Thanks for the heads up, fixed it and pushed an update. Need to have someone professional check the copy out. It's bad taste to have grammatical errors on an author focused platform.
Here are a couple more things you might want to look at:
- you need a comma after Hey (Hey Authors)
- audiobooks are "narrated" not "dictated"
- inconsistent capitalization in headings throughout (e.g. Write your book, Publish your Book)
- you need a comma before "and we'll take care of the rest" (under Publish your Book)
- Painfree should be hyphenated (Pain-free)
There are a couple of stylistic choices you might want to consider as well. You've got quite a few run on sentences. And most writers use "word processors" not "text editors" (assuming you're going for the average writer, not the HN crowd).
(Just trying to be helpful, please don't take this as criticism. Congrats on your launch!)
Not at all, pushed all the recommendations. Thanks again for pointing out the mistakes, I think I hit a nerve with everyone who visited the homepage today :(
Great fast fix -- I'm not sure you need someone professional but hopefully your potential customers convert long before they get down to the bottom of the page! :)
[EDIT] - Two more things:
- "Heyy" in the page title
- "we know you'll love [IndiePaper]" might be better than "it". Getting your project's name to stick in heads is probably easier with more mentions
Need to have someone professional check the copy out.
Professional author here. It's a major, eye-rolling turn-off to see the grammar and punctuation errors, and to be honest, the breezy response is also a turn-off and screams amateurish effort.
If you are posting this on HN, accepting users, and (presumably) taking payments, then you have already publicly launched, and you should have done this already.
I understand that it's a side project, but if you want to have people take your business seriously -- and a business marketing to writers, of all people -- then you've got to make sure your homepage copy is beyond reproach.
If you are posting this on HN, accepting users, and (presumably) taking payments, then you have already publicly launched, and you should have done this already.
This seems like an overly stringent requirement for Show HNs. The guidelines say no such thing[0], and in fact they say the opposite:
A Show HN needn't be complicated or look slick. The community is comfortable with work that's at an early stage.
I thought what drew people to HN in part was the ability to see fun and possibly unfinished/amateur but interesting and thought provoking content.
I agree that merely posting on HN doesn't constitute a public launch.
But what about meeting all three of the conditions I laid out in the sentence you quoted: (1) marketing the site to the public, (2) accepting users, and (3) taking payments.
Arguably, at that point, you have veered out of hobby project territory and have publicly launched a business -- and that's where my criticism lies.
Yes, I was so focused on the tech side, I forgot about who the core audience was and how much they of all people cares about language. I'm fixing the copy and I will get someone experienced on it.
Comments
This should probably be replaced with:
"We know you'll love it, and your readers will too."
Prose-minded customers might be a little turned off by slightly grammatically incorrect copy.
Thanks for the heads up, fixed it and pushed an update. Need to have someone professional check the copy out. It's bad taste to have grammatical errors on an author focused platform.
Here are a couple more things you might want to look at: - you need a comma after Hey (Hey Authors) - audiobooks are "narrated" not "dictated" - inconsistent capitalization in headings throughout (e.g. Write your book, Publish your Book) - you need a comma before "and we'll take care of the rest" (under Publish your Book) - Painfree should be hyphenated (Pain-free)
There are a couple of stylistic choices you might want to consider as well. You've got quite a few run on sentences. And most writers use "word processors" not "text editors" (assuming you're going for the average writer, not the HN crowd).
(Just trying to be helpful, please don't take this as criticism. Congrats on your launch!)
Not at all, pushed all the recommendations. Thanks again for pointing out the mistakes, I think I hit a nerve with everyone who visited the homepage today :(
Great fast fix -- I'm not sure you need someone professional but hopefully your potential customers convert long before they get down to the bottom of the page! :)
[EDIT] - Two more things:
- "Heyy" in the page title
- "we know you'll love [IndiePaper]" might be better than "it". Getting your project's name to stick in heads is probably easier with more mentions
Thanks for the suggestions, especially the one with the name, fixed and pushed :D
Professional author here. It's a major, eye-rolling turn-off to see the grammar and punctuation errors, and to be honest, the breezy response is also a turn-off and screams amateurish effort.
If you are posting this on HN, accepting users, and (presumably) taking payments, then you have already publicly launched, and you should have done this already.
I understand that it's a side project, but if you want to have people take your business seriously -- and a business marketing to writers, of all people -- then you've got to make sure your homepage copy is beyond reproach.
I'm not a "legacy" HN user or anything but
This seems like an overly stringent requirement for Show HNs. The guidelines say no such thing[0], and in fact they say the opposite:
I thought what drew people to HN in part was the ability to see fun and possibly unfinished/amateur but interesting and thought provoking content.
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
I agree that merely posting on HN doesn't constitute a public launch.
But what about meeting all three of the conditions I laid out in the sentence you quoted: (1) marketing the site to the public, (2) accepting users, and (3) taking payments.
Arguably, at that point, you have veered out of hobby project territory and have publicly launched a business -- and that's where my criticism lies.
A bit late but I do agree with that sentiment, (3) in particular. Taking payments is certainly a threshold
Yes, I was so focused on the tech side, I forgot about who the core audience was and how much they of all people cares about language. I'm fixing the copy and I will get someone experienced on it.