
Early Adopters, I Need You - gaika
http://ourdoings.com/ourdoings-startup/2008-07-31
======
mechanical_fish
I'm not the one to talk, because you've built at least one more small online
business than I have...

But it could be that it's time to build something else. You've built your
product. You've tested the market, and it's not there. You've got a pretty
good theory as to why: You're up against sites like Flickr and Apple's
MobileMe and SmugMug and Facebook.

You have the data; now you have to let them speak to you.

Build a completely different product. You'll be a lot more efficient on your
second try. You've obviously learned a lot already.

Or (if you insist) build a product built on the same engine but with a
completely different marketing plan. The generic photo-sharing space is tough.
Specialize more. Build (e.g.) a site for deer hunters ("IShotThat.com"), or
baseball fans ("ViewFromTheBleachers.com"), or model railroaders
("TiedToTheTrack.com"), or quilters, or something.

~~~
brlewis
I don't think it matters whether you've built a business or not. What makes a
difference is how many photos you have and what kind.

If you have 3 photos, go ahead and use flickr. Three photos look better on
flickr than on OurDoings.

If you have 200 photos that are individual works of art, Smugmug is the place
for you.

If you have 200 photos that hang together to tell a story, whether it's of
kids growing up, travels, or some other activity, then OurDoings is just plain
better.

When a lot of people have uploaded 200 photos each and then abandoned
OurDoings, I'll feel like I have some data. But right now I just think not
enough people have tried it.

Plus, I need to learn more about early adopters. It's easier to attract them
with a fleshed out site like OurDoings than with a new bare-bones idea.
OurDoings will be where I put my own photos, both private and public, until
something better comes along, so it's not going away any time soon.

I do have other ideas. But I still think this is the one to focus on for now.

~~~
volida
"if you have 200 photos that hang together to tell a story, whether it's of
kids growing up, travels, or some other activity, then OurDoings is just plain
better"

why exactly is your service better when someones uploads 200 pictures?

you've said it yourself, the mainstream user uploads average 3 pictures

~~~
brlewis
Most of the ten advantages OurDoings has over the competition are related to
when a mainstream user has too many photos:

<http://ourdoings.com/hostingplans.html>

I never said a mainstream user uploads average 3 pictures.

------
dpapathanasiou
You should put this sentence, with something like the edits in brackets, right
at the top:

" _Just take pictures [with your digital camera as you normally do] when busy
with real-life doings, then upload the whole pile weeks or months later and it
[will be] automatically organized [for you]._ "

Also, maybe it's just me, but this photo ([http://ourdoings.com/ourdoings-
startup/photo.html?th=u8/bj/d...](http://ourdoings.com/ourdoings-
startup/photo.html?th=u8/bj/db8q.jpg&d=2008-07-31#p)) doesn't scream early
adopters.

~~~
brlewis
The photo is of my mom alpha-testing the site in 2004.

~~~
dpapathanasiou
I do understand that you're trying to illustrate the concept of "it's so easy,
even your parents can use it".

Rather, I'm just suggesting it doesn't belong on a post entitled "Early
Adopters Wanted".

------
aaronblohowiak
I had no idea what you were asking for in the first 3 paragraphs, so I left.

~~~
sysop073
It doesn't get much better if you keep reading

~~~
bootload
_"... It doesn't get much better if you keep reading ..."_

No you are wrong.

The article is a good one because this is a generic problem that has to be
solved by each and every Startup. The question is how? The reason for lack of
users in my view is the founder might have been too late to hit the digital
photograph craze and got knocked down by the big sites like flickr, smugmug
and zoomer and the founder should have either found a niche or failed.

A timely lesson get to market fast and fail early.

------
falsestprophet
Brian, I have been following your progress for a long long time. After all
this time, I feel I should be blunt. I think your product is interesting, but
your execution is very poor.

There are a lot of things you are bad at. Your copy, design and interface are
inadequate. Most importantly, your name does not work. For a consumer product,
these failings are deadly.

You need to find someone who can do those things for you.

You also need to stop using Lisp. I could build your product in a weekend
using Python or Ruby. It would take me four years to do it in C. It took you
four years to do it in Lisp...

