Feedback for New Idea Please!

Cianos

Atomico wrote: »

I agree that it would be difficult to get very well-known people, and possibly lesser known folks with a 'local profile' or those who are industry leaders, to get involved.

However, for every person who wouldn't be bothered, there could be 10 or 20 who would jump at the chance to have their own platform, to be able to interact with others directly and subtly or not so subtly promote their wares/services to those who are looking for what they sell or provide.

Just look at Boards, and all the people on here who provide a service or sell a product, and who would love to be able to do that on here - but they can't, because it's not about them - it's about the Boards community. Same as on Twitter - don't be 'salesy', that's not what this platform is for. On this site, they would have their very own page, to do with what they please (within reason).

The idea for kicking this off would not be to try and persuade people that it is a good idea that they should use this service, it would be to approach those who would be open to using it and who would see the benefit of using it for their own business / brand. I could see these people using it, getting questions, others jump in going 'yeah I have a question for him/her', and on it grows from there.

In other words, for those who aren't interested, they'd probably never use it. For those who are, it could work very well for them as another channel for their brand (personal or otherwise), to reach those who have an interest in what they have to say, in what they might be selling, or in the services they provide.

I also think that the level of reputation that someone needs to have before others would feel compelled to interact and engage with them is not as high as you might imagine. You don't have to appearing in the paper every week or be a 'leader' of some sort, for people to value your thoughts or insights on something. That would come to the fore when someone gets asked a question and it prompts someone else to jump in too, especially when they see there's a platform for and an easy way of doing so.

Sorry but it still doesn't seem to be clicking for me. For the experts giving advice, wouldn't they prefer to be having these exchanges on their own sites, or on a network with wider exposure? (ie Facebook/Twitter where there's much more viral potential). Contributing this content to a new platform doesn't really appeal in terms of the exposure one could gain. Sure, FB and Twitter aren't great for being salesy, but there's a reason for that because that's not the kind of content people want to read really anyway.

It sounds like a hard sell too, there's no immediate value proposition; "A platform for answering questions for people looking for your expertise"...? Doesn't really come across well and raises more questions than answers I think.

Again if it was heavily integrated with Twitter where it's pulling content/exchanges and restructuring it in a clever way, it could make a lot more sense. At least that way you're not expecting your experts to do any more work or change their habits.

Atomico

Cianos wrote: »

Sorry but it still doesn't seem to be clicking for me. For the experts giving advice, wouldn't they prefer to be having these exchanges on their own sites, or on a network with wider exposure? (ie Facebook/Twitter where there's much more viral potential). Contributing this content to a new platform doesn't really appeal in terms of the exposure one could gain. Sure, FB and Twitter aren't great for being salesy, but there's a reason for that because that's not the kind of content people want to read really anyway.

It sounds like a hard sell too, there's no immediate value proposition; "A platform for answering questions for people looking for your expertise"...? Doesn't really come across well and raises more questions than answers I think.

Again if it was heavily integrated with Twitter where it's pulling content/exchanges and restructuring it in a clever way, it could make a lot more sense. At least that way you're not expecting your experts to do any more work or change their habits.

I do actually agree re Twitter. Even if something is a great idea, if it's competing with the likes of Twitter and Facebook for people's time, then it's probably doomed from the get-go.

There could be a clever way of pulling in tweets, so that the site becomes a launchpad for discussion based around a particular query asked of someone.

Also, it gives the user a nice little place to structure and organise their questions and the discussions happening on their page, analyse the top questions by theme, etc. It means that they can manage discussions much more easily than on Twitter, where their stream is likely to get cluttered.

It also means that Q&A can be filed away and accessed at any time, unlike on Twitter (obviously).

Sound better folks?

Atomico

Asked an ideal customer of the service who thinks it's a 'great idea' and would be 'really helpful' in terms of interacting with followers on Twitter and Facebook.

So I'm one for one thus far

Cianos

Atomico wrote: »

I do actually agree re Twitter. Even if something is a great idea, if it's competing with the likes of Twitter and Facebook for people's time, then it's probably doomed from the get-go.

There could be a clever way of pulling in tweets, so that the site becomes a launchpad for discussion based around a particular query asked of someone.

Also, it gives the user a nice little place to structure and organise their questions and the discussions happening on their page, analyse the top questions by theme, etc. It means that they can manage discussions much more easily than on Twitter, where their stream is likely to get cluttered.

It also means that Q&A can be filed away and accessed at any time, unlike on Twitter (obviously).

Sound better folks?

Every big Twitter 'celeb' has probably reached that point where they have to decide to stop replying to every @mention and DM. It's at that exact point that your platform could have true value.

You could position it as an aggregator of this kind of activity, in the form of questions directed towards these (emerging) Twitter celebs.

For example, Brian O'Driscoll doesn't want to answer every @mention and DM. But if your site could send him this weeks question that has gotten the most upvotes, then for him it's a way of staying in touch with his fans, allowing them to still have some kind of level/avenue of getting their questions over etc.

Take the Reddit AMA;

The AMA is announced, or requested.
Questions are fielded.
The best questions are upvoted.
The answerer can see "100 people upvoted this question A, only 5 people upvoted question B, so if I answer question A I'll be effectively answering 100 people in one swoop.".

You could roll it out by doing something like this;

1. Pitch the concept to celebs as an aggregator of @mentions and DMs, that will rank common questions so they can easily see what questions they're being asked.
2. Tell them all they have to do is sign in via their Twitter account.
3. Set up a page on the site for each of these accounts.
4. Try and draw traffic to these pages, and get the questions in.
5. Have an upvote system, so that the users can dictate what questions are most important. Maybe you could have some kind of gaming element to it where questions get gold/silver/bronze or something depending on the upvotes.
6. The celeb can dip in and answer the question whenever they want to. This archives the question and answer, and allows the other questions to remain in the 'competition'.

The benefit of the above is that the celeb gains value from a lot of the work being taken out of maintaining a two-way Twitter presence, in that they're still able to send answers back to their legions of fans.

The users benefit because through the power of numbers they can hold weight and push the most interesting/popular questions to the top.

You could give the upvote system an algorithmic quality, much like Reddit's, so that topical questions can get pushed to the top if they get a surge of upvotes in a short space of time, eg "Robbie, were you actually offside?" etc.

Hope some of that helps!

Atomico

Cianos wrote: »

Every big Twitter 'celeb' has probably reached that point where they have to decide to stop replying to every @mention and DM. It's at that exact point that your platform could have true value.

You could position it as an aggregator of this kind of activity, in the form of questions directed towards these (emerging) Twitter celebs.

For example, Brian O'Driscoll doesn't want to answer every @mention and DM. But if your site could send him this weeks question that has gotten the most upvotes, then for him it's a way of staying in touch with his fans, allowing them to still have some kind of level/avenue of getting their questions over etc.

Take the Reddit AMA;

The AMA is announced, or requested.
Questions are fielded.
The best questions are upvoted.
The answerer can see "100 people upvoted this question A, only 5 people upvoted question B, so if I answer question A I'll be effectively answering 100 people in one swoop.".

You could roll it out by doing something like this;

1. Pitch the concept to celebs as an aggregator of @mentions and DMs, that will rank common questions so they can easily see what questions they're being asked.
2. Tell them all they have to do is sign in via their Twitter account.
3. Set up a page on the site for each of these accounts.
4. Try and draw traffic to these pages, and get the questions in.
5. Have an upvote system, so that the users can dictate what questions are most important. Maybe you could have some kind of gaming element to it where questions get gold/silver/bronze or something depending on the upvotes.
6. The celeb can dip in and answer the question whenever they want to. This archives the question and answer, and allows the other questions to remain in the 'competition'.

The users benefit because through the power of numbers they can hold weight and push the most interesting/popular questions to the top.

You could give the upvote system an algorithmic quality, much like Reddit's, so that topical questions can get pushed to the top if they get a surge of upvotes in a short space of time, eg "Robbie, were you actually offside?" etc.

Hope some of that helps!

Great stuff Cianos!

Yes, the voting system is crucial, it's the lynchpin to the whole thing. Otherwise it would just be a jumble of posts with no real prioritisation or structure.

Cianos wrote: »

The benefit of the above is that the celeb gains value from a lot of the work being taken out of maintaining a two-way Twitter presence, in that they're still able to send answers back to their legions of fans.

Exactly. Twitter is a very 'fragmented' platform, it's full of random posts, retweets, one-liners, people posting media links - imo it lacks as a place for real engagement (not just 'oh look at that smart reply to that tweet!!') to happen between those experts / well-known folks / brands, and their followers.

This site would represent a win-win for both the Twitter 'celebrity' / specialist person, and for their fans/followers who genuinely want to hear from them.

Followers get to surface the 'most wanted' queries and topics.

Twitter specialist person gets to fire out a burst of replies around the questions / topics that they know people are most into - a surefire way to build content around the most popular items of interest.

westgolf

Good morning all.

I have an idea for a business that I believe has a good potential.My idea relates to all those who are caring for an elderly person at home or in a nursing home type setup. Its also applicable to those firms which provide care to persons on a contracted hours basis i.e. bluebird etc. The query is this..I need to evaluate their need for my service from these people and also from the GP community but Im unsure of how to go about it.

any thoughts ? all replies welcome

westy

** mods, please set up as new thread. I thought I was writing a new one. **

westy

magic_murph

Still not getting the appeal of this idea.
People submit 500 questions to Brian O'Driscal which are voted for, top 10 get answered. This leaves 490 people without an answer - well less if you taking the 10 most popular questions.

Asking direct questions list:
I want to make brown bread.
Answer is a define list of ingredients.

Asking open questions you will just get an opinion rather than fact.

If I wasnt to know what the best travel camera on the market is I will search reviews on various tech sites.

Can you sum u pin 30 words what it is you want to do and why people will use it or contribute to it?

Atomico

magic_murph wrote: »

Asking open questions you will just get an opinion rather than fact.

That's the whole point, to get the insights / perspective of the person being asked / queried. It's not about the best or right answer, it's about the person's opinion. That might be a great answer to a question, not necessarily the 'best' or 'most correct' one.

magic_murph wrote: »

If I wasnt to know what the best travel camera on the market is I will search reviews on various tech sites.

Yes I'm sure you would, as you want to get a bunch of impartial reviews to inform your purchase. That's got nothing to do with this concept. Sure, you might ask an expert photographer what the best travel camera is. You're going there to look for their opinion, not because they are bound to have the most correct answer.

It's not like any one person has the the 'best' or 'most correct' answer to a question. If you ask someone what they think is the best restaurant in town, you don't walk away believing that wherever they say is definitively the best place ever - it's just their opinion, based on their tastes, preferences, experiences, background,etc.

magic_murph wrote: »

Can you sum u pin 30 words what it is you want to do and why people will use it or contribute to it?

It is a place to ask anyone a question or get their opinion on something.

Why will people use it? It will be used as people are interested in learning more about others, reading about their opinions, and benefiting from their expertise. It will be used as people enjoy discussion and they enjoy sharing the knowledge and insights others have to offer.

Why will people contribute to it? People will contribute to it as they enjoy sharing their knowledge, insights and expertise, and enjoy engaging with their fans and followers. They may also wish to build their own personal brand or business, and have the questions and replies posted on their page shared with others, who may in turn become new fans or followers for their brand or business.

Aside from that, people just flat out reading about hearing from those they have an interest in, especially if that person is connected with a topic or area for which they have a real interest or passion (e.g. sports, photography, business, entrepreneurship, literature, etc).

magic_murph

* Not against any idea just talking things through here.
I am picking up words like discussion, share, contribute...

Alot of sports, business, film personalities have a team that take care social media so a message might come from X's account but not for the actual fingers of X.

Would the following come into it at all.
Flipbook (ipad App)
I sign up and 'register' my interest in many topics, sports, tech, fashion, design etc.
This then pulls relevent information together and presents it in an easy to use thread - easy to understandm read and navigate through topics.
Now a feature this would benefit from (linking to your idea loosely) is Q&A sessions.
Open to a select few, either paying customers or the 1st 100 to reply.
Each month you have industry specialist on to do a q&A - question formed by users of the service.
Fashion - you have a couple of irish designers
movies - actors
Sports - golfers, footballers, etc
They provide answers & general chat to users questions while plugging there new product, raising general awarness or just staying relevent.

As a subscriber to this service I can then view all these clips via an archieve.

I know that isn;t what your doing but it's the only way I can make sence of what yoru trying to do -

ironclaw

I'm just going to throw this out there having watched this idea develop:

Would you rather read a book or watch a film?

A film. Hands down. As would 99% of the facebook and twitter generation. What am I getting at? The likes of YouTube, Google HangOut etc. Many celebs, particularly DJs, are uploading mini-series to YouTube. 20 mins or so every few weeks about their lives and time on tour. Would you rather watch that or read 10 questions? Sorry but reality is you'll watch it on YouTube. Van Buuren, the biggest DJ in the world, uploaded over an hours worth of a documentary last year. And thousands watched it.

With respect your living with your head in the clouds if you think any A-lister would be interested in doing this. And even if they did, they would have a string of red tape, PR and contracts to go through before they did. And if you did get someone, you need fresh content daily. So you need 100+ famous people per year. And you'd need to be sure they'd answer the questions. You couldn't have a top 10 and then find they won't answer 4 of them. You'd also need to keep them to a timetable. How long to you leave the polls open? When do you do the interview? And by the way, anyone reasonably famous you'll have to go to them. That's expensive. You'll also need to build a rapport with agency's etc.

If you took the top 10 questions and went around asking them to celebs, you might have yourself a YouTube channel there. So there's a new direction for your idea. But how would you possibly manage to do that? How would you pay for it? Why would celebs talk to you with the likes of P.Hilton, E etc out there and WELL established? The major networks paying millions with an audience of lets be honest, close to a billion.

Flip that on its head and you have to ask yourself why anyone would want to know what 'Paddy O'Shea' thinks about something. The reality is its a great idea but its not going anywhere. I'm sorry Atomico, but not every idea is a good one or a viable one.

For instance, I have iPhone code on my laptop from 4 years ago that was the basis of what hailo taxi's now are. I stopped developing it for two reasons 1) Taxi drivers would't adopt it and 2) The head of Skype was financing a similar idea. I didn't stand a chance. So I bow'd out with no regrets.

If you want to know something, you Google it. What to know more, you'll probably YouTube it. You'd need to entirely change that culture.

Atomico

magic_murph wrote: »

* Not against any idea just talking things through here.
I am picking up words like discussion, share, contribute...

Alot of sports, business, film personalities have a team that take care social media so a message might come from X's account but not for the actual fingers of X.

Would the following come into it at all.
Flipbook (ipad App)
I sign up and 'register' my interest in many topics, sports, tech, fashion, design etc.
This then pulls relevent information together and presents it in an easy to use thread - easy to understandm read and navigate through topics.
Now a feature this would benefit from (linking to your idea loosely) is Q&A sessions.
Open to a select few, either paying customers or the 1st 100 to reply.
Each month you have industry specialist on to do a q&A - question formed by users of the service.
Fashion - you have a couple of irish designers
movies - actors
Sports - golfers, footballers, etc
They provide answers & general chat to users questions while plugging there new product, raising general awarness or just staying relevent.

As a subscriber to this service I can then view all these clips via an archieve.

I know that isn;t what your doing but it's the only way I can make sence of what yoru trying to do -

What you're describing there is very good but is already being done by Quora. That is where you go for your topical chat and insights. Select topics of interest, get a weekly digest of the top questions asked, browse related questions, etc.

On Quora (and on other sites like StackOverflow), the question / topic is the focus, and people mill around the question or topics.

So I wouldn't be looking to reinvent the wheel there. What I am proposing is not being done by anyone just yet. Ok, it is possibly being done in different formats. Anytime sits on a Primetime panel on RTE, or goes up on stage at a summit, they are engaging a version of this. But it isn't being done right now in the way I propose. If you can find a site that is doing it, let me know.

The closest is Reddit AMA, and this would be Reddit AMA for everyone (except you can do it anytime, on your own dedicated page).

Atomico

ironclaw wrote: »

I'm just going to throw this out there having watched this idea develop:

Would you rather read a book or watch a film?

A film. Hands down. As would 99% of the facebook and twitter generation. What am I getting at? The likes of YouTube, Google HangOut etc. Many celebs, particularly DJs, are uploading mini-series to YouTube. 20 mins or so every few weeks about their lives and time on tour. Would you rather watch that or read 10 questions? Sorry but reality is you'll watch it on YouTube. Van Buuren, the biggest DJ in the world, uploaded over an hours worth of a documentary last year. And thousands watched it.

With respect your living with your head in the clouds if you think any A-lister would be interested in doing this. And even if they did, they would have a string of red tape, PR and contracts to go through before they did. And if you did get someone, you need fresh content daily. So you need 100+ famous people per year. And you'd need to be sure they'd answer the questions. You couldn't have a top 10 and then find they won't answer 4 of them. You'd also need to keep them to a timetable. How long to you leave the polls open? When do you do the interview? And by the way, anyone reasonably famous you'll have to go to them. That's expensive. You'll also need to build a rapport with agency's etc.

If you took the top 10 questions and went around asking them to celebs, you might have yourself a YouTube channel there. So there's a new direction for your idea. But how would you possibly manage to do that? How would you pay for it? Why would celebs talk to you with the likes of P.Hilton, E etc out there and WELL established? The major networks paying millions with an audience of lets be honest, close to a billion.

Flip that on its head and you have to ask yourself why anyone would want to know what 'Paddy O'Shea' thinks about something. The reality is its a great idea but its not going anywhere. I'm sorry Atomico, but not every idea is a good one or a viable one.

For instance, I have iPhone code on my laptop from 4 years ago that was the basis of what hailo taxi's now are. I stopped developing it for two reasons 1) Taxi drivers would't adopt it and 2) The head of Skype was financing a similar idea. I didn't stand a chance. So I bow'd out with no regrets.

If you want to know something, you Google it. What to know more, you'll probably YouTube it. You'd need to entirely change that culture.

I couldn't care less about top celebrities to be honest. I have already said that it's not for celebrities, I did mention BOD but he's hardly at Tom Jones or Britney Spears level. Otherwise I would completely agree with you, how on earth would you ever get access to them, and why would they choose you over the YouTubes of the internet (I already said this a page or two back).

In fact, what I have in mind primarily are both industry leader types (or those with a decent online buzz / reputation), and - even more so - companies, brands, and local businesses. I already have one prominent trainer / coach type interested in this, and they are someone who would have a lot of contacts and partnerships with other businesses. They also have celebrity clients, but that's neither here nor there.

I also have a web development company who want to sign up as a member, once it's ready. I really do think that it would not be a stretch to get a bunch of businesses signed up and using this, especially when they see others using it (including their competitors), when they see clients / customers / followers and others engaging with it (even if only at a gradual level at first) - and when they see how simple it is to use.

Little example - I have often wondered what is involved in creating a mobile app, and I know from Twitter that there is a particular company who are very active there in that space. In the past I have thought about approaching them to find out more, but haven't because I guess I wouldn't want to go to the bother of emailing them, and Twitter of course isn't really set up for a detailed reply on the topic! But if they had their own page on this site, they could actively invite those kind of questions, and engage with them, hold a discussion on them, as others jump in.

This idea makes less sense when describing it, I think it would become a lot clearer if you saw it in action.

devildriver

Atomico wrote: »

I really do think that it would not be a stretch to get a bunch of businesses signed up and using this, especially when they see others using it (including their competitors), when they see clients / customers / followers and others engaging with it (even if only at a gradual level at first) - and when they see how simple it is to use.

I really do think that it would not be a stretch to get a bunch of businesses signed up and using this, especially IF they see others using it (including their competitors), IF they see clients / customers / followers and others engaging with it (even if only at a gradual level at first) - and IF they see how simple it is to use.

Three huge IFs there.

I'm not trying to be negative but your entire premise is based on being able to get these, and I hate to use this term, "rockstar" business people to contribute their time and expertise. But what's in it for them, I still don't understand. Are they being paid? And if so where's the cash coming from?

And I know it's not the same thing but.....

http://www.ted.com/pages/conversations_basics

I think Cianos and Magic Murph have given you great advice but I still fail to see why this is so compelling for the"celebs" answering the questions or how the business model works.

magic_murph

This idea makes less sense when describing it, I think it would become a lot clearer if you saw it in action.

I guess if you can't easily describe it to somebody your going to find it hard to get people behind the idea.

Hopefully I am wrong - you could end up creating a new platform for conversation that is based around fact and direct content rather than a message board that quicky goes way off topic. 30 seconds on 'After Hours' here will show you that :-)

devildriver

devildriver wrote: »

I really do think that it would not be a stretch to get a bunch of businesses signed up and using this, especially IF they see others using it (including their competitors), IF they see clients / customers / followers and others engaging with it (even if only at a gradual level at first) - and IF they see how simple it is to use.

Three huge IFs there.

I'm not trying to be negative but your entire premise is based on being able to get these, and I hate to use this term, "rockstar" business people to contribute their time and expertise. But what's in it for them, I still don't understand. Are they being paid? And if so where's the cash coming from?

And I know it's not the same thing but.....

http://www.ted.com/pages/conversations_basics

I think Cianos and Magic Murph have given you great advice but I still fail to see why this is so compelling for the"celebs" answering the questions or how the business model works.

Yeah it will be extremely hard to get very successful business people to reliably commit to something like this. Your end result is more likely to be the type of people who want to setup their own comfy 'consultancy' business, working a few hours a day even though they don't have enough of a track record or education to do this. Resulting in mediocre advice with an ulterior motive - to promote their own business (or maybe its not an ulterior motive if thats what the concept is related to for the people getting asked questions - gaining business). But all in all it will just be full of hacks and spammers.

The only way I can see this working is if you target C and D list list celebrities. People who are trying really hard to build their celebrity brand, and even thought they are C listers, the public still wants to hear from them, and they may still have lots of followers - Big Brother viewers for example. Then I reckon you can get these repeated hits you need to make money off the typical online stuff. These C listers can say whatever they want in their answer and the public will lap it up good or bad, so you have no need to be monitoring the integrity of everyone you give an account to, in fact the less integrity the better!

Atomico

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah it will be extremely hard to get very successful business people to reliably commit to something like this. Your end result is more likely to be the type of people who want to setup their own comfy 'consultancy' business, working a few hours a day even though they don't have enough of a track record or education to do this. Resulting in mediocre advice with an ulterior motive - to promote their own business (or maybe its not an ulterior motive if thats what the concept is related to for the people getting asked questions - gaining business). But all in all it will just be full of hacks and spammers.

The only way I can see this working is if you target C and D list list celebrities. People who are trying really hard to build their celebrity brand, and even thought they are C listers, the public still wants to hear from them, and they may still have lots of followers - Big Brother viewers for example. Then I reckon you can get these repeated hits you need to make money off the typical online stuff. These C listers can say whatever they want in their answer and the public will lap it up good or bad, so you have no need to be monitoring the integrity of everyone you give an account to, in fact the less integrity the better!

Hey,

Cheers, I don't think hacks and spammers would stand a chance, because the voting system would help ensure that the cream rises to the top. As in, the wisdom of the crowd can take hold, ensuring that low quality content / replies remain bottom of the heap. That's the idea behind voting systems on the likes of Reddit and YouTube, as you know.

Also, the intention would be get reputable, well-known businesses on board - local or otherwise. Like attracts like and I don't see many have a go consultants and the like getting too much of a look in. They don't elsewhere on the internet! Also, if you aren't getting engagement it's going to be because no-one is all that interested. And if no one is interested, then you're not going to stick around on the platform for very long anyway!

Not that I dont understand where your coming from, I just think the reality of what your thinking, and the reality of what will happen are a long way from eachother. Such a difficult sell for a new website with no brand behind it. An almost impossible sell to large corporations, they will smile and tell you nice idea, but they are too busy to devote someone to it.
The reason I'd say your prominent coach/trainer is so positive is because that is their exact profession, training and giving answers. But on here your talking to entrepreneurs, and corporate people none of which seem to be particularly interested. As they are your target market to make this thing happen, you'd be wise to listen to your market research!
You can of course use all of that negativity to motivate yourself and prove people wrong, but I reckon most of the posters would tell you great and idea and go for it, if they really did think it had a chance.

magic_murph

Still not 100% what the final aim is, who would control content and if any revenue can be made.
Ok example - I own 3 busy pubs and 2 night clubs in town.
Why would I sign up, what would be expected of me and where is the gain?

Atomico

Deleted User wrote: »

Not that I dont understand where your coming from, I just think the reality of what your thinking, and the reality of what will happen are a long way from eachother. Such a difficult sell for a new website with no brand behind it. An almost impossible sell to large corporations, they will smile and tell you nice idea, but they are too busy to devote someone to it.
The reason I'd say your prominent coach/trainer is so positive is because that is their exact profession, training and giving answers. But on here your talking to entrepreneurs, and corporate people none of which seem to be particularly interested. As they are your target market to make this thing happen, you'd be wise to listen to your market research!
You can of course use all of that negativity to motivate yourself and prove people wrong, but I reckon most of the posters would tell you great and idea and go for it, if they really did think it had a chance.

Thanks El Rifle. Just on your points:

-Large corporations. Wouldn't dream of it. I am one guy with a website, I'm hardly going to rock up to the head of Vodafone with 10 users on the site and ask them to get on board. If a large corporation wanted to get in on it then it would be because they would see the value, not because I've managed to persuade them.

-On the personal trainer, yes - but why couldn't he and others like him be my target market? If 100 personal trainers and sports coaches / gyms signed up because it would be a perfect fit for them, then wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't it be great to have 1000 trainers / sports and fitness folks signed up? If it works for 1, 5 or 50 of them, then you surely don't disagree that it could work for thousands or tens of thousands of them. It could be a perfect niche, and not one that is at all narrow or too specialist.

I do feel that people are firmly looking at this in terms of 'show me the money'. While I get that this is the entrepreneurship forum, I have said from page 1 that I would be setting this up as a project that I find could prove really interesting, not primarily as a money-making venture (although that would be nice too of course!).

ironclaw

Atomico wrote: »

Little example - I have often wondered what is involved in creating a mobile app, and I know from Twitter that there is a particular company who are very active there in that space. In the past I have thought about approaching them to find out more, but haven't because I guess I wouldn't want to go to the bother of emailing them, and Twitter of course isn't really set up for a detailed reply on the topic! But if they had their own page on this site, they could actively invite those kind of questions, and engage with them, hold a discussion on them, as others jump in.

Google, YouTube and StackOverFlow are literally bulging with every topic imaginable for mobile development. In fact you can take that sentence and write:

Google, YouTube and StackOverFlow are literally bulging with every topic imaginable for <topic>

While I can see the personal aspect and the one-to-one with someone you'd like to talk to thats what courses are for. Thats why people pay mega bucks to go to weekend seminars, courses and the likes. Its big business.

Ok, so coming from this from another hypothetical angle, say I could deliver a course about iPhone development. I'm the local hotshot in the iOS world. I could easily charge €100+ and get 20 people on the course (€2000) Rent out a space in a community centre and probably pocket €1500 for a weekend's work. I could also arrive an hour earlier and leave an hour later. Tell people they are more than welcome to ask in person or by email.

Or say I own 20 business's in Ireland. I rent out a hotel for a day and bring 5 of my big business friends. We charge €500 and sit 200 people (Which is €100k in the pot) We mingle with the crowd in-between seminars and are really approachable. Again, in person or by email.

Why would I use your site?

And thats the key question you have to ask. You have to step into your provider and customers shoes. Granted your customer would love your site because its free to ask. But why would someone turn down real cash when they know they can draw a crowd?

Your seeing this entirely from your perspective as an idea. You need to turn this into a business or at least something that breaks even. Don't ever, ever run an idea at a loss. Monetise your idea and rethink it from that perspective.

If you can do that, I'm still very much interested.

Atomico

Atomico wrote: »

Thanks El Rifle. Just on your points:

-Large corporations. Wouldn't dream of it. I am one guy with a website, I'm hardly going to rock up to the head of Vodafone with 10 users on the site and ask them to get on board. If a large corporation wanted to get in on it then it would be because they would see the value, not because I've managed to persuade them.

-On the personal trainer, yes - but why couldn't he and others like him be my target market? If 100 personal trainers and sports coaches / gyms signed up because it would be a perfect fit for them, then wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't it be great to have 1000 trainers / sports and fitness folks signed up? If it works for 1, 5 or 50 of them, then you surely don't disagree that it could work for thousands or tens of thousands of them. It could be a perfect niche, and not one that is at all narrow or too specialist.

I do feel that people are firmly looking at this in terms of 'show me the money'. While I get that this is the entrepreneurship forum, I have said from page 1 that I would be setting this up as a project that I find could prove really interesting, not primarily as a money-making venture (although that would be nice too of course!).

Sure it could work for thousands of trainers, so then your site is based around that industry. But your niche is getting smaller and smaller, along with it your market and your viewers.
As an entrepreneur I wouldn't recommend starting up a project like this not really caring if it makes money. It will be a full time job for someone to run it, so it has to make money. Unless of course your totally flush and don't mind spending to experiment a bit.

Atomico

ironclaw wrote: »

Google, YouTube and StackOverFlow are literally bulging with every topic imaginable for mobile development. In fact you can take that sentence and write:



While I can see the personal aspect and the one-to-one with someone you'd like to talk to thats what courses are for. Thats why people pay mega bucks to go to weekend seminars, courses and the likes. Its big business.

Ok, so coming from this from another hypothetical angle, say I could deliver a course about iPhone development. I'm the local hotshot in the iOS world. I could easily charge €100+ and get 20 people on the course (€2000) Rent out a space in a community centre and probably pocket €1500 for a weekend's work. I could also arrive an hour earlier and leave an hour later. Tell people they are more than welcome to ask in person or by email.

Or say I own 20 business's in Ireland. I rent out a hotel for a day and bring 5 of my big business friends. We charge €500 and sit 200 people (Which is €100k in the pot) We mingle with the crowd in-between seminars and are really approachable. Again, in person or by email.

Why would I use your site?

And thats the key question you have to ask. You have to step into your provider and customers shoes. Granted your customer would love your site because its free to ask. But why would someone turn down real cash when they know they can draw a crowd?

Your seeing this entirely from your perspective as an idea. You need to turn this into a business or at least something that breaks even. Don't ever, ever run an idea at a loss. Monetise your idea and rethink it from that perspective.

If you can do that, I'm still very much interested.

Ok ironclaw, you make some good points, can't deny that. I have been chewing over a new angle that I think you might like the sound of. I will drop you a PM in a bit to chat further.

magic_murph

10000 personal trainers using this site - total saturation. How would you differenciate between good / bad information. I post my question but wouldn't know who to target it to or trust the information I receice back.

Good luck with it but after 2 days reading various post I still haven't grasped the concept, the need and the benefit and thats a big issue.

Atomico

magic_murph wrote: »

10000 personal trainers using this site - total saturation. How would you differenciate between good / bad information. I post my question but wouldn't know who to target it to or trust the information I receice back.

Good luck with it but after 2 days reading various post I still haven't grasped the concept, the need and the benefit and thats a big issue.

I have a new angle and approach in mind at this point, with a firm business model baked in from the outset. On the targeting and trust point, I think the site could start actually start out as invite only for experts/specialists, and all specialists would sign-up via LinkedIn.

That way, it can roll out carefully and gradually, and the quality levels can be kept high. If you build a reputation for having reputable knowledge providers on the site from the outset, like attracts like and you can build on that with new, additional specialists.

The stronger the reputation for quality, the more users you can stand to attract.

magic_murph

Ok in a last attempt to get to grips with this concept.
Who is a typical provider - how many will you have and what will they contribute to the service. Only have X amount of providers per topic.
Fitness - have 20 experts or unlimited

Users: Guessing this can be anybody.

As a user I may have two different types of questions 'Whats the best....' or 'How did / would you approach this..'
Example:
Travel: Whats the top 10 sites I should see while travelling around europe.
Business: 'When you opened your first restaurant what issues did you come across that you simply didn't expect'

Expalin.

ironclaw

Would this be a fair summary?

Consumer: I want an answer to a question from an expert. I am willing to pay for the service.

Expert: I am an expert in a field and I want to be paid for my answer.

Atomico: You take say 20% of the fee.

Consumer asks question, all the experts answer in summary, and consumer chooses best answer? Then pays for service. Done.

Couple of if's on the above

• Few people would pay for a service such as this as lets be honest at least 90% of questions are asked and re-asked online.
  
• Anyone needing an answer for a serious piece i.e. Legal advice will want to talk face to face with someone. A solicitor would rarely give advice online or by email.
  
• Experts need to be verified. And verified well. You CANNOT use any form of online verification. Too easy to fudge and make up. You'd need to personally review each expert.

Bottom Line: Its a good idea but not a business. What I've described above is basically the online version YellowPages, Google and Yahoo Answers. There are search engines that specialise in questions i.e. Ask! and Wolframalpha.

I don't feel personally their is money in the 'Questions' business. Keep developing the idea however.

The best idea you've had so far is a YouTube Channel where you go around asking top hitters a selection of the top ten questions. That would work. But the set up cost, hassle and travel would be astronomical. You'd need to live in LA initially and make some money. If it took off, you'd probably make serious money. However its been done in many niche markets such as Entrepreneurship: http://www.secretentourage.com/

magic_murph

Good post Ironclaw.

I have to agree - I can't think of any situation where I can't already find the answer needed online via google and for anything more bespoke like the legal advice example then face to face and a detailed consultation is needed.

Keep plugging away and if you rejig things and start development let us know.

Atomico

ironclaw wrote: »

Would this be a fair summary?

Consumer: I want an answer to a question from an expert. I am willing to pay for the service.

Expert: I am an expert in a field and I want to be paid for my answer.

Atomico: You take say 20% of the fee.

Consumer asks question, all the experts answer in summary, and consumer chooses best answer? Then pays for service. Done.

More or less that's it.

ironclaw wrote: »

[*]Few people would pay for a service such as this as lets be honest at least 90% of questions are asked and re-asked online.

You're wrong I'm afraid Simply not just true, and to think so would be to close yourself off to the opportunity. JustAnswer.com (a company with 300 staff and 10,000 experts on their site) raised $25m less than 6 months ago. That happens to be half of what they've raised since last summer - total funding: $50m. There must be some foolish VCs out there - or else they are onto a good thing...

And I believe there is plenty more room in the market. Asking a question is one of the most fundamental human activities. There is plenty of scope. What about a sports / health and fitness dedicated site, for example?

ironclaw wrote: »

[*]Anyone needing an answer for a serious piece i.e. Legal advice will want to talk face to face with someone. A solicitor would rarely give advice online or by email.

Again not true. I only used JustAnswer myself about a month or two ago! Not for legal advice, but for something else. And I was very happy with the service. Quick, effective, slick, not expensive.

ironclaw wrote: »

[*]Experts need to be verified. And verified well. You CANNOT use any form of online verification. Too easy to fudge and make up. You'd need to personally review each expert.
[/LIST]

I agree, and have already thought about that. JustAnswer do it that way. Elance have optional manual verification. It's not a big deal. Hold a 5 minute Skype call (or get an intern to handle it, while you supervise), get them hold ID up to the camera, have them sign up during the call. Not rocket science, and not that time-consuming.

ironclaw wrote: »

What I've described above is basically the online version YellowPages, Google and Yahoo Answers. There are search engines that specialise in questions i.e. Ask! and Wolframalpha.

No it's not, because then you're asking a bunch of internet randomers or a 15 year old what he thinks about your social media strategy.

ironclaw wrote: »

Bottom Line: Its a good idea but not a business.

I don't feel personally their is money in the 'Questions' business.

Care to chat with the JustAnswer CEO and his venture capital friends?

Also, it doesn't have to be mega-bucks that people are shelling out to engage with experts. It could be a small fee per answer, and those experts using it could be using it as a potentially very lucrative lead-generation platform. In other words, it's not about the money they are making through the site, it's about the contacts and leads they are generating (although of course the site revenue is great too).

I just wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, especially when you can see what JustAnswer are doing, and when setting something like this up on a trial basis might not be as big a job as you'd think.

Atomico

magic_murph wrote: »

Good post Ironclaw.

I have to agree - I can't think of any situation where I can't already find the answer needed online via google and for anything more bespoke like the legal advice example then face to face and a detailed consultation is needed.

Keep plugging away and if you rejig things and start development let us know.

I take your point but you are just one person. There are millions of people out there who might not take the same view. Also, more and more people are doing these kind of things online now, and it's only growing and growing in those terms. Even I myself thought I would never use something like JustAnswer, until I said 'why not', and spent a small amount of money getting a great response, and going away happy.

Atomico

http://www.pearl.com/ aka JustAnswer.