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View Full Version : My new service is launched.



Shawn
10-26-2005, 05:38 PM
TrackPayments is now launched.

"TrackPayments allows individuals to keep track of when upcoming bills and payments are due. Users can also choose to receive e-mail notifications when bills are due."

Keep in mind, this isn't a service for web savvy people with online bill paying for every bill. Most people have at least a few bills that they still pay through offline means, and, this service targets them.

More services to be launched soon.

Kyle
10-26-2005, 06:32 PM
Nice domain...I wouldn't use the service but I'm suprised this domain was available.

BoardTracker
10-26-2005, 07:01 PM
:)
Congratulations and good luck.
Just gave it a try, so some feedback..
Nice look. Easy signup process.
Tried to create a payment and it told me that the payee name is not legal. This is because I used "&". My suggestion. Do not limit people unless it is necessary or makes much sense (which is not true in this case if you ask me).
The big "View Schedule" link (going to tracking.php) says "Thanks for creating an account with us...". Which is ok for the first time you enter the account, but for sequential visits, while no payment schedules were set yet, it might be better to say "welcome, you have not created any payment items yet" (or something of that sort)

Overall nice work.
Best of luck with it.

Shawn
10-26-2005, 07:10 PM
I agree, fixed.

Cutter
10-26-2005, 09:15 PM
Very nice! How are you promoting it?

eMEraLdwPn
10-26-2005, 11:35 PM
in the demo, it looks like you can actually change the data, i don't know if you want that or not. also, when i edited the price of a bill, it said "deleting" in the top left corner

jonnyhilfiger
10-27-2005, 02:09 AM
Nice idea in principal but what happens when your server is down for a few hours/days and people are then late paying their bills because they didn't get their reminders, and subsequently CC card fines or leccy cut off for instance. Leaves a possibility of being sued I would think, have you looked into that angle? A disclaimer may cover you but you may need legal advice.

Cheers, John

Shawn
10-27-2005, 08:15 AM
I've already thought about that. I have a temporary server at a different hosting company that I'll transfer the site to if the server it's currently on ever goes down.

Shawn
10-27-2005, 08:17 AM
EmeraldPawn, yes, I realize people can change the bills in the demo. That's what I want.

I have a cronjob setup to clear whatever data they change within 1 minute of logging out of the demo.

MarkB
10-27-2005, 08:21 AM
Shawn, cool idea - and great looking site!

However, it doesn't seem to allow '£' symbols. This may be as designed, but thought it worth mentioning anyway.

Shawn
10-27-2005, 08:24 AM
I'll fix this, Mark. Thanks.

MarkB
10-27-2005, 12:48 PM
As soon as you do, I'm signing up :)

Chris
10-28-2005, 06:50 AM
So people need to enter their bills and the duedates and then you send reminders? (I'm assuming you dont automatically interface with billers and whatnot to find that information out).

MarkB
10-28-2005, 07:13 AM
Yeah, looks like they just use it as a simple reminder service:

PAY BILL - $1000 - OCT 29 etc

aj8
10-28-2005, 07:56 AM
Nice looking site.. how are you planning to make money out of it though?

One suggestion would be to offer paid for SMS reminders, texted to their mobile phone on the morning each bill is due... Maybe charge $5 a month or something for a maximum of one reminder each day... That's 16c per text, assuming they make use of all of them.. Should be possibly to do that profitably.

Shawn
10-28-2005, 08:10 AM
I have some great ways to monetize the traffic, but I won't start until I have at least a thousand registered users.

The idea with this is to offer something incredibly simple.

Mark, £ is now allowed.

Mike
10-30-2005, 02:47 AM
Yeah looks good Shawn, I may give it a start for September...

SWD
10-30-2005, 01:09 PM
looks great.. wish you best of luck, yeah that sms thing would be nice

mini
11-01-2005, 07:52 PM
umm....I usually use ms outlook that I sync with my PDA. I guess this applies to people who don't use microsoft product.

Good luck Shawn :)

Blue Cat Buxton
11-02-2005, 02:27 AM
Thats a very nice looking site, and a good idea as well.

The £ option doesn't follow through though - ie I created a new income reminder in £ but it showed as $.

polspoel
11-03-2005, 01:31 AM
You couldn't have launched this at a worse time :)

Microsoft has just unveiled "Office Live". An entire suite of online applications aimed at the small businesses. There is a free, advertisement laden plan available.

It includes what you have done and much much more. (Collaborative editing, email, voIp, all in your browser)

Cutter
11-03-2005, 09:04 AM
It doesn't have to be a bad thing. I would come up with a unique selling proposition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unique_selling_proposition) , and then issue a bunch of press releases about the tool & compare/contrast it to MS's new Office Live.

r2d2
11-03-2005, 10:12 AM
I've only tried the demo - looks like a great idea by the way :) - but how about a total for each month on the summary page? I know if I had 4 or 5 bills in a month, I would want a quick total.

MarkB
11-03-2005, 10:14 AM
Cool idea, R2!

MarkB
11-03-2005, 10:17 AM
Shawn, I've finally signed up. Some notes:

- even if I put an amount in, in pounds (say, £100), on my schedule page, it will show as $100.

- how about letting the user specify what currency they wish to use, and then just ask them to enter amounts?