

Ask HN: I built a site that IMO can be huge. How can I promote it? - victorin

I love to build stuff on the Internet so I created http://guyshelpmedecide.com - A place where you can easily get advice from your friends on buying decisions<p>It is still kind of a pet project, but I do believe on its potential to go viral<p>The problem is that I'm a coder and I don't have a clue on how can I promote it.<p>Maybe trying to contact blogs/media and hope they write about it? Or it is better to create a facebook Ads campaign targeting amazon fans?<p>I really appreciate any ideas, feedback on the product or whatever that can help me to make this site huge
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relaunched
I think this is a cool concept. Let me caution you that I worked on a similar
project about 3 years ago. What we found out was that most people that solicit
advice, ignore it. We used affiliate links to monetize, and didn't find social
feedback to be significantly better at converting than blog posts, or anything
else.

What that meant was that we were in the same eyeballs rat race that everyone
else is.

If what you are asking is how do you become the next pinterest, in terms of
viral growth, it's a lot of hard work and a dash of luck. Shake and hope it
turns into gold.

~~~
victorin
Thx for commenting.

I'm using affiliate links to monetize it too, but it definitely it is not a
company or something that needs to break even in x months. Actually I had a
great time coding it and I learnt a lot about the technologies it uses
(facebook open graph, amazon apis, twitter bootstrap...) so in terms of ROI
it's already covered by far.

Being said that, of course I want it to be huge. Not as the next pinterest
because it'd require lots of resources and energy but more like a bootstraped
project that grows organically and we'll see.

In other words, I built something that I want to use (no other ambitions), and
right now I am wondering if it could be something mainstream or not

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rajdesai225
Interesting, though I would like to caution you regarding your assumption that
it may go viral. In the world of business - assumptions are very dangerous.

Let me give you an example of what goes viral. I recently came across an app
for calling a cab using a smart phone. They advertised it very cleverly. They
said, think about you are stuck on the road at an unknown location. It is 2:00
AM in the morning and there's no one around! With our app, you can call a cab
with a single click without knowing a thing about your location. All you have
to do is click the button, stay put and a cab will be there promptly.

Now, I travel a lot so I realized that this could be really nice and handy.
So, I immediately downloaded the app. I spoke with my wife and guess what? She
downloaded it as well as she thought this could come in handy for her as well.
My wife is more social than I am so she posted this newly found app on FB and
within no time, most of her friends had downloaded this app as well.

The important thing I am trying to convey about virility to you is that it has
to have two key ingredients - utility and the sense of urgency. If you can
effectively communicate those two ingredients - your app will go viral.
Otherwise, it’s a rat race so before you develop it a whole lot - test out the
concept and its virility!

~~~
victorin
Totally agree with your virility point.

Perhaps the title of my Ask HN is too much ambitious. I't be better something
like "how to make it start getting traction" (more convenient than getting
viral)

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iamds
I think it looks great!

In order for other people to start using it, it needs to look like it's being
used. I think that you should create about a 100 users and add a few hundred
products and comments. It'll take you a few hours of work, but it'll make the
site appear to be much more successful, thus bringing in more users.

~~~
victorin
Totally agree, right now the site doesn't look like it's being used. In fact
it isn't cause it's brand new.

However I don't want to make all this monotone work. Do you know any place
where I could outsource that?

~~~
iamds
In all honesty, I'd just go ahead and do it yourself. It's easy mindless work.
Put a movie on the tv, sit back with your laptop and just go at it. You'll get
more done by the end of the film than you'd think.

------
timmm
I don't want my friends advice on buying things. I want expert opinions from
places like Cnet and ConsumerReviews.

Also word to the wise don't focus on trying to get your app to go viral, it
really doesn't tend to work like that. Also success in general - real success
- is almost by definition a slow process.

~~~
victorin
I probably prefer expert opinions while buying tech products (for example a
new HD TV), but I'll give much more credit to a friends' first hand experience
on that same TV than the expert advise. That's the base idea of
guyshelpmedecide.com

And as for the success opinion I fully agree with you. I don't pretend to
create an overnight million dollar business from that, it was just an
experiment that looks nice for me

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redspark
Have you figured out your target market and validated it?

~~~
victorin
No, I just built something I wanted to use but I'm not sure at all if the
market is worth the try

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debacle
This is an amazing idea.

~~~
victorin
I'm glad you like it! Now I have to find a way to attract users and see if
they like it too :)

~~~
debacle
I wouldn't necessarily target specific markets. Things I've purchased in the
last year that I would have used this for:

1\. Herbal teas

2\. A camcorder

3\. A digital camera

4\. A laptop

5\. Console games

6\. A new phone (which I still haven't bought, because I can't find one I'm
comfortable with)

Most of those are electronics, but I'm sure that if I thought about it longer
I could come up with a bunch more.

~~~
victorin
It's not targeted. Users can add any product as long as amazon sells it

~~~
rajdesai225
My question is - if they are buying a product from amazon - why don't they
check product reviews posted right on amazon? Why do they need a different
site? I do agree that opinions from friends and family counts a lot but the
concept has many unknowns.

1\. You need to communicate (with friends and family) what product you want
buy from amazon 2\. Then your friends and family need to have purchased the
same product 3\. Now, when you are looking for a product, you need to drive
them to make a recommendation.

I think you should quickly test the concept and obtain some real feedback
before scaling it up.

~~~
victorin
I think that you get the whole thing wrong. GuysHelpMeDecide is a tool where
you enter a question for example:

* What iphone should I buy?

And lets you enter 2 or 3 choices:

* iPhone 4S 16GB white * iPhone 4S 16GB black

The key here is that the search for this products is light fast and easy. It
grabs from amazon.com the title of the product, image, description and even
the price, but let's you modify it (if you don't want the price to be public
or you want to customize the description with your opinion on that product).

Once created the poll it appears on your facebook friends wall, if they click
on the story they'll see the page with the question, the choices and they'll
be able to vote and to comment.

See a quick iPhone color example here:

<http://guyshelpmedecide.com/uA7L>

None of your friends needs necessarily to own an iPhone for providing a valid
opinion.

I have endless conversation with my geek friends about the new LCD HD whatever
3D tv and none of us have ever tried it.

Hope it gets clearer now

~~~
rajdesai225
I am sorry, I was out of town. My bad, I now see what you were suggesting. I
am much clear about the concept. I also looked at your source code and I am
assuming that amazon is paying you CPA right?

May be you should apply for shopping.com partners program and negotiate CPC
payment based on their rate card. That way, you immediately start making CPC
money when you drive traffic and you are not just bound to amazon. Though,
amazon is good starting point as Shopping.com will ask to see your website (as
a small demo). They are little slow but you can also try shopzilla affiliate
program (CPC only).

Once you get good traction and traffic starts building, you will start getting
offers straight from various merchants.

Hope things work out well!

Good luck :)

~~~
victorin
Yes, I am using amazon affiliates, which pays me a 4% on all the purchases we
refer.

Thx for the info on other shopping affiliate platforms (I didn't know them),
but right now my focus is on trying to get traction and traffic to the site.
After that we'll see the best way to monetize it

