Ask HN: Can this work?

Hey everyone,

  I've been learning Rails the last few months, and

my main project to learn with has been something called Isement. It's a marketplace for buying and selling physical ad space on people's property.

In other words, advertising in certain areas of a yard, a rooftop, an office wall, a semi trailer, on long haul bike gear, etc etc. Users place their space up for sale, and then other users who want to advertise can search by area for available spaces where they can place their ad.

I realize that some people despise ads, so obviously this won't be liked by all, but I have actually gotten mostly positive feedback on this so far, and I have decided I would really give this a go. I know getting "good idea" feedback is nice and all, but when it comes down to it, I need to find users who will actually use this.

I have a few people lined up to help beta test so far, but I still am looking to get as much feedback as I can on this idea.

What are your thoughts?

If you were launching something like this, or any marketplace really, how would you go about it? What would be your first few steps?

The lovely chicken and egg problem will certainly be an issue, but I'm thinking I will try and work the hardest on finding people who have spaces available first, give them perks for helping to launch, and then work on finding people who want to advertise.

Thanks everyone, and I really hope I can get some feedback. Even if it's all bad!

(Oh, I do have a landing page setup at http://isement.com if anyone wants to critique that as well.)