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20 Comments

What do you think about my new landing page?

Hi all,

I sat down this weekend and finished up the new landing page for my book Deployment from Scratch:

https://deploymentfromscratch.com

I appreciate any feedback you might have, so I can fix it before my launch!

  1. 2

    Love how the first thing you do is describe how the reader will be transformed: "Imagine what could you do if you read this book..." instead of just telling us the content.

  2. 1

    Hello! First off, I think the book idea is great. We need more of these type of resources that explain how things should work in production. Especially for those people that are trying to learn as they build.

    I have some feedback regarding the site, but please take it with a grain of salt as I am not a web designer.

    1. I like the "Imagine what" section. I think that is a clever way of pointing out how someone can utilize and gain from the book. Double check whether the "Imagine what could you do if you read this book" should be "Imagine what you could do if you read this book". Notice the "you" and "could" is swapped. I'm not a fan of the little icons. I don't think they add much and are a distraction to me. Also, there is a typo "Site Realibity"
    2. I feel like your call to action can be larger or more prominent in some way. Also, what does it mean by "beta"? Am I buying something that is incomplete? Will I get the complete version later?
    3. In the "More than just a book" section, I'm not a fan of the icons. I don't understand the significance of the number of icons. And, the icons are very similar. Maybe use different icons that relate to the text more and make them larger?
    4. I like the Chapters section because it gives a glimpse of each chapter beyond the name. But, it does seem long. I didn't go through it all and skipped over most of the section. Maybe have a few and have a "See more" link that will take someone to another page?
    5. I like the preview section and I agree with you that more book websites should have them.

    Hopefully this helps. Again, take it with a grain of salt. These were just the thoughts I had as I looked at the page for the first time.

    Good luck!

    1. 1

      Thanks a lot for taking the time to review the page!

      I think your insight is great. As for beta & the icons yes, they will be different, I just didn't have a good idea what to put there and though it's empty. I'll rethink it. I thought the "beta" page will stay only a few days so I didn't implement what I had there before -- this should already be ready for the final release.

      As for the chapters, yes, I think everybody thinks it's long and I am thinking how to shorter it. Great you liked the preview, it's my fav part so I don't want to give it up:).

      Thanks again!

  3. 1

    The landing page is good but honestly, I wouldn't like to pay $35 and read 500+ pages just to make deployment. I'd prefer to pay $5/month to somebody or something what makes deployment for me.

    1. 2

      Thank you for taking the time looking at it.

      Yes, you are right. That's not the value proposition of the book. It cannot be. It's much more about knowledge targeting developers that have interest in learning it.

      That said, even the money argument stands -- just not the way you read it (which is my fault that it's not clear).

      The demonstrations I have are ready to be used. For example a Heroku Standard 0 managed database with 4 GB of RAM and 60 GB data is $50/month [0]. Just the database demo gives you an option to run a DO droplet with 4 GB of RAM, 2 vCPUs, and 80 GB of storage for $24/month.

      That means you'll get your $35 back in just 2 months. Heck, you'll earn yourself $17 and then keep earning $26 every month, plus you'll learn how to set up a production database + many more other things.

      Is it really a bad proposition?

      (*Yes, it does not have all the niceties of Heroku, it's not 1:1 comparison. You need to learn a little bit about running a database.)

      [0] https://elements.heroku.com/addons/heroku-postgresql

      1. 1

        The demonstrations I have are ready to be used. For example a Heroku Standard 0 managed database with 4 GB of RAM and 60 GB data is $50/month [0]. Just the database demo gives you an option to run a DO droplet with 4 GB of RAM, 2 vCPUs, and 80 GB of storage for $24/month.

        Sorry, I don't get this part. What is a "database demo"?

        I see, your book is about saving money but I can't figure out how.

        1. 1

          I see. The demonstration is a script that sets up a virtual server. There are three. One for a static website, one for a Rails application (all on one server inc. PostgreSQL and Redis), and one for standalone PostgreSQL.

          I call them demonstrations since they show many things learned in the book, but I expect people to tweak them for their use-case. As for the database demo, you don't really have to tweak it, it just works.

          Here's the example readme: https://gist.github.com/strzibny/4f38345317a4d0866a35ede5aba99a1e

          1. 1

            I get the concept of the book and why some one would want it alternatively having to look through mountains of docs but why not AWS ECS or is it in the book?

            1. 2

              Because ECS "is a fully managed container orchestration service (...)" and I didn't want to write a book about one specific service.

              But don't get me wrong, Amazon ECS is fine!

              While I don't write about ECS, the gist of starting on ECS is to build a good container. I cover that part. And if you want to combine it with a self-hosted database, I cover that part too.

              1. 1

                This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

  4. 1

    IMHO,

    • The lobster font is a little difficult to make out with a quick glance.
    • I agree with dennis_zoma the CTA needs to pop out. Your CTA buttons only say "Buy beta..." Is this the only direction that you want to send visitors?
    • You may want to use the page to start an email list and use that to sell your book(s), product(s) and service(s).
    1. 1

      I do have a e-mail list and that's where most of my sales are happening. Just this redesign version don't have it right now. I am close to the final release, so I am not sure if I continue collecting the addresses.

      Thanks a lot for the input, will certainly have to think about those CTA buttons!

  5. 1

    Hey Josef, great page. In most points I agree with @unsungNovelty. That what I would add:

    • The CTA needs to pop out a bit more (via color/size/whatever)
    • You need a CTA in the first section of your page. Currently on my screen size I don’t see any CTA above the fold (which is not ideal at all).

    Good luck with your book 🙃
    Dennis

    1. 1

      Thanks a lot for taking the time, Dennis!

      I'll think again of those call to action buttons.

  6. 1

    Hey @strzibnyj,

    I am new to the Indie community. So please take the suggestions with a pinch of salt.

    1. Since this is for a text book, I didn't mind the text oriented interface. In fact, I loved it. Since this is a book for backend devs, it might even work in your favour.
    2. I didn't like the testimonial section. Since there is only one testimonial I guess. Don't take my word for it, but this one guy wasn't very reassuring to me when I first read it. I am sure there are others like me. Maybe highlight the gumroad review of 5 star instead of one testimonial? Or mix them both? Not sure.
    3. The page is too long. Mainly because of the 26 chapters of awesome content section. Increasing the width of the tiles should make it shorter and better. Like Table of contents, but with the current box shadow?
    4. Shouldn't Demonstration to get you started section be way up in the sections? It could also be used to provide a little colour which could satisfy people who are looking for it. Loved the colour selection.
    5. Preview section could be removed and replaced with the Start reading with the first chapter which you already have as the last section. Both literally does the same thing. This will also make the landing page shorter and I really loved the short PDF icon style which you have in the Start reading with the first chapter section. It conveys the idea better.

    These are the things that I thought could be improved. Hope this helps.

    PS: My native tongue is not English. So if the tone came out rude with the above feedback, please ignore as that is not intentionally.

    1. 1

      Thanks a lot of taking the time to think about it!

      You made some good points. I agree with you on the chapter section, I am already thinking how to make it more compact/interesting. One testimonial isn't much, but it's the one I got without asking. I'll be hopefully adding more.

      I won't remove the preview section as that's the one I really like personally and something other book pages should probably steal. It allows me to put content further down the book as examples. I mean I might need to improve it, but I really think it should be there.

      Thanks again!

      1. 1

        One testimonial isn't much, but it's the one I got without asking. I'll be hopefully adding more.

        You definitely will. This is an interesting topic. I've been researching on this too. All the best with the book!

  7. 1

    Hi Josef,

    Here's some opinions. :)

    The design is clean and text-oriented, which I think is good, since your target audience are developers. However, I don't like the testimonial section, I think that should stand out more. Same goes for the author section. Also, maybe the buttons could be improved (add some colors, make them bigger, etc.)?

    1. 1

      Hi Hrvoje,

      thanks a lot for taking the time to think about the layout. The testimonial section is one that might change for sure, especially because it will hold more testimonials in the future. Do you have some exact changes in mind?

      I kept the buttons from the last version since people liked it, but perhaps there is a way to make them stand out more.

      Thanks again!

      1. 1

        Sure. As for testimonials, I would prefer a card-like design, resembling embedded tweets.

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