Hacker News Reader

amacon Ask HN: What are you working on and why is it cool?

Octopus - http://www.octopus.org - a Marketing app directory and community blog/forums. I think it's cool because Marketing in my opinion is the most important aspect of business - particularly on the web.

amacon Ask HN: Are the new gTLDs the future of Internet domains?

I don't think so. The marketing dollars behind .com are huge and arguably a greater threat to domain names are apps and app stores.

amacon The Octopus That Almost Ate Seattle

I noticed my site (http://octopus.org) spiked in traffic today - can't be co-incidental. Octopus are fascinating and the more we learn about them, the more they fascinating they become.

amacon Ask HN: How do you change money?

> Airports are location monopolies so companies that operate at them have no incentive to provide cheaper services. They can operate at a healthy (for them) margin and the customers will still come. There is a reason those airport sandwiches are expensive!

Yeah, airports are going to only get busier right so they'd be a good bet for startups (and more monopolies) in this regard.

amacon Ask HN: How do you change money?

> The answer does depend on where I am heading but in my experience I usually exchange a smaller amount at home (at a forex company) and later just withdraw from ATMs.

Yeah, that's what I do. I'm guessing you use online banking for the forex? or a dedicated forex company e.g travelex?

I've never worked in forex or know anyone in the business - I never knew it was regulated. I assume that kiosk type fx companies use banks for money supply? and that as long as currencies were pegged to global rates, they are free to charge whatever they like?

I do hear lots of people complaining about commission, that's what I guess makes Bitcoin and other P2P options attractive. Maybe forex companies have little choice, especially when you consider airport rents, staff etc.

amacon Free tools we used to build our startup

Interesting. I run a crunchbase like application, http://octopus.org. Octopus is focused on Marketing apps specifically but I'm thinking of ways to add more value. For example, every dev/company that adds an app to the site is given a profile but I've not really done much in the way of adding tools and services as you mention.

amacon Ask HN: How does one get into energy entrepreneurship (e.g. solar)?

Become a dealer or reseller and learn the business. Solar panels will be like almost any other product i.e there's a market, a margin etc.

amacon Ask HN: What trends do you think will shape startups in the next 10 years?

Mobile computing, primarily but I'd imagine financing too. The combination of the two is scary; a huge market (5 billion plus) and relatively easy access to capital. (angels)

amacon Ask HN: Anyone tried running two start ups at a time?

I'm running four projects - usehuman.com, octopus.org, mostvaluablepro.com and thecloudforum.com. They're all side projects but eventually I'll have to focus on one for sure. As others have said, dividing your time between things divides your ability to focus.

amacon Ask HN: How did you do marketing for your app?

Marketing is more than digital marketing for sure but just focusing on it alone can help you go a long way. Check out some of the categories on octopus.org and try software/see what works for your project.

amacon Launching your project to the world? Try these sites to get the word out

http://www.octopus.org - Marketing apps only

amacon Ask HN: What's the best marketing effort for $1000?

I don't think Marketers should work with a fixed budget like you have described. Check out some of the applications on octopus.org, most of them have free trials and free functionality. See what works before you spend any serious money.

amacon Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (October 2013)

SEEKING FREELANCER

Human Software are looking for an marketing consultant to work with us on a freelance and remote basis. We’re looking for a person with the following Marketing experience and skills:

Experience:

Advertising, Branding/Identity, Ecommerce, PR/Communication, Print, Events, Social Media, Web.

Skills:

Strategic Planning, Creative Consulting, Technical Consulting, Tracking, Analysis, and Reporting, Branding and Identity, Information Architecture, Interface Design, User Experience, Design, Visual Design, Database Design, Website Application Development, Intranet/Extranet Development, CMS Development, Front-End Development, Back-End Development, Search, Optimization, Research & Analysis, PPC/SEO, Media Relations, Community Development.

The person we’re looking for is accountable, agile, customer focused and above all, passionate about Marketing. Visit usehuman.com for more information or contact am@usehuman.com

amacon Ask HN: Share your projects and the stories behind them (Pt. 2)

http://octopus.org

Firstly, I'm a Marketer. I think whilst many other jobs and functions in business are becoming commoditized, you can't commoditize creativity. Marketing I also believe separates the best businesses - it's the 'moat'.

Octopus is my vision of how the role of the Marketer and software in general might take shape. It's clear that with SAAS and the ever expanding role of the CMO, there's going to be lots of choices and lots of scope in Marketing. This brings problems too, like how to select the right applications and vendors.

Hopefully with Octopus, Marketers will be able rely on a service that helps them choose and buy the right Marketing software and services for them/their company.

amacon SAAS Marketing Help/Opinion

Thanks for the replies guys and those who emailed. Working hard to make this service better.

amacon Ask HN: Looking for a co-founder?

Octopus, an app market for marketers.

Finding and evaluating marketing apps is getting harder because there's simply far more out there. Likewise for the same reason, it's getting harder for vendors to market their apps.

Co-founder should be interested in marketing and community building.

amacon Show HN: MVP for real-time event social feedback (Q&A)

I think the UI could be improved but kudos for shipping. What stack is it? I was thinking about building a Django based feedback service as I think there's demand for such a service.

amacon Ask HN: How do I learn marketing?

I would recommend two websites, econsultancy.com and moz.com. They both had a tonne of resources and you can get up to speed pretty quickly with marketing if you apply yourself.

amacon Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (August 2013)

SEEKING FREELANCER - remote

Human Software are looking for an marketing consultant to work with us on a freelance and remote basis.

The person we’re looking for is accountable, agile, customer focused and above all, passionate about Marketing.

Visit www.usehuman.com for more info or email am@usehuman.com.

amacon Edward Snowden's not the story. The fate of the internet is

This story is pathetic, it will sell news but it's pretty much nonsense. Clearly, the new era of computing upon us - networked computing - and with it will bring with lots of opportunities as well as many problems to solve.

Privacy is one such problem, but it's one we can work together to solve. Humans are capable of this, and capable of more than just writing stuff to cause division like the article.

amacon Ask HN: Solo Founder SaaS or App Success Stories?

I'm running a recruiting app (usehuman.com/prospect) myself. Not replacing my income but I hope too grow the company in the future to do that and more.

amacon Why we're doing things that don't scale

> human-assisted onboarding

Otherwise known as professional services. I think that's what some folks miss when they think about SAAS - it's going to be about service more than anything else despite the network delivery.

amacon The unprofitable SaaS business model trap

And a lot (including my app) that plenty of people will have heard of. I do agree though, there's a lot of apps in that directory and elsewhere that will end up being well known (or at least acquired) in the next 5-10 years.

The network (cloud) is where you sell your consumer or enterprise application now, not Windows.

amacon The irrelevance of Microsoft

Saying Microsoft is dead is a bit like saying working at a desk is dead. Habits change, but neither the desk nor Microsoft is going away any-time soon.

amacon Do Things that Don't Scale

Excellent read and dead-on. It's something I'm working on every day since launch and will be a good point of reference should I need reminding.

amacon Ask HN: Best ways to learn new stuff?

Maybe the easy answer is, find a job where you can work on what you want to work on? Whether that's for a company, or for yourself, life's too short.

amacon Ask HN: What are you working on?

http://usehuman.com and http://mvpforum.com

amacon ESPN.com Requiring Facebook Login From July 17

Guess it's their property right. But is this a good thing for the web if more and more sites go down this road?

I don't think the web was built on these foundations, nor should it's future be either.

amacon Instacart: Crowdsourcing Your Grocery Shopping

The strange thing about this is that in the UK, here every major food retailer has been doing this for years. It also has to be said, they don't break-down figures but most folks suspect it's not a profitable activity - it's a market share activity.

amacon Ideas on how to improve customer conversion and ease of use

I'm one of those who has signed up. I guess I'm probably one of the many developers who are also really bad at copy out there also. (As you can see at usehuman.com)