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9 Comments

Updated homepage

We've totally changed the users first experience with the website usehappen.com. Instead of getting shoot into discovery mode, users are now provided with a landing page.

The homepage now lets users know they're able to track all their interests in one place. From the moment they learn about them until they happen.

What do you think about it?

  1. 1

    Looks like a Facebook events clone in a way, might have an extra feature but very rough...
    Probably better to copy more from there.m
    With a 2 sided market the big thing is getting that initial volume of both sides.. starting with more niche/specific circules is a common strategy

    1. 1

      For sure, there are definitely some similarities! Where usehappen shines is when you start to look at events that don't have defined date / times.

      For instance, you read an awesome blog post "5 Easy Ways To Generate Leads". At the end of the post the blogger notes "This is part of a 3 part series, stay tuned for the next article"... awesome, but really it means you're left hanging 🥺

      The usual strategy is to forget/remember or sign up for a newsletter that starts to fill your inbox, both not fulfilling the need of simply letting you know part 2 is out!

      With happen any user can post an event such as "Let me know when part 2 comes out" and we'll do the leg work for you!

      1. 1

        What does "we will do the leg work" actually mean? (Would you monitor that page for me? Ping the owner?..)
        How does a customer know this part from the landing page?

        1. 1

          Great question, at the moment me and a few VA's are doing check ups on a weekly basis. I scan the events that have a date status of "expected to happen, should have happened, looking for date". If a date is found I add it to the event and the user will get a notification.

          To streamline this, I'm adding a check up feature. Users can expect to see the count of check ups and the last check up date. They'll be able to sort the events in their dashboard based on sort date.

          Once I finish this feature, I'll be sure to put it on the homepage.

          I created a happen event to track the completion of this.

          https://www.usehappen.com/events/show-happen-check-up-functionality-on-landing-page

          It seems like you have some use cases where this might be useful. I'm happy and would like to jump on a google hangouts to discuss. If you're not against it, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] and we can set it up!

          1. 1

            I think you found an interesting problem space that doesn't have things figured out.
            I do wonder if your going too wide, yet I don't have things full formed in my mind either, which just makes it evident it's not a fully mature solved space.

            The thing I like most is the idea of having custom control on these things, like having a different notification option, so some things I'd want an email, some a push notification and some just have the list like your initial direction if I get it right..
            I think I would differ in mind between things that are make available at a date like an article.
            From something that might be more urgent like a live event / tv show airing (this again depends on the person if he watches live tv say or watches on demand...)
            There are personal events like birthdays or group events.
            Sources of events might include meetup.com facebook events or messaging apps..

            Some more interesting events to kinda solve with your current style are like yearly repeat events that one might forget to track and might care for a sub event like a date selected, early bird tickets or when speaker lineup is announced.

            There are events I just want a list as possibilities to go like farmer markets which are confusing here as this one will be in the 2nd and 5th Friday of the month and might only run for some months out of the year.
            And U-Pick events which change in availability by weather and such.

            I wonder if you should narrow your initial approach for traction and expend later, just cause it makes it easier for marketing/selling I believe cause the other side just "gets it" fast...

            also I think "Looking For Date" is unclear, rather have something like you put later "date not known yet, we are tracking this"

            Like you have many places to take this, it's a good start, GL

            1. 1

              Hi, thanks for your thoughtful response @hatkyinc

              *** on going too wide: I agree that picking a niche is going to be a winning strategy at the start, building momentum and then transitioning from there has been successfully done elsewhere (stackoverflow - programming first; facebook - colleges first; etc etc;). Have spoken with @Davidep86 about this

              *** custom notification control: I like this too, certain things like a blog post occurrence are fine to just show up as a website notification... where as a sale or live stream happening is more timely and you'd like an email, sms text, push notification because there is value in being present for when it occurs

              *** seeding events, meetup, facebook, messaging apps: this is a good idea, at the moment we want to make tracking a few events as seamless as possible.. ie, posting the event and knowing when to "check up" to see if there has been another announcement made. Once this is handled I'll be happy to index a boat load of events

              *** repeat events, irregular scheduling and sub-events: this is a rich topic... usually look toward google calendar, facebook events (has events with a schedule) -- the U-pick events if added to happen would gracefully handle date updates as long as a contributor is there to update it, same as all platforms

              *** Looking for date is unclear: for sure, I like your explicit line of "date not known yet, we are tracking this" if I can deliver the same message with half the words we'd immediately change it

              *** place to take this: thanks! being a regular user of usehappen so far has already provided value to my life so next step is me to nicely bundle it and share it with others

  2. 1

    Link man, you need to post direct links to your product with posts to maximize your feedback.

    1. 1

      @combition, thank you for commenting! Your second point of simplifying the homepage is spot on. I'm prioritizing that as we speak and hope to come back with something simpler, succinct and drives the point faster.

      I can see that a shorter url would be nice, I'll keep an eye out for url opportunities that make sense. The obscure url does offer some seo benefits and if I can develop a positive brand experience I think I can make it work for the time being.

      If you have time, happy to hop on a call / hangouts to discuss the homepage flow

    2. 1
      1. I don't like usehappen.com - i know it seems like a moot point because of how hard .com's are to get and you probably spent a while to find that one, but it just doesn't have the flow, you can't go to your friend and be like - yeah man go to usehappen.com. if you had a .co or .io with happen.co, thats way cooler.

      2. I think if you can simplify your landing page and get the point across without so many words and more white space you'd capture more of the users attention.

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