Ask HN: Review my startup, sponzu.com

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2206770

by sponzu • 15 years ago

2 6 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

dralison• 15 years ago

I like the idea, low friction for people that want to help a cause. My concern is getting people engaged when they land on the page. The graphic on the home page doesn't really tell me enough in just a glance. It's relatively small and hard to read.

Very cool concept though. Watched an ad to help buy new schoolbooks for some kid in NY ;)

sponzu3• 15 years ago

Thank you! We are making a video about How It Works, should make it easier to understand the concept.

swellular• 15 years ago

The layout of the site and the diagram in the forefront makes it clear what the premise is. Nice job there.

It seems like the revenue generated by watching ads is very small. How many viewers of a 30s ad would someone need to raise $500?

sponzu3• 15 years ago

During beta, the payout is between 5 - 10 cents per view. We are, however, working on bringing it up to a dollar by giving users an option to rate videos, provide feedback to advertisers, sharing the videos on the network and taking other actions which are all payable by sponsors.

profitbaron• 15 years ago

Clickable link: http://www.sponzu.com

Feedback:

The main problem of this idea is that I don't see how an advertiser would see a benefit from being involved in this because, people aren't really going to engage in the adverts they are going there to "support" an idea and letting the advertisement run rather than be engaged in it.

You need to show a benefit to the advertiser, as to why show an advertisement with yourselves as this would aid the advertiser problem and allow them to see a value in advertising on your website.

Additionally, you also need to look at how to keep users engaged when they come to the website because, when you first go to the website you are presented with the "How It Works" and if you want to get people engaged and involved in "supporting ideas" then you need to change this graphic as it is too small and isn't really engaging.

You need a 3 step "How It Works" from a user pespective AND not from an idea submitting pespective as well, save this step for the "Submit your idea" page.

Additionally, there are a few call to action buttons on this website soon as I arrive "Register" "Fb Login" "Submit Your Idea" (which is repeated twice) etc which don't benefit you at all because, there are so many of them. You should focus on one call-to-action button and acquire the user sign ups when submitting the idea in a slick user interface instead of trying to get them to click "Register" etc because, if they aren't submitting an idea there doesn't seem much value (if any) to join the service.

Additionally, when I went to click submit an idea I was immediately presented with "Login" or "Register" that really sucks from a user perspective, you should have a page with a form where people can fill out their information and at the bottom have a "create account" setting where a user registers a username, password and email etc (additional information can be acquired when they have signed up) as this will significantly improve the UI from a user perspective.

Also, why does it just have to be for "ideas" I mean you could contact charities to get them involved and they can get users to view the ads as a "donation" to their charities. Continuing with this idea, you should have a "widget" so people can place their ideas on another website etc, then they can go and view the ad such as on a Charities Website for instance.

sponzu3• 15 years ago

Thank you for your feedback. We do support organizations and non-for-profit, I guess we should make it clearer. Also, the widget is available under each idea if you click on the Share button.

Ask HN: Review my startup, sponzu.com

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