4 ms·

BreakkUp was originally an idea my gf had roughly 2 weekends ago. The idea came about after receiving 4 phone calls in a row seeking advice regarding relationsh

by pxlpshr 18y ago

BreakkUp was originally an idea my gf had roughly 2 weekends ago. The idea came about after receiving 4 phone calls in a row seeking advice regarding relationship troubles. I took the idea a step further by building it around a pre-established model using open-source (Pligg). Maybe this was a bad idea on my part, maybe not... For me, this project is an experiment in replicating models for other verticals using open-source. But more importantly, an exercise in CPM/CPA advertising and PR -- two areas I don't feel I have a strong understanding of. I'm currently working to raise money for an original idea and ad revenue will play a big part in our ability to stay afloat. I'm rather excited about BreakkUp's opportunity to generate modest revenue (assuming we get traffic) because I feel the audience will often be in an emotional state when visiting, and roughly 50%+ female. In total, from idea to beta product -- I've spent ~a week putting this together so criticism certainly won't hurt my feelings. We most definitely need to work on About and Tutorial pages, my assumption is most females have no idea what Digg is. If I had more time, I'd like to put more focus on the presentation of this site so it looks less digg-like, but my client work needs attention this week. Gotta keep the lights on! We also own these domains: http://BreakupWithHim.com http://BreakupWithHim.com http://BreakupWithHer.com http://BreakupWithHer.com Suggestions, comments, criticism please. We haven't started advertising it yet except to peers... Thanks guys.

ericb 18y ago
I tried this same experiment with pligg on a site I put up, freenormous.com (free samples and offers). I found that almost no one posted, even after I worked hard to get traffic and spent money on adwords. Now I get postings--they're just all SEO and spam. It is very tough to build a community. I spent a lot of time talking to myself under different usernames. Only around 1% of users will post (maybe less, from my experience). I also found that even with 1000 visitors a month, I was making less than $5 per month with adsense. That would be fine if it didn't take a continual flow of real posts to build content, but it does. This soured me on adwords based based businesses, and even moreso on any business that requires a network effect to work. Now I focus on business models that offer value even when there are no other users. It was an educational experiment, though, and for the time investment, gave a good return on enlightenment.
- pxlpshr 18y ago
  Couldn't agree more with you re: building a community, which is one of my main concerns with a big project I'm trying to raise money for as it relies directly on critical mass for match-making (not dating related). Thanks for your feedback. Like you I've already learned a lot from this -- have spent a good deal of time researching ad-based revenue. For $100 worth of hosting fees, and my time for a few days -- most definitely worth it.
  - josefresco 18y ago
    I hope you're not paying $100/month to host a Pligg site with almost no traffic.
    - pxlpshr 18y ago
      Yes, I'm paying $100 a month and have 30 days to decide if it's worth it. Meaning, I have 30 days to drive traffic to it at which point I'm not going to invest much more time into the site, scale back on infrastructure, and let the site grow via search. I'd rather be prepared than scrambling.
      - josefresco 18y ago
        You have your own box hopefully? $100 is about right then if that's the case.
        jonknee 18y ago
        It's hosted at Media Temple, so it looks like it's a VPS.
      - dkokelley 18y ago
        If you've only got 30 days to get this site up to speed, you'll want to do something big. Do something outrageous, then submit a press release. Get all of your friends to create accounts and post "just for fun," and then claim in the press release that this is the next big thing. This advice in pretty generic, I know. What I'm trying to say is that you want to see growth similar to the million dollar home page or the ebay add where someone sold advertising space on his head for a month and it took off. In both of these cases the concept was not particularly novel or even useful, but the media caught on because it was interesting and the ROI for advertisers in both cases was much higher than it would have been on its own (how many people would normally see a forehead in a month?). Basically, a dating advice site can't stand on its own feet after only 30 days, but if you create a story that the media loves then you should see exponential growth.
narag 18y ago
I find the idea very clever and, in a sense, funny. I'm not a native English speaker and I have doubts about what "break up" exactly means. Is it limited to *friend relations or does it include married people too? If it does, there is a lot of interesting advice that people need: laws, children, compensations... In general I find very important the evaluation of the partner's personality. There are traits that help detect annoying behaviours or even personality disorders, that are more easily identifiable "remotely" through a written report than in the flesh by the blinded-by-love partner. The site not only can help detecting the abuse, but also help making a decision and running for the hills :-) I would suggest: 1) bootstrapping the site with the help of professional psychologists (and if divorce is included, lawyers) to "set the right tone" and 2) putting some machinery in place to prevent bitter people that always give the destructive advice. A bad behaviour in a partner could be solved with a frank conversation. No one is perfect. I find the looks of the site a little too "packed". It seems to mimic Digg, but Digg uses softer colours. I would add some "air" (margins, smaller icons...).
dotBen 18y ago
Just to say, if you're using the open-source Pligg you really should consider some kind attribution to say that you are using the software. Pligg has that weird Allegro GPL (or some similar name) as it's license model. I can't remember what it says about attribution, but it would be "playing nice" to put "powered by Pligg" on the site anyway. I also think the current domain is a bit sucky. The two domains you have open up the opportunity for a delineating men vs women users - which could be interesting from a branding and advertising perspective.
13ren 18y ago
I think you've really got something there! And now for the criticism :-) "real advice from real people" sounds a bit too much like hard-hitting investigative reporting to me. How about "Should I break up with him?". If it resonates directly with someone, that counts for a lot more than mathematically covering the domain. I like the idea of using the exact language of the target audience, concrete and specific - use a popular idiom if there is one (it doesn't matter if it doesn't match people outside the target). For this reason, I think separating boys and girls makes sense, because you can say "him" or "her" instead of being forced to abstract generalities. Make it concrete and "relateable". I think also that people don't actually want "advice", they just want to be listened to, get it off their chest. I get the vibe from the site that it has a gossip quality... almost like two people discussing the problems of a third-party. I don't know if that's something you want to cultivate, or if it would help the site or not - just mentioning it as an observation. You're sure to have a problem with trolls sooner or later, causing grief amongst those in an emotional state. Possibly, a very clear message and an effective way for users to deal with it is more important than preventing it 100%. Making it seem like third-party ("my friend has this problem...") could add a distance, that makes it easier for people to speak freely.
- pxlpshr 18y ago
  kinda feel the same way about the new tagline, still toying with it. i don't want anything making specific reference to him/her or exclusive relationships, i want to position it for friend-based arguments too. I agree with you about people seeking a place to vent. I want the term/idea of "Break Up" to be used loosely, light-hearted, and taken with a grain of salt.

by pxlpshr 18y ago

ericb 18y ago

I tried this same experiment with pligg on a site I put up, freenormous.com (free samples and offers). I found that almost no one posted, even after I worked hard to get traffic and spent money on adwords. Now I get postings--they're just all SEO and spam. It is very tough to build a community. I spent a lot of time talking to myself under different usernames. Only around 1% of users will post (maybe less, from my experience). I also found that even with 1000 visitors a month, I was making less than $5 per month with adsense. That would be fine if it didn't take a continual flow of real posts to build content, but it does. This soured me on adwords based based businesses, and even moreso on any business that requires a network effect to work. Now I focus on business models that offer value even when there are no other users. It was an educational experiment, though, and for the time investment, gave a good return on enlightenment.

pxlpshr 18y ago
Couldn't agree more with you re: building a community, which is one of my main concerns with a big project I'm trying to raise money for as it relies directly on critical mass for match-making (not dating related). Thanks for your feedback. Like you I've already learned a lot from this -- have spent a good deal of time researching ad-based revenue. For $100 worth of hosting fees, and my time for a few days -- most definitely worth it.
- josefresco 18y ago
  I hope you're not paying $100/month to host a Pligg site with almost no traffic.
  - pxlpshr 18y ago
    Yes, I'm paying $100 a month and have 30 days to decide if it's worth it. Meaning, I have 30 days to drive traffic to it at which point I'm not going to invest much more time into the site, scale back on infrastructure, and let the site grow via search. I'd rather be prepared than scrambling.
    - josefresco 18y ago
      You have your own box hopefully? $100 is about right then if that's the case.
      - jonknee 18y ago
        It's hosted at Media Temple, so it looks like it's a VPS.
    - dkokelley 18y ago
      If you've only got 30 days to get this site up to speed, you'll want to do something big. Do something outrageous, then submit a press release. Get all of your friends to create accounts and post "just for fun," and then claim in the press release that this is the next big thing. This advice in pretty generic, I know. What I'm trying to say is that you want to see growth similar to the million dollar home page or the ebay add where someone sold advertising space on his head for a month and it took off. In both of these cases the concept was not particularly novel or even useful, but the media caught on because it was interesting and the ROI for advertisers in both cases was much higher than it would have been on its own (how many people would normally see a forehead in a month?). Basically, a dating advice site can't stand on its own feet after only 30 days, but if you create a story that the media loves then you should see exponential growth.

narag 18y ago

I find the idea very clever and, in a sense, funny. I'm not a native English speaker and I have doubts about what "break up" exactly means. Is it limited to *friend relations or does it include married people too? If it does, there is a lot of interesting advice that people need: laws, children, compensations... In general I find very important the evaluation of the partner's personality. There are traits that help detect annoying behaviours or even personality disorders, that are more easily identifiable "remotely" through a written report than in the flesh by the blinded-by-love partner. The site not only can help detecting the abuse, but also help making a decision and running for the hills :-) I would suggest: 1) bootstrapping the site with the help of professional psychologists (and if divorce is included, lawyers) to "set the right tone" and 2) putting some machinery in place to prevent bitter people that always give the destructive advice. A bad behaviour in a partner could be solved with a frank conversation. No one is perfect. I find the looks of the site a little too "packed". It seems to mimic Digg, but Digg uses softer colours. I would add some "air" (margins, smaller icons...).

dotBen 18y ago

Just to say, if you're using the open-source Pligg you really should consider some kind attribution to say that you are using the software. Pligg has that weird Allegro GPL (or some similar name) as it's license model. I can't remember what it says about attribution, but it would be "playing nice" to put "powered by Pligg" on the site anyway. I also think the current domain is a bit sucky. The two domains you have open up the opportunity for a delineating men vs women users - which could be interesting from a branding and advertising perspective.

13ren 18y ago

I think you've really got something there! And now for the criticism :-) "real advice from real people" sounds a bit too much like hard-hitting investigative reporting to me. How about "Should I break up with him?". If it resonates directly with someone, that counts for a lot more than mathematically covering the domain. I like the idea of using the exact language of the target audience, concrete and specific - use a popular idiom if there is one (it doesn't matter if it doesn't match people outside the target). For this reason, I think separating boys and girls makes sense, because you can say "him" or "her" instead of being forced to abstract generalities. Make it concrete and "relateable". I think also that people don't actually want "advice", they just want to be listened to, get it off their chest. I get the vibe from the site that it has a gossip quality... almost like two people discussing the problems of a third-party. I don't know if that's something you want to cultivate, or if it would help the site or not - just mentioning it as an observation. You're sure to have a problem with trolls sooner or later, causing grief amongst those in an emotional state. Possibly, a very clear message and an effective way for users to deal with it is more important than preventing it 100%. Making it seem like third-party ("my friend has this problem...") could add a distance, that makes it easier for people to speak freely.

pxlpshr 18y ago
kinda feel the same way about the new tagline, still toying with it. i don't want anything making specific reference to him/her or exclusive relationships, i want to position it for friend-based arguments too. I agree with you about people seeking a place to vent. I want the term/idea of "Break Up" to be used loosely, light-hearted, and taken with a grain of salt.