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I have 404,772 users. Now what?

pud.com

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Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#191

Post by xiaomei »

aymeric wrote: post #14
xiaomei wrote: post #10

You could sell the site on http://flippa.com

Imagine: You have a growing successful website and you wonder what to do with it, would your answer be: I should sell it on flippa? I think this is a poor advice, especially in an entrepreneur community.

I believe a taboo has slowly been growing among the entrepreneur community regarding selling startup businesses. I think it started with Mark Z. turning down offers from major tech players and it has continued with Dropbox turning down an acquisition from Apple.

I am not taking sides on whether entrepreneurs should sell their companies. But I think there is a problem when bringing up the subject is frowned upon on. I am unsure whether this is a problem with Hacker News' moderation system or it really is a taboo.

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#192

Post by chaddyar »

DanI-S wrote: post #58

Pud - when I look at your site, I see a marketplace for video music lessons. A tonne of people would pay $1.99 to learn a Radiohead song on piano, or get that perfect 'wub wub' sound in Reason. There's similar stuff on YouTube, but it's low quality and unreliable, and discovery is hard. Create a marketplace and you'll attract the best of the best. Prerecorded video would be perfect at first, but you could happily exp…

on youtube for free

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#193

Post by aymeric »

xiaomei wrote: post #190
aymeric wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right. You were not off-topic and the fact it is poor advice is only a judgement, not the absolute truth. Maybe I have misused downvoting here. Can't downvoting be used to express disagreement instead of just reporting a misbehaviour?

I believe downvoting is only available to users with high karma. This makes me believe that downvoting is meant to fight misbehavior. Unfortunately there is no way to report misbehavior of downvoting. If you already have high karma you have a conflict of interest in reporting downvoting misbehavior.

I will stop using downvotes for disagreement then.

(Actually I think it is the first time I use this downvote feature on HN so the damage is fairly limited so far).

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#194

Post by aymeric »

xiaomei wrote: post #190
aymeric wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right. You were not off-topic and the fact it is poor advice is only a judgement, not the absolute truth. Maybe I have misused downvoting here. Can't downvoting be used to express disagreement instead of just reporting a misbehaviour?

I believe downvoting is only available to users with high karma. This makes me believe that downvoting is meant to fight misbehavior. Unfortunately there is no way to report misbehavior of downvoting. If you already have high karma you have a conflict of interest in reporting downvoting misbehavior.

Actually, it seems that downvoting for disagreement is a ok behaviour:

pg: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#195

Post by MichaelApproved »

kennywinker wrote: post #185
MichaelApproved wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At $2,500/month in costs, even if he drives it down to $1/month, the site still isnt generating any money. Generating money is the problem, not cutting costs. At least that's the problem at hand, at the moment.

No, but 2.5k/month is a friggin' mortgage... if he brings the cost down he can sustain it for longer while he tries out various ways of generating money.

The guy is loaded and said he could consider it a hobby. The cost of running it isn't the concern. The question of it ever making real money is.

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#196

Post by alexchamberlain »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #195
kennywinker wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but 2.5k/month is a friggin' mortgage... if he brings the cost down he can sustain it for longer while he tries out various ways of generating money.

The guy is loaded and said he could consider it a hobby. The cost of running it isn't the concern. The question of it ever making real money is.

But you can only make real money, if your costs are realistic. His costs are rediculous.

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#197

Post by tripzilch »

_b8r0 wrote: post #137
pud wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool concept -- I remember your original post on HN. I definitely think a site where musicians could ask for donations would be cool and I'd put my music there. I'm apprehensive to do this on Fandalism though. If I promise money to my users I'd be setting them up for disappointment since the vast majority wouldn't make any. In other words I'd probably rather the message be "Use Fandalism because it's fun and cool!" r…

How about you let musicians sell either through you directly (a la itunes or amazon) on their sites or post itunes links? You could take a cut for the former (less than itunes) and get them to release unencumbered music.

It would take a crazy amount of work to beat bandcamp.com in terms of quality and service. Start with making Fandalism's HTML less sluggish.

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#198

Post by syedkarim »

wallawe wrote: post #187
syedkarim wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is at all out there. As a matter of fact, I'm working on something similar, but for a different vertical (which is why I don't think it's out there). Are you familiar with any other equity or revenue-futures markets of this nature? CrowdCube in the UK is the only thing that I've been able to come up with. Slated out of LA is similar, but it's not a real market, just an introduction and tracking ser…

I had not previously checked out CrowdCube or Slated but these do seem to be promising models that could certainly be replicated in other realms. If you feel like chatting more, I'd love to hear more about what you have in the works and would be glad to share some more ideas in private. Feel free to shoot me an email.

I couldn't find your email address in your profile. Would be interested in talking, though.
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