

Ask HN: Could you review my Startup? - amzini

Amzini is a resource specialized to help you find, compare, and learn about the best social networks for your particular interests/needs.<p>We're looking for an honest assessment of the site and how effectively it achieves these goals.<p>http://www.amzini.com<p>Thank you!
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samgro
I think it could be interesting for another startup founder in some niche area
to find community websites in their niche. Is that the target audience? If so
it's a really small niche that's probably not going to pay you a whole lot.

Also, calling it a "social network" search engine is misleading. Twitter and
Facebook are social networks; the other 898 are online communities around
special interests.

I'd think long and hard about what problem you are solving, and sell the
benefits rather than the features on your homepage. Watch this video from the
Instagram founders:
<http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2738>

My gut reaction is that this is a solution looking for a problem.

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amzini
Thank you for the feedback. The site aims to help two core target audiences.

I) Small Business - Businesses are starting to recognize the value of using
social media in marketing. Facebook and Twitter especially are 'musts' for
most small businesses. While these 'shotgun' approaches are useful, getting
involved in niche networks/communities provides a much more targeted
environment where it is easier to establish your brand and connect with
potential customers.

II) For regular social network users, there is value in having a community and
platform that is specialized for a particular purpose. If I like reading
books, I may like to join a community where my profile is a bookshelf and I
share reading lists and favorite authors. If I use a traditional search engine
to find one, I come across mainly dead links, sign up pages, and other clutter
making it hard to easily find the best one for my needs.

Rawsyntax - The second point you make has been a major concern in initial
feedback. One issue is that Amzini actually has to create awareness that there
are social networks for almost any purpose before its value becomes apparent.

Initial monitoring and feedback suggests Amzini has been able to pique
interest and acquire new visitors, but metrics for repeat visits have shown
signs of problems.

Now that I've explained the value/target audience further, do you see a need
for such a service? And if so, how could the site be changed to better convey
the value to you from the onset?

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djb_hackernews
It's got a nice clean design, but you are going to need a lot marketing
capital to get people to use it. You are dealing with two kinds of people:

    
    
        1) The people who have found their niche and are happy
    
        2) The people who haven't found their niche
    

If they can't find their niche on their own, how will they find you?

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abbasmehdi
Reminds me of the 1990's Yahoo! for the web. I like the site, keep it
functional. _Improve_ it don’t _expand_ it. You need to figure out how to get
recurring traffic (I have an idea or two - badass idea to be honest but also
quite obvious so I think you might know already).

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amzini
At this point, the emphasis is definitely on improving rather than expanding.
I realize it's much better to do one thing very well than do everything okay.

I've been thinking a lot about the recurring traffic issue lately, but I'd
love to hear your ideas. Even if I have thought of it, another perspective is
always useful. Thanks!

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abbasmehdi
Make it like the tweetdeck of Social Networking. So if I have 15 profiles on
15 different social networks, give me 1 user name and password, through your
site, that gives me a window into all my profiles, kind of like tabs on a web
browser or something, I can tab through each network through your site. So
your site is the only place I go to check all my profiles. You shift from
being a discovery tool to a profile management console = major recurrence.

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rawsyntax
Is there a need for this?

I've never had a need to search for social networks that meet my interests

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CobraKai
I find it easy to navigate and it is useful in discovering new sites if you're
a neophyte (like me!). I've already found 2 interesting new websites that I've
never heard of before that I have bookmarked.

OP: But how will you monetize this?

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amzini
I'm glad you like it! All the interesting ways to monetize the site come after
Amzini reaches a critical mass of users. The focus now is on usability and
site improvement rather than CTRs and other Ad metrics.

If Amzini can get a large amount of traffic, we will be able to do things such
as offering thorough sponsored reviews to give social networks/communities
exposure, create industry reports and do other consulting-type work, offer
premium plans for small business/marketers for additional features, and create
interesting info-graphics or articles to help maintain high traffic.

The difficult part is getting to a 'critical mass' of users to establish
Amzini in the market and allow more ways to monetize the site than Adsense.

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aaronbrethorst
Who is this for?

