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Marc Köhlbrugge

Marc Köhlbrugge
PRO

@marc

Building too many things.
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40
Joined September 2017
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  • White text on pink background is hard to read
  • Text size in header is too small
  • The article view looks great
  • Some photos are very low-res (e.g. Pretzel Hands')
  • Would like to see more images in interviews
  • Questions and answers in Pretzel Hand's interview could use more distinct styling so they are easier to tell apart
  • Saying every interviewee has "No CS degree" gets repetitive
  • Articles are too long IMO (although honestly I didn't actually read them, see below)
  • Took a second for me to understand the domain name. I read it as Noc's Degree. This might be one of those exceptions where dashes in the domain might be better.

I'm not sure who No CS Degree is for. Personally I couldn't care less whether someone has a CS degree or not. I guess that's also your point. That it doesn't matter. So why highlight people without CS degrees, if it doesn't matter?

The reason Indie Hackers and Starter Story work, is because as entrepreneurs we learn we're not alone. We all face similar challenges. And we can learn from each other. See what worked for others.

Maybe No CS Degree's value proposition is similar, but I wonder if the challenges people without a CS degree face are really distinct enough from people with a CS degree. Do people without a CS degree identify as such? I don't have a CS degree, but it's not something I ever think about.

hey man, thanks for looking at it:

Design - yeah, I agree. Gotta work on that and agree the Pretzel Hands one is too low-res. Will sort out head and format of Q&A

Copy - I get you. I was thinking about SEO but agree I should vary more

Concept - it's for coders/career changers who don't have CS degree but want to get jobs or make products. I agree it doesn't always matter but I think there is the perception it does, particularly with learners. So the concept is to show successes of coders to people who can't/won't do a 4 year degree.

Hi Nana. You can change your avatar in Telegram, and then send /refresh to @wipbot to have it update on the site.

I'll add a feature so you can update it on the site as well.

This is fantastic. Just tried it and it works

Try replacing the absolute positioning with fixed positioning:

.thememattic-midnav .container-fluid {
  position: fixed;
}

Can you provide more info? What makes you think it would stay at the top? By default elements scroll with the page.

Try replacing the absolute positioning with fixed positioning:

.thememattic-midnav .container-fluid {
  position: fixed;
}

For sure, but keep in mind that the customers you reach pre-launch are probably people that you you have an existing relationship with or are otherwise more likely to hear you out. Once you launch the product and have "drive by" visitors, I think those are more difficult to convince. They might kid themselves they will just send a regular postcard and you don't get a chance to convince them otherwise because they've already left the site by that point. (These are all assumptions of course, but this is the potential issue I was getting at).

Good point about something being better than nothing at all. That said, I do think it's hard to convince people of that. I imagine many people will feel the same way as I do and don't give the app a chance.

With regards to the real life example, I mean showing actual photos of the printed postcards.

I think some people are much easier to convince than others. Otherwise I wouldn't explain the 30 customers I already got for a product that hasn't been launched yet :)

For sure, but keep in mind that the customers you reach pre-launch are probably people that you you have an existing relationship with or are otherwise more likely to hear you out. Once you launch the product and have "drive by" visitors, I think those are more difficult to convince. They might kid themselves they will just send a regular postcard and you don't get a chance to convince them otherwise because they've already left the site by that point. (These are all assumptions of course, but this is the potential issue I was getting at).

I only have recent experience with Ruby on Rails, so it's impossible to fairly compare them all. That said, I do believe Ruby on Rails is (still) a great way to quickly develop a web-based product. It's not the right tool for every job (e.g. single-page apps and real-time apps), but for a relatively straight forward CRUD app (Creating, Reading, Updating, and Deleting records) it's extremely fast to get something up and running.

Plus, there are a hundreds if not thousands of high-quality Rubygems for common functionality such as authentication, commenting, and most other common site features.

"send it anywhere in the world in 30 seconds"

This makes it sound the postcard is delivered in 30 seconds, suggesting it's digital opposed to analog.

  • All the examples are not real-life examples. I'd like to see some photos of the physical postcards. That's your USP (versus e.g. a text message or email), but you aren't showing it.
  • The texts in 3 steps in the "How it's done" section are too small.
  • Most people won't care about Stripe / don't know it.
  • I think the 3 steps could be more visual. Rather than describing it takes 30 seconds and then one week for delivery, etc can you show that visually? Some kind of infographic incorporating all the steps.
  • The overall typography feels a bit bland. I'd play more with contrasting sizes
  • Being able to open the editor without signup is cool. Perhaps you can bring this editor to the homepage? Removing one click.
  • You might want to disallow animated GIFs, or make them static
  • I couldn't find a way to go back to the homepage after opening the editor. Even the back-button is disabled.

As for the concept, I think the beauty of postcards (opposed to digital media) is that it was personally written by the sender and traveled from them to the recipient. Having it printed and sent from a warehouse somewhere removes the magic for me personally and adds little value to a digital message.

Hey Marc, thanks for taking the time to write this :)

Couple of questions:
- You say "All the examples are not real-life examples. I'd like to see some photos of the physical postcards. That's your USP (versus e.g. a text message or email), but you aren't showing it." Can you elaborate on this please? The photo in the hero section is real-life as well as the others on the page.
- "Being able to open the editor without signup is cool. Perhaps you can bring this editor to the homepage? Removing one click." You're right. I brought the editor to the home. What do you think?

As for your last point. I totally get it but that's often an excuse for not doing at all.
I can assure you that receiving a postcard with a personal photo (instead of a stock-photo one) is still a magical moment. My granny literally cried the other day. Most people will overlook the fact that it's not hand-written but will look at the fact that you actually took the time to do it

Good point about something being better than nothing at all. That said, I do think it's hard to convince people of that. I imagine many people will feel the same way as I do and don't give the app a chance.

With regards to the real life example, I mean showing actual photos of the printed postcards.

I think some people are much easier to convince than others. Otherwise I wouldn't explain the 30 customers I already got for a product that hasn't been launched yet :)

For sure, but keep in mind that the customers you reach pre-launch are probably people that you you have an existing relationship with or are otherwise more likely to hear you out. Once you launch the product and have "drive by" visitors, I think those are more difficult to convince. They might kid themselves they will just send a regular postcard and you don't get a chance to convince them otherwise because they've already left the site by that point. (These are all assumptions of course, but this is the potential issue I was getting at).

I missed the follow-up question when it was originally asked, but answering for future reference:

You can absolutely buy valuable domains for below $1,800. I've bought domains for hundreds of dollars and sold them for thousands. It comes down to patience, observing trends ( namebio.com is helpful to determine sale prices of different categories of domains), and a bit of luck.

If I had $1,800 to spend on domains I'd focus on .co's as they are still relatively affordable, but also popular with startups. You can also spend some money on backordering domains, but that requires a lot of patience and you wouldn't spend the money until the backorder actually goes through.

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