| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| jema |
Will this idea fly.This is a first screenshot of my latest project, I'd like any feedback on price, graphics, the idea.... |
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| Róisín |
I like it. The colours are very calm and soothing, and the eye is zen-like 
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| sean |
Whilst you're at ......
To whom would you offer the free service? |
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| Northern_Lad |
Nice. As Róisín said, very calm.
Does the eye belong to anyone we know? |
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| Jb |
The idea's good, we have a similar product but sold as a monitored service and support contract and apart from the fact that our sales staff are about as useful as a chocolate teapot we could have sold a great deal of them. (Actually last year our software developers sold more product than our sales team!) | ||||||
| jema |
Anyone would get the free service, albeit with hourly monitoring. Obviously I would get a premium account and use it to monitor one or two web sites I know of
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| Behemoth |
I'd be upfront about the main message and the cheap cost i.e.
"Dont lose business! $5 a month to monitor your company website for customer access problems - rapid emrgency SMS notification to your mobile/cell phone." Or some such |
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| tahir |
Dunno, I've always prefered waiting till I get to work before finding out a server's down , makes life much more interesting (was here till 9:30 last night putting a server back together) | ||||||
| Mrs Fiddlesticks |
Like the idea but here are some of my thoughts...
Idea very good, but isn't that what they pay their webmasters/admin team for? If you spot an error, then what? yes the customer knows but can he do anything about it? Perhaps if you offered to contact his webdesigner/server host etc for them? Is this service offered 24/7? if so how do you propose to manage that and will a customer want a text at 2am telling him his website's down? You might need to set something for that eventuality. I am being positive honest and think the idea has merit. As to the graphics - could the explanation of what your offering be at the top, then the login, sign up bit, just so the explanation of what your offering is clearer. And the eye is too young, it looks like a teenagers, if its female it should have make-up on, more corporate looking that way. |
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| Behemoth |
What about a hawk-eye? Agree, current eye looks a bit young. | ||||||
| Róisín |
I like the eye! *defends said eye*
Don't put makeup on it, the way it is at the moment, it's fresh, young and honest. This is what you're going for, right? If you make it an older eye, you'd be pushing something that was established and pushing that factor of it. |
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| jema |
Many small business sites do not have quite that effective monitoring. Ok some do, some don't need it etc. But seeing as this will be an auomated service, it does not need a vast number of customers. Notifying their support rather than them would be good, but that means me offering a 24/7 service. I can offer that for the few servers I run, but do not feel like taking on 100s! People who don't want texts can switch mobiles off. As for the eye, well it took me long enough to find a free stock photo I could use... |
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| tahir |
I like the eye, very good colour scheme (who dunnit, that doesn't look like a Jema colour combo) | ||||||
| sean |
I think the eye and colour scheme are good. | ||||||
| jema |
 I was expecting you to rip me to shreds!
The chocolate brown is from the orginal template, but the rest is me. |
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| judith |
I like the eye too - it radiates calm and reassurance.
How would you fund the free service? And what is the point of it? Is it a loss leader to draw punters in to the "premium" service? And with my pedant's hat on, you need to have the text proof-read before the site goes live. |
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| tahir |
Does it make you see why I think Rob's site is too cold in feel though? |
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| jema |
Whilst I am not totally oblivious to it being a little cold, though i do not feel it is at all bad. I am not sure how to improve it. |
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| jema |
The free service would be in part a loss leader. it will probably offer people the chance to purchase SMS credit as a slight earner, and the site stats pages it will show people, may use advertising. The advantage of this short of thing is, that it really should be totally automated, and once working will be very cheap to run. "pinging" (yes Dougal I know that is not what I need to do) a server every hour is not exactly a lot of work. |
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| judith |
Following on from the Does it matter thread, that is what concerns me. If it is not bringing in income because everyone goes for the free service, "cheap to run" in effect means a loss. |
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| tahir |
I PMd you some colour refs. |
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| jema |
But I was waiting for Rob to get in the loop, rather than work in a chinese whispers fashion. I am sure we will end up making color tweaks, but it will be easier to do it as a concerted effort. |
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| Northern_Lad |
Oy mush - we're English here, can we have our 'u' back, please? |
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| tahir |
[quote="jema"]
I PMd you cos I PMd em to Rob and he said PM em to Jema |
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| barefoot_boo |
Nice use of colour, and I like what you're trying to achieve with the eye. 
But I have to agree that the existing eye is a bit too kiddy/soft/gentle, maybe try to use a 'harder' eye - more eagle-eyed/sharp/constantly alert. On balance, I think the whole header needs a bit of reworking to incorporate a stronger logo. |
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| Treacodactyl |
Does the service offer any guarantees? Would people using it be able to claim against you or seek compensation in any way? | ||||||
| Róisín |
*spearheads the defense of the eye mass movement* | ||||||
| jema |
I think i would make it clear that no liability is accepted. I will soon be looking for people with web sites to trial the system
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| tahir |
You can do one of ours if you want. | ||||||
| jema |
Well if anyone does want to sign up for a free account, they can at:
http://www.websitemonitor.org/ This is at a very alpha stage, but I will endeavour to keep any accounts people create working. You can only do a free account at the moment, and the sms facility is not yet live. Neither for that matter is anything other than http checking 
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| jema |
A little bump for this, as I think sms messaging will be live tomorrow, and for a while you will get this free, as the billing side has not been written yet. |