September 28, 2018

I'll critique your landing page for you (rebooted)

Starting May this year, I had periodically been doing landing page reviews on IndieHackers but that tapered off due to a recent change in life status (there is now a Mrs. @MeansNoWaaris!).

Anyway, I am rebooting that series because I usually enjoy the interaction and it's fun having to deal with a bunch of requests in quick succession. These review sessions also led to me launching Second Look and making my first dollar online.

So, here's how it goes -

  1. You post a link to your website and any one page you want reviewed.

  2. I'll give you feedback and suggestions

Pretty simple, right? Oh, it's all for FREE, pro bono, no reciprocity expected. Have at it...

E1- it's nearly midnight where I am so I'll get to the rest tomorrow.

E2 - back for the remaining sites to be critiqued.

E3 - I think I've done everyone's reviews. Closing this thread now. This was fun!


  1. 2

    Hey Sai - Thanks for doing such an awesome service for the community. 👏

    Coming soon page: www.postpilot.io

    Thanks again, you rock!

      1. 1

        Awesome feedback, Sai! Incorporating some of that now. :)

  2. 1

    Hi, I would be thankful for your critique on https://heroicpilot.com

  3. 1

    If you don't mind, please kindly review my landing page site www.virtudot.com thanks in advance 😊

    1. 1

      I've closed this thread but this reply to another comment may be of help. I'll do this again next month. It'd be great if you asked again then.

      1. 1

        Sure... please let me know if you open the critique for my website. Any input will be accepted gratefully

  4. 1

    Hey Sai, such a fantastic work going on here :)

    It'd be lovely to have your point of view on: www.vuklab.com

    Many many thanks!

    1. 1

      I've closed this thread. Will do another one next month. Can you ask again then?

  5. 1

    Ah, I somehow missed this! I hope you will do something like this again soon. 🙂

    1. 1

      Will do another one next month! Hope to see you then.

      1. 1

        I'm following you now, so I won't miss it. 🙂🙃

  6. 1

    Hello Sai, Looking forward for your feedback on https://modemly.com/d/

    Few users complained saying the site is too white and hard on the eyes. Personally, i modeled the site similar to Medium, and it looks okay. Eager to see your take on the design.

    1. 1

      I don't know enough about design to comment on that aspect but I will say I don't disagree with the comments.

      How to put it...? Your design is very ascetic and severe, almost hospital like. Homes are supposed to be warm and welcoming. Maybe you could throw in some vector images to reduce the seriousness of your site?

  7. 1

    Hey, can you take a look at https://mentorcruise.com and tell me what you think?

    1. 2

      https://medium.com/artisana/mentorcruise-6db4973ac234

      Hope this helps. Maybe I can find a mentor to help me critique web copy better?

      1. 1

        Thanks a lot Sai. I think you attached the current screenshot instead of your updated headliners if I'm not mistaken though.

        1. 1

          Updated.Sorry about that.

  8. 1

    Love this!

    Can you take a look at wecut.video?

    Thanks so much

    1. 1

      The heading We Tell Your Stories doesn't seem to match the actual service you provide which is of video editing. A better heading would be "Make your videos pop".

      I like how visual your website is as it should be for a video editing service. Can you add some samples of your work annotated with your contributions to the final product? I saw an example video by Oliver Bink but I couldn't tell what value your team added.

      Other than that, your copy looks ok.

      1. 1

        Thanks a lot for the insight :)

      1. 1

        Thank you.

  9. 1

    Yo Sai! I would love your input on my landing page https://filerequest.eu

    1. 1

      I can't quite figure out the problem you are trying to solve. Are you trying to help people who are too busy to send reminders to their counterparts asking for documents OR are something else? I'd try to answer this question more clearly.

      Maybe it's just me but I couldn't understand what this line meant - notify your client with invalid documents. Are you planning to notify clients who sent you invalid documents or are you planning to notify clients by sending them invalid documents? I know the second option makes no sense - who'd ever send someone invalid documents as a notification? - but I'd still ask you to rephrase that sentence.

      Lastly, you still haven't explained why I'd need Filerequest. I'd replace Automated data collection with a heading derived from a customer pain.

      Say people have been telling you they're tired of sending reminders - your heading could be Tired of asking for documents?.

      If they say that they often forget to send reminders for documents, your heading could be - Never wait on a document ever again or something like that.

  10. 1

    Hey Sai,

    I'd love some feedback on my landing page: https://www.albertrm.com/

    Cheers!

    1. 1

      The heading is great but the main copy is very light on details. You add more information about Albert later but maybe you could incorporate some of those details in the main copy?

      Oh, I get why you picked that particular image. It's supposed to evoke Albert Einstein? If so, I'd heavily play up the Einstein angle in the copy.

      Also, there's a typo in gitft.

      1. 1

        Great thanks for the feedback. I will iterate. thanks!

  11. 1

    Hi! I'd love to see what you think about http://www.ratemyrefactor.com/ - this is a quick landing page I popped up to see if there's any interest in this rough I had. I'm not actually building the thing yet (not least of all because I have exactly ONE email collected :D )

    1. 1

      With code refactoring, are people willing to wait for experts to give their feedback which could take hours or days to stabilize?

      You know there are going to be a dozen different opinions about your code refactoring and it is going to take time before the best way to refactor your code surfaces.

      Someone like me would appreciate timely feedback because I'm rarely in a position to delay pushing out my code. Can you promise a minimum SLA for feedback?

      Other than that, your copy looks fine.

  12. 1

    Cool offering! If I'm not too late to the game I'd love a review of showuply.com's home page.

    1. 1

      LOVE IT.

      To the point, consistent in tone, targeting a specific pain point, irreverent, unapologetic - it's great!

      The next question is how you plan to find potential users. You're targeting a really really small market of people who are (a) aware they're procrastinators (b) but have the willpower to consistently work for a year (c) and willing to lose 650$ (d) right now (e) and trust some hustler on the web who's telling them they might lose money with him.

      Can't imagine this is a very big number.

      1. 1

        Thanks!!!

        The next question is how you plan to find potential users.

        Yeah, you're exactly (almost creepily so) spot on with the definition of my market. I happen to believe - without any proof - that it's not nearly as small as the average person would think it is.

        But even still, I haven't much of a plan for finding potential users. I'm good at making things, not selling things. So it's going to be a struggle.

        1. 1

          good at making things, not selling things

          In keeping with the (paraphrased) motto "Always be selling", I'm going to risk the wrath of IH to refer you to a service I provide to find product market fit on Second Look. If I can help you find even one lazy bones customer, you'd easily have recouped my fee thrice over!

          No pressure if you don't think you need that service. I still had a blast looking at your website and trying to think of your target customers.

          1. 1

            I appreciate people who are always selling (in this sort of relevant, non-assholy way). Given how on-point you were I'm strongly considering your offer. I'm pretty averse to spending money right now, but I see the value, so... I'll let you know either way. Thanks!

  13. 1

    Congratulations on the Mrs! That's huge!

    I'd love feedback on https://www.brighthike.com, an app to help people gain fluency in mathematics over time.

    1. 1

      Hmm, does there need to be a huge login box stretched across the top of the page above the fold?

      Your tagline - Duolingo but for math - is actually quite good. The rest of the content about Quantum Mechanics and payment does not add to your USP of being a math learning tool.

      I'd demote the "Counting to calculus to QM" somewhere below the fold and drop all justification for pricing. You aren't going to convince anyone to pay for an app they don't need because the app doesn't show ads. Calling it out doesn't add any value.

      1. 1

        Thanks for the feedback!

        I had to look up USP: Unique Selling Proposition.

  14. 1

    Hi there, thanks for offering! Would love to get your feedback on https://fireadmin.app/

  15. 1

    Hi :)

    https://youranima.com

    Can you focus why people may not want to leave email addresses? Or maybe this section is ok? We are preparing to crowdfunding campaign and attractive landing page is really important to us!

    If I can help you to, let me know 😀

    1. 1

      Your signup input field is waaaayyy below the field and is obscured by your cookies policy disclaimer. First, do you really need such a massive cookie policy toast? Can you make it more discreet? Second, can you move your CTA above the fold?

      About your copy -

      Your copy is unfocused. It highlights a feature - location based notifications - and an opinion - right reminders in the right place - but does not tie it back to a specific user archetype and a specific business problem it is trying to solve. Even if I were looking for a location based notification system, I wouldn't realize you guys may have a solution to my problem.

      Also, what's up with using text inside images? Do you want to avoid getting crawled by search engines?

  16. 1

    Hi. Gr8 game changing feedback so far on https://gif.com.ai !!

    IH almost never disappoints!

    Can you critique https://2fb.me

    It was written about in MakeUseOf but the article was taken down after the re-design.

    1. 1

      ???

      1. 1

        Hey, sorry I couldn’t review your second request. I just wanted to make sure I reviewed others before coming back to you, time permitting. Unfortunately that didn’t work.

        I’ll do this again next month. Maybe you can ask again then?

        1. 1

          Sure. I guess I can. I just tried helping this new guy and got down voted to oblivion https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/help-how-did-you-get-past-10k-mrr-287785b680 with a very helpful answer inspired by the tool and overall it's eliciting some visceral reactions. Not the first time :/ Maybe too many sharks in the water with competitive products.

  17. 1

    I would love to hear your feedback for http://pipegears.com

    Thanks for your time!

    1. 2

      I'm not sure how to sell this product.

      If you are targeting serious developers who make complicated backends talking to multiple endpoints or use a DB store, I'm not sure how a visual interface is going to suffice because such developers tend to know the hard limits of having a one-size-fits-all visual interface to create products. The 'glue' code your visual interface creates for them is actually the easy part of creating backends.

      If you are targeting non-technical folks, your language is very technical starting from the indiscriminate use of REST APIs and backends in your copy. Such folks will need a LOT more handholding by way of gifs, blogs, and tutorial videos to start trusting Pipegears.

      Think of IFTTT - even their name evokes the exact phrase a person says to themselves when they imagine a workflow. Their entire website is chock full of 'recipes' - another evocative word - describing workflows people can easily understand.

      Your copy will need to be like IFTTT's, imho.

      We can talk offline if you want. I feel you need to think through your product offering and target customers. Hope this helps.

      1. 1

        Thanks for the honest and insightful feedback. I'd like to talk more if you're available. I'll send you an email.

    2. 2

      I think a video or a better screenshot of the UI is in order. Especially since that is the main selling point!

      1. 1

        Thanks for the feedback! I've created a short video that I believe demonstrates the product more clearly. I'd be curious to hear your feedback on it if you have a moment! https://youtu.be/MvuXWLDBa6E

        1. 2

          I just watched it. Very nice. I see what this is about thanks to the clear demo. You absolutely need to put this on the front page. This is a developers minded product and it's not for any user who doesn't need to make API's in my humble opinion. Also it's very nice/curious that you can wire up templates quickly in the context of raw API data. I'm a web developer with 10+ years of experience and I see this in the context that you demonstrated. Keep it exactly as it is. I may find a way to use your product in the near future.

          1. 1

            Thanks again! I've put the video on the front page of the website. The product is in open beta, so feel free to try it out if you want to.

            1. 2

              Hi. I don't know if that video was always there, but I'll tell you that I completely missed it the first time. I think you need to flat out remove that image you have in the front and replace it with the video. The image of the UI is not what the products selling point is. There is nuance in the offering and you need to get people to engage with that video foremost.

              1. 1

                Good feedback, thanks!

  18. 1

    Hi Sai, do you support any other languages than english ?

    1. 1

      Here's what I look for while reviewing copy -

      1. Do I Name things (link to an earlier post on the hidden power of naming things on Medium)? Name the customer pain you solve, name the supported architectures, name the blog engines, name channel partners...name everything you can. You're absorbing some of their credibility when your product can confidently state that, for instance, it integrates with WordPress OR generates JSON etc.

      If you take nothing else away from this list, I'd ask you to start naming things.

      1. Is the headline and subheading addressing a customer pain point or simply listing out product features? Very often, I find that the content right below the fold is actually better suited in the headline/subheading.

      2. Is the headline an imperative? If not, start your headline with a verb. E.g., consider the sentence Start your headline with a verb. It's an imperative statement. You want your users to believe that you have a roadmap which will help them achieve their desired end goal. If I had written It is better to start your headline with a verb, you'd skip right past this suggestion as a nice-to-have, right?

      3. Deeply understand your primary customer archetype and address your copy at their pain. E.g., if you're selling box subscriptions for vegetarian dog food, your copy should reflect concerns of people who'd go looking for vegetarian dog food and subscription boxes.

      4. Focus on UX writing. E.g., it is the difference between hotel booking websites inviting you to Check Availability versus telling you to Book Now!. You want to make sure your copy matches the typical user's state of mind when they are interacting with your website/app.

      5. Don't be afraid to adopt a tone or an attitude.

      6. I'm not a designer per se but I'll definitely say that your fonts matter. A cursory search will show you effective font pairing. Likewise with font size - make it big. As such, small font size don't hurt but huge, clear font sizes definitely help.

    2. 1

      I can do Hindi and probably Marathi because the script is similar and my wife speaks Marathi. If it's some other language, I can try to help using Google Translate but my grasp of idiom will be poor.

      I could summarize what I look for while critiquing web sites. You could apply those rules on your site?

      1. 1

        This would be cool so that anybody can get prepared for your inspection :)

        And learn things, I would say.

  19. 1

    Ah nice. Would 💚 your take on https://gif.com.ai

  20. 1

    @MeansNoWaaris I visited your Website and I'm interested in knowing more about your Product-Market Fit service.

    Please, respond to my email.

    Thanks

    1. 1
  21. 1

    I actually posted last time and implemented some of your suggestions: I have had much better success getting beta signups with the retuned copy on - https://soccercruit.com

    1. 1

      If things are already working and you're getting inquiries via the website, I'd be wary of changing things.

      I'd change a few little things - maybe have a soccer player's silhouette in the dashboard to evoke the joy of playing high quality soccer. Right now the dashboard could be for any generic service.

      I love the How it works section. It's very crisp.

    2. 1

      Love this. Can I ping you offline for a testimonial?

      1. 2

        yeah for sure!

  22. 1

    Hi, thanks for doing this. I am working on https://orbitsapp.com and would be curious to hear your feedback

    1. 1

      The value prop and language seems clear to me.

      I might want to

      1. add a few exhortations like 'No coding required'

      2. include name and logos of major blogging platforms like WP, Blogspot, and Ghost that your widget supports.

      I understand that your widget is (probably) an embedded js snippet but the average blogger will be looking for familiar names to help them feel comfortable about using your widget.

      Anything that makes your prospective users feel at ease with your product is a good thing.

      1. 1

        Thanks, really like no coding required idea)

    1. 1

      What BackendLab can do is clear but what isn't clear is why I (the developer) need it.

      Does it save time? Scale better? Allow users to do interesting things with minimal effort? How much work will I have to do to finetune your autogenerated API? Is it worth the little amount of time I'll save by using BackendLab? Is there a well known API re-implemented using BackendLab?

      If your copy doesn't answer those questions, you're going to lose prospects.

      1. 1

        Thanks Sai. The main advantages of BackendLab it's a time saver compared with writing your own backend from scratch and is particularly useful for prototyping. I'll try and update the copy to get that accross more clearly

  23. 1

    autenti.ca please

    Thank you @MeansNoWaaris. How can I help you out?

    1. 1

      https://medium.com/artisana/autenti-ca-afc16d7479db

      Hope this feedback helps.

      How can I help you out?

      I'm not sure what you meant by this. Feel free to jump in and give feedback if you feel you have something to share.

      1. 1

        Thank you for reviewing my site and giving me your suggestion. When I asked you "How can I help you out?" was with the intention of knowing if there's something I can so for you in return for your feedback on my website.

  24. 1

    Would appreciate some feedback on our homepage

    https://www.cloudsprt.com/

    Thanks

    P.S. Congratulations on the recent life status upgrade.

    1. 1

      This comment was deleted 10 days ago.

  25. 1

    cool offering your time like that, here goes nothing :D https://hivis.io (ALPHA)

    1. 1

      I really like your site design! Nice work.

      1. 1

        Thank you!

    2. 1

      https://medium.com/artisana/hivis-io-f616b6daadfb

      1. I updated the headline and the subtitle to focus on what exactly your product can do for the user.

      2. And moved the section where users can enter their own keywords above the fold. People love to try stuff even if they’re never going to buy your stuff.

      3. I would do away with the code snippet. It adds nothing to 99% of your audience. I’d use that space to explain where picking the first Unsplash image for a keyword might be sufficient for a user.

      Your business case is a little iffy — I can’t think of any user demographic which would be interested in trusting an API to insert random images into their collateral. Maybe I’m not seeing it the right way...

      1. 1

        Thanks for the write-up, the headline is probably something that needs more re-work frm my part.

        1. Totally agree

        2. I'm debating wheter this needs to be marketed more to developers or to marketers, I understand where you're coming from tho.

        Thanks!

      2. 1

        Say you have a medium article, or a blog post and you want to automatically create a banner header on it - in the real world you go and ask a designer to build it for you, or use Photoshop/toolX to build that header.

        That's a long process, the future is something where using an API you just "digest" an article or a media page (YouTube, Soundcloud, etc) and it pulls all the information into a header/image for either social media sharing purposes or as page-header within the article