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21 Comments

Your thoughts on my first side hustle ever

Howdy, everybody!

First and foremost: I love Indie Hackers. I listen to the podcast for a couple of months now and I love the interviews. It made me believe it is possible to create some regular income on the side. Special thanks to Courtland Allen for making this community a reality.

I'm not only a listener, though. I'm an action man. This weekend I created a landing page for my product: FormOffline app. The app does one thing: it lets you fill Google Form offline. The product is almost finished now and I'm trying to spread a word about it.

I'd love to hear your thought about the landing page: https://formoffline.com

PS. I struggle with pricing. This is my competitor's pricing table: http://take.ms/wtfiv I set my price for $5 initially. It's cheaper than my competitors but my app functionality is also limited by Google Forms API.

  1. 4

    I like the simplicity of the landing page, could do with some English checking, e.g. "so your employees waste no time wherever they are" reads a bit clumsily.

    I'm a bit confused about the pricing. When you say per user, does that mean per installed app? If so, what about use cases where businesses are seeking feedback from a large base?

    I quite like the idea, there may be plenty of situations where this could be useful. Maybe a next task is narrowing in on a vertical? I was just thinking the other day of cases where hospitals have surveys for outpatients; there's no mobile reception in the hospital. Pick cases where offline is a killer feature e.g. areas with poor service.

    1. 1

      Thank for feedback, gravelld!

      I will definitely update the copy and change pricing a bit and post an update here.

      Once again, I can't stress enough how I appreciate your opinion!

  2. 2

    I think you do a very good job explaining how it works! Maybe adding a few use cases to show me when this is helpful? I.e. show me how this will save my business money.

    Also, typo on step 4 "submittend" :)

    1. 1

      Thanks! I fixed a typo.

      Looks like I will have some serious thinking how to talk about those saved $$$. Once again, I can't express enough how valuable your input is, Maciej.

  3. 1

    One of the most effective and efficient ways to communicate and demonstrate your value .... is to contrast Life-Without -vs- Life-With your products/service/solution.

    The Old Way -vs- The New Way (your way)

    Visually well-designed, simple, succinct (with minimal copy/text).

    It will also help you better understand the value of the outcomes you create for customers ... the capabilities you enable ... and thus begin to quantify that value and inform pricing decisions.

    The above within the context of most common / likely uses-cases performs even better.

    More I could say but will leave it there and close with this ...

    It’s not the price they don’t like, but what they understand they are (or are not) getting for that price.

    1. 1

      Definitely, I have to do much better job with demonstrating the value this app provides, and The Old Way -vs- The New Way seems to be a powerful technic to do just that. Thank you!

  4. 1

    You have done a good job of creating a landing page which demonstrates how simple it is to use your product. It worked well on the phone too. And I agree with other on adding the benefits of using the app.

    1. 1

      Thanks, rajagz! I will make the good awesome 😊

  5. 1

    I like the landing page. It's a simple design that still looks nice and clearly explains what your product will do. The only thing I don't quite get is the pricing – namely, why there is a price.

    How often does a business need access to a Google form offline? Is not having offline Google forms really so painful that they'll pay $5 for it? The whole point of a form is to collect info submitted by users – your own landing page even says that the forms will be submitted once the device connects to the internet.

    I can see situations where someone wouldn't have web access and need to fill out a form, so there is a convenience aspect. I wonder if the problem is painful enough to be willing to pay money instead of just waiting. If the form can't be submitted until my device is online, I might as well fill it out online and save the $5.

    I'm not trying to discourage you away from the idea but rather bring up something you may need to address and plan for. Make sure to keep us updated on how it goes, and thanks for sharing with us.

    1. 1

      Thanks, bridge. I agree that's a weak point in my landing page now. Previous comments also encouraged me to put more stress on benefits and change business model a little bit.

      I already started working on this and I will definitely keep you updated on any progress.

      Once again, thank you for your time and wisdom ❤️

      1. 1

        No problem, happy to offer input.

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      This comment was deleted a month ago

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        Awesome ideas, I will definitely incorporate some use cases in this landing page soon!

  6. 1

    Hi, very clear and simple landing page.
    Few quick things, I noticed.

    1. Better mobile support
    2. The button text and button itself

    Also, content wise,
    How will it save my business some money?
    And may be some businesses who can use this?

    1. 1

      Great thoughts, nixology!

      What exactly do you mean by 'better mobile support' and 'the button text and button itself'?

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        Also, I am doing market research on landing page creator.
        It would be a great help if you can take the survey mentioned in my IH post https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/post/-Kw1fqj0FqI1krxdATvq

        BTW, what did you use to create landing page?
        I highly suggest try https://carrd.co/

        1. 1

          Thanks!
          I used https://www.gatsbyjs.org/
          By day I'm a Front-end developer at https://netguru.co
          I feel comfortable writing landing pages myself and I like having a full control over what's going on.

      2. 1

        This is how it looks on my Chrome browser.
        check the video out.
        https://share.vidyard.com/watch/SoccuEe8gXAD81dBRL1kw6
        Checkout first 15 seconds only

        Button should be like 'Join the Waitlist' or 'Register' or 'Show me the way!!' or any other CTA.
        I feel full sentence as button text doesn't seem natural to me.

        1. 1

          Thanks for suggestions, I will surely post an update soon!

  7. 1

    Landing page looks nice, very clean.

    Suggestions: Your h1 describes what it is/does, not a benefit. I'd suggest filling the h1 and h2. I'd also suggest revising the h2 a bit.

    I'm listening to a book - "Competing against luck" right now by this Harvard professor about product development/positioning and the overall premise of the book is answering "What job did you hire this product to do?". I think that's a useful thought experiment for this product - what unique job(s) can your app do because it's not dependent on internet access? Complete documentation without using data? Allow work orders to be filled out in remote places?

    For pricing, I think this is something you'll have to demonstrate value for. Maybe a free trial or "first form free"? I've never investigated this area, so maybe there are some economic restrictions involved. If possible, I'd lean towards a freemium model

    1. 1

      I'm so grateful you took your priceless time and experience to help me.

      Landing page looks nice, very clean.

      Thank you, sir!

      Suggestions: Your h1 describes what it is/does, not a benefit. I'd suggest filling the h1 and h2. I'd also suggest revising the h2 a bit.

      It's difficult to overestimate this advice. I will definitely think about something more benefit oriented.

      I'm listening to a book

      So you listen to books too! Audible?

      "What job did you hire this product to do?"

      I find this perspective highly valuable.

      I'd lean towards a freemium model

      This will definitely help me grow!

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    This comment was deleted 8 years ago

    1. 1

      Incredible idea, one87! Thank you 😊