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Ask YC: What do you think of my revenue sharing startup?
This is not my main focus, but is launched since we managed to do code it (in php) in only two days (my "main" startup is coded in asp.net and I haven't done anything in php in over a year so this was a fun project to do some simple php again).
The main idea behind it is revenue sharing for game guides. Users spent hours writing game guides and then sites (which I won't name) make money off those guides. We want to share the ad revenue with the users that do all the work.
Any comments, ideas?
Here's the URL: http://pwnguide.com/
- alain94040 18y agoAmazing how this is so similar to our own startup (fairsoftware.net). Online collaboration with revenue share is happening.
- lbrandy 18y agoIt's a good idea. I like it. Also, I'm pretty sure "imappriately" isn't a word. Check your FAQ :P
- rksprst 18y agoThanks! Fixed.
- SwellJoe 18y agoI think you should do a little bit of research into motivation and the way trivial rewards effect returns. People don't actually behave the way you think they do. An interesting experiment in the field involved asking people on the street to assist in changing a flat tire. When simply asked for help, the response was pretty high. A significant number of people helped. When offered a small cash payment (a few bucks), the positive response rate dropped dramatically. When the cash payment was raised to something relatively sizable, like $50, the response went back up to about the same as just asking for help. I won't try to explain this phenomenon (though I think there's the obvious fact that being paid a few pennies is far less satisfying than helping someone out of the kindness of your heart). I believe the fundamental reason every single revenue sharing business has failed to take off (a few minor successes excluded) is because they fail to accept this bit of humor nature. It's a pretty fundamental flaw, so it really ought to be taken into account.
- rksprst 18y agoYea, I agree with those problems. That's why the approach we took with this idea was launch really early and get feedback from the community to see what changes need to be made and in which direction we should take the site. (i.e. we thought that the best way to solve these problems is to let the community guide us) So far, we've had positive feedback from users who said they would post their guides on the site and others saying they want game reviews as well. We'll have to wait and see if that feedback actually translates into action by those users to register and post guides.
- SwellJoe 18y agoBe suspicious of feedback, as well. Sometimes users don't actually know what they want. As Henry Ford said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” While I'm certain that there is a business model for revenue sharing out there that'll work, so far it has not. The people who want to make money on what they write put it on their own blog or website (generally) and the people who want the little moment of fame do their work for the largest community available (or the one that serves their little niche best). It seems like the happy medium is impossible--either you're paying them a pittance or you're not, as there's no way you can pay them the $50 option as in the experiment--the solution might be to make it possible for people to make more than they could make on their own even if you're taking a cut. Proving that to them might be hard, and it might still lead to less actual contribution from users than just asking for help. But, I dunno. You'll have to experiment and find out. This is a case where measurement is going to be absolutely vital. You need to know when you're doing something that works 5% better, so that you can do more of it--and if the returns start diminishing, you need to be able to find the next biggest contributor to positive outcomes so you can keep cranking up the next best thing until you're either successful or you know you can't win.
- ntoshev 18y agoI basically agree with you, just I'm not sure which revenue sharing businesses are doomed and which are not. AdSense is obviously far from doomed. eBay is in the revenue sharing business as much as a game guide sharing site would be. What is the reason they succeed while others fail?