Ask HN: I built a site that IMO can be huge. How can I promote it?

#1

Post by victorin » Wed, May 16, 2012, 1:15 AM UTC

I love to build stuff on the Internet so I created http://guyshelpmedecide.com - A place where you can easily get advice from your friends on buying decisions

It is still kind of a pet project, but I do believe on its potential to go viral

The problem is that I'm a coder and I don't have a clue on how can I promote it.

Maybe trying to contact blogs/media and hope they write about it? Or it is better to create a facebook Ads campaign targeting amazon fans?

I really appreciate any ideas, feedback on the product or whatever that can help me to make this site huge

Re: Ask HN: I built a site that IMO can be huge. How can I promote it?

#2

Post by relaunched » Wed, May 16, 2012, 1:21 AM UTC

I think this is a cool concept. Let me caution you that I worked on a similar project about 3 years ago. What we found out was that most people that solicit advice, ignore it. We used affiliate links to monetize, and didn't find social feedback to be significantly better at converting than blog posts, or anything else.

What that meant was that we were in the same eyeballs rat race that everyone else is.

If what you are asking is how do you become the next pinterest, in terms of viral growth, it's a lot of hard work and a dash of luck. Shake and hope it turns into gold.

Re: Ask HN: I built a site that IMO can be huge. How can I promote it?

#3

Post by redspark » Wed, May 16, 2012, 1:48 AM UTC

Have you figured out your target market and validated it?

Re: Ask HN: I built a site that IMO can be huge. How can I promote it?

#4

Post by victorin » Wed, May 16, 2012, 1:52 AM UTC

relaunched wrote: post #2

I think this is a cool concept. Let me caution you that I worked on a similar project about 3 years ago. What we found out was that most people that solicit advice, ignore it. We used affiliate links to monetize, and didn't find social feedback to be significantly better at converting than blog posts, or anything else. What that meant was that we were in the same eyeballs rat race that everyone else is. If what you a…

Thx for commenting.

I'm using affiliate links to monetize it too, but it definitely it is not a company or something that needs to break even in x months. Actually I had a great time coding it and I learnt a lot about the technologies it uses (facebook open graph, amazon apis, twitter bootstrap...) so in terms of ROI it's already covered by far.

Being said that, of course I want it to be huge. Not as the next pinterest because it'd require lots of resources and energy but more like a bootstraped project that grows organically and we'll see.

In other words, I built something that I want to use (no other ambitions), and right now I am wondering if it could be something mainstream or not

Re: Ask HN: I built a site that IMO can be huge. How can I promote it?

#5

Post by victorin » Wed, May 16, 2012, 1:54 AM UTC

redspark wrote: post #3

Have you figured out your target market and validated it?

No, I just built something I wanted to use but I'm not sure at all if the market is worth the try

Re: Ask HN: I built a site that IMO can be huge. How can I promote it?

#6

Post by timmm » Wed, May 16, 2012, 1:57 AM UTC

I don't want my friends advice on buying things. I want expert opinions from places like Cnet and ConsumerReviews.

Also word to the wise don't focus on trying to get your app to go viral, it really doesn't tend to work like that. Also success in general - real success - is almost by definition a slow process.

Re: Ask HN: I built a site that IMO can be huge. How can I promote it?

#7

Post by victorin » Wed, May 16, 2012, 2:05 AM UTC

timmm wrote: post #6

I don't want my friends advice on buying things. I want expert opinions from places like Cnet and ConsumerReviews. Also word to the wise don't focus on trying to get your app to go viral, it really doesn't tend to work like that. Also success in general - real success - is almost by definition a slow process.

I probably prefer expert opinions while buying tech products (for example a new HD TV), but I'll give much more credit to a friends' first hand experience on that same TV than the expert advise. That's the base idea of guyshelpmedecide.com

And as for the success opinion I fully agree with you. I don't pretend to create an overnight million dollar business from that, it was just an experiment that looks nice for me

Re: Ask HN: I built a site that IMO can be huge. How can I promote it?

#8

Post by iamds » Wed, May 16, 2012, 7:17 AM UTC

I think it looks great!

In order for other people to start using it, it needs to look like it's being used. I think that you should create about a 100 users and add a few hundred products and comments. It'll take you a few hours of work, but it'll make the site appear to be much more successful, thus bringing in more users.

Re: Ask HN: I built a site that IMO can be huge. How can I promote it?

#9

Post by victorin » Wed, May 16, 2012, 12:19 PM UTC

iamds wrote: post #8

I think it looks great! In order for other people to start using it, it needs to look like it's being used. I think that you should create about a 100 users and add a few hundred products and comments. It'll take you a few hours of work, but it'll make the site appear to be much more successful, thus bringing in more users.

Totally agree, right now the site doesn't look like it's being used. In fact it isn't cause it's brand new.

However I don't want to make all this monotone work. Do you know any place where I could outsource that?

Re: Ask HN: I built a site that IMO can be huge. How can I promote it?

#10

Post by debacle » Wed, May 16, 2012, 1:20 PM UTC

This is an amazing idea.