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Ask HN: Does this idea exist and who wants it?

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Re: Ask HN: Does this idea exist and who wants it?

#31

Post by squeeziemoore »

abstractbill wrote: post #16
randallsquared wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume you meant "second" person. Surely everyone does this. "You don't really want X." "Dammit, Randall, that was a stupid idea." You don't do this?

I think to myself in the first person sometimes, in the second person at others, and even as a group occasionally. For example my thoughts look like, "I should work from home today" , or "Bill, you're a genius" , or sometimes like "Why don't we just go see if there's any ice cream left..."

I have thoughts like that all the time. My usual first one of the day is :- " You know Maggie, we really should get up now " :) xx

Re: Ask HN: Does this idea exist and who wants it?

#32

Post by SingAlong »

So if you are going to make profit out of a site built on top of the Flickr API, then you'll have to use the commercial API. So the factors to consider would include the cost of the commercial API too. Besides, you'll also have to use some merchant account/Paypl to process payments which again eats off a bit of the money you get out of your commission you get out of letting people sell the pics.

This idea would automatically turn a amateur photographer's or artist's flickr account into something the person can make a profit by selling his best stuff. That would atleast fund upgrading his cameras or buy new colors. You could start by targeting amateur photographers and artists. But make sure you find an extra stream of revenue apart from sales commission.

But idea is sweet.

Re: Ask HN: Does this idea exist and who wants it?

#33

Post by brk »

brandnewlow wrote: post #6

It's a great idea. One reason why: Blogs and news services are pulling more and more photos from Flickr. If you can give the photogs on there an easy way to just let people come and get their pictures, without having to track down permission from them, you'd make life easier for the blog editors.

Blogs and news services are pulling more and more photos from Flickr.

Because they don't want to pay for them on sites like iStockphoto that already exist to give photographers a way to market/sell their products?

Re: Ask HN: Does this idea exist and who wants it?

#35

Post by gfodor »

ahoyhere wrote: post #30
gfodor wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, those aren't buzzwords. If you have to choose a project to work on for a startup, one of the first things you should be asking yourself is "what can I do to maintain a slight advantage over my competitors for some reasonable period of time?" This should be one of the first questions you ask, it's a pre-condition. It might be an exclusive partnership, a difficult to replicate technology, a patent, an incredibly no…

Dude above you is right: "If you have the easiest to use site, that makes people money off their Flickr purchases, then that's sustainable." Look at Moo. They are A) profitable, B) run off Flickr, C) in a replicable space (e.g. not hard to copy), and D) still winning. They win because they were first, and because they are cooler than the others.

There's a difference between pointing out a company that doesn't have a clear advantage and saying that given an idea, it's one worth investing months of effort in despite the fact that it doesn't have one. You need to remember that most ideas you execute on generally fail (and take time in the process of failing,) so you need to be chooosy when it comes time to dedicate yourself to one.

That said, being first is a small advantage, particularly in a new space, but not a great one. The real benefit of being first is making it possible for you to build a bigger one (like mindshare,) but there's a lot more luck involved than if you had just started out on a project where you had an incredibly larger advantage. You don't see the failed versions of Moo, now do you?

Re: Ask HN: Does this idea exist and who wants it?

#36

Post by andrewljohnson »

gfodor wrote: post #35
ahoyhere wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude above you is right: "If you have the easiest to use site, that makes people money off their Flickr purchases, then that's sustainable." Look at Moo. They are A) profitable, B) run off Flickr, C) in a replicable space (e.g. not hard to copy), and D) still winning. They win because they were first, and because they are cooler than the others.

There's a difference between pointing out a company that doesn't have a clear advantage and saying that given an idea, it's one worth investing months of effort in despite the fact that it doesn't have one. You need to remember that most ideas you execute on generally fail (and take time in the process of failing,) so you need to be chooosy when it comes time to dedicate yourself to one. That said, being first is a s…

The point is, it wouldn't take months to launch.

Re: Ask HN: Does this idea exist and who wants it?

#37

Post by brandnewlow »

brk wrote: post #33
brandnewlow wrote: post #6

It's a great idea. One reason why: Blogs and news services are pulling more and more photos from Flickr. If you can give the photogs on there an easy way to just let people come and get their pictures, without having to track down permission from them, you'd make life easier for the blog editors.

Blogs and news services are pulling more and more photos from Flickr. Because they don't want to pay for them on sites like iStockphoto that already exist to give photographers a way to market/sell their products?

Nope.

Because istockphoto doesn't have anything resembling "news" photos. Whereas Flickr's got lots of photos with real people in them.

I've used istockphoto extensively. it's all models, references, icons etc.

If I need a decent picture of the Mayor of Chicago at a recent festival, there might be 10 on Flickr.

There won't be any on istockphoto.

Re: Ask HN: Does this idea exist and who wants it?

#38

Post by rs »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #25
bootload wrote: post #24

"... Having tinkered with the Flickr API, I don't think this would be hard to engineer. And I think there is an easy revenue model (a cut of sales), a low barrier to entry for users, and a large long tail to make money off of. ..." Why just flickr? Why not all the available images sites?

Starting with the big one seems prudent.

I remember reading somewhere that Facebook has more pictures than Flickr, though its mostly pictures of friends, but might be worth looking into that as well
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