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by xm1994 4806 days ago
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.
1 comments
ScottWhigham 4806 days ago
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.

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