Ask HN: Would you pay for it- Business Book Summaries?

#1

Post by jasonlbaptiste » Thu, Mar 04, 2010, 5:53 AM UTC

I've been reading a ton of business books lately and summarizing them just to take notes. I therefore thought it would be useful to do this on a more consistent level like 5 a week and put them online for a monthly fee (9.99 unlimited access). My thought is: this would be useful to people who want to get the main points of a lot of books but don't have the time to read them all. For the really interesting ones: they'll then go and read the whole thing.

Consider this a super minimum viable product.

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay for it- Business Book Summaries?

#2

Post by aarlo » Thu, Mar 04, 2010, 6:13 AM UTC

My guess is that it's hard to charge just for info, especially if you're not well known...I wouldn't pay.

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay for it- Business Book Summaries?

#3

Post by jasonlbaptiste » Thu, Mar 04, 2010, 6:18 AM UTC

aarlo wrote: post #2

My guess is that it's hard to charge just for info, especially if you're not well known...I wouldn't pay.

yeah part of that's my worry, but people certainly do pay for information on the web. especially if it saves them time (value prop here). getabstract does this, but they're kinda pricey.

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay for it- Business Book Summaries?

#4

Post by paraschopra » Thu, Mar 04, 2010, 6:51 AM UTC

Get Abstract already does that http://www.getabstract.com/

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay for it- Business Book Summaries?

#5

Post by JacobAldridge » Thu, Mar 04, 2010, 7:04 AM UTC

For me, there's not enough value here to put my hand in my pocket. If I want a review of a specific book, I can search and find them, and to discover books I have blogs, friends and sites like HN where many are reviewed, discussed, or recommended.

Having said that, if you've already done the ground work, is it possible to pull together a website with free content and grab some affiliate fees? Not as much potential, but a super minimum viable revenue source?

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay for it- Business Book Summaries?

#6

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 04, 2010, 7:14 AM UTC

JacobAldridge wrote: post #5

For me, there's not enough value here to put my hand in my pocket. If I want a review of a specific book, I can search and find them, and to discover books I have blogs, friends and sites like HN where many are reviewed, discussed, or recommended. Having said that, if you've already done the ground work, is it possible to pull together a website with free content and grab some affiliate fees? Not as much potential, b…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay for it- Business Book Summaries?

#7

Post by jasonlbaptiste » Thu, Mar 04, 2010, 7:14 AM UTC

JacobAldridge wrote: post #5

For me, there's not enough value here to put my hand in my pocket. If I want a review of a specific book, I can search and find them, and to discover books I have blogs, friends and sites like HN where many are reviewed, discussed, or recommended. Having said that, if you've already done the ground work, is it possible to pull together a website with free content and grab some affiliate fees? Not as much potential, b…

That's my other thought to be honest. I might just start posting them regularly. It's a fairly valuable audience but more than anything I'm sure I'd meet some good people.

Quick calcs: 1,000 views, 2% end up buying book, 5% commission, $15 avg price = $15 cpm. Not bad actually. Throw in other business related ads on top of it.

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay for it- Business Book Summaries?

#8

Post by john_lewin » Thu, Mar 04, 2010, 7:20 AM UTC

I've paid for {getabstract} before, and use it somewhat frequently now that my company pays for it. Its long been my view that a good business book is about 5-10 pages of solid insight with another 10 of market research validating it -- and another 300 pages of B.S.

But for $10/month a summary wont work -- you need to get the meat of the idea and present it as convincingly as the book. That kind of quality @ a rate of 5 books a week? I'd be sceptical of someone saying they could do that at a rate of 1 book a month unless they were full time at it.

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay for it- Business Book Summaries?

#9

Post by kareemm » Thu, Mar 04, 2010, 7:36 AM UTC

Coles / Clif notes built large businesses off of this idea, so I suspect the answer is yes.

my buddy runs PhilosophersNotes.com. no idea what his traction is like but i suspect he's doing pretty well.

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay for it- Business Book Summaries?

#10

Post by JacobAldridge » Thu, Mar 04, 2010, 7:42 AM UTC

jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #7

JacobAldridge wrote: post #5

For me, there's not enough value here to put my hand in my pocket. If I want a review of a specific book, I can search and find them, and to discover books I have blogs, friends and sites like HN where many are reviewed, discussed, or recommended. Having said that, if you've already done the ground work, is it possible to pull together a website with free content and grab some affiliate fees? Not as much potential, b…

That's my other thought to be honest. I might just start posting them regularly. It's a fairly valuable audience but more than anything I'm sure I'd meet some good people. Quick calcs: 1,000 views, 2% end up buying book, 5% commission, $15 avg price = $15 cpm. Not bad actually. Throw in other business related ads on top of it.

I figure there's beer money ideas, letterbox money ideas, and fuck you money ideas. This seems like a nice little beer money idea right now, and who knows what it might evolve into.