you kind of sort of have is a really basic brochure site service. I could definitely see this doing well with local clients and small businesses.

Looks like it would be ridiculously easy, too. If you can make some money on it than why not?

akbar501 12 years ago |

It may be a good idea, or it may not.

You should discuss this with your clients. Also, set some price for it (people tend to discount the value of free, plus just b/c your customers will accept a free x does not mean they value x). My $.02.

jackcouch 12 years ago | |

That's a good idea. I actually just bounced it off one of my users and they thought it would be great, but I often get flattering responses when I ask my users if they would like X because they already like us for solving a real pain.

jackcouch 12 years ago | | |

I just realized you're saying I should give them a price even if I plan to give it away for free. That's smart. Thx.

carbocation 12 years ago |

If you are looking for for-hire development with a small scope and clear objectives, might be worth checking out elance or odesk.

jackcouch 12 years ago | |

Do you think it would be a useful tool even for a more high tech (non dev) audience? Could you imagine a need for a quick and easy splash page in the next 12 months or would you just write the html and use your own web server?

carbocation 12 years ago | | |

I would probably pay $4 for a nice pre-made bootstrap theme (e.g., http://wrapbootstrap.com/preview/WB07T0755 ) and throw it up on one of the servers I have around.