Show HN: My unique advertising start-up

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2153070

by greglockwood • 15 years ago

5 7 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

The other day I was thinking about web advertising, and how inefficient it is for almost all parties involved. I was particularly focused on the banner ad, and then I started to wonder what would happen if the banner ad and the site content switched roles. This is purely an experiment at this point, but I'd like to know what the HN crowd thought of an unorthodox advertising solution like this. Thanks!

greglockwood2• 15 years ago

Clickable: http://theeverchangingwebsite.com

atomical• 15 years ago

On local news sites I see syndicated news/advertisements. Usually it's about health and getting ripped or some such nonsense. I think this has been done before. The goal of the advertiser is to trick the user that the content is part of the magazine/website/tv show.

bpeters2• 15 years ago

How is this any different than hosting content on a corresponding provider. Videos on Youtube and Vimeo,resume on LinkedIn, Portfolio on any blogging platform,or just simply using Facebook Pages?

I can understand that people have the freedom of putting anything on your site (to a point), but it still requires work to create a new site and having a knowledge of html and css at the minimum.

The cost is cheap $10 a day, but it is still more than the free providers on those mentioned.

greglockwood2• 15 years ago

The goal is to build a consistent, and eventually large audience, and the value of the site being access to that audience. Yes, you can host your content on Youtube, LinkedIn, Wordpress, or any number of CMSs, but you still have to find a way to drive traffic to your content, and that is usually not easy. The selling point down the line will essentially be, renting the eyeballs for a day to jumpstart awareness for your content.

bpeters2• 15 years ago

Like a Groupon Daily deal, but for websites? All eyes on one site, hosting one particular content. I can see how that could catch one. It would depend on the traction initially. Meaning you would need very unique and viral content to get the first viewers there. After you have a viewer base then it can become quite beneficial as a daily advertising platform.

znt• 15 years ago

Are you planning to come up with daily deals too? Like Groupon or Appsumo?

komlenic• 15 years ago

This is a very fragile (but interesting!) idea. I would focus hard on finding ways to line up a steady stream of interesting (hopefully viral) content... the fragility of the concept all hinges on that. You may literally want to create some pages yourself, or solicit freebies from clever folks, or even pay or otherwise encourage some great content.

As a user/visitor, I'm going to need a compelling reason to visit your site everyday, and "what would happen if the banner ad and the site content switched roles" isn't very enticing. Now, a cool piece of interactive art one day, a great 24-hour deal the next, followed by a free album/song download from a few artists, with a clever game the next day... these are some of the kinds of things that may give you traction. It's got to be "wow this site has cool stuff everyday" not "let's see what ad is up there today".

It's a chicken/egg horse/cart problem, but you're probably putting the cart before the horse if you're thinking monetization and advertising right away. I'd think of it more like "send in your cool stuff and we'll pick the best to display for 24 hours" and see if that works.

Again, great idea, but you have to prime the pump!

Show HN: My unique advertising start-up

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