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Ask HN: Please destroy my startup idea so I don't waste time on it

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Re: Ask HN: Please destroy my startup idea so I don't waste time on it

#11

Post by ish_ish »

rcavezza wrote: post #3
nedwin wrote: post #2

Advertising sales is really hard. You can create a marketplace and get connected to a bunch of newsletter publishers but then you need to convince a whole heap of people to give you money. Publishers are also (usually) particular about what kind of advertising they run in their emails. They want to make sure that it's "on brand" because if it's not then people might stop opening or reading their emails. It's the clas…

Thanks for the comment nedwin. If nothing else, I'd like to at least make it easier for startups and small companies to have somewhere to find what these requirements are. Maybe this ends with howtosubscribe.com being a labor of love to help organize the net's plethora of newsletters. If your proposal of selling one or two and then expanding from there. This idea would probably be suited better for someone with histo…

What is this 'wrong person to execute' nonsense? You're only limited by your imagination and ability work hard towards your goal. I'll take passion over expertise any day.

Re: Ask HN: Please destroy my startup idea so I don't waste time on it

#12

Post by robryan »

rcavezza wrote: post #3
nedwin wrote: post #2

Advertising sales is really hard. You can create a marketplace and get connected to a bunch of newsletter publishers but then you need to convince a whole heap of people to give you money. Publishers are also (usually) particular about what kind of advertising they run in their emails. They want to make sure that it's "on brand" because if it's not then people might stop opening or reading their emails. It's the clas…

Thanks for the comment nedwin. If nothing else, I'd like to at least make it easier for startups and small companies to have somewhere to find what these requirements are. Maybe this ends with howtosubscribe.com being a labor of love to help organize the net's plethora of newsletters. If your proposal of selling one or two and then expanding from there. This idea would probably be suited better for someone with histo…

I guess that in the early stages of your idea your in a way going to have to be selling the inventories anyway, not going to be easy to build both sides of the market without some legwork on your part. One of the advantages to being small I guess is you can actually go above and beyond to broker deals rather than only having time to really be doing it passively through a webapp.

Re: Ask HN: Please destroy my startup idea so I don't waste time on it

#13

Post by idoh »

jim_shook wrote: post #4

Personally, I think you are thinking too small. IMO there is a larger opportunity for a marketplace to buy and sell promotion for the long-tail of the web (niche content providers and small startups selling to a niche audience) across many mediums including newsletters but also company blogs, social media presences, forums, etc. Buysellads.com does it well, but I think there is room for another player who can execute…

It's a really hard problem. I worked at a company that tried to create vertical ad networks that would allow advertisers to tap a large pool of related content. A lot of pieces have to come together for it all to work - finance, technical, and high-touch things like having a direct sales team and managing publishers (recruiting them, getting your tags up, etc).

Re: Ask HN: Please destroy my startup idea so I don't waste time on it

#14

Post by jonkelly »

I actually like the idea a bit. Chicken and egg problem for ad networks is difficult, but not insurmountable. I can tell you that there are many big newsletters out there that are under-monetized. It' not about spamming, either, it's about providing a quality offer that makes sense for the audience. Feel free to reach out to me if you pursue this (you can find me through my profile).

Re: Ask HN: Please destroy my startup idea so I don't waste time on it

#15

Post by asanwal »

We run a niche, high-value newsletter and so from experience, I think there is a market for this.

To validate, I'd find a newsletter(s) you think you can sell an ad(s) in and talk to the newsletter creator and say "If I can get you a sponsored ad for $x, would you (1) want it and (2) give me a Y% cut?"

If you get positive response from them, then try like mad to sell the ads you promised.

I'm not sure the size of the market but given how much Bob Pittman, Lerer Media and the guy at HARO like email newsletters, there is prob something here. We think so.

Also, IMO, I don't think startups is a great demographic from a monetization perspective unless you can slice it more finely, i.e., venture-backed startups or startups who are hiring.

Re: Ask HN: Please destroy my startup idea so I don't waste time on it

#16

Post by mattcurry »

You may want to checkout http://www.heyamigo.net and http://www.barenakedapp.com/category/amigo/

HeyAmigo sounds like exactly what you are talking about. It was built by Carsonified a few years ago and sold (I think). The Bare Naked App blog was a chronicle of them building it.

Re: Ask HN: Please destroy my startup idea so I don't waste time on it

#17

Post by eli »

jasonlynes wrote: post #9

who the hell signs up for newsletters? interesting how your other business was created because newsletters are lame. these problems don't seem like ones normal people deal with. they're just problems for people trying to add something to their domain squatting businesses. spam my inbox with lame content, and then spam the newsletter with ads? ugh. how about, people want really good content through email (huge assumpt…

Many people sign up for email newsletters -- in fact lots of people spend their whole day in Outlook or on their Blackberry, so it's far more convenient than configuring an RSS reader. More people send/receive email in a given day than run a Google search or check Facebook.

Ads in an email newsletter that you intentionally signed up for is no more "spam" than ads on a website you routinely visit is "spam."

Re: Ask HN: Please destroy my startup idea so I don't waste time on it

#18

Post by rcavezza »

asanwal wrote: post #15

We run a niche, high-value newsletter and so from experience, I think there is a market for this. To validate, I'd find a newsletter(s) you think you can sell an ad(s) in and talk to the newsletter creator and say "If I can get you a sponsored ad for $x, would you (1) want it and (2) give me a Y% cut?" If you get positive response from them, then try like mad to sell the ads you promised. I'm not sure the size of the…

Great points. From lean startups & cust dev principles, I think you should start charging from day one.

Well, the margins would come from venture backed startups looking for high growth.

I am also a huge fan of lean, so personally, I'd also like to hook up very small newsletters (less than 5,000 subscribers) with bootstrapped startups. I also think these newsletters would be easier to start with - since many aren't monetized yet.

I already have one newsletter signed up for this. This idea came from when I pitched a different startup to them and they thought I was talking about this idea. They said "if you do this, I'll be your biggest advocate". So that's why I'm considering the idea.

Re: Ask HN: Please destroy my startup idea so I don't waste time on it

#19

Post by rcavezza »

ish_ish wrote: post #11
rcavezza wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the comment nedwin. If nothing else, I'd like to at least make it easier for startups and small companies to have somewhere to find what these requirements are. Maybe this ends with howtosubscribe.com being a labor of love to help organize the net's plethora of newsletters. If your proposal of selling one or two and then expanding from there. This idea would probably be suited better for someone with histo…

What is this 'wrong person to execute' nonsense? You're only limited by your imagination and ability work hard towards your goal. I'll take passion over expertise any day.

I guess it come from reading investor's startup blogs. I'm going to do the 37 signals thing and try to do as much as I can until it's not physically possible.

If I was raising investment (plan Z), I'd try to find a team member with ad sales experience (or maybe an advisor).

Re: Ask HN: Please destroy my startup idea so I don't waste time on it

#20

Post by rcavezza »

rwhitman wrote: post #10
rcavezza wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the comment nedwin. If nothing else, I'd like to at least make it easier for startups and small companies to have somewhere to find what these requirements are. Maybe this ends with howtosubscribe.com being a labor of love to help organize the net's plethora of newsletters. If your proposal of selling one or two and then expanding from there. This idea would probably be suited better for someone with histo…

Marketplaces often flop when the people who build them don't fully understand the market they're facilitating. I think the exercise in the brokering of selling newsletter ads, even on a small scale of one or two customers, will be truly valuable in achieving understanding of the needs of the platform before you dump precious time and resources into building it. I wouldn't write off that idea too quickly... As an adde…

Great points.

1.) It gave me a realization that I may not be the best person to execute this, but I can sure as hell give it a shot.

2.) I can do this in the short term to prove there's an issue, but it's not scalable.

With that being said, I'm still going to pursue this in order to prove concept and make some cash.

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