Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I`ve been lurking in the shadows here at StartupNation for the last six months and have taken a lot of great advice from this site.  I have just recently joined the web startup game.  It`s been a long and arduous journey up to this point, and this is only the beginning.  The site is in beta (maybe more appropriately alpha?) and its feature set is very basic.  But, we have a lot of features planned.

The site is http://pollsit.com/

It`s a site that allows you to create your own polls and then discuss the topic related to the polls.  It`s not really meant for people to create polls that ask "Do you like my red dress or my blue dress?" and then provide a link to both of the dresses.  Rather, I want people to create polls that ask "Do you feel that the economic stimulus package will help the economy?" and then discuss this topic in the comment section.  Both types of polls are allowed, I just want the content to have substance.  Maybe both types should be encouraged?  You can also post the polls on your own website or Myspace page if you like.  We also plan on incorporating a social element to the site. 

The great web entrepreneurs say to "Release early, Release often."  So that is exactly what we are doing.

Anyways, hit me hard with your criticism.

Thanks Again!

-JP


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http://twitter.com/jprichardson
Reflect7 LLC - iPhone Software Development
Techneur - My blog

It`s a good idea.  I think the strongest part of your idea is to let people put polls their own sites and blogs.  That said, I think you should push that idea harder!  This will probably be the best way to get the word out and create some viral activity.

"Get Widget Code" sounds so technical and unexciting.  Make the button more prominent and call it "Put this poll on your site!"  See the difference?

So let`s say I`m reading some blog and I see a poll.  I have the choice to put it in my own blog as well.  Cool!  But wait, I just like the idea and want a different poll.  It says "click here to create your own poll" but only in the pre-voted version.  What if I already voted?  Will that option disappear?  Get rid of the "click here" part.  Again, make it a more exciting button that says "Create your own poll".  Simplify.

I really think you should make those two options the key operations of the widget, well, besides the poll itself.  Make the Flash and MySpace options less obvious.  They aren`t as important.  And stop calling it a "widget" even if that`s what it is.  A lot of people don`t know what that means.  But peopld do know what a "poll" is.  Concentrate on the fact that you offer polls, not technology.

If it`s very clear that these polls can be easily created and shared, I think you`ll hit on something good.



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Steve Lowtwa

The way to get the product out there, but also hold onto the more serious aspect to it is going to be your content---your copywriting.

The key to any marketing campaign, across the board, is Benefit! No matter what you`re trying to sell, your first and foremost task is to show people how your product solves their problem---even if they don`t yet know they have a problem. Example, demonstration, example, demonstration---that`s the main thing.

On the one hand you`ll want the viral marketing of people who poll in favor of the red or blue dress. On the other, you want to emphasize the power of the application, and that it easily can produce polls with real substance.

From what I`ve learned in the entertainment world, your "first appearance" tends to set the tone for the rest of your career. So if you focus the content toward people who`d like substantive polling, but keep some of the "fun" of the site, and have polls about dogs` names, I think that`d work.

One way to accomplish this, I`m thinking, would be to have a "gallery" page type of thing, with many examples of polls people have created. You can be the "peoples" at the start, then take other ideas later. Say you have twenty example polls, but 15 of them are substantive, and 5 are for fun. The overall impression will be that "lots of peoples" out there are using your site for significant polling.

The secondary aspect would be to have a broad scope---many different types of topics. In your examples, you would naturally have political polling. But you could have, for instance, a poll ostensibly created by a school board as to the effectiveness of random drug-testing for students.

As Dick Wolf says as the start of "Law & Order," get your polling ideas "taken from today`s headlines." The drug-testing issue above is a talk-show topic I heard the other day. You could do the same, taking topics from talk shows that generate a lot of interest.

In fact, you could listen to some of the popular talk shows, extract polling questions related to their topics, then create example polls for your gallery. Then have a blog that offers people an opportunity to "vote" on the solutions to these radio shows.

For example, let`s say that Limbaugh or Ingrahm has a question they`re pursuing for more than a few days. You could headline a blog article, "How do you feel about....(topic)" and a poll. The answers would be based on what callers are using as categories of answers. So you`d be like a "pilot fish," acting in concert with the publicity of the major talk shows.

CampSteve & CraigL, thank you so much for your insightful critiques!

CampSteve, I think you hit home on two key points.   I think one of the best features as it stands now is that you can post the polls on your own site.  But, I`m not quite sure on the best way to push that idea.  I suppose that may be something I should do on my marketing campaign.  Concerning your second point, yes... you are right; "widget" does sound too technical.  I was thinking too much like a programmer and less like a user.

CraigL, I think you`re right that first appearance does tend to set the tone.  We`ve been taking some of the headlines and putting them into polls.  We just went live on Monday, so we have yet to determine how successful we`ll have been.  But, it`s a good point.  Your suggestion about creating polls from some of the topics on the top radio shows is good.  It`s also very convenient as I listen to quite a bit of the shows already.

My concern lies in a few key areas.  When users first land on the site, it may be somewhat confusing to those users who have never visited Digg or Reddit before.  The "up" and "down" arrows allow the users to actually choose whether they like the poll itself.  If they don`t like the poll they would click the "down" arrow, and if they do... then they would click the "up" arrow.  As it stands now, users can do this once a day.  We may change this to once an hour to actively encourage participation.  The concern is, how can I make this clear to a first time user?  How can I also make it clear that you can put these polls on your own website?  Would it make sense to have a landing page of sorts?  That landing page would have something like: The top 5 polls in the top 5 categories.  It would also contain the top 10 most voted polls.  It could also contain stats about top users, etc.  What are your thoughts?

Thanks again for your insightful suggestions!

-JP



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http://twitter.com/jprichardson
Reflect7 LLC - iPhone Software Development
Techneur - My blog

I`d also like to add that I`m not too keen on the name "Pollsit".  I don`t get it.  Poll sit?  Polls it?  Neither makes sense.  And it sounds a little like word `bullsh*t `.  Actually, "Pollsh*t " is a great name that is more memorable than most product names I hear.  But I still don`t recommend it.

Anyway, what is Pollsit?

(Interesting, the forum software is automatically censoring my bad language.  For the record, I typed it out normally without the asterisks.)


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Steve Lowtwa

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CampSteve, you`re not the first person to make that observation. =) Actually, "polls" in pollsit is a pun on the word "pulse."  When consistently polling the trends, the data from the polling sometimes generates a graph that looks like a pulse.  The original logo conveyed that pretty clearly.  However, the original logo wasn`t that clean, so we had to change it at the last minute.  I`m not sure how else I can convey that "polls" is a pun on "pulse" without putting that in the logo, which I plan on doing.  Thinking "bull sh*t " when you hear "pollsit" may not be such a bad thing after all, that would be an interesting marketing campaign!  Thanks for your observation.

Roland, that`s a good point.  I`ve been debating about the usage of the word "widget."  You have a point that most people that have websites or blogs probably understand what the word widget means.  In some ways though, it does sound too technical.  The jury is still out on this one.

Thanks again for your thoughts and suggestions!  If anyone else wants to chime in, I would love to hear your thoughts.

-JP



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http://twitter.com/jprichardson
Reflect7 LLC - iPhone Software Development
Techneur - My blog

The point isn`t whether people understand the word "widget" or not.  Some may, some may not.  It`s actually a fun, cute word and not technically scary.  The point is that you write your words to cater to an audience and a call to action.

Think about blogs.  How are they marketed?  They`re easy sites that anyone can make.  Wordpress says "Start a blog in seconds".  One reason blogs have taken off is that the implementation process for the user requires little to no technical know-how.  Google did the same for Adsense.  PayPal did the same for Buy Now buttons.

But quite often, you do need to learn a bit of technical knowledge to do these things, mostly a simple cut and paste of code.  These technologies aren`t marketed as technologies.  They`re marketed as benefits for the user (to go back to Craig`s comment).

So yes, "widget" might be a common word for those who already have an understanding of simple code and web technologies.  But that doesn`t matter.  It`s not the point.  The benefit you are selling is easy-to-use polls, not easy-to-copy-and-paste-code widgets.  You write your copy to reflect your benefit.


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Home Sweetest Home - Poster-Style Home Portraits
Zingerding - the Internet`s Funny Pages (coming soon!)

Steve Lowtwa

Where it comes to explaining things to people, you really have only two choices. Either you write out the instructions simply, or you have a slide show graphically. Hm....well, there could be a third option, to have an audio track with the instructions spoken out loud, I suppose.

Steve, you`re right.  I need to make it more clear that it`s not "widgets" that I`m focused on providing the user, but easy-to-use-custom polls for your own website.

Craig, good point.  I suppose I could add a link that says something like "how it works."

Thanks again guys, your suggestions are great!

-JP



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http://twitter.com/jprichardson
Reflect7 LLC - iPhone Software Development
Techneur - My blog