Is this a good site idea? | Hacker News Reader

Is this a good site idea?

2 pointsdru5 comments

Hi, i have watched this site for quite some time but never posted anything but i would like to hear your opinion about a website idea i had these days. I'm not an entrepreneur although i have considered for a while to get on the roller coaster and try some of my ideas.

To put it in short i'm a huge fan of any gadget so i was wondering if there would be any interest in a website, where members have profiles showing their gadgets (phones, game consoles, mp3 players etc), where each member can post a personal review of his gadgets, post notifications on new gadgets, sell old ones.

Could have a microblogging platform like: "User X just bought an IPhone".

Thank you for your time :)

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This sounds like a side project, if it is done then it should be done for fun and not relied on for any sort of income.

Here's why I don't like this idea:

1) Niches are failing. TechCrunch just covered yesterday about a social network for shoe lovers that folded after two years. Yes gadgets can encompass a lot of niches but you're really only appealing to the niche of hardcore gadget freaks, the ones who drool over every new phone (well, they did before the iphone.)

2) Your monetization would be horribly difficult. Reviews would be your biggest draw, but you're drawing the hardest of hardcore buyers, they are smart and able to find the best deal. If your advertiser isn't the cheapest then they're not going to see revenue. Sure the SEO might be such that you get less hardcore fans, but the community is going to be extreme gadget users and thus very likely unfriendly to newbies. The classified idea may get some use but you can't charge for listing, the user might as well use Ebay which promises a bigger audience to see the ad. And handling the transaction such that you can take a fee is a hairy business.

I've already made that facebook app, it didn't do so well.It was called iGot, as in "check out what I just Got." It let users put products on their profile and post a short review. I only had a couple dozen people ever use it.

It doesn't personally interest me, but I can imagine there are people who would use it. Why don't you prototype it on Ning and see if the idea gets any traction? That would seem like a quick and easy way to get feedback.

Sounds more like a blog than a real business. I know one website where I could enter my gadgets. Did that once but never looked at it again...

facebook app.

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