3 ms·

Can you share what would make it unique? I think that your hunch that what's out there can be improved upon is correct, but it would have to have some really u

by dlf 15y ago

Can you share what would make it unique? I think that your hunch that what's out there can be improved upon is correct, but it would have to have some really unique value proposition that set it apart from posterous, tumblr, and the like. Posterous and tumblr succeed, IMHO, because Wordpress is difficult for someone who's not tech savvy to learn.

hasenj 15y ago
Besides the obvious things like clean UI, etc. One thing that I only thought of recently is how on youtube you can "discover" videos via the "related videos" side bar. I'm not aware of anything like this in blogging sites. Imagine the same thing for a blog. Actually I don't like the word blog, but I'll use it for lack of a better term. Imagine you're reading a blog post, and on the side you have similar/related blog posts from many different other people. If you're a reader, this is good because you can discover more content easily. If you're a writer, this is good because your content can be discovered more easily. Something similar is happening on facebook. People make facebook pages and write their thoughts there, it helps them get more exposure, even though the facebook UI is not optimized for these kinds of things. I like the dynamics of the non-linear "discussion" that take place on youtube, and I think there's value in that.
- akcreek 15y ago
  It would be interesting to figure out how to grab "related articles" from other blogs. Tags are how some sites currently do it, but that is with posts from the same author. Everyone uses tags differently and some don't use tags at all. Maybe keyword density? Or I suppose tags could auto-complete to a standard that you set.
  - hasenj 15y ago
    Not exactly from "other blogs". I mean, yes, other blogs, but within the same site. YouTube doesn't list related videos from DailyMotion. I think it's a mixture of similar content + user activity.
- kalistoga 15y ago
  What you described (recommended posts within a site), as well as someone else mentioned below (recommended posts from other sites) are already out there. If you ask me if the idea sounds novel, it is not. Just visit Techcrunch and take a look (For example, http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/28/paypal-cyber-monday-mobile-payment-volume-up-over-500-percent/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/28/paypal-cyber-monday-mobile-...) You will learn if you start doing more market research, but I've found it's either of the two for your initial idea: 1. There is someone else doing the same thing out there; 2. You haven't done enough research. Even if something similar is NOT out there after all your research, it is highly likely that it has been tried before and failed (and that's why you can't find them). Even these products you can dig up more if you do intensive research via google. You'll learn a lot while going through this process. Just don't be naive and think your idea would be novel when you haven't done any market research yet. The key is in absorbing as much knowledge as possible in the field you would like to tackle, and later to be able to say "Oh I came up with this idea, and I am 99% sure this is a unique idea that hasn't been done before, because I 'know' all that's been done before" By the way, Posterous started out as a niche product. The platform may be trying to do everything nowadays, but in the beginning, they were tackling email to blogging niche, which didn't exist before. Everyone thought blogging should be done by signing into your wordpress account, typing a title and content and reading the preview, and then posting.

by dlf 15y ago

hasenj 15y ago

Besides the obvious things like clean UI, etc. One thing that I only thought of recently is how on youtube you can "discover" videos via the "related videos" side bar. I'm not aware of anything like this in blogging sites. Imagine the same thing for a blog. Actually I don't like the word blog, but I'll use it for lack of a better term. Imagine you're reading a blog post, and on the side you have similar/related blog posts from many different other people. If you're a reader, this is good because you can discover more content easily. If you're a writer, this is good because your content can be discovered more easily. Something similar is happening on facebook. People make facebook pages and write their thoughts there, it helps them get more exposure, even though the facebook UI is not optimized for these kinds of things. I like the dynamics of the non-linear "discussion" that take place on youtube, and I think there's value in that.

akcreek 15y ago
It would be interesting to figure out how to grab "related articles" from other blogs. Tags are how some sites currently do it, but that is with posts from the same author. Everyone uses tags differently and some don't use tags at all. Maybe keyword density? Or I suppose tags could auto-complete to a standard that you set.
- hasenj 15y ago
  Not exactly from "other blogs". I mean, yes, other blogs, but within the same site. YouTube doesn't list related videos from DailyMotion. I think it's a mixture of similar content + user activity.
kalistoga 15y ago
What you described (recommended posts within a site), as well as someone else mentioned below (recommended posts from other sites) are already out there. If you ask me if the idea sounds novel, it is not. Just visit Techcrunch and take a look (For example, http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/28/paypal-cyber-monday-mobile-payment-volume-up-over-500-percent/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/28/paypal-cyber-monday-mobile-...) You will learn if you start doing more market research, but I've found it's either of the two for your initial idea: 1. There is someone else doing the same thing out there; 2. You haven't done enough research. Even if something similar is NOT out there after all your research, it is highly likely that it has been tried before and failed (and that's why you can't find them). Even these products you can dig up more if you do intensive research via google. You'll learn a lot while going through this process. Just don't be naive and think your idea would be novel when you haven't done any market research yet. The key is in absorbing as much knowledge as possible in the field you would like to tackle, and later to be able to say "Oh I came up with this idea, and I am 99% sure this is a unique idea that hasn't been done before, because I 'know' all that's been done before" By the way, Posterous started out as a niche product. The platform may be trying to do everything nowadays, but in the beginning, they were tackling email to blogging niche, which didn't exist before. Everyone thought blogging should be done by signing into your wordpress account, typing a title and content and reading the preview, and then posting.