Daily Update: Eurotripr
Today I spent some time with data input and fixing a "small" problem i ran into with verifying new users emails: if the verification link expired, the user would go to a generic 500 error page. I fixed the code and think the process now works to let a new user resend a email verification link instead of just a confusing and broken looking error page.
While fixing this I realized that I am spending a bit too much time on new user sign up process and workflow, and not enough on trying to increase my non-existent newsletter email list.
As a first step to change this I swapped out my site's dismissable Member Signup banner to be an Email Newsletter signup banner instead. I already have this email signup on all page statically above the footer, but a user would have to scroll to the bottom of the page to see it. Now the signup is at the bottom of the visible screen on page load, so immediately visible when a user hits any page - until they dismiss it of course.
A small change, but i have been getting a small trickle of visitors signing up for the non-existent newsletter. Next step - along with continuing my data input - is to create and send my first newsletter. That seems a bit scary, but I think it is a hurdle i have been avoiding for a long time.
I sometimes fall into the same trap as well. When I recognise it, I found it helpful to ask myself “well, is this worth it? Can I get myself 80% of the way by not doing this at all?”. Case in point, have you thought about adding “log in with google”, so that you don’t have to think about verifying emails, etc and can focus on the product itself?
Apologies if you already have that implemented. I couldn’t check myself as the website is crashing mobile safari.
Again thanks so much for pointing out that my Countries page (and home page) was broken. I spent some time debugging and have pinpointed the problem function, but not entirely sure why or how to fix it. So I am just not going to show COVID restrictions (if any) for countries anymore until i do fix it.
Again, thanks a lot!
Yeah i need to listen to myself when I think the same. But I still fall down the trap of "I'll spend a little time fixing this..." and it detracts from me getting the core stuff to complete.
I did end up fixing the issue, but my time would have been better spent inputting data or travel itineraries to help travelers.
Also: THANK YOU for pointing out the site is busted on Iphone. I've run into an (though i'd) fix this before, but can't remember how. And it's very frustrating because it looks like it tries to load, flashes the site, then I get an error that there was "a problem repeatedly occurred". Just something else i need to go troubleshoot...