Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Ok so here`s the deal i need some cash to get a web site going. I`m looking for minimum $50. Yea i know just charge it, or ask parents for it etc. But you see the problem is a bit deeper.

1. my wife has cut me off the Credit Cards (actually we cut each other off since she`s gone back to school)
2. Parents aren`t into hand-outs becuase they are already invested in a longer term business opp with me.
3. Like i said money`s tight since my wife has gone back to school so even a small $50 withdrawal can have rippling effects.

The business idea is dirt simple and doesn`t require any real capital after the first investments because of my already established connections.

The bizopp is basic. a web site where I (or others) post product reviews and then the community can post follow-up reviews / comments. Ratings are super simple Yea or Nea none of this "on a scale from 1 - 10" stuff. I`ve found people see these and go, ok i see the 9 but i really like the 8 will i hate myself for buying the 8 versus the 9?
 
So any ideas?

BTW if anyone wants to pony up I`ll gladly offer advertising on my site for a period of time. drop me a line!

How will your site generate revenue?

How do you plan on beating out the already established websites that offer reviews?  (I use Amazon all the time for the purpose of looking up what other people think of products.  Rather that just looking at the number rating I read the comments, some people rate something low, but you can tell when you read their complaints that they were too busy drooling to use the product they are rating.)  It`s not just the rating it`s knowing who is rating it.

Do you have experience programming and operating a website?

I wouldn`t mind helping you get set up with a site, but I am still unclear where the money is going to come from.  Hard to get advertisers from anyone whose products you have reviewed on your site and appear impartial, and I can`t see this being a pay site.  What are you thinking?

Robert

A few ideas I`ll implement (open to any others of course!)

• Revenue will be generated from ad`s produced from google adsense and adbrite. Later on i might try to figure out a way to do this "in-house" but for now I`ll farm it out.
• The site will also use affiliate links when linking to places to purchase the product in hopes people will use these links to jump to the product they just read reviews on
• I plan to distribute reviews via the web site, RSS feeds and at some point I`d like to produce a weekly podcast to discuss the stuff we`ve reviewed. All three of these mediums can support advertising on some level.
• Again as the community grows I`m sure other opportunities will be revealed
  

Now to address your concerns on "beating out the already established web sites that offer reviews", the answer is simple. I`m not planning on beating them out. If anything i hope to compliment them and assist users in affirming their decision to buy or not to buy.  Secondly with the available API`s out there it shouldn`t be too hard to have say the current Amazon rating posted along side my sites review (with a link back via affiliate of course!).

Do you have experience programming and operating a web site?

I`ve been building web sites long before it was cool or even profitable. I`ve ran 3 blogs in my live time, built full fledged communities from the ground up, written articles on programming and I`ve written reviews of software and services in the past. I`ve done the previously stated work with SitePoint.com and LockerGnome.com as well as personal blogs and sites I`ve run.

I`m currently a full time coldfusion developer (ie programming) which I`ve been doing for 3 almost 4 years (certified by adobe / Macromedia recently). Before that i was a PHP and ASP programming and enjoyed working in those languages for many years. I`ve got some design skill but admit I`m no designer. i can write the code to make those pretty sites work. I have lots of experience with Databases and working with web service api`s. I`ve currently work in a web development firm in Atlanta GA but before that i managed the entire web world for the Military Intelligence group in AZ. (which consisted of over 30 web sites, a portal, and many databases and services).

So yes i have experience programming and operating web sites. None 100% in this area but my combined experience fills the bucket pretty good. What i can`t do I`ll learn to do it, or I`ll find someone who can. I`m not afraid to step back and let someone else drive a bit.

Hope this helps you out a bit, and thanks for making me think!

I have to admit i never tried to turn it into a business but i love reviewing stuff and sharing my opinion with others. I`ve developed many contacts over the years with software companies, book publishers, service providers etc so I`m sure I`ll be able to build up the content.

How are you different from epinions.com

Our reviews will be started by either a staffer or by a community memeber who`s had there review vetter, edited etc before posting. this way we garuntee at least one well written and thourgh review. We`ll also push all the marketing and purchasing spin off to a less obtrusive place.

The think i hate about epinons is that you have to do so much clicking to get to your review. My plans is to make it easy to get to the review and then the purchase of the product will follow.

We`ll also not use the 5 start rating system like epinons, instead it will be a simple Yea or Nea ratings.

On the negative side for my site it won`t have the deeper reviews initially that you see for some product like cameras where they rate the battery life etc as well.

excellent question thanks!

You mentioned that the reviews will be started by "a staffer or by a community member". Do you plan to have a full-time staff running the site/business? Also, where will the community members come from? In other words, how will you advertise the site in order to get people to sign up as "community members"?

Just a thought - it might be helpful to limit the reviews to certain types of products in the beginning, until you get the site up and running. That way you can focus your advertising efforts more efficiently. Since you mentioned Amazon, I will use books as an example. If you limit the reviews to books, you will be able to narrow your advertising efforts to avid readers. The site will also look more relevant (and appealing) if it has 100 book reviews, rather than 10 book reviews and 5 car reviews and 20 software reviews. After you have established a following you can gradually add other categories and build on your previous success.

KarenScharf

Initially the "staff" will be myself and anyone else who will work for free :) so i will be the primary on just about everything with friends and other interested parties lending a hand here and there.

initially community members will be spread via word of mouth, and grass roots efforts. i have a few blogger contacts that i can feed the story to who will (hopefully) in turn publish something about it.

I love the idea of focusing tight initially. I`ve thought about this and I`ll probably stick with the big guns. Books, Movies, Music Software and Games. The Movies and Music sections probably won`t be there at launch since I`m not sure how much content i can pull from my resources.

The other thing I`d like to do is collect reviews but not publish them until i reach a certain number of reviewed items. IE 10 mystery books will launch a mystery book section. not sure how to spin this though to make it act like an incentive for people to submit there own reviews.

great points! thanks!!

For micro-loans, you might check-out www.prosper.com.  It`s basically a peer-based lending model.  I haven`t tried it yet, but I know the model has been very successful in the UK.

 

I agree greatly with "KarenScharf." In my opinion, and
experience, you should `narrow reviews to certain types of
products in the beginning.` My retail website was originally an
"anything goes" type of retail site. Through the past year, I have
learned narrowing my efforts is more effective until the
followers develop. I have gone from an "anything goes" online
retail store to an "earthborn & handmade" retail store. I still
have a few items, which don`t really fit the earthborn &
handmade idea, but I have found by concentrating on a rising
star area of the site I have had better response and placement
from search engines. It`s also really helped when conversing
with other business owners or potential visitors as to what my
online retail store sells and offers. Of course, non-sarcastically,
Good Luck.

Oh, just a quick side note… I’m am definitely not the greatest
speller, or writer, but I suggest passing your posts through a
spell checker (MS Word?) and proof read it before posting.
People really look at your written communications to assess
your competence and preparedness. I don’t mean this as a jab
to your side, I just mean people, investors, potential visitors, get
turned off by simple mistakes like that. I wouldn’t want you to
miss an opportunity simply because you didn’t “check yourself,
before you wreck yourself.” In other words do all you can to
present yourself as confident, capable, and ready for business.
:)

-------------------------

Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

thanks kprince i`ll check it out.