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I see what you mean about the targeting, and I do agree with you on that. And I agree with your general argument that their techniques might put them into the

I see what you mean about the targeting, and I do agree with you on that. And I agree with your general argument that their techniques might put them into the driver's seat generally. I see what you mean about not getting a response quickly too. That's not a problem anymore from what I see, but of course you're right about bootstrapping at the beginning. However, the response from our users has been that their questions at startups.com just don't get useful answers, whereas the ones on answers.onstartups.com get really good, detailed, useful answers. Again, I think you and we have different definitions of what's "successful." It sounds like you're still thinking about it in terms of #users, #traffic, and revenue, but that's NOT OUR GOAL. Our goal is to create a genuinely wonderful community of entrepreneurs who get quality answers to questions from real people whom they trust. Those take time to grow and by definition it means not getting 100k users overnight. For us, one person who gets one insightful answer to an important question is better than 100 people with 100 crappy answers. But that's just us!

vaksel 17y ago
I don't see why you can't have both. The thing I found with SE, is that your users break down into 3 categories. 1. People who answer questions..these are your biggest fans, who love the site. These are the guys who you build the community around. 2. People who come to the site through Google, these are your drive byers, they just want to see the answer. 90% never go past the landing page. 3. People who encounter a problem in their life. Need a solution, can't find anything on Google, and remember that your site exists. #1 is where you grow your community. #2 is where you get your money and potential new users, and #3 is where you spend your money in order to build up your brand identity. Why would the 100 people get 100 crappy answers? They'll find the same results through Google, as they do by going to your site directly.

vaksel 17y ago

I don't see why you can't have both. The thing I found with SE, is that your users break down into 3 categories. 1. People who answer questions..these are your biggest fans, who love the site. These are the guys who you build the community around. 2. People who come to the site through Google, these are your drive byers, they just want to see the answer. 90% never go past the landing page. 3. People who encounter a problem in their life. Need a solution, can't find anything on Google, and remember that your site exists. #1 is where you grow your community. #2 is where you get your money and potential new users, and #3 is where you spend your money in order to build up your brand identity. Why would the 100 people get 100 crappy answers? They'll find the same results through Google, as they do by going to your site directly.