#neehar

[shouttinc]

Is Thunderclap a good channel to market your product?

We launched Shoutt last month. We've been testing various marketing channels and strategies to gain traction through social media. 

I came across Thunderclap a few months ago and thought it could be a great way to gain exposure for Shoutt. Thunderclap is like Kickstarter for Facebook shares & Tweets. You start a campaign and get supporters. If your campaign is successful  Thunderclap sends out a blast of Facebook shares and Tweets all at the same time...amplifying the power of the message. 

Thunderclap states that its works best for campaigns that raise awareness, inspire action, demand change or enlist help. Though we are none of the above, we wanted to test it since the concept was intriguing. 

Our Campaign

Target - 100 supporters in 10 days. Result - 120 supporters with a reach of 72,264 (the sum total of the number of friends and/or followers of every supporter)

We achieved this relatively easily by reaching out to our family and friends. On June 7th, our campaign was successfully completed and Thunderclap blasted out 120 facebook shares & tweets with a direct link to the Shoutt website

The Analysis 

To analyze the success of the tool, we considered 72 hours following the blast on June 7th. This time period should more than accomodate the life of a Facebook share/Tweet.

Last year, Techcrunch reported that the average Facebook post reached only 12% of a user's friends. For the sake of simplicity, I'm assuming that the same is true of Twitter. 

12% of the reach of our supporters = 12% of 72,264 ~ 8670 

When someone clicked a Facebook share/Tweet from our campaign, they went to the Shoutt website.

Potential eyes on our campaign - 8670 No. of unique pageviews on our website - 378 No. of unique pageviews in the US - 255 (we are available only on the US App Store) No. of downloads of our app - 36

Result

120 people sharing simultaneously resulted in 36 downloads.

We were very excited about Thunderclap and our campaign, but this result left us disappointed. At the scale of a 100 supporters, Thunderclap is not a good channel to market your product. I suspect the same will hold true at a larger scale as well. As Thunderclap stated, it might be more suited for social causes and less for products. 

We'd like to thank all our friends and family who extended their support to us and supported our campaign. You guys rock!

Cheers, - Neehar

[shouttinc]

Know your tools, Love your tools.

I've been coding for 8 years now. I worked in the industry for about 4 and developed 6 iOS apps on the side prior to Shoutt. I've coded in C, C++, Java, C#, Objective-C and a bunch of other languages. I've always used whatever environment was available - Visual Studio, Eclipse, Xcode etc.  I consider myself to be very efficient, productive and good at what I do. And honestly, I never really cared much about the tools I used. 

Our CTO at Shoutt is an uber-geek. Combined with awesome software and keyboard shortcuts, he dances around his computer with dexterity like Tony Stark on his incredible interfaces.

He'd always say "Know your tools". I'd think "Stop showing off. So you learnt a few keyboard shortcuts". 

Anyway, I decided to learn the keyboard shortcuts for XCode. I did some quick googling and found the must knows

Open Quickly - Shift-Command-O

Go Forward - Control-Command-Right Arrow

Go Back - Control-Command-Left Arrow

Jump to Counterpart - Control-Command-Up Arrow

and so on.

I felt awesome. I started to do things quicker. I felt like an "expert user". 

Over the last couple of days, I decided to explore Xcode further and I discovered keyboard shortcuts were just the beginning ....

Tab based tasks - lets you create tabs that maintain their own state. So I can have different tabs for different things and navigate between each tab using simple keyboard shortcuts.

I setup an Edit tab for writing code with a primary & assistant editor, a Design tab to always opens to my xib files and a Debug tab to open to the call stack, the debug and the output consoles. 

Behaviors - lets you control how Xcode behaves while building, testing or running code. 

I've configured my XCode to open the Debug tab when a breakpoint is hit. So I have everything thing that I need (call stack, debug and output consoles) but only when I actually need to use them.

Version Editor - lets you compare code changes since your last commit right within Xcode. 

I have a tab for Review so that I can visualize my code changes and edit them inline. (Previously, I used p4merge but Version Editor has won me over)

Built-in Git Integration, assistant editors etc etc etc.There is so much more to XCode than initially meets the eye. 

Today, my workflow has completely changed. Let me give a quick example. 

I want to add a button in my app, which when pressed logs a user into my application & changes its title from "Login" to "Logout". Then I want to review my code and check it in.

My old workflow

1. Open the .h file 2. Declare the button 3. Open the .m file 4. Define the method to run on click - Log the user into the application and change title of button in this method 5. Open the .xib file(user interface file) 6. Connect the button with its declaration and the method to be run on clicking it. 7. Run and Test 8. Goto Terminal 9. cd into the project directory 10. Use p4merge to verify your code changes 11. Commit & push

My new workflow

Here are a few tabs from my setup.

Edit Tab with an assitant editor (I can view the .h & .m files at the same time) Design Tab for designing the user interface Review Tab for Code Review.

1. In Edit Tab, Open .m file. The .h file is opened automatically in the Assistant Editor. 2. Declare the button in the .h file & the method to run on click in the .m file 3. Change to Design Tab and open the .xib file 4. Connect the button with its declaration & the method to be run on clicking it. 5. Change to the Review Tab & verify code changes. 6. Commit & Push

Now, this might not seem like it would save much time. But let me ask you a question? What if I want to rename the button, or change its position or make some other modification.( It's really annoying when this happens and this happens more often than I'd like.) Previously, I would have to re-open all the files one after the other and make the changes I wanted. Now, with tab based tasks, I have all the files open and ready for me. I just need to switch to appropriate tab and make changes.

Further, when I would run the application, the output console would automatically open up if I had any logging statements. So I'd have to keep closing the console when I resumed coding. Now I have a Build tab and a Edit tab. The build tab is automatically selected when running the app so my Edit tab is never affected.

With my new workflow, I have now become atleast twice as efficient. I have come to not only Know my tools, but also Love my tools. So, to those, like me, who don't give a damn about the tools they use - take the time to get to know your tools, to understand them and to play with them. And you'll fall in love, just like I did.

- Neehar

P.S - Though I've spoken about only XCode, I'm certain there are other IDE's which we can all fall in love with.

P.P.S - If you'd like to learn more about XCode, I'd recommend watching "Working efficiently with Xcode"(You'll need to have a developer account to watch this video).

[dailydoseofshannon]

Neehar: wats ur tumblr i want to see my quote now

i wanna see the other quotes and see if bein quoted is a good thing

me: dailydoseofshannon.tumblr.com/tagged/neehar

Neehar: DAMMIT ALL THE QUOTES ARE PEOPLE SOUNDING STUPID

IM NOT STUPID

me: LLOLOLLLOLOL QUOTING LOL

Neehar: FUCK

this cant get any worse

[dailydoseofshannon]

me: you're eating dinner? it's 9

Neehar: indians eat late

[dailydoseofshannon]

Neehar: WHERES MY GAY ELEPHANT

[shouttinc]

How to get awesome graphics within your budget

Let me preface this post by saying, that good graphics and design work does not come cheap. It takes time, talent, skill and a lot of creativity. The following are tips and tricks I've learnt over the last few years to reduce the dollar value that you pay for your graphics work. 

TL;DR

Get multiple graphics designers not just one.

Have atleast one graphic designer on a retainer (the one you would use the most).

Learn Photoshop. It'll save you loads of money and time in the long run.

Long Version

Graphics becomes much cheaper when you have a designer you love and whose hourly rate you can afford. Personally, since we are bootstrapping at Shoutt, we can afford about $20-$25/hr.

1. Finding a designer

Resources I use - scoutzie (mobile designers), dribbble

Before you fall in love with a designer, make sure you can afford them. It's hard to guess what a designer charges without contacting them first. In most cases, you'll have to send them an email to find out their rates. However,  on Scoutzie you can see the budget ranges that a designer charge. Find a range that fits in your budget. You can go one range higher. So if you are looking for designer whose range is <$1000. Also consider, the designers in the $1000 - $3000 range. 

You'll find this is mostly people outside the US where the value of a dollar is higher. You can often use this as a filter to narrow down on any other website as well.  It's important to find someone whose style you love and who preferably has experience in what you are looking far. 

It'll take a while to find someone awesome but trust me they are out there. It usually takes me anywhere between 1 - 2 hrs to find 1 designer that appeals to me and fits in my budget. I send out about 6-8 emails before I finalize on one designer. On average, I spend about 8-10 hours on one designer. That may seem like a lot of searching but it's well worth the effort.

2. Pitch your product 

You need to sell your idea. When you write to your designer, you need to excite him.  Pitch your product. Include references to past & present projects that'll excite him. He might not lower the rate, but he'll take the time to understand your product well and this will get you better designs.

3. Start with Individual Projects 

Though this may cost a little more than the hourly rate, it'll give you a chance to work with each other and see how you like it. You should start with something small (maybe an ad campaign, a facebook cover page, or screenshots for your iPhone app or something else). The magic number that I've found that most designers respond to is $200. This is a good price-point for you to try out a couple of designers before you find the one. 

4. Paint a clear vision

It's important that you communicate your idea well . It makes the process faster and infinitely more efficient. You need to paint a clear vision of what you need. Take the time to draw wireframes or sketches. This will also help you refine your idea. Provide a lot of references. An image is indeed worth a thousand words. 

5. Creative Freedom

Give your designer creative freedom. Great Ideas are built together. Finding a designer whose instincts you can trust will save you tons of time and money in the long run.

6. Learn Photoshop

I can't insist how critical this is to lowering your cost. There is manual work in graphic design as well. For example, your designer has to slice the psd file he creates into individual images for you. You could save a bit of money by slicing the files your selves. Additionally, more often than not, you'll need to make small changes, changes that are too small to send across to your designer. Take the time to develop basic skills. It is an investment but you'll end up saving both time and money in the long run. 

7. Get your designer on a retainer

Once you find a designer you like and work on a few projects together, start negotiating an hourly rate and get him on a retainer. Freelance Designers often look to get on retainers as it guarantees them a monthly income. The more hours you can guarantee your designer, the cheaper your costs become. It's like buying goods in bulk. 

Further, this will create trust and help you feel like your batting on the same team.

8. Give work in batches

Once you have a designer on retainer, he might become your goto graphics guy.  You might send across every little change you need (I initially did this a lot). Remember, your designer has other projects as well. He'll want to sit down for a couple of hours and just work on one project. Giving him small changes that only take a few minutes and he might try to squeeze them between other projects. Your project will not get the focus it deserves. This can be very frustrating to both of you and can strain your relationship.

9. Understand the work involved

Different kinds of designs cost differently. Marketing graphics (ads) are cheaper than UI/UX work. UI/UX work on web is cheaper than on mobile. Understanding the difference is important since you might have the same budget for all types of graphics. 

10. Get multiple designers.

As I stated in my previous point, you might want to have different designers for different kinds of work. Understand what your designer excels at and give him exactly that kind of work. He'll work much faster as it comes naturally to him. This saves you a lot of time and consequently money. At Shoutt, We have separate designers for UI/UX work vs Marketing work

 It's taken me a couple of years to learn these things and I continue to learn new things everyday. I still spend a lot of time looking for good designers and when I find them I hold onto them with great care. I know the value of good design and more importantly, the value of a good designer. 

Discuss on HN

- Neehar

P.S - Once you find someone you love, then its' time to tango -

[shouttinc]

Does anyone want to play tennis?

I hit a point in my life where not enough of my friends lived around me. We did the occasional social thing which was great, but there were a lot of things about my life that changed. Life was much easier when they lived closer. We could play tennis and cricket together, borrow things we each owned, bum rides off each other. We could share our problems and easily find solutions through our cumulative experiences and resources. The fact of the matter is that when I needed something, it was always easy to ask my friends.

When my friends moved away some of these things became harder to do. What bothered me the most was that I no longer had anyone to play tennis with. I saw people at the public courts, but they usually came in pairs. I tried Craigslist, but that didn't seem to work. I felt the need to connect with my neighbors, but I just couldn't find an easy way to do it. I thought to myself - "What if I stood on the top of my roof and shouted out to them? Does anyone want to play tennis?".  

Now, I know that we can't all go around shouting from our rooftops, that would be kinda stupid. But what if our phones could do the shouting for us? And that is how the idea of shoutt was born...out of my necessity and need to connect with my neighbors.  

It's hard to reach out to people who aren't part of our social circle. But if you think about it, we are already connected by living in the same neighborhood, working at the same place, or studying in the same school. And we are all faced with similar problems. The hard part is asking people you don't know.

That's why we built Shoutt. We wanted to make lives easier and to take the pain out of asking. Just shoutt about what you need and we'll find someone around you who is most likely to help. 

- Neehar