OK, I've gone to your page and had a look ...<p><pre><code> Nota features an innovative toolbar
to help you get the job done
</code></pre>
What job?<p><pre><code> Area Selection Tool: Lets you highlight any part of
a web page. And best of all it takes a screen
capture of the selection!
</code></pre>
For what?<p><pre><code> Text Highlighter Tool: Shows copy changes and catches
typos in text heavy pages. (Yeah, we're looking at
you "Terms of Use" pages.)
</code></pre>
What?<p><pre><code> Take the guesswork out of web development, with Nota.
Nota records every click, scroll, and keystroke, giving
you the clues you need to efficiently understand and
repair user issues.
</code></pre>
WHY?<p>the thing you're missing in all of this is the question of what problem you're solving. I assume you're solving a problem, but:<p>* How do I know I have your problem?<p>* How do I even know it's a problem to start with?<p>* What <i>is</i> the problem?<p>* What is the context?<p>* Who is your audience?<p>In short, based on my visit to your landing page, I have no idea what problem this product is solving.<p>So I left.<p>Does that help?
I would have left you this feedback live on your site, but no widget there, which I feel is a missed opportunity.<p>Anyhow.<p>Talk about how <i>web designers</i> in specifically should be using this rather than getting their feedback over email with non-descriptive explanations like "I feel the paragraph was overshadowed by the icon." "What icon?" "The green one." "On what page?" "The home page." "Oh yay after 3 emails I finally understand what you meant!"<p>Get Beta Access doesn't read as a button.<p>The hero shot is a lovely photo and I don't want to crush your soul about it, but it sells a lifestyle of working on Macbooks in hipster cafes, not your software. It is impossible to tell, at that point in the sales process, that the fake website which gets 100% of the screen-within-a-screen real estate is not actually the point of the shot, but rather, the UI that gets 10% of the screen-within-a-screen real estate is the point. That UI is unreadable to me, both literally and figuratively. Your animated explanation later on the page is superior in explaining what your software actually does.<p>You should probably sell this face-to-face to designers at meetups/etc. Give away two dozen beta accounts to actual people in real life, with that crazy founder gleam in your eyes. If they don't use it, pester them about why. Answer the objections in onboarding -- e.g. don't have a website that I need feedback on right now, didn't get the snippet installed, etc.
Don't market to "everyone". Market to a very narrow, carefully defined market. And it doesn't matter if they "love" it. What matters is that they <i>need</i> it, and need it enough to pay.<p>Who are you seeking for beta customers? How are you reaching and inviting them? What kind of feedback are you getting from them?
The problem is, nobody wants to be the evil guy that rips another guy's dream to shreds. That's why, when asked directly, people will always say that your thing is a cool idea, looks great, etc.<p>It is said that entrepreneurs need to develop hard skin. I propose that this hard skin should extend to ignoring this kind of vapid feedback. Because with our typical starry-eyed optimism (/ denial), we often see these as validation, when they're really not.<p>One thing I've learned is also to always listen to the 'assholes', you know the guys who tell you that your thing sucks, looks like shit and so on. They are often valuable resources because at least they are being honest - if you engage them and try to get them to flesh out their criticism. Some of the best feedback I have ever gotten was this way.
Some random comments:<p>"Feedback right on the site"<p>This made me wonder what site you were referring to - maybe "Feedback right on your site".<p>"The Right Tool for the Job"<p>By this point I still wasn't sure what "the Job" was...<p>Also, having a product that collects feedback on web pages that doesn't immediately allow me to play with the tools is a bit frustrating - I won't sign up just to play with a text selection/highlighting tool even if it is pretty cool.
I wanted to give you feedback that there is no feedback mechanism on the right side of the page but ironically you don't give the user opportunity to apply your product to your own site.
You appear to have a feedback tool that allows users to select part of the page. That isn't clear, but...<p>You've made a website feedback tool that allows users to tell the site owner what they think is bad about the site. <i>Why aren't you using it for this thread?</i>
What is this? What pain does it stop?<p>I can't tell from the domain name, or from the website 'above the fold'. Even scrolling down, I'm still not sure what it does.<p>Also, you have no signup at the moment?
Just my 2 cents:<p>When you go live, identify your client group (at first sight, it's agencies and freelancers)<p>- Create a seperate button for agencies and freelanciers Agencies, signup here, freelancers: signup here.<p>- Create different pricing to match the client group<p>- Create a "use-it now" script, eg. a editable-text that they can copy and copy paste it in a website. Give it a trial account (or beta).<p>- Sell to your target groups, i think you can do something with this, but you really need specific group targeting.<p>- Change the button: Get early feedback into the register texts and buttons: Register for free here (input: Name & Email) -> Button: Register<p>- Change some text: Collect feedback on your site... Try targetting web designers (who hate the overuse of mail for adjusting to the clients preference -> put this as a section on the front page). Example for a section: Optimize your website feedback (collect early client feedback)<p>It's not immediatly clear what it does, it summorizes the tools, not the goal itselve (eliminating email by a better workflow for receiving client feedback for example).<p>And last but not least, marketing marketing marketing :)
Update the headline - "FEEDBACK
RIGHT ON THE SITE"<p>Leave feedback? Receive feedback? So I can do what?<p>On the subhead -
What does taking the guesswork out of the feedback loop actually mean? What will I be able to do once I take the guesswork out of the feedback loop? Make better design decisions?<p>A lot of the copy is too vague to be helpful.<p>"THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB"<p>What job? What are the pain points your tool helps alleviate? From the site, I'm guessing it's to find out the specific elements that are stopping visitors from converting or further engaging with the site? Poor design is expensive. A lot of people know what people do on a website, not lot of people understand why they do it. Sell up your solution as solving for the "why."
From browsing the comments it seems like you mostly rely on online feedback from the betatesters. I think you need to move one step back. You have identified a pain point (from your own experience) and a way to solve it but are you really sure you're targeting the right people and the pain is big enough?<p>I think you should find some people that you think have the identified problem, see if/how they solve it and meet them in person to demonstrate your cure. It's costly (time/travel) but I think it'll clear up a lot of things.
You can learn A TON from this. Seriously find ~20 people and meet them in real life.
I've seen a stratup take beta user metrics and offer their most active users the first year free. If you give out 10 free years of service to your most active users and promoters this might actually give them the motivation to start using the product.<p>Also, once they've used the product for a year they probably won't stop when they have to start paying and by then they've given you the feedback you need. They might also give you some quotes to put on the front page to show how happy your existing customers are.
Looks like a great feedback widget like <a href="http://bugherd.com/" rel="nofollow">http://bugherd.com/</a> to me<p>Be patient and<p>KEEP AT IT: listen, learn, fix - repeat<p>I found this helpful - <a href="http://www.appsumo.com/copywriting-checklist-special/" rel="nofollow">http://www.appsumo.com/copywriting-checklist-special/</a> - simple, concise and well explained guide to website copy.<p>Good luck, work, listen, learn and be patient :-)<p>Oh and take HN with a pinch of salt :-)
It's been mentioned several times but I think the main thing is telling what problem you're solving, as early as possible.<p>Also, your sign in looks like a modal, but it isn't. Confused me a little bit when i wanted to go back and almost made me stop completely. Probably just me, but might be worth a look.<p>Try asking the people that love the concept what they think of your sales site. Maybe you explained something to them which caught their attention that you're not saying on the site.
You might be onto something. Could this be easily converted into an annotation tool for machine learning purposes? It looks like you could use it to annotate images and text. You need an interface to create annotation schema. Then, you need to have two or more annotators per text/image. And finally, you calculate inter-annotator agreement and export the data.<p>I know that there are couple startups that got seed money for "annotating the web". For example "Rap Genius".
these things piss me off, i click on it, and it doesn't say what it is or why i want it.<p>it should be right there at the top "nota - it's bacon for your computer" or whatever. instead i'm supposed to scroll and look at pictures and i still don't get it. looks to me like more effort was put into making a fancy design rather than an actual product, because if it was a product it'd be obvious what it was.<p>that would be problem 1 i suppose.
I understood your site because I use screenshot browser extensions frequently.<p>Most people have no idea such tools exist. You are asking them to envision a concept that they never imagined is possible today.<p>Your animated graphic is clear to me, but it's not explicit enough.<p>You also appear to include features of tools like Clicktale, which is interesting and not prominent enough.<p>I agree that this tool must be live on your own site. :)
Take any notion of "beta" off your site. You want people to sign up thinking it's production ready and start test and improving your funnel based on a trickle feed of new visitors. Use A/B testing and talk to people that leave their details on why they did or did not use it and improve accordingly.<p>Watch this video for background: <a href="http://vimeo.com/54118238" rel="nofollow">http://vimeo.com/54118238</a>
Unlike others, I understood the problem.<p>Your true problem is unless this web agency is cranking out landing pages for a living - your customer will probably spend more time getting your tool integrated than working with it. And they cease to become a customer when the project is over.<p>There is value in this, but besides maybe some server hosting, what are you doing that can't be accomplished with an open source JS package?
Does this only work on static pages or is there a way to annotate dynamic pages as well?<p>While I don't disagree with a lot of the feedback about better communicating certain things on the page, I thought I would say that I understood immediately what your does. That's to say, I think others are being a bit hyperbolic when they say they have no idea even after scrolling.
To echo the feedback others have provided: your website makes it a challenge to understand what your product does.<p>Being obtuse about the point of your product is not an effective strategy unless you are in stealth mode and you have a simple landing page just to drum up intrigue.<p>I would clarify the problem and why your product's features supply the best answer.
I would love to such frank feedback on my startup. I am going same phase, everyone loves the idea but nobody seems to use it.
Probably because either they are not actually convinced and are faking it or I am not solving any urgent "pain point" they have.<p>Thanks @m4nu, for this post, signed-up for Nota.io and checking it out
Maybe people you've explained it to love the concept, but I have no idea what your product does after scrolling through your your bootstrap page. I THINK you capture events to help analyze visitor patterns better, while helping to solve some common mistakes like mistyped words and such, but I really have no idea.
I'm using bugherd and would like to have the feedback part only as I don't need the bug tracking part (already using another tool for that).<p>So I'm definitively in your potential client list, but no demo on your website mean that I would probably have skipped it completely without creating an account.
Isn't JIRA Capture by Atlassian pretty much the same? Probably with better integration with JIRA, which you recommend in your page for issue tracking... <a href="https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/capture" rel="nofollow">https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/capture</a>
Hey, had no idea what it did.. signed up anyway and it's something I can see myself using. Kudos to you. One slight niggle so far.. there's a typo in your confirm email. "glad to have you abroad" should be "glad to have you aboard".
1) What does it do?<p>2) It's not on your site. Where can I see it in action on all sides? what does the widget look like?<p>3) will it even work in my local development environment?<p>4) what does it cost? Can I persuade my manager to buy it?
The tutorial project that you get to once you sign up - or maybe a video of it - needs to be front and centre <i>before</i> the sign-up.<p>I wasn't clear before I got to that, but now I've seen that I'm motivated to dig deeper...
Is there a way to allow clients to create annotations on a project without creating an account? Maybe through a private URL?<p>From poking around I didn't see a way to do that. Without that I wouldn't really use it.
You told me what features it has not why I would want it. Give me a value proposition. Also put the pricing on the front page and offer more than one option, 3 would be good.
It seems like you've thought about the experience for end users, but I can't see a way to actually try it out (from an end user perspective) from your homepage.
I still have no idea what your product does. Make at least a video(2-3 minutes) that defines the problem and shows how it is solved using your software.