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No offense, but putting it on HN in the middle of traffic spike pressures would not help things. ;) I was able to sign up and see just enough to get a feel bef
by jeromec 16y ago
No offense, but putting it on HN in the middle of traffic spike pressures would not help things. ;)
I was able to sign up and see just enough to get a feel before the site became unresponsive. I like that it's dead simple. I can also see how it's incredibly viral as it asks you to ask others to describe you -- very smart. At first glance it looks to me like something that could enjoy tons of traffic, but which would probably be short-lived. The challenge would be finding a way to have that traffic stick around...
I view this as a bit of a long shot, but I would do a few things. First, you've got to have the site handle the traffic. No advice on how, but find a way to get that done. Next, I would try to become known as the place to get a quick summary on anybody -- even celebrities. I imagine people will receive multiple adjectives from different people, but I'd have the site tally the three most popular and promote those as best describing of the user. :) I see a couple of possible pages for "viewer stickiness". The homepage could feature very popular users. Imagine showing the three most submitted words to describe /paulg or /marrington and other users with large responses... Next, on each user's page it could show their "friends" and the words that describe them. The site also provides the most recently submitted three words on the user's page. This might at least make each user curious about checking back at their own profile to see how people were labeling them. As for monetizing, that's probably with ads, as usual, but you have to be careful about when and where to put them. Like I said, probably a long shot, but who knows? Good luck!
- phlux 16y ago>>Next, I would try to become known as the place to get a quick summary on anybody -- even celebrities. You mean like About.me is attempting to do? This is an interesting twist though... However - the quick summary I look for on anyone of interest (professionally) is linkedin. I do not and shall not have a facebook account.
- jeromec 16y agoYes, but I'd view this one as more more social/playful, not really serious. :) A gossipy feel might be better anyway. Imagine the "word status" on Paris Hilton going from "hot" to "classy", "generous" and "caring" or something like that... ;)
- richardw 16y agoGood idea. Like a trends.google for celebs.
- astrofinch 16y ago>As for monetizing, that's probably with ads, as usual, but you have to be careful about when and where to put them. How about analytics? For each person who writes about me, I could pay to see where in the world they lived, how long it took them to type in the three words (or even watch a movie of them typing them in), whether they clicked the link that was on my Facebook or the one on my Twitter feed (based on HTTP referrer), etc. If you were confident you could give each user the ability to see this information for 1 user for free, and then have them pay if they wanted to see it for the rest of the users.
- jeromec 16y agoHmm, that's interesting. Very popular users might find some use for that kind of thing. For example, up and coming music artists trying to build a following and connect with fans maybe... I definitely think sites should consider charging when and where possible, but sometimes there is good opportunity for it, and sometimes not.