Votesy Has Officially Launched
February 3, 2016 Posted by Tyler CruzIt’s actually been quite a while since I gave an update on Votesy. In fact, my last designated update was back on December 3rd, 2015, so let’s get you up to speed.
A couple weeks ago I actually did a soft launch of Votesy… talk about soft, I didn’t even blog about it!
And it turns out that the decision to do a quiet launch was sound after all, as there ended up being over 45 bugs that weren’t discovered until the site went live, including some very critical ones. No matter how much you test things beforehand, there always seems to be some bugs that you never identify until your project is already out there.
Fortunately, all but a few lingering small bugs have since been fixed and the site is now running pretty smoothly.
No Mobile Support
The major drawback to Votesy at the moment is that there is absolutely no mobile support. While iOS and Android apps are planned for the future and will piggyback off of the site’s existing API system, the site currently does not even render properly on mobile devices, so there is literally no mobile support at all.
However, it’s a lot cheaper and faster to make the site useable for mobile web-based viewing than it is to develop apps, so I may have that done while the apps get developed so that people can at least use the site on their phones until then.
That being said, I am currently out of budget to develop the site any further, so it’s really up to the site to excel from this point onward in order to help pay for its continued development or justify pouring more money into it.
Right now, I’m just happy that it’s finally up and running.
Promotion Efforts
With my focus over the past 2 weeks having been on tackling all the bugs and issues that were popping up (by the way, that is another reason why I was AWOL from my blog for a while), I obviously didn’t want to start marketing or promoting Votesy until most of the bugs were fixed.
So, marketing efforts on the site so far have been fairly minimal apart from a Facebook and Twitter mention or two, and a couple of threads made on Reddit (which didn’t gain any traction).
I am currently considering sending out a press release for Votesy, although I am not sure how press-worthy the site would be. I also have never had any successes in the past with press releases. I’m still considering it though.
Initial Reception
Here are the stats of the site so far (as of January 30th, 2016; I’m drafting this post a few days in advance of publishing it):
About 10 of those users are test accounts from me and the developer, but the rest are all legitimate and verified users.
With such a quiet launch, and with numerous setbacks (some of the bugs didn’t allow people to register, create a question, or even load the site) I’m actually happy with these numbers so far. It will be interesting to compare them with the stats in my next Votesy update.
What’s Next?
My goal now is to start getting the word out. I’m still on the fence about a press release, but I plan on contacting some websites and communities to share the news of the launch and communicate how Votesy could be of benefit to them.
It’s all about getting the word out now.
So there you have it – Votesy has launched – please go check it out!
Hey Tyler, i wish you the best of luck – i would recommend to add a responsive design asap, more than 40% of the web users are mobile users. Good luck, pal!
Looks pretty cool, good luck with it! And like Robert said, a responsive layout would be the best, as everyone’s going mobile these days..
Good luck dude. I just launched a new product myself and have learned a lot through the process.
Wrote a post about it on Medium if you’re interested:
“The 30 most important things I’ve learned after 90 days of building a startup”
https://medium.com/@ericsestimate/the-30-most-important-things-i-ve-learned-after-90-days-of-running-a-startup-dc0552f0c06b?source=your-stories
Cheers!
I love it but you need to have dynamic photos in the facebook and twitter posts because that’s how it will go viral. By word of mouth.
I agree. Apparantly we need a more powerful server to be able to do that though.
Looks good man. I don’t really get putting all of the content behind a login though. You could at least show some stuff to unregistered users and just prevent interaction until after they register. Need to pique their interest.
Also: you should definitely invest in making the site responsive if it isn’t already. There are tools out there that can take a well-done responsive web app and port it pretty well into a iOS or Android app. It’s not 100% perfect, but if you need to save money it’s definitely the way to go. I’m surprised your developer didn’t just code this thing to be responsive anyway tbh – I’d never deliver a site this simple in 2016 that wasn’t responsive.
Good luck bro, hope it works out for ya!
The responsive issue is actually more the designer’s fault than the developer (programmer’s), although the site now works on mobile (apart from creating a question).
You can actually view the site without logging in, but I am going to also add a feature that allows question creators to allow their question to be answered by non-registered users which will be unchecked by default.
Thanks for the feedback.
Couple things:
Why the loading screen? Kind of annoying..
I got 2 email confirmations?
Also, when I click on user profiles, it kicks me back to the main page.
Hmm… you shouldn’t have received 2 e-mail confirmations… if you did then that is a bug.
The user profiles page just appears like it goes back to the main page because the user profile page is not complete (it’s showing a list of that user’s created questions). It’s on the to-do list.
Hey Tyler, i wish you the best of luck – i would recommend to add a responsive design asap, more than 40% of the web users are mobile users. Good luck, pal!
Looks pretty cool, good luck with it! And like Robert said, a responsive layout would be the best, as everyone’s going mobile these days..