Feedback on our new site (users bid to put one of ten messages a day on the front page)

http://www.psthisispublic.com

by karzeem • 18 years ago

10 18 18 years ago

Chicken and egg problem - as a viewer (not a bidder), why should I visit a site that is nothing more than a sponsored advertisement? And if nobody visits, why would anybody bother to bid for messages?

karzeem4• 18 years ago

Indeed, that's the little experiment. People want to post a message in a place it'll be seen, which is why they propose at baseball games or write on bathroom walls. The question is finding a high-visibility forum.

The incentive here, at least at first, is that if there are less than 11 bidders, you don't pay anything. So in that case, the proposition is "Write on our front page for free," and the only loss is time. Beyond 11 bidders, the market sets the price.

bprater2• 18 years ago

Agreed, you are missing an important element. There has to be an overriding reason why I should point my browser to your page or grab an RSS feed (assuming you have one). Can I win $100 a day by visiting your page, etc.? Find a hook.

davidw2• 18 years ago

I tried it, and the minimum bid is 50 cents, which is 50 cents more than I'm willing to pay, so it's not "free".

te_platt• 18 years ago

Why no ads? How would you keep them off?

karzeem4• 18 years ago

We decided to keep ads off the site because they're not as interesting as people writing things they genuinely want to say. The vibe is like Best of Craigslist.

Since there are only 10 messages that go up, we can screen manually.

ltbarcly• 18 years ago

Why would I want to see this site? There is absolutely no point to viewing it, and therefore why would I pay to put something on it?

Also, how could this possibly take more than 3 hours to make?

karzeem4• 18 years ago

We did it in 2 ;).

ericwaller• 18 years ago

You might want to consider starting out with 10 messages per week (or 3 days, etc.). You're ultimately creating artificial scarcity. If you reduce the supply of messages further and thus increase the price, it's likely you'll see higher quality messages -- which in turn should drive traffic. You can "prime the pump" by starting with a longer message lifetime.

The disadvantage is that you may train users to visit weekly instead of daily, which is obviously counterproductive to driving traffic.

petercooper• 18 years ago

Despite all the negativity above, I just wanted to say.. I kinda get a feel for what you're trying to do and there's definitely a good idea lurking in here somewhere. I am reasonably convinced your present implementation is not /quite/ right, but as long as you're agile on your feet and respond to what feels the right thing to do, you might end up with a hit.

Turning these sorts of ideas into hits is a bit like landing a helicopter onto an invisible boat. There's no target, you're just flapping around in the breeze, but if you delicately push it the right way, you might end up with something (or nothing).

Feedback on our new site (users bid to put one of ten messages a day on the front page)

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