This post is by Michael Pollock, the original owner of Small Business Branding. Yaro Starak now owns and produces the latest content for this blog.
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In my recent post, The First Ten Seconds, I used Chalk as an example of what not to do with a webpage. As I said in the post, Chalk hasn’t actually launched yet, so the example wasn’t completely fair. In fact, Chalk developer, Jake Tracey, made the following comment:
"The primary goal of the Chalk splash page was simply to tease the audience whilst being vague. We didn’t want to describe in detail parts of the app, just tease."
Fair enough Jake. I understand. And for what it’s worth, a more compelling tease to me would be a big, bold headline that says something like "Chalk – The Easiest Way to Collaborate Online (coming soon)." And then offer the opportunity to enter my email address to be notifed when you do launch.
Odeo used this technique for several months before they actually launched. Of course, they did such a strong job of stirring up the buzz on the product that many people didn’t even need to be notified when it launched.