Show HN: The linkedin Killer
jizie.com
jizie.com
Richard! Put that link on your homepage. Show people what they'll see using the site. Goddamnit man! It's beautiful!
I still have no idea why I'd use it, but at least now I can see the quality of build you can put out. This is the stuff that gets people interested.
Re-do your homepage. Put a big link that shows people what their profile would look like. Or put the profile up somewhere.
From your homepage, I had no idea if after creating an account I'd just be sent to a 'coming' soon link or something, because you never said what it did.
The thing you should be putting into your homepage (some of which you can take as a lesson in marketing), 'show your work, don't just talk about it'.
Also, I found a bit of a bug. Clicking on one of your links in your portfolio, results in an image that is stretched, but then clicking the back button fixes it.
The landing page is nice, but you haven't given me a compelling reason to give it a go, and you haven't made it easy for me to join.
Have you considered starting with a niche? Some friends started theloop.com.au, which is a LinkedIn for creatives, and they've been quite successful with it.
When LinkedIn started, it was so early, that I suspect they were targetting IT people, and they grew from there.
I think in order to get any traction, you'll at the VERY least need to tell people what they are signing up for. You haven't done that at all on your homepage. "The only professional network with a VOICE" means nothing to me.
Your 'about' page still says nothing about what the user should expect when they are logged into the site. All you tell is about why you had the idea, which quite frankly doesn't make a ton of sense to me, and then that "Linkedin.com is the myspace of our generation and jizie.com is the facebook".
HOW! WHAT! You've given people absolutely nothing with regards to what the site will do. Even if you just give one or two examples of how your (hopefully soon to be renamed) site is different. What will it allow you to do.
I see in another thread that you responded that 'without a co-founder...'. Please don't make excuses. There are tons of people who have built successful sites without co-founders. I'm sure there are also lots of people who grew up in 'bad neighbourhoods', just as there are people in technology who grew up in the farming communities where they didn't have access to a technology community.
I know I'm sounding like a downer but I want you to get a bit angry and realize you need to up your game. You've made it further than most have, just by building something and releasing it. It's a sad statement of our industry full of dreamers, but it's the truth. So give yourself a small pat on the back. Then look at the road ahead, and how long and hard it is. Take one step, then another, stay focused, and keep going.
Congratulations. All your hard work to get to this point is nothing in comparison to what you've got ahead of you. (That's a compliment, though I know it doesn't sound like one).
You need to spell and grammar check your work. I applaud what you've done, and you've clearly worked hard in difficult circumstances and have done well. I will spell and grammar check up to 1000 words for you for free, just to help, no obligation.
I also didn't know why I should give you my email address, and I nearly just closed without looking further. I saw the "About" link only at the last moment - you need to give me more.
Good luck.
You need more of a hook to get people to sign up - currently I don't know what the benefit would be, and what you'll do with my data. That's a killer combination (in a bad sense).
And you really do need to change the name. Something short, catchy, and meaningless will do well enough if marketted strongly.