i've noticed..

Seriously, if you are building any kind of web application, you should be using LaunchRock. LaunchRock is a service that creates a viral “Coming Soon” page that you can use to collect potential users. Sounds simple, right? Too simple? Actually… yeah. But the return on investment is just huge. Let me explain how it worked for me.

The Need

I had gotten to a point in building Self Compete where I was going to begin testing a feature that posted to Twitter and Facebook. This only way to test this feature (as in posting to Twitter and Facebook), is extremely public. If I was going to be doing testing that everyone was going to see, I better have something for them to look at. So I began to design a sign up page, hoping to turn the interest of these public tests into some sort of user base. I spent a few days designing something that I felt looked good and began working on a script to collect emails. Then I realized the headache that entails. “I have to convert this design to HTML”, “I’m going to need to pay for hosting to host a page”, “I’m going to have to write a script to store the emails that are entered”, “I’m going to write a script to display or send the emails that are stored”, “I’m going to have to market this page constantly”. For such a small page, with at most 2 fields, there is a lot of work to be done. That means a lot of time spent NOT working on my application which I need the sign up page for!

The Solution

The day I had finished my design, and was about to start coding, was the day that I received an invite to use LaunchRock. Instantly, 2 days of work (and then the continued marketing) was transformed into 2 hours of work for free. I signed up, changed some DNS settings, filled out a form and www.selfcompete.com was now a social media powered sign up page.

Sure… a sign up page is easy stuff, but it has just gotten to the point where it is such an unnecessary burden on time that could be used better. This is like paying for food to be delivered so you can continue to work, instead of spending time cooking or leaving to get food. LaunchRock is your favorite pizza place.

Managing Your List

Just being on LaunchRock is going to get you a fair share of sign ups. The best part of LaunchRock, however, is how it encourages the sign up of friends by giving each person a unique code to share. You’ll find that virality works in strange ways and your list will grow from unexpected places.

The ease of using LaunchRock does come with a dangerous sense of complacency. There was a recent discussion on Hacker News that actually inspired a change in how I will handle my email list. In a blog post, a LaunchRock signee railed against start ups for collecting email addresses and doing nothing with them. I hadn’t given the list much thought until I read the referenced blog post, I had just planned on letting the list sit and collect email addresses as I continued to do my thing working on Self Compete, but the author was completely right. I thought back to the times when I received an email from something I had supposedly signed up for and forgotten. Usually, when that happens, I don’t read the email. In the Hacker News thread, a poster referred to succinctly it as keeping the list “warm”. I’ve already gotten an email drafted that I plan on sending out this week, addressed to everyone that has signed up so far. If someone was interested enough to sign up for this list, they deserve to be updated on occasion and maybe even just a simple “Thank You, we’re still here”.