Raymond Smith

I roast other founders' landing pages on here. My own site just went live, so it's my turn. elreystudios.dev, scored on the same 8 checks I use on everyone else: 1. Headline: says what I do in 5 seconds. Doesn't say who it's for yet. 2. One loud button: "Request a free audit." Pass. 3. Proof: the weakest part. 3 public roasts, zero paid clients so far. 4. Mobile: works, but the page is too long. Cutting it next week. 5. Speed: Lighthouse 97 on mobile, live. Cold first load is slower, fixing that next. 6. Copy: plain and first-person, and the hero talks about your page, not me. 7. Trust: real face and name. Still a Gmail address until I set up domain email. 8. Path to the $149 audit: 2 clicks, and you pay after you see it. I'm taking 3 audit clients in November. If your landing page isn't converting, DM me. What did I miss? Be brutal.

Sent 14 cold emails to founders this month. Each one had a single specific fix for their landing page. 0 replies. One founder did quietly ship the fix. Meanwhile the same kind of fix in X replies gets thank-yous and follow-up questions the same day. So I'm pausing cold email for now. What actually got you your first client?

Gave 3 founders a quick page fix today. All 3 had the same issue: a headline that sounds good but doesn't say what the product does or who it's for. "Shape your feed" could be anything. "Plan your Instagram grid" can't. Clever gets remembered. Clear gets the click. What does your hero say in plain words?

Last week I emailed a founder one fix: their link preview promised free credits, the hero never mentioned them. Checked today. The credits now sit right under the headline. Your ad, link preview and hero should make the same promise. When did you last click your own link and check?

Spent part of today on the least fun part of shipping: Privacy and Terms pages for my studio site and Themeship. Nobody tweets about these. But the first time a real client asks where your privacy policy is, you want a link, not a promise. Builders, did you write yours before launch or after?

Open your landing page on your phone. Yesterday I saw a page where the best part, the product visual, sat below the fold on mobile. Text and a button first. The reason to care, second. If the visual is the pitch, put it above the fold. Founders, what's on your first screen?

Talked SEO with a founder at $200 MRR today. My take: skip the blog for now. Write the pages people search right before they buy: "X vs Y" "best tool for Z" "X alternative" I'm lining up two of these for ThemeShip next. Anyone tried comparison pages? Did they actually convert?

A founder shared today: 500 trial signups, 12 paid. Usually the problem isn't the price or the marketing. Most trial users never hit their first win. They land on an empty dashboard or a setup wall and leave. Before buying more traffic, sign up fresh and time how long it takes to get a real result. How long does it take on yours?

A stat that says 0 on your homepage is louder than everything next to it. Saw one this weekend: 63 products listed, and "0 Duels Fought" sitting above them. It meant completed duels. A first-time visitor reads it as nobody's here. Label it, or lead with the number that's growing. What's the first number on your page?

Saw a dashboard today: 53 new customers, 1 subscription. Most people would go chase more installs. I'd open the app as one of the other 52 and look hard at the first screen. More traffic into a leaky first screen just makes a bigger leak. What's the first thing a new user sees in yours?

Looked at two founder pages last night. Both had a sharper line in the X post than in the headline on the page. One also listed two different prices for the same upgrade. If a stranger only reads the H1, do they get the same promise you just posted?

Free replies today: a thank-you, a real question about Stripe drop-offs, a conversation that actually moved. Cold email this week offering a paid audit: still 0 replies. Same skill. One starts a chat. The other asks for money first. Curious what you're seeing. Free help or paid outreach working better for you right now?

2 weeks of outreach, honest numbers: 12 cold emails offering a paid landing page audit. 0 replies. Free one-line fixes in replies here. Thank-yous, a follow, real conversations. Same skill, same kind of pages. The difference was asking for money before they knew me. Founders who sell a service, what got your first reply?

100k TikTok views. 12 landing visits. Founder couldn't put a link in bio yet, so people searched the app name. The landing headline never said it. If your traffic has to search for you, put the name in the first line they see.

Watched a founder say their sleek new landing page converts the same as the old ugly one. Not surprised. A redesign changes how it looks. Conversion moves when the words change: the headline, the first button, the proof under it. Last redesign you did, did the numbers actually move?

One thing I keep seeing on founder landing pages: The product looks clear in the screenshot. The button asks for a card. The free try is buried. If someone has to pay to understand what it does, the page is doing the sales call too early.

Went through 15 landing pages from founders with Stripe-verified revenue. 4 had the same leak: the loudest button asks for a card or a sign-in, and the free way to try it is small text further down. Visitors hit the ask before they see what it makes. Flip it. Free try first, card after. What does your hero button ask for?

Asked a Blazor creator what books they'd recommend. Honest take from my side: the docs plus building real apps got me most of the way. The gap that kept slowing me down was theming a real brand in MudBlazor. That's why I shipped Themeship. Paste 1 to 3 colors, get a full MudTheme that passes contrast. Blazor folks, how do you structure your theme today?

Shipped my first free tool yesterday. The launch post got more views than anything I've posted in weeks. The one thing I did differently: I led with the pain, not the feature list. Picking brand colors is easy. Making them pass contrast is the part most of us skip. Same advice I give founders about their hero. What's the pain line on yours?