Show HN: Themes and styles for SQL reporting services

[xm1994]

Made this a few months ago (http://reportsoup.com).

Think of it as a bootstrap for Microsoft's SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reporting tool. Lets you share styles/fonts/elements across reports. I also included a few report templates to get you started.

This is my first run at a digital product and I tried to pick something I'm somewhat familiar with and saw a need for myself. Honestly though I'm just happy to have shipped something! While I never had the courage to actually "launch" it... what I actually did is run an adwords campaign for a few days, but paying almost $1 CPC with a conversion rate of 1% seems like a good way to lose money.

I started working on some other projects, then last week 4 sales came in (with the adwords campaign off) and I started getting a little excited.. and couldn't stop thinking of some things I could do to keep it alive:

1. Launch a more efficient adwords campaign.

2. Write some quality content: General tips on designing/creating business reports e.g. color selection, fonts, etc. and get some nice (free!) organic traffic.

3. Hire a designer and build some great looking report templates.

4. Offer a free trial. (I know patio11 would jump all over this one, I was worried about people stealing the templates and sql tables, but I realize now it doesn't really matter).

Or... perhaps I should just opensource it.

Suggestions or comments on any of the above would be appreciated. And don't pull any punches HN!

[kohanz]

My vote is for #2 and #3. Although I am not a customer for this tool, my gut tells me that your users are more interested in getting good looking reports as soon as possible (and at minimal cost), rather than the ability to design their own custom templates. So I think more great-looking templates will lead to more customers.

That being said, one critique I have of the website is that I think the most important image for your tool is the end product - the report. And unless I'm mistaken, I have to scroll down to the bottom to find it. Some non-technical people might think that the first screenshot is the report and that's not a good impression to give. I suggest moving the templates front and center. If they catch people's eye, they will scroll down to find out more about the tool.

Another minor gripe is the size or zoom level of the screen shots. I don't think they give the best impression of the reports or the UI. I instinctively squint when I look at them.

One feature idea would be to set up a companion site or sharing feature within the tool that allows people to make their templates public and have them get voted/rated. You could eventually crowd-source some of your templates that way.

I also want to say thanks for sharing your experience. Stories like this about side projects potentially turning into small businesses are inspiring to me, whether they succeed or not. Congratulations on your first sales!

[xm1994]

Thanks. I was putting the editor front and center, but you are right, perhaps the templates themselves can provide more value. I think I'm going to go further than bigger screenshots and let them download sample reports in .pdf generated straight from SSRS using my templates.

[ScottWhigham]

Very cool. You need a video or something explaining it. There's not enough "meat" on that page for me to want to pay $60 (and I've been a SQL Server guy for 15+ yrs). I find it hard to really suggest a model for it without knowing more about what it does/is/how it works.

Also, you need licensing info (how many servers can I use this on? One license per dev/server? etc). Also, you need a TOS for any corporation to take a serious look.

Cool stuff though - I like the idea.

[xm1994]

Good point. I've been dying to have a reason to use http://www.powtoon.com for videos, maybe it's a good time to try it.

I received a request for a multi-user license, so this is definitely tripping up others. I'll create some volume discounts and make that clearer before the checkout process.

If anyone would like to give it a try use the coupon code HACKERNEWS at checkout for a free download.

[ScottWhigham]

Sorry - not trying to question your business sense but powtoon.com just doesn't seem like a fit for what you have IMO. Just download Camtasia, get a decent headset mic, and do some screenshot videos that show people how quick/easy/etc. If nothing else, it will be a good exercise for you. "I have four minutes. How can I create interest during that four minutes?" Notice that I sad "create interest", not "cram every feature possible into four minutes" (which is what a lot of first timers try to do).

Once you create interest, then what? During the video creation/planning stages, write down any questions you think people will have and write (and edit/rewrite/check for typos) succinct answers. Make an FAQ and put it up there. Don't subdomain that - put that on your domain.

Next, take your best and most logical questions people will have and craft a landing page around that + your selling text. This is what landing page design and conversions are all about. You start out with an idea ("I need a video"), and one month of hard work later, you have an amazing site that starts really bringing in the traffic (and the traffic turns into money). Once you do that, start running some Google AdWords with targeting the SSRS keywords.

It's your product - no one knows it better - and you should be able to do a good video on it. Upload the vid to YouTube and embed it on your site. If you don't like YouTube, buy a sub to Vimeo for $60 and embed it using Vimeo (no ads). You can do a lot on Vimeo that isn't available on Youtube (search the web for that).

I like it - looks cool. I'd love to see it succeed. If you do ultimately decide to open source it, I'm sure the CodePlex community would dig it. Maybe you could put a trial/limited version up there that includes a nag/ad/etc for the full version. I don't know their TOS though so maybe that's not a good suggestion.

[goofygrin]

I sent this around. This has always been one of my biggest issues with ssrs.