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diff --git a/memos/WM-009.txt b/memos/WM-009.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..249aeb3 --- /dev/null +++ b/memos/WM-009.txt @@ -0,0 +1,158 @@ + + + + + + + +Document: WM-009 P. Webb +Category: Project 2017.04.11 + + BeachfrontDigital — April Update + +Abstract + + Eliminating friction and adding new features to BeachfrontDigital. + +Body + + Who knew analytics could be fun? + + I've spent the past week and a half working on the new + BeachfrontDigital[1] and I'm loving it. After publishing my previous + post[2], I thought about how I could make BD more useful to myself + and other people. Something that bothered me for awhile was the lack + of importing. *To be quite honest*, I was scared of the work required + to make importing domains work. I just didn't want to deal with it. + *Lame*, right? + + Here's a reminder of why nobody bothered to sign up for V1 + of BeachfrontDigital: + + - I wasn't offering anything that a spreadsheet couldn't handle. + - $6/year was still too much to charge for someone who has + <10 domains. + - To make charging for my service palatable, I'd need to create a + sync system for registrars. + - Not all registrars have public APIs (see: Hover). + - There are *so* many registrars. It's not cost-effective to + maintain syncing for each. + - Creating a sync system based on undocumented APIs like some + people have done with Hover is a *terrible* idea. Undocumented + APIs means they can break at *any* moment. + + This reminder was enough to get me back into making BD better, + starting with CSV importing and guess what? It wasn't *that* bad! I + think it took me two days to get importing to work, with another two + for optimization. When a user decides to export their data, it'll + look something like this: + + 📸[Snippet of my domain export from BeachfrontDigital][IMG1] + + 1. Eliminating friction + + During a coding break, I read an article that was sitting in a tab + for at least a week, "Amazon's Friction-Killing Tactics To Make + Products More Seamless"[3]. What an eye-opener that was! The + takeaway I got from it was to *minimize as much friction as + possible for the end user*. It was easy to identify a major point + of friction with BD as it was something I was actually dreading. + Me, the guy who made the product, didn't want to perform the basic + task. Why? It was too much work! + + In V1 of BeachfrontDigital, I had to input the domain name, + registrar, price, AND expiration for every single domain I own. + Even if the number of domains I had were two, that's *still* more + work than I'm willing to do. No one likes filling out + spreadsheets, it's a chore. What to do? Automate the hell outta + what we don't want to deal with! + + Of course, you'll have to input your domains because BD is not a + mind-reading app (it *would be* in a few years if it was a Google + product). Thankfully, BD will run a WHOIS search in the background + and automatically grab registrar and expiration info. Pricing is + something you'll have to input as well because registrars don't + have the same pricing for domains/top-level domains (TLDs). + + 📸[Screenshot of my domain portfolio][IMG2] + + Don't even get me started on how inconsistent TLD operators are + with listing registrar names. In my testing, I found three + variations[4] of the business name for Tucows. Like, why? Lucky + for you, I asked customer support at both Tucows and Hover and was + told this: + + > The variations in the Tucows name for different domains is + > simply how it was inputted at the Registry level (each domain + > extension or tld has a governing entity known as a Registry), + > and since that is a human's job normally, it gets added to their + > system slightly different each time. + > + > — Jordan Q + + In addition, domains purchased through Hover will list the + registrar in WHOIS searches as Tucows. Gandi will show EPAG + Domainservices GmbH, iwantmyname will show 1API GmbH, and so on. + It would be *ideal* to show the actual reseller you purchased your + domains from but that's not how WHOIS works. Oh well. + + 2. New features + + 📸[Portfolio dashboard for BeachfrontDigital][IMG3] + + This is how the new portfolio dashboard looks! I figured that it'd + be good to show personal analytics in both textual and graphical + formats. While creating this, I learned how flexible and awesome + Handlebars[5] is. + + At a glance, you can see how many domain renewals are occurring + this month, this year, and next year. January and July are busy + months for me. Interesting that they are six months apart. What is + it about those months that give me ideas? I just realized I + haven't accounted for people who renew domains for multiple years… + *updates list of TODOs*. + + You can also see how many domains you own per registrar. + Obviously, I favor Tucows because I like the included WHOIS + privacy from Hover, for domains that support it (I don't get why + `.fm` and `.io` don't, so dumb). I purchased `frsh.fm` from Gandi + initially, but then moved it to Hover. Not sure why EPAG + Domainservices GmbH is there… + + Finally, you also get to see how many domains you have per TLD. + `.com` and `.online` are my favorite ones, apparently. The legend + for this chart is awfully busy, I'll need to find a way to make it + look better. I mean, someone with 50+ TLDs in their domain + portfolio might be an edge-case, but it's going to bother me until + I find a solution, haha. 🤷🏾♂️ + + In order to make every data point stand out, you need color. Well, + I wasn't going to manually create colors, these are all generated + dynamically! I need to do a bit of tweaking here and there but I'm + mostly satisfied with the results. + + In conclusion + + At the end of my previous post[2] about BeachfrontDigital, I + mentioned making the service free. Hmm, *nope*. However, it *will* + be free during beta, which is whenever I launch V2 until I deem + the service is ready for primetime. That could be as early as this + summer or as late as 2018. At that point, BeachfrontDigital will + cost $11/year afterwards. + + What you've seen above is only half of the first wave of upgrades. + My next BD post will most likely show more charts, but centered + around pricing! I'm also thinking about making each of the charts + fullscreen-capable. It would be neat to use the left/right arrow + keys to look at the other charts in fullscreen mode as well! 🕸 + +References + + [1] <https://beachfront.digital> + [2] </WM-007> + [3] <https://firstround.com/review/amazons-friction-killing-tactics-to-make-products-more-seamless> + [4] <https://twitter.com/BeachfrontD/status/848404426557673472> + [5] <https://handlebarsjs.com> + [IMG1] <https://🔥.pixels.wtf/blog/image/2017/beachfront-digital-april-update-a.png> + [IMG2] <https://🔥.pixels.wtf/blog/image/2017/beachfront-digital-april-update-b.jpg> + [IMG3] <https://🔥.pixels.wtf/blog/image/2017/beachfront-digital-april-update-c.jpg> |