I poured out my heart in this article I wrote. Am curious to know what others think?
www.indiehackers.com
I wouldn't say "hypocrites" but I agree with your arguments. For me it goes down to two things:
Interesting post. The title is a bit inflammatory but I’ll put that aside as click bait. 😆
I think it’s a mistake to believe that users or bloggers owe us anything be it time, attention or money. There are hundreds of products launching every day and it can be very hard to filter signal from the noise.
There is very good reason that marketing is one of the biggest industries in the world. Money talks and paid advertising works.
Users are earned and having a great product is simply not enough. "Build it and they will come" is not foolproof and you can not please everybody. What is best for one person may not be for someone else.
In the case of your MiDrive Transfer specifically I am in no doubt you have a great product but here’s some thoughts:
These are all things that your stated competitor Dropbox communicate effectively through their brand, landing pages and marketing.
Your business clearly has a story to tell but communicating to us and IH is not enough. You can afford to put some more information on your landing page for a start without impacting UX. An about page with some FAQ might be a good start. 🙂
Check out WeTransfers about: WeTransfer
They are telling a story, building trust, establishing a relationship with creative industries and clearly have a business plan for the long term.
People aren’t going to support a file upload box but they might support a growing business with values, commitments and communication that aligns with their own beliefs.
If you want to appeal to people who are disapproving of big business then you need to build some messaging around that.
I disagree here. Really NO normal user checks the technical and privacy details of a service like Dropbox. Why!?
What I mean is that in part, Dropbox being an established brand means that to the normal user security and trust are implied. As you say why would they be so big if they are not good? Almost everybody has heard of Dropbox. I’m sure only a very small fraction remember their security breach.
I think we actually agree here. It’s not about how secure are they really it’s about how secure does it make the user feel (when it comes to conversions) And Dropbox’s brand and presence give them a head start, something that MiDrive doesn’t have (but could be starting to build).
Exactly! Brand size is the only thing that counts. If everyone has heard of you - you are done.
I can tell you about shootager. No user has ever asked about privacy. Even if the B2B User are required, by GDPR, to add a paragraph to their own privacy terms.
One of the users even has asked what her password was and was shocked that I'm unable to tell her. What was a pretty crazy moment for me because she typed her password, which I'm pretty sure is valid for multiple accounts, with the expectation that I would be able to read it. 🤔
Competition is really hard if you have no clear advantages against a very established player like Dropbox. The problem with these "simple" services like file transfer (I use to run one of this kind of service in early 2000), is that it is not a must-have service to most users and businesses. Dropbox can leverage the fact that it is a nice to have addition to their already existing offering while you have to prove that you are doing something with by itself. If I were you, I would focus on industries where the problem you solve is really painful, like movie and media industry or architecture firms.
They don't, and they won't. When building a product, 80% of your work is just marketing and selling your product.
True words and the reason why I've stopped developing my own projects.
I dunno, I don't really think you should expect people to promote your product unless either A) there's something in it for them, or B) the product meets a need for them and they really love it. I agree with the person who commented on the article that you should ask users of your product to promote it. Most people probably don't really have the time, interest or motivation to check out and vet a bunch of different indie products that they don't have a strong interest in and then promote them essentially just to be nice.
I hope this doesn't come across as rude, I do think you have a bit of a point and it would be nice if people did try a little harder to support and promote others who are doing something good in the tech space. But I guess I feel you could probably temper your expectations a bit.