I find Unbounce's blog to be an excellent resource on landing pages design.

They critique lots of different designs. Definitely worth checking out.

http://unbounce.com/landing-page-examples/

So I have put a short list of my competitors below. How do you think my landing page gets across my message in comparison to the others?

http://www.usertesting.com

http://www.trymyui.com

http://www.userlytics.com

http://www.loop11.com

How do I rank among these? Can I take anything they do well and implement it into my own landing page?

I now understand (I think) what your company offers. But I didn't get that from your website, but from your competition. You seem to offer usability testing of a website, not beta testing of a software.

I looked at your 10min video on your home page. You call that beta testing. As a former software company exec, I would never refer to that casual playing with a website as beta testing. For example, in your video, the guy does attempt to see if options function. E.g. he selects "large" for the shirt size, and then declares that the function works.

But a real beta tester would meticulously check every single option against every other single option. He would click on every size, every color, every permutation of options to make sure they all worked, and every combination of choices worked, without causing the software to freeze up or crash.

So if I were thinking I was paying for a beta test, and all I got was what that guy did for 10 minutes, I would be very disappointed in the service I got from your company.

So I think you have an identity crisis as to what your actually offer. The other sites do a much better job of describing that.

Elsewhere on your site you refer to "apps". So do you test apps or websites?

Also, I didn't see it, but do you offer any quality control as to who the testers are that you use? Or are they just random people who sign up to be "betatesters"? There's nothing wrong with using people off the street if that is in fact what you are selling. But if you are selling someone who knows how to really test stuff, that's a whole different thing.

Sorry to run so long. At the risk of sounding repetitive, I think you have an issue with what exactly your company offers, and to whom. And I think a lot of that revolves around you saying you are providing "betatesters" when I don't think that's really the proper term for what you are offering.

PS: And I still don't see the purpose of those "featured startup" boxes on your homepage. You said they pay for exposure, so are they essentially paid ads that have nothing to do with your product? When I click on them, I get very abbreviated notes on the startup, and then there are comments on the right side. The purpose of those blocks isn't clear at all.

And since those blocks take up a good portion of the key real estate on your landing page, they should be dumped or moved away and replaced with something that explains what you do and how it helps your customers.

OP, along the identity crisis thing, there's one more term I think you are using incorrectly and causing confusion.

You say "get feedback on your startup". Startup is a term used to define a business in it's beginning phases. I've never heard it used to refer to a product or website. So when you say "get feedback on your startup" I think you really mean feedback on your website, or app, or software, or idea, or whatever you do. Why do you refer to those as startups.

If I have a company that has two successful products, and am working on a third, can I not use your service because my company isn't a "startup" anymore?

So IMO the very two key terms you use on your website are what cause confusion. You claim to do "beta testing on startups" while your competitors do "usability testing for websites". The second I think actually describes what you do. The first is a mishmash of terms that doesn't really make sense.

https://flippa.com/2769286-betapunch...ers-registered

there it says you are selling your website and auction closes in 19 hours, what is that all about? Doesn't sound like you plan to sell it from your postings here but the guy who listed it there doesn't sound like an imposter either?

browser2920, you make really good points about the "identity crisis." This is largely because I have pivoted slightly over the course of my iterations.

I feel like the term beta tester has evolved over time especially as it relates to web startups in particular. My understand is that for web startups, beta testers aren't asked to do the vigorous tasks that you speak of.

From my experience so far, most startup founders just seem to want these initial users to start using and going through the flow of their site. (Much like you see in my example beta test). I think as beta testers relate to "software" your definition is spot on.

I wanted to target startups largely because it made my site unique from my competitors and also because it appears to be the "fad" if you will in the tech space right now. Everyone is trying there hand at starting up an internet business. There seem to be hundreds if not thousands of these launching weekly. I saw a market so I wanted to specifically target it. I also have a pretty deep rooted passion for startups in general and helping them get to where they want to be.

I am full aware of the pros and cons of doing it this way but it was the decision I made at the time. I know it sort of excludes myself largely from being able to deal with more potential customers.

My goal right now is to try to portray this more clearly as there are obviously some huge questions in what my product will do for potential customers. I am going to keep plugging away at this. Nobody said it was going to be easy. And I really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to help me along the way.

That's correct. I did list my site on Flippa 30 days ago. I was growing very tired not getting the site where I wanted it. I received 1 bid of 1 dollar over my starting bidding price. I have been full aware for a while now since listing that my site was not going to be able to sell.

So I decided to keep iterating. I would say my site has drastically changed from the time i listed it to now.

cool, just wanted you to know about it in case there is any funny stuff happening.
GL with your site!

OK; it may well be that the term has evolved. It's interesting though that none of the competitors websites that you list as your competition use the term beta testing. They all use the term "user testing". And if you google user testing you get lists of companies that do what you do, but if you google beta testing you don't.

But as you said, that's your call. I don't know what term is the most prevalent in today's marketplace. It seems like you are going against the grain, but maybe you are ahead of the curve.

Would you mind doing a recorded screen cast of BetaPunch? I would love to hear you walk through what throws you off, what you dislike, what you like, and just generally go through the process of signing up, submitting a website just for testing purpose, and playing around with the site.

You can launch my screen recorder by clicking on the widget in the bottom right hand corner and clicking the red record button. You need to have java enabled in your browser. It will ask you to allow java to run, don't be alarmed it won't be harmful to your computer.

I would really appreciate watching somebody such as yourself navigate the early parts of my site.

Sorry, that's a little more involved than I'd like to get. But I've heard that you can find some good beta testers on the internet.

Hi OP, I submitted my website to betapunch a while ago after you contacted me via twitter. My site was todaysRAGE (a site that I haven't worked on since early May, and only really worked on for a few months).

I just logged back in to betapunch to see if the one issue I had with the site had been fixed, and it has. Before it was hard for me to actually find my startup once logging in (to check the progress). But again, it seems you fixed this issue as it was clearly there when I logged in.

I really liked the site. But what may be better is to offer a quick survey instead of handwritten responses. Of course always leave the last question for a handwritten response.

I think this will increase user interaction as it is easier to simply make a few clicks than have to write a thoughtful response.

If people were really interested in getting paid due to their responses, they would still take the time to write out a response.

Another way to possibly create user interaction is to set up beta review trades. Where you can maybe have a forum of some type where startups can request beta testers in return for them returning the service.

But all in all. I like the site. Just logging back in today, I can tell you have made some great progress. Just keep at it!

(Sorry if you may already be doing some of the above, I just browsed your site again and I am mostly speaking from my experience from a couple months ago)

Best of luck!

A few thoughts. Sorry if any of these are repeats.

-The links at the bottom of the page should be at the top (excluding privacy and terms -- nobody cares about that or reads it). They should be visible immediately upon arrival.

-There should be a link to "Plans and Pricing" visible to the user immediately upon arriving to your front page, imo.

-I couldn't watch a 10 minute long porno, much less a 10 minute long video about whatever that is. Get it down to 59 seconds. Two minutes is 1 minute, 1 second too long.

-Add a FAQ page. It's a great way to give people the gist of your service. The first question should be "What is BetaPunch?"

-Do you have any stats about how often/how many ppl watch those videos under "most recent beta tests"? I'm guessing not very/not many. Consider ditching them, moving them to another page, etc. They just seem to be cluttering up the page.

-Like other people said, definitely integrate your blog into your site.

-Under "Featured Startups" the stats are in 11pt font. That's way too small for anything on your front page. It needs to be 12 or 13pt.

-You need whitespace in a bad way. The top of your page immediately upon arrival makes me feel claustrophobic.

-Your site requires 105 resources totaling 1.23MB. Consider combining some of the javascript files that are hosted on your server together to reduce http requests. Combining images and using CSS sprites will also help. Fewer http requests = faster load times and less computing power and bandwidth usage for your server.

To see an example of an absolutely outstanding landing page (imo) check out: http://www.scribeseo.com/. It demonstrates a lot of what I'm talking about, I believe.

www.youeye.com - although they do a lot of stuff you don't like record the tester as well and do eye-tracking.

Woudl this be more heading in the right direction? Obviously I would need to important links like How it Works, FAQ, Pricing, Blog to the right of the logo