Ask HN: Advice for a technology startup launched by 17 Year Olds

[grizzlylazer]

Hi, I'm a high school senior who recently launched a Social News Reader called BuzzBlaze.com

We've launched with some success meaning we've acquired a strong userbase and impressed with our site stats, however we are not completely satisfied with our product as even we know there are some interface issues as well as more features that can be implemented.

I have made an exclusive invite for the HN community to test-drive my webapp: http://buzzblaze.com//register?invite_code=HNEWS

I am looking for constructive feedback and advice. I am new to this game and hope to build more stuff in the future and hope I can learn a lot from you guys.

Thanks!

[Jarred]

It looks really good, just it's a bit blurry

[grizzlylazer → Jarred]

Thanks!

what specifically is a bit blurry? or are you talking about the feed images?

[Jarred → grizzlylazer]

http://i55.tinypic.com/w15wf4.jpg

The font size on the Login fields and several of the main pages were too small, it's just annoying to read for me, but I'm very picky about fonts/font rendering/font size.

I would suggest to just look around on the website for fonts that are the same size as those username/password fields and increase them by one or two, just be careful though because it might mess up the layout/sizing of things.

I like the blue-theme though, it's very minimalist. It kind of mimics Facebook though, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[F_J_H]

How are you going to make money?

[grizzlylazer → F_J_H]

Our main focus so far has been in growing and scaling BuzzBlaze. Regarding monetization, we did have a few ideas floating around:

* Promoted feeds/articles - Once we scale, we can allow publishers to promote their feeds/articles to targeted users’ social streams and dashboards as well as email (see below) - similar to Twitter

* Advertisements - the fact that we know what kind of content the users are reading means we are able to deliver ads that are relevant and targeted - a win/win/win situation (users are not bombarded with irrelevant ads, brands can hypertarget the right market, we make money)

* Email marketing - We can have users opt-in to receive recommended readings and product promotions. We can partner with publishers who wish to promote their content through email (much like promoted feeds/articles). In addition, we can also email out product promotions (such as product deals etc) that are relevant to the users - based on what they read. Like the promoted feeds, this will be much more effective once we scale

[grizzlylazer → F_J_H]

The points above are all ideas. We’re certainly open to suggestions on what you think.

[alifaziz]

Cool idea. Awesome design! Like.