Eric Edelstein

About 2 hours ago, I received an SMS from an ex-colleague who is busy working on some interesting Internet projects…

“Hi, we have launched www.name-of-their-site.com tonight. We are offering 30,000 rand in prizes. Check it out Regards name of ex-colleague”

Why did I take a look at it, when I get requests on a regular basis, and don’t get the time to look at every URL sent to me?

1. I have a personal relationship with this person

2. I was intrigued by the mention of R30k in prizes

3. I am interested in the subject matter

However, when looking at the site, the first impressions were:

1. Nice looking site

2. The “contact us” link gave the following message: “Page Not Found This file you have requested does not exist. Please go back and try again.”

3. The prizes didn’t really do it for me - they were split into a number of sections, and each one had different requirements - such as R100 for playing the most games each day. I don’t see myself sitting playing continuously to try win the R100.

4. I couldn’t try the system unless I registered

5. To register I needed to download some additional software on my mac.

That’s where I gave up.

The site design is great, and the concept, although not new, should work, but I was thinking a few minutes later how important it is to consider as many areas as possible before you launch, (do you give a sampler without making the user register?) and unless you’re 173% sure that everything is perfect,  make it a BETA launch.

I might be back at a later stage, but with a little more planning, that sms to me could have converted me into a registered user (or a returning user if i didn’t have to register) TONIGHT.