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12 Comments

Idea validation: Do you use announcement bars on your websites?

Hi Indie Hackers!

As a web developer who managed quite a few websites, some of which were just static HTML pages, I came up with an idea: it would be cool to have a single place where I can manage announcements across all my websites.

From the technical side it's just a script

  1. 2

    Great one. I am a web developer and almost all B2B and B2C companies ask for this feature and it can be tiring to work on great announcement feature which you also have to document for them. Most of my customers use the announcement bar to display coupons and offers. I've tested my customers concept and I was very surprised how much sales increase just by doing this. Maybe when developing the announcement bar let someone choose if it's for maybe a coupon, announcement or any other useful use of the bar (if possible). Looking forward to pasting your script tags.

  2. 2

    Your editor is really well-made congrats!

    I think you should focus on It, for me, It makes the product seem "lovable".

  3. 2

    I like your approach, no product yet, but register for interest on the home page; very MVP, good to see!

    Have you had many register their interest?

    1. 1

      Thanks! Not really, as I launched it yesterday.

  4. 2

    I think there's a valid use-case for this. Aside from promotions, I think it could be used for server downtime messages (i.e server would be unavailable from 4am-8am), which I've seen used from government websites, to banks, to mmo servers.

  5. 2

    Seems interesting.

    https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/wp-notification-bars/ has 20k+ downloads.

    So there seems to be demand for it.

    Agencies might like to use it, especially during black friday etc.

  6. 2

    The question I have is how often do people need to make broad announcements across various properties? Seems like a neat idea, but I'm not positive I understand the problem it solves.

    If you're thinking about building a sumo.com or Hello Bar type of platform, I'd definitely recommend raising your potential price points.

    1. 1

      Thank you for the feedback! I agree, it’s kind of a niche service, and I’m not really sure if there’s enough demand for it. Also thanks for mentioning sumo and hello bar, it’s definitely something to think about.
      Cheers!

  7. 1

    There is a need for it. Many players in this domain. Hellobar, sumo, magnify. Even i have built a very minimal one.

  8. 1

    The MVP is so nicely done and love your strategy! For the product itself, an announcement bar is a good point for start, but maybe not enough for the long run. As @datadavis mentioned, sumo.com could be a direction of eCommerce SaaS, also, https://headwayapp.co/ could be another direction of an announcement and product changelog platform, it's an interesting kind of "publishing platform".

    Keep up the good work!

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