I have a OSX desktop and a Windows 10 laptop...I hate using my laptop and am thinking of dual booting with Ubuntu. I just wish I could go entirely Ubuntu but I would miss Lightroom/Photoshop and MS Office too much.
I know that there are linux alternatives but I find them awkward to use and much prefer the Adobe/MS suite.
GIMP etc certainly isn't up there with the Adobe suite, however WPS Office (community edition) is pretty damn good as far as a MS Office clone (in terms of file format compatibility and user interface).
Interesting that they were generating pretty insignificant returns and their accounts got flagged.
Their bets were not that large $50... wonder what aspect of their play got them flagged.
I would assume the bookies are aware of when they are offering an odd that is above market...they also would know that this is an areas where they are potentially exposed. So maybe they report on that and see who is betting exclusively on those positions?
Confusing though - because they are often offering those odds because they want to balance their position to reduce risk...so wouldn't they want people to be on those odds?
While I appreciate the sentiment, I would appreciate it even more if you that that I was impressive for shipping stuff and gradually doing process tweaks targeted at things that actually matter. People jump directly from "X is a god" to "I am mortal, and therefore, cannot be like X."
Pretty much all HNers capable of shipping product are equally capable of doing the sort of things I do to tweak those products' success upwards. There's not really any secret sauce or black magic involved, and to the extent that I'm better at it than other folks are, that's largely a function of a) having six years of practice and b) actually using the bag o' tricks. (Most common process failure with A/B testing: not A/B testing. Most common failure mode for lifecycle emails: sending 0 emails. Most common pricing mistake: doing no work on pricing whatsoever. etc, etc)
What drew me into your blog is that you started it when you weren't very successful. I don't remember the specifics but it seemed like you weren't all that confident and you were super conservative about how much you spent on your side project that has now become so much more.
That makes for a much more interesting (and useful) read than a blog in which the author is apparently cut of a different cloth than normal humans from the beginning.
I jump from "X is a god" to "I suck and therefore cannot be like X". Thank you, X for publicly stating this line of thinking is wrong. It's funny because I'm literally taking a 5 minute break from a project that's taking me down that line of thought so maybe the fact that I headed here to read this comment at just this moment does make you a god. Or maybe I just read the right thing at the right time haha.
Should I quit it (brokeback style), spend some time making it mobile + setting a annual fee and trying to find the magic adwords amount to grow my userbase without losing money or keep on keeping on (trying to make some ad revenue with my current userbase of 150ish)
I know a bit more about selling software -- I can tell you, for example, that "Facebook integration" is not a benefit for most people (you mention it prominently like you believe it solves problems, but no golfer wakes up in the morning and goes "You know what was missing from my last golf game? Facebook!"). You're not making economically rational decisions trying to sell ad networ ads against a userbase smaller than X00,000 to X million. (You can have one-off ad deals which are viable much smaller than that, but that gets you into ad sales.) You're probably not going to have success with AdWords unless you can get people to a 3 figure LTV -- "make it mobile" does not strike me as getting you there given what I know about app store economics.
But help me on the golf front. Does this solve an actual problem real people actually have in their lives? Have you talked to avid golfers and have gnashed their teeth about how not knowing Average Score By Hole Distance is just crushing their enjoyment of the sport? Are these customers willing to pay for better golf scores, for example because it helps them invite more clients to more golf games and hence close more real estate sales, which is the reason they golf in the first place?
Talk to your customers. (Or the people who should be your customers if you were actually charging for this, which -- by the way -- is a great discipline to have from day 1 since it focuses you on reality.) If they're not wildly hair-on-fire enthusiastic about this, I don't know that I would spend lots of time on this when for the same effort of getting you from 150 non-paying users to 300 non-paying users would let you write software people that people would passionately care about.
Agreed. He should make sure people actually want to use this, and if not, then just move on. Seems he built the software before testing if there was a market for it. Golfers spend lots of money on the actual game and equipment, though. So maybe he could use this as a channel to sell some golf equipment. Maybe he can test different golf balls and then have the software tell people which to buy from his website. Though this would require more resources to be invested into it.
I think there's definitely a market for this type of tool if you target it correctly. I'm only a casual golfer, but my dad's a golfing nut. He plays everyday with likeminded golf nut friends, and they all track and talk about their stats to varying degrees. They also watch golf on TV and play fantasy golf leagues. I could see my dad and his friends getting utterly obsessive about a tool like this if it was done right. I could also see them paying for it if they liked it. Golfers tend to be pretty well off on average. I don't think they're likely to be very price conscious about a <$20/month service if it brings them any value or enjoyment at all.
That said, I think you need to work on your presentation and design. It doesn't inspire much excitement. Instead of listing features and talking about the app, I would focus more on capturing the user's imagination. Don't tell them what the app does. Tell them why they should care. Communicate more on an emotional level. That's where the decision to use/buy will be made.
The screenshots also look a bit dull. I know it's just an analytics dashboard, but I think a shiny interface is going to be important. You don't want someone's subconscious visual impression to be 'glorified excel spreadsheet', you want it to be 'futuristic intelligent stat crunching engine that magically improves your score'. Regardless of what the app does, the way it looks will deeply influence how powerful it is perceived to be. Imagine a golfing scene from some sci-fi movie set 100 years in the future. What's the interface on their super advanced tablet going to look like? That's what to aim for.
Last piece of advice: I would look at the ads in golf magazines or on TV for guidance on design and language. Selling equipment, gadgets, and media to golf nuts is a huge industry. The companies that have been around for awhile are experts at marketing to this demographic. The same techniques that convince someone to buy a new $500 driver or instructional dvds or some useless magnetic bracelet could definitely convince them to buy software that provides useful statistics if you present it right.
Also - I think you should work on your slide show content and the headlines. Title's such as "Golf Stats" and "Golf Handicap" will not inspire your users. Hit them with something more interesting and thought provoking.
Your main heading might be the first thing your potential customer reads so make it memorable.
I've never golfed before, but I'm a huge bowler. During league, we have a lot of side-bets going on between individuals. High game pots, high series, brackets, etc. Is golf league similar? In bowling, it's obviously very easy to keep track of the current score and standings throughout the night. Would a live scoring tool enable, or improve, this aspect of league?
That's really a pity because I expect the golf demographic to substantially overlap with the middle-aged-white-guy demographic which I've seen have high CPCs.
To the best of my knowledge, every registered club golfer is allocated a Golflink number, and the result of each competition round is recorded for calculation handicaps. I don't recall what detailed information is recorded - it might be nothing other than the round result - but for many people this would be 'enough'.
I had thought about developing such a system too, but thought that without creating an 'official' relationship with Golflink my semi-parallel system would (in Australia at least) go nowhere. However, I still think it is a very good idea, as many golfers really love to track all sorts of stats and info.
Dude, charge for this. Seriously. Add some value by providing personalized practice tips.
If this had a mobile app I could carry around a golf course and map my every shot, I would pay plenty of cash for that. Automated stats that would help me focus on the shortcomings of my games and let me understand the trends of my shots.
I would have loved this kind of thing when I played junior golf. I spent a lot of time making spreadsheets with all of my statistics. Have you tried marketing towards junior players? AJGA and some of the really competitive junior tours have a lot of serious players who would love to have comprehensive stats on their rounds.
I built something similar to this back in 2007 and while it did ok for a few years it eventually fell off of a cliff. It's difficult to compete now against free alternatives and cheap mobile apps.
The beauty of golf is people spend a lot of money on it. I'd charge people a premium to use it. Couple recommendations: Lose the pop-up for Facebook sign-in. Optimize it for mobile (you're probably going to use this while you're in the cart). For marketing, try going directly to some clubs and getting in front of some of their members. Some exclusive clubs probably won't let you, but start small. Can't hurt.
Thanks... I introduced the popup for facebook sign-in and it didn't change my conversion for new (adwords) visitors but like 10% more signed up with facebook so I kept it.
My site posts a timeline post when a user creates a new round (unless you have turned that off). So it is kind of a free impression so I prefer facebook sign-ups. Maybe that is a project for the winter make it mobile (jquery mobile?) and implement some sort of payment system. $10/year seems fair to me. Just have to figure out an amount that will cover my hosting + adwords spend on a typical month.
"Dear Mr. Woodhill,
I am embarrassed for you writing such an article when GM currently has about $40 billion in cash and liquid assets in the bank and is projected to earn
about $4.00 per share next year which comes to another $8 billion profit to add to it. GM currently has enough cash in the bank and liquid assets on hand to buy back ALL of it’s shares at the current market price if it chose to do so. GM’s liabilities per the balance sheet are maybe $15 billion which is very manageable for a company of GM’s size. The shortfall in the pension and benefits is estimated depending on who you check it out with between
$15 and $25 billion. GM has well over $100 billion on hand in its pension trust fund and the shortfall is payable over many years into the future. There has just been a law enacted which increases the future interest rate expected on the future returns for pension plans that will significantly decrease the present value of the future obligations and GM has billions in tax deferrals to use up.
It doesn’t matter if GM loses some market share as they are downsizing. What matters is how much profit they are making whether they are first in sales or not. A big problem GM had before was that they strove to be #1 regardless of their profit status or the reputation they were sacrificing to remain first in sales. I will be very happy to send you a contribution to enable you to sign up for Security Analysis 101 as it appears you have never taken that course or need a refresher." -- First Comment. This pretty much sums up the article. Bullshit.
If you skip TDD then you should make sure that you take the time to build out test cases with full coverage.
I can't tell you the number of times I have made a change then run regression testing and found unforeseen failures which I wouldn't have caught without my test cases.
Also there are a million joke sites out there you would have to either pick a very specific niche that isn't already packed full or you would have to have something that differentiates you from the other million. If you could get a somewhat famous comedian to write some jokes for you and get them to plug it in their shows and/or via their social media then you might get traffic. Would probably cost you more than the traffic is worth though.
I know that there are linux alternatives but I find them awkward to use and much prefer the Adobe/MS suite.