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A classic pivot: "This gold mining thing isn't working out, perhaps we should just sell goods to the other miners".

• lifeisstillgood 13y ago
  But it's still so much about marketing. After the invention of cinema, radio, of TV, of billboards, neon tubes and who knows what else, everyone from the hustler to the careful Mom n Pop store had to learn this new medium, otherwise they would potentially, probably lose customers. I don't want to replicate their business model (what I kind of understood of it) but I do want to use mailchimp better (15 total signups - woohoo) I do want to know how not to be a complete idiot in online marketing. Just as xx years ago I would have wanted to learn why a newspaper ad did or did not bring in more business. As a kid I tried selling a photoshop service through newspapers - and I paid for some course - all I remember was the guy hammering on about how each ad in every newspaper must have a campaign code and you must ask for that code on each inbound call. Nothing much has changed since the 1980s really. We are still tracking our inbound lead generators.
• sgdesign 13y ago
  As someone who's working on the exact same concept for another domain (freelance designers), I've come to realize this is one of the least original business models ever (there's about 10 similar services in my space alone). Still, it fills a need and people are ready to pay for it, which is more than you can say for a lot of startup ideas…
  • mahmud 13y ago
    Just 10? Have you been looking with both eyes closed?
• purplelobster 13y ago
  That's how Nordstrom started actually.
• btrautsc 13y ago
  Isn't this the new go-to startup strategy? Startups for startups? Not a bad strategy - especially when you can very closely identify with the problems your new customers are experiencing.