

Feedback on our new site (users bid to put one of ten messages a day on the front page) - karzeem
http://www.psthisispublic.com

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nostrademons
Chicken and egg problem - as a viewer (not a bidder), why should I visit a
site that is nothing more than a sponsored advertisement? And if nobody
visits, why would anybody bother to bid for messages?

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karzeem
Indeed, that's the little experiment. People want to post a message in a place
it'll be seen, which is why they propose at baseball games or write on
bathroom walls. The question is finding a high-visibility forum.

The incentive here, at least at first, is that if there are less than 11
bidders, you don't pay anything. So in that case, the proposition is "Write on
our front page for free," and the only loss is time. Beyond 11 bidders, the
market sets the price.

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bprater
Agreed, you are missing an important element. There has to be an overriding
reason why I should point my browser to your page or grab an RSS feed
(assuming you have one). Can I win $100 a day by visiting your page, etc.?
Find a hook.

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thaumaturgy
No, I think they've got it right. All they need is one hit, one winning
message, that'll drive traffic to their site. Once that happens, other people
will want a chance to get some exposure there.

The one thing I would suggest is that they add an RSS feed and some
syndication tools, and broaden their distribution on the net.

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bprater
"Drive traffic" is still the problem. If 10 people a day visit and a person
gets 2 hits out of getting their link on the page, they won't be back.

If 10,000 people visited the page each day, and having a link on the page
guaranteed 1,000 visitors, you give motivation for people to relist their
link.

Another part of the problem is targeting: bad marketing is all about trying to
get everyone's eyeballs, great marketing is about selling the guy who is
starving for Mexican food a taco.

The current model is unsustainable.

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petercooper
Despite all the negativity above, I just wanted to say.. I kinda get a feel
for what you're trying to do and there's definitely a good idea lurking in
here somewhere. I am reasonably convinced your present implementation is not
/quite/ right, but as long as you're agile on your feet and respond to what
feels the right thing to do, you might end up with a hit.

Turning these sorts of ideas into hits is a bit like landing a helicopter onto
an invisible boat. There's no target, you're just flapping around in the
breeze, but if you delicately push it the right way, you might end up with
something (or nothing).

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ericwaller
You might want to consider starting out with 10 messages per week (or 3 days,
etc.). You're ultimately creating artificial scarcity. If you reduce the
supply of messages further and thus increase the price, it's likely you'll see
higher quality messages -- which in turn should drive traffic. You can "prime
the pump" by starting with a longer message lifetime.

The disadvantage is that you may train users to visit weekly instead of daily,
which is obviously counterproductive to driving traffic.

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te_platt
Why no ads? How would you keep them off?

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karzeem
We decided to keep ads off the site because they're not as interesting as
people writing things they genuinely want to say. The vibe is like Best of
Craigslist.

Since there are only 10 messages that go up, we can screen manually.

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ltbarcly
Why would I want to see this site? There is absolutely no point to viewing it,
and therefore why would I pay to put something on it?

Also, how could this possibly take more than 3 hours to make?

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karzeem
We did it in 2 ;).

