jameszol

When I was in high school in the 90s, and just discovering the world of money and finance, I stumbled on Alan Greenspan and instantly liked some of his thinking about it. I tried my best to learn from everything he did, read every news article I could find, followed rates, the economics of money, the impact on markets, and more. I learned more about government politics and money and influence from that experience than I have since! I'll admit that my mindset about the Fed and money in general is very much due to what I learned in those impressionable years.

Luckily a few others here in Idaho have done it by way of a Friends of the Library official non-profit 501(c)(3), so I have a model to follow that works in our region and for our rural conservative conditions. The standard non-profit benefits apply: we apply for a lot of grants, we set up endowments, accept land or stock as gifts, take on capital projects like building a library. The public library can then lease from us (probably for $0) or if we put a large enough endowment fund together we would very much consider taking it all private vs just a purpose built building for the library.

I’m trying to privately build a public library in a rural Idaho community. Borrowing sewing machines has been a popular request, as soon as we have space for them. It’s exciting to see that it’s a worldwide desire and not just a rural trend. Very cool to read about how Finland is doubling down on investing in libraries and skill building tools like sewing machines!

I’m not a lawyer but trademark isn’t just searching TESS right? It’s overly broad but the question I ask myself when naming projects (all small / inconsequential in the general business sense but meaningful to me and my teams) is: will the general public confuse my name with a similar company name in a direct or tangentially related industry or niche? If yes, try a different name… or weigh the risks of having a legal expense later and go for it if worth the risk.

In this instance, I wonder if the general public know OpenAI and might think anything ai related with “Open” in the name is part of the same company? And is OpenAI protecting its name?

There’s a lot more to trademark law, too. There’s first use in commerce, words that can’t be marked for many reasons… and more that I’ll never really understand.

Regardless the name, I am looking forward to testing this on cloudflare! I’m a fan of the project!

Software is absurd, indeed. I don’t write code but I feel similar about digital and the Internet as a whole because my career is here… so I went back to a hobby of pre-computer automotive restoration. I do it for me, so I haven’t switched careers. I don’t want the same burnout with my hobby. Instead, I find a bit of balance for myself by working on a machine in my garage instead of going from my day job to my mobile device for videos or social networks.

I'm helping a friend sell their farm's ancient grain production online since they have a mill on their farm. They grow and sell spelt, emmer, einkorn, and other types of grain. Our family farm is considering planting and producing those grains, too.

Also building an outsourced, full-time, subscription-based digital marketer staffing / agency hybrid at GruntWorkers.com.

I used to run a local web marketing meetup in East Idaho. It grew to about 260 people! We used meetup.com and I loved that...

Then I discovered that Facebook Groups and setting up events there worked just as well for us. RSVPs, reminders, notifications, etc all built in.

I since retired that meetup due to moving out of the State for a short time, but if I were to start again I would probably still use Facebook.

This reminds me of a book called The Power of Starting Something Stupid, by Richie Norton. The book tells several stories just like this one, where it seems like peers or others are criticizing your work as “stupid” but you get it done anyways because you know it is worthwhile, then finally the world rewards you handsomely for it.

I up-vote the stories I intend to use or share with others in the future. These stories usually resonate with me on some level so I find myself reading significantly more stories than ever actually up-voting them.

If you have time, I highly recommend reading The 1% Windfall by Rafi Mohammed[1].

There are dozens of pricing options in the book; however, Rafi's favored model is: try to set a price based on the value the buyer receives.

In your case, it sounds like you are the buyer because you built something that fixes a problem you had. If the pricing is something you will pay, then you're probably in the ballpark with your prices.

Have you surveyed other theme/module sellers to determine the value a service like yours would provide to them? Using your scenario, will other sellers value (pay) for your service at the equivalent of 2 sales/month for the Pro plan and 4-6 for the Platinum? Will you pay that much to a competitor if they build a similar business?

Good luck with your product! If I were a theme or module seller, it looks like something I might try because as a regular theme and module buyer, nothing frustrates me more than to click a demo link only to find demos that do not exist anymore. I almost never buy a theme or module that I can't demo first.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-1-Windfall-Successful-Companies/dp...

I wonder if Yo is popular because people feel it is a funny pointless app or because it makes a common message incredibly easy to send?

I like apps like Yo. They do exactly what they say they will do. Yo requires fewer taps than texting "Yo" to somebody. It's refreshing!

I would venture a guess that the people who are solving for big problems can be inspired by how minimal Yo is, and the decisions that stem from that inspiration may be the tipping point they needed for their businesses. There may be applicable uses for the Yo type of simplicity for any of the problems mentioned in the blog post.

There's a good place for apps like Yo. They challenge the status quo. They disrupt. They prove that removing mundane steps to doing something as common as texting can be popular and worth testing as a business model.

Maybe Yo has already solved a big problem. Maybe we have yet to experience the ripple effect.

Your current home page tells a good story by simply outlining the benefits of your app. I don't have to think to "get it" when reading your existing home page.

The new infographic shows me the benefits but it is harder for me, personally, to digest. I had to strain my brain to "get it."

You have an awesome opportunity with your startup. I'm sure you'll turn something around with the lively discussion you kicked off.

Have you considered non-ad-network revenue sources? What about running affiliate offers?

I used to make 4 to 10 times more as a publisher with affiliate offers than adsense or other ad network placements. I don't affiliate (or publish) enough now to know if that would still happen or not.

A quick idea for an affiliate test, although you may have already tried this:

Given 6MM+ uniques/mo, and a somewhat adult-oriented audience, you may have a decent opportunity to push native ads with affiliate offers toward dating sites, event-themed sites (costumes for halloween trends), and more.

Native ads could be custom, animated banners you create and fill the first, second or x picture spot in your search or tag results. Does that make sense? Your banners would be 100px x 100px on your home page and fill a standard picture spot or two or five instead of the images that might ordinarily go in that space, 150x150 banner ads could fit in well in random places on your tag image pages, etc.

Also, advertisers might like to participate in native advertising on your website if the opportunity were available.

Good luck!

For every one of these "declining profitability" stories, there is an equal and opposite story. It's a cyclical story, too.

Either way, Google wins.

I agree.

Murder is unequivocally a violent crime; however, I believe "violent crimes" can cover assault of just about any type, sexual crimes and more.

Higher in actual number is almost always going to be relative to the population, isn't it? Per capita is more accurate while it still is lacking for comparison purposes.

I agree that murder, as one type of violent crime, is more prominent here in the US than in the UK on a per capita basis.

Crime stats are most definitely open to a lot of interpretation between countries, actual reported statistics vs unreported, varying definitions, and more.

I've been interested in crime stats and arguments for some time; thus, I'm interested to know where you are getting your data to make such assumptions that UK criminals don't use weapons on civilians when sources dictate that the UK is among the most violent in Europe and perhaps 2x more violent than in the USA?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_crime#United_Kingdom

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/5712573...

Dozens more sources similar to what you can find in the above links if you search via your favorite search engine.

Violence is classified somewhat differently in the UK; however, removing the differences in classification still shows the UK leading in violent crimes vs the US or a fair number of other countries.

I use ClipBoard.com almost exclusively although I recently started to use Evernote and it's working out well so far. Both have easy-to-use Chrome extensions that make bookmarking and tagging a breeze.

Organic search drives 7 out of 10 visits?

I'm a little skeptical of that statistic.

I wish Outbrain had updated reports that I could use (I wasn't able to find any;) however, pulling from an older study from 2011, they reported Search and Social numbers that seem very different than what Conductor's study dictates. Search was at 40% and Social was at 14% for their top 150 Publishers at the time. [1] If search more than doubled in 18 months, there would be quite a bit of coverage on such a substantial gain. I've had my head down to work for a while, so maybe I missed the undoubted hype that would have surrounded such a gain?

I do believe the idea that the 'fat head' drives the majority of traffic. I'm simply questioning the accuracy of the breakdown of referring traffic sources.

[1] http://www.outbrain.com/blog/2011/08/content-sites-refer-tra...

What a stunning tribute to the story.

Every part of this was precisely, beautifully and expertly planned to have a profound emotional pull to see the story through to the end. It worked. While I was reading, I felt the emotion from the words + the animations + video + audio.

I love the format, design and style. Simply brilliant.

I feel that this argument is lacking in scope when deferring to areas of the world where there are few to no guns in circulation. Of course there will be fewer gun crimes if there aren't any guns.

What should be compared is violent crime in general. Weapons or not, the numbers are quite astounding. Then again, my argument may not take into account how crime is truly defined although I simply want to make a point that the argument in the article is fairly shallow and should push the boundaries of journalism by asking and answering more questions.

UK Violent crime rates per 10,000 people, since ~2000, has been between 400 and 600. That's 4-6%. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Violent-crime-rates-UK-198...)

US Violent crime rates per 100,000, since ~2000, has been between 400 and 500. That's .4-.5%. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Violent_Crime_Rates_in_the...)

In my opinion, it appears there is a correlation between 300MM guns in circulation vs no guns. Not causation, simply correlation. Unproven correlation at that.

I feel my argument is somewhat weak here because I have more questions: What about the number of victims? What about those crimes committed with a weapon vs without? In the UK, what weapons are used for crime if not guns? How do those weapon-based crimes compare to the same weapon in the US?

Edit: Added the corresponding wiki image to the US stats above.

I don't understand this ranty article...

Aren't startups called startups for a reason? Some aren't going to thrive, some really suck, others can't pivot their talent and drive toward something grandiose and earth shattering for their next round of investment but all should be better because of the experience, investors and entrepreneurs alike.

The failure rate of startups has always been high, especially over time, right?

"There are also different definitions of failure. If failure means liquidating all assets, with investors losing all their money, an estimated 30% to 40% of high potential U.S. start-ups fail, he says. If failure is defined as failing to see the projected return on investment—say, a specific revenue growth rate or date to break even on cash flow—then more than 95% of start-ups fail, based on Mr. Ghosh's research." via Shikhar Ghosh, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087239639044372020457800...

Noted, thank you!

Very cool, thank you for sharing!

I love specialized task-oriented marketplaces like this and hope several of these take off.

The only other that I'm aware of at the moment is Tweaky.com.

Tweaky appears to focus on front-end development while I see a back-end task or two at Bountify.co.

Another difference is the minimum price. Tweaky is at $39 and Bountify is at $1.

Are there other big differences between the two?

I would hesitate to jump into a marketplace with low minimum prices because I have been groomed to 'get what I pay for' with development. It's hard to imagine that $39 is sufficient for a lot of tasks let alone $1.

As a person currently in the market for developers:

Finding a front-end rock star went well although it was slow going. We filled that position within a couple months and have asked that developer to source to Tweaky (and to check out Bountify) for spillover until/if/when we need to hire another person in-house. Our in-house developer would audit/implement changes coming from Tweaky/Bountify.

Finding a back-end/systems engineer rock star is turning out to be a bigger challenge for us and at this moment I would find a lot of value in a verified systems engineering marketplace to source work to. I find Bountify appealing in that sense although I would wait for a high quality validation procedure before sourcing systems work to a 3rd party. Even then, I would only allow access to a test environment with a requirement for instructions on rolling the changes live so I could bring in somebody who has worked closely with me to audit and implement that solution.

The bottom line for me: I am very much in favor of this type of specialized marketplace and am glad to see Bountify.co enter the arena.

I am a raving fan of VisualWebsiteOptimizer.com (VWO) and highly recommend using or trying their A/B product over any other. Paras truly cares about his product, responds personally to inquiries although I am sure that as the business grows he may not be able to do that as much. It was clear to me from day 1 as an early customer (1st test deployed Sept 2010) that he truly cares about his customer, listens to his customer, and works insanely hard for his customer as does his entire team; and you can not put a price tag on that, in my opinion.

Now go subscribe to VWO and take his team to 2000+ customers! It will be beyond worthwhile for your website and business. It has been for mine.

Thank you for building a phenomenal product @paraschopra and team!

Did you think this was a real startup?

This is a parody site representing just about every mobile or web-based startup.

It's fairly accurate (and hilarious!), isn't it?

Delivery is always up in the air isn't it?

One argument for app.net appeared to be "controlling my own data" so I thought I would point people toward what Twitter has said about giving users the ability to download all of their tweets soon.

I hope they deliver but I'm not too worried about it if they don't. I currently archive my tweets using IFTTT: Delicious.com for the ones with links (http://ifttt.com/recipes/332), Dropbox for the whole stream (http://ifttt.com/recipes/37991).

I agree. The way they are managing the 3rd party market is baffling and disappointing.

Is that implication really a problem though? I suppose for some it is. That audience is likely quite small, depending on the service of course.