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Comment by wccrawford | Hacker News Reader

He's right. We don't care yet. If we did, we'd have searched for the signup form and used it. Pushing it in front our our faces does not help.

But you know what's even better? Let them try it without signing up, but make it easy to sign up (but not annoying!) while they try it.

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Good point. Trials work well in some cases, not in others. For example, for products focused on startups, trials can be very effective. For products purchased by people other than those that use them, trials simply aren't used. So...knowing if purchasers = users is important.

Good point, that's why I love this: http://chartbeat.com/demo/

That's a really nice feature, though it's surprisingly hard to find on their site. I wonder why they prefer to promote their Tour rather than the Live Demo (found via a small link in a list on the right rail of the Tour page).

Would be interesting if a Live Demo doesn't convert nearly as well as a Tour.

While the ideal flow/funnel is to go from persuasive copy to signup in a single visit, I've often found myself going back to a site/service multiple times over the course of months before actually signing up.

It's probably part of the multiple touch points marketing idea. You may really like a service, but have to wait until you actually come across the problem the service is solving before committing to the buy.

The point being, I think it makes sense to have a sign-up button on your landing page (for return visits) AND in your copy (for first time visitors).

I personally am very turned off by the big "Sign Up" buttons on front pages. For whatever reason it always makes me feel like I'm looking at an obnoxious panhandler who's holding a glossy sign made at Kinkos. Just put a small login/username toggle widget at the top of the page.

>But you know what's even better? Let them try it without signing up,

Why would I try something I don't care about? The point still stands. Get them to care before you have them DO anything.

Because you were unimpressed by the text explanation but mighty be amazed by the actual "stuff".

That's hindsight. What's going to convince me to take time out of my day to try the demo to be amazed by?

Curiosity? The potential that it could help you? If it's easy enough to try, as in effortless and risk-free, you might well be tempted to give it a shot.

>Curiosity? The potential that it could help you? If it's easy enough to try, as in effortless and risk-free, you might well be tempted to give it a shot.

Those are compelling reasons for an extremely small percentage of first time visitors. Most just pad your bounce rate.

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