We put $200k into a site that sucks. Please destroy us with your criticism
1–10 of 138 posts
Re: We put $200k into a site that sucks. Please destroy us with your criticism
#2Backstory: We run a media company and we've put more than $200k of our own savings into Listnerd - not counting the thousands of work hours we've also invested. It's a list blogging platform / social network centered around top lists. We're growing extremely slow, so after 1.5 years in the grind, we've come to the conclusion that our site sucks. Please help us out by destroying us with your criticism.
Re: We put $200k into a site that sucks. Please destroy us with your criticism
#3Backstory: We run a media company and we've put more than $200k of our own savings into Listnerd - not counting the thousands of work hours we've also invested. It's a list blogging platform / social network centered around top lists. We're growing extremely slow, so after 1.5 years in the grind, we've come to the conclusion that our site sucks. Please help us out by destroying us with your criticism.
Just curious - what was your goal/perceived business opportunity with the site and idea? Advertising revenue or something else?
Re: We put $200k into a site that sucks. Please destroy us with your criticism
#4Backstory: We run a media company and we've put more than $200k of our own savings into Listnerd - not counting the thousands of work hours we've also invested. It's a list blogging platform / social network centered around top lists. We're growing extremely slow, so after 1.5 years in the grind, we've come to the conclusion that our site sucks. Please help us out by destroying us with your criticism.
Just curious - what was your goal/perceived business opportunity with the site and idea? Advertising revenue or something else?
Well, our last really successful startup was called Biip.no. It was a social networking site very much like Facebook, only for Norwegian teenagers. We built a lot of traction, eventually grossing 10% of Norway's population as members, with a annual revenue of 3m USD - mostly from advertising and mobile payments. Then we had an exit of $12m USD. We started in the social media space pretty early (2004/2005), so we always regretted not going international earlier. Listnerd is kind of our shot at redemption; because I think social e-commerce is at the same stage today as social media was in 2004.
Re: We put $200k into a site that sucks. Please destroy us with your criticism
#5You have a very good page rank and alexa traffic numbers (yes, taken with a grain of salt) so you must be doing something right. Have you been around for awhile, or did you buy an existing, older domain?
Re: We put $200k into a site that sucks. Please destroy us with your criticism
#6Backstory: We run a media company and we've put more than $200k of our own savings into Listnerd - not counting the thousands of work hours we've also invested. It's a list blogging platform / social network centered around top lists. We're growing extremely slow, so after 1.5 years in the grind, we've come to the conclusion that our site sucks. Please help us out by destroying us with your criticism.
Checked the site and watched the video.
First of all - when people visit a new site for the first time and see familiar stuff, instead of new and exciting stuff, they tend to leave before they even dig deeper on the site.
The design is fine, the layout is difficult - you should use rectangles of different sizes and backgrounds to make it easier for the visitor to focus on content that are more important, new or viral.
What is dangerous about the assumption that the most popular things are the most written about, are that you ignore new things that MIGHT get traction, what you'd need is a time-machine - list things before they get HOT HOT HOT! So that people who visit the site have a larger reason to do so.
And think about what kind of users you want, the middle-aged people that love lists? Or the lazy teenager who love trends but feel that lists are for shores.
Re: We put $200k into a site that sucks. Please destroy us with your criticism
#7I think the idea is great - I actually had the same idea last summer and built www.curate.im which ended up getting absolutely nowhere (log in with username 'test' and pw 'test' if you wanna see inside).
In terms of your actual site, the focus seems to be less on the content itself and more on sharing/commenting on things, almost trying to force people to interact with the site. Not a huge fan of the content on there right now either - a lot of it is quite trivial Buzzfeed-esque. This isn't inherently 'bad', but it's just that there are plenty of sites where you can find that kind of content.
Re: We put $200k into a site that sucks. Please destroy us with your criticism
#8I clicked the Create a list text on your homepage instinctively. That's how people use the web. It should be hyperlinked.
I like the idea of making lists because it speaks to my passion for process. I want to be able to bookmark lists as well as monetize and own my content. If I can run my own ads on the site, then I'm less scared of creating original content through that venue. Your terms of use sucks and is not favorable.
Re: We put $200k into a site that sucks. Please destroy us with your criticism
#9How were you expecting to make money?
Re: We put $200k into a site that sucks. Please destroy us with your criticism
#10Backstory: We run a media company and we've put more than $200k of our own savings into Listnerd - not counting the thousands of work hours we've also invested. It's a list blogging platform / social network centered around top lists. We're growing extremely slow, so after 1.5 years in the grind, we've come to the conclusion that our site sucks. Please help us out by destroying us with your criticism.
What did you spend $200K on? Just the design?
It seems like you have technical people on your team; so if you are not counting your time why is the number so high?
Even with design and team of two-three engineers consulting for a month or two that figure is extremely high.