Ask HN: recommendated approach for getting a homepage design on a budget?

by dood on 7/27/2010, 9:12 PM with 4 comments

So far I've done the design myself for my site http://cookblast.com/

After doing a little experimenting with Stumbleupon ads, and having a horrible bounce rate (>90%), I think my homepage needs improvement.

My current plan is to use Elance, following patio11's example http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1551817

Any good alternatives to getting a nice design without much of a budget?

Any specific tips on how to improve my homepage would also be appreciated!

  • by aaronbrethorst on 7/27/2010, 9:29 PM

    What I've heard is that SU ads drive a huge amount of traffic with not-very-good conversion rates. @webwright has looked into this in the past. If you're on the Seattle Tech Startups mailing list, check out the March 2010 archives for more information.

    Beyond that, I'm overwhelmed by the idea of searching over 16,000 cooking videos. It's likely that I'm not in your target demographic (28 year old single white male, rarely cook for myself), but I'm still not even sure where to start.

    Do you know who your target user is? Do you know the pain points your product will solve for them? If not, try reading Steven Blank's Four Steps to the Epiphany. It might help you focus your development efforts.

  • by maxdemarzi on 7/27/2010, 9:23 PM

    You could always use themeforest.com Here's one that's food related: http://themeforest.net/item/time-for-food/57351