6 ms·

Ask HN: Review my startup, ReminderBook

19 points by boocow 14y ago

Hi All, I've finally launched my first product after being inspired by many here. ReminderBook is a webapp for creating automated appointment reminders. I know I'm entering a heavily competitive market (with patio11 included). I would love to get your thoughts and feedback. http://appointmentreminder.co Thanks!

bmelton 14y ago
It's a VERY attractive site, and exactly the kind of design that I love. Taglines are clear and concise, call to action buttons are distinct and easy to find. All in all I love it. The one question I have (and it isn't a critique, mind you) is that each of your plans seems to coincide fairly identically to AppointmentReminder.org (Patrick's offering) but is more expensive. Is this a white label offering of his? If not, what additional value to do you feel you're offering for the extra coin, or do you just believe that he's leaving money on the table?
- boocow 14y ago
  Thanks for the compliments. It's not a white label of appointmentreminder.org, although did take Patrick's pricing into consideration, among a dozen others. I feel comfortable with my pricing at this point.
147 14y ago
Do you have any customers yet? If so, where did you find them?
aymeric 14y ago
Yes, very sexy design. Clearly inspired from 37Signals, but I don't see a problem about it.
- aymeric 14y ago
  I noticed the domain name doesn't match the name of the website. That could confuse people.
  - vishalzone2002 14y ago
    great point... try getting remind.er or anything close to name
  - boocow 14y ago
    Do you think it's confusing? The http://appointmentreminder.co http://appointmentreminder.co domain is just for the landing pages. Users login and use the webapp under the https://reminderbookhq.com https://reminderbookhq.com domain. I'm hoping this helps with SEO and clarity when someone lands on the http://appointmentreminder.co http://appointmentreminder.co domain. I know there is some debate about whether a non-(.com, .net, or .org) is weighted for SERP ranking.
    - anonymouz 14y ago
      That, together with the fact that http://www.appointmentreminder.org http://www.appointmentreminder.org also exists and is a diffirent company certainly seems very confusing to me.
vishalzone2002 14y ago
i suggest doing A/B testing. its a great design but your entering price point is a bit high. all the best
righteous 14y ago
Nice design. What customer problem are you solving? Its not clear to me who or why someone would use your site.
latchkey 14y ago
I thought of this same idea awhile ago and then realized that http://apptoto.com http://apptoto.com (stupid domain name) beat me to it. It has great integration with Google Calendar and is less expensive than your service. p.s. I own MissReminder.com if you want to buy it. imho potential for much better branding... ;-)
holoiii 14y ago
Very professional looking. Did you design this yourself?
- boocow 14y ago
  Yes, I did. Thank you. Nice to get positive feedback.
albumedia 14y ago
Congrats...I like it.
mahendrabaid 14y ago
Possible to make it pay per use?
codegeek 14y ago
clickable http://appointmentreminder.co http://appointmentreminder.co
tomburke 14y ago
You could add your logo so that it would show in the browser tab. Nice design overall.
- boocow 14y ago
  Overlooked that, thanks!
boocow 14y ago
Thanks everyone for your feedback! I'm planning on sharing an update in the near future, hopefully with some successes.
itsprofitbaron 14y ago
You should change the domain name you are operating from. Also I'd stop redirecting everyone to AppointmentReminder.co & having users login at ReminderBookHQ.com for one thing, its bad user experience and its not great for SEO. Sure you can claim that you have an EMD (Exact-Match Domain) but it doesn't really help SEO, in fact Google recently released an update to tackle EMDs even further. Likewise, it doesn't help you have rivals with the same name on a different tld - patio11 - appointmentreminder.org You should definitely stick to one domain name and preferably change it, unless you can acquire ReminderBook.com. The reason for this is that its extremely beneficial for you to own the .com as you're targeting users who aren't exactly web savvy. Likewise running everything from one domain would be more beneficial to you in terms of User Experience, Branding & SEO amongst other things as well.
swastik 14y ago
I really like the design; kudos on that! Clean and delivers the message just right. The pages also load really fast which is a nice addition. I also second itsprofitbaron's comment on changing the domain name. I couldn't find it so I'd like to ask: Is there any way I could integrate the reminders with some sort of a calendar, maybe Google Calendar?
- boocow 14y ago
  Thanks for taking the time to respond and thanks for the compliments. Do you mean an weekly agenda style calendar? Right now my scheduler just shows a daily agenda view. I have plans to add a weekly and monthly view as well. Also there is no integration with Google Calendar but something I will explore. Thanks!
seanmel 14y ago
Having a small business or startup business with tons of decision to make is mind bubbling brain-wreck, but I tried reading the Book Slicing pie Mike Moyer and it all made sense, in his book he emphasized the startup equity by providing an example; also talked about splitting equity using the-grunt-fund-calculator grunt calculator and dig in to details on equity structure founders equity equity compensation, and differentiating your choice on salaries or equity. http://www.slicingpie.com http://www.slicingpie.com

19 points by boocow 14y ago

bmelton 14y ago

It's a VERY attractive site, and exactly the kind of design that I love. Taglines are clear and concise, call to action buttons are distinct and easy to find. All in all I love it. The one question I have (and it isn't a critique, mind you) is that each of your plans seems to coincide fairly identically to AppointmentReminder.org (Patrick's offering) but is more expensive. Is this a white label offering of his? If not, what additional value to do you feel you're offering for the extra coin, or do you just believe that he's leaving money on the table?

boocow 14y ago
Thanks for the compliments. It's not a white label of appointmentreminder.org, although did take Patrick's pricing into consideration, among a dozen others. I feel comfortable with my pricing at this point.

147 14y ago

Do you have any customers yet? If so, where did you find them?

aymeric 14y ago

Yes, very sexy design. Clearly inspired from 37Signals, but I don't see a problem about it.

aymeric 14y ago
I noticed the domain name doesn't match the name of the website. That could confuse people.
- vishalzone2002 14y ago
  great point... try getting remind.er or anything close to name
- boocow 14y ago
  Do you think it's confusing? The http://appointmentreminder.co http://appointmentreminder.co domain is just for the landing pages. Users login and use the webapp under the https://reminderbookhq.com https://reminderbookhq.com domain. I'm hoping this helps with SEO and clarity when someone lands on the http://appointmentreminder.co http://appointmentreminder.co domain. I know there is some debate about whether a non-(.com, .net, or .org) is weighted for SERP ranking.
  - anonymouz 14y ago
    That, together with the fact that http://www.appointmentreminder.org http://www.appointmentreminder.org also exists and is a diffirent company certainly seems very confusing to me.

vishalzone2002 14y ago

i suggest doing A/B testing. its a great design but your entering price point is a bit high. all the best

righteous 14y ago

Nice design. What customer problem are you solving? Its not clear to me who or why someone would use your site.

latchkey 14y ago

I thought of this same idea awhile ago and then realized that http://apptoto.com http://apptoto.com (stupid domain name) beat me to it. It has great integration with Google Calendar and is less expensive than your service. p.s. I own MissReminder.com if you want to buy it. imho potential for much better branding... ;-)

holoiii 14y ago

Very professional looking. Did you design this yourself?

boocow 14y ago
Yes, I did. Thank you. Nice to get positive feedback.

albumedia 14y ago

Congrats...I like it.

mahendrabaid 14y ago

Possible to make it pay per use?

codegeek 14y ago

clickable http://appointmentreminder.co http://appointmentreminder.co

tomburke 14y ago

You could add your logo so that it would show in the browser tab. Nice design overall.

boocow 14y ago
Overlooked that, thanks!

boocow 14y ago

Thanks everyone for your feedback! I'm planning on sharing an update in the near future, hopefully with some successes.

itsprofitbaron 14y ago

You should change the domain name you are operating from. Also I'd stop redirecting everyone to AppointmentReminder.co & having users login at ReminderBookHQ.com for one thing, its bad user experience and its not great for SEO. Sure you can claim that you have an EMD (Exact-Match Domain) but it doesn't really help SEO, in fact Google recently released an update to tackle EMDs even further. Likewise, it doesn't help you have rivals with the same name on a different tld - patio11 - appointmentreminder.org You should definitely stick to one domain name and preferably change it, unless you can acquire ReminderBook.com. The reason for this is that its extremely beneficial for you to own the .com as you're targeting users who aren't exactly web savvy. Likewise running everything from one domain would be more beneficial to you in terms of User Experience, Branding & SEO amongst other things as well.

swastik 14y ago

I really like the design; kudos on that! Clean and delivers the message just right. The pages also load really fast which is a nice addition. I also second itsprofitbaron's comment on changing the domain name. I couldn't find it so I'd like to ask: Is there any way I could integrate the reminders with some sort of a calendar, maybe Google Calendar?

boocow 14y ago
Thanks for taking the time to respond and thanks for the compliments. Do you mean an weekly agenda style calendar? Right now my scheduler just shows a daily agenda view. I have plans to add a weekly and monthly view as well. Also there is no integration with Google Calendar but something I will explore. Thanks!

seanmel 14y ago

Having a small business or startup business with tons of decision to make is mind bubbling brain-wreck, but I tried reading the Book Slicing pie Mike Moyer and it all made sense, in his book he emphasized the startup equity by providing an example; also talked about splitting equity using the-grunt-fund-calculator grunt calculator and dig in to details on equity structure founders equity equity compensation, and differentiating your choice on salaries or equity. http://www.slicingpie.com http://www.slicingpie.com