Comments on: Why some web apps are successful and others aren’t

By: Allan Ebdrup

Allan Ebdrup — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:12:29 +0000

I recently had a sleepless night. I’ve made a tool for creating surveys online (http://obsurvey.com), and the going was tough. There are so many other soultions. But after thinking hard about what my solution is really good at and the others are not I had an idea, I had to get up in the middle of the night and register surveyonblog.com, the next few months I will be focusing on launching surveyOnBlog.com as a survey solution specially made for bloggers.
Suddenly my priorities have changed and the impossible task of getting a foothold doesn’t seem so impossible any more. I think I’ve found a niche. It will be so much easier to explain what makes my solution unique, and what it helps with.

By: Ryan Kelly

Ryan Kelly — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:49:18 +0000

I hear ya Danny! I’m consistently letting perfect get in the way of good

By: Danny Halarewich

Danny Halarewich — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:46:28 +0000

Thanks Ryan!

It’s been a real fun project to do. We like the way it turned out, but it was difficult getting to that point. I’m my own worst client, that’s for sure

By: Ryan Kelly

Ryan Kelly — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:34:21 +0000

Danny, you guys have a great product site design too. Funny, my designer showed me your site a couple weeks ago as he was researching product sites for ideas as we revamp ours. Great job!

By: Brian Cray

Brian Cray — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:00:08 +0000

Thanks for the comments! Both of you have great products! Checked out Pear Analytics today… a lot like website.grader.com… but fresher! Shared via Twitter

By: Ryan Kelly

Ryan Kelly — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:47:21 +0000

This is not only a great post, but very timely for us. I absolutely agree with everything you’ve said here, and would add that it is not easy whatsoever to accomplish.

Our Website Analyzer tool, http://analyzers.pearanalytics.com, was useful and very easy to understand. As we build a premium version of this, we are trying to decide how each feature accomplishes something of value, and is automated as possible.

I think there are some tools out there that require so much input, that users get bored with it after some time.

By: Danny Halarewich

Danny Halarewich — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:58:13 +0000

In summary, some products are useful while others are riding on current trends.

Glitter only products should have been experiments done by the authors instead. If everyone was realistic about how useful their product is, they could still build neat things, learn from it, and figure out how they can adapt it for a real need in the marketplace.

Nice article