tyohn

I'll have to look into that. Thanks for the input. edit: added Here's the link to our privacy statement http://unbig.me/privacy.php

I’d appreciate any thoughts about the giveaway and or the concept. Thanks!

I might tweet that I left the house - but my rather large dog stays home :)

I honestly haven't considered sites banning unbig.me. I'll have to think about possible solutions. Maybe working with the sites - i.e. providing a share of the revenue or suchlike?

Thanks for the input. I've thought of both of them. #1 is would be problem. #2 each link made by our registered users is unique and assigned to the user that made it - even if its the same link someone already used... and I think retweeting a link would be a welcome site to the original link owner :)

Good point. I'll have to make the distinction clearer or rethink model. Thanks!

I recommend: "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices" by Peter Drucker, "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind", by Al Ries, Jack Trout and "Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age" by Tom Peters. They aren't all strictly marketing books but they are awesome as well as informative.

I love this idea. I'll try it out on my next trip. I love the videos they're awesome - although since your site looks AJAX-ie you might want to consider opening the videos in a "lightbox" popup - I tried several times to find the close button on the first video I opened - because I didn't realize it open a new page ...or you can just sum it up to my stupidity :p

I've often thought of trying Adwords for TV. Several years ago I used to make animated commercials for cable TV and one of the major hassles was getting airtime on cable stations. Has anyone tried it?

Has anyone tested this? If it works it seems like a very interesting security hole.

Sounds interesting. I guess the more users you get the better search results your search will return.

Simply Amazing! Not that I don't like the iPhone but wouldn't it be cool to have a controllers that can do this for all kinds of vehicles and suchlike? I guess AR might be a boon to the remote control industry.

The question I pose to you isn't - is the Xbox hardware profitable? It's - is the Xbox software profitable enough to make Microsoft a profit taken the hardware into consideration. If so doesn't that make the Xbox profitable? HP and other printer company do kind of the same thing. They sell the printer at a loss and make money selling the ink.

You hit the nail on the head > first established brand...

An "established brand" did get into the mind first... - you might possibly gain ground on them (eBay) by focusing on a unique segment (Esty) or a host of other ways. Getting established is the hard part - being first is not a guarantee you'll end up being the "established brand". Was Facebook the first social site? And while a strong brand name is great to have - easier to remember and easier to market - its still nothing compared to getting critical mass.

First mover is a huge advantage if you manage to create a new segment and then spend all your time focusing on promoting how great the segment is - and hopefully at the same time gaining critical mass.

The early worm gets eaten by the bird! First is great if you're first in the mind of the consumer but if you're not the first to gain traction (in the web world = users) in enough people's minds - there's no advantage to being first. It's quite possible your being first might pave the way for later arrivals to dominate the market you created.

Mobile Devices - not just the iPhone but think "What would software/hardware be like if you could carry your desktop machine everywhere - inside your pocket"

WordPress is awesome! It's very simple for inexperienced users learn and simple for geeks like me to dig into the code and make it do all sorts of things that if I had to create from scratch would have taken me weeks. I've used Drupal and it's ok but not nearly as user friendly as the WordPress dashboard. I know PHP is the red head step child in the minds of the Rails develpers - but when you take into account PHP's simplicity and then add in the WordPress code ex, it becomes a very powerful combination...

On the ocean? I was really hoping for under the ocean :(

I'd suggest creating your own startup - and work on it in the evenings, weekends or whenever you might have a few hours. Then just deal with the crap until your startup gets rolling - and maybe by then your stock will come through too :)

Gas Buddy is missing too.

If Apple would put a webcam on the iTouch then they'd have the device I'm looking for...a video phone (using Skype)

What's your unique differential/competitive advantage - say against Amazon? In other words - why should I (or anyone) buy from you? Maybe you could offer free online chat setup or hacker discounts like you mentioned above... If you can establish that (and promote it) then you might see orders. Oh and the design is a tad boring. Just my two cents.

How quick this was answered/people helped is remarkable. Kudos to the HN community! Maybe there's a startup idea here - or maybe it already exists. Typically I spend hours searching for answers online to programming/tech questions or I end up chatting to a guru friend of mine - for the answers.

As I was looking over the site I was thinking - I know you're just getting started but there is a real lack of plants. And then I got to thinking why can't I sell my plants on DoLeaf? Just my two cents - but what about making a "sell your plants" section?

edit: I found your "Sell With Us" link. But I guess I was thinking more of - any could sell a plant - that might help you get a larger selection. But I guess there are issues with that model.

When I read your comment - I was thinking Flash is the like the dumb blond of the internet looks great, a lot of fun but...

I agree with a lot of what you are saying from a programmers point of view. But from a typical users point of view it "seems" to function and look great. Although I disagree with you about longevity and maintainability - I haven't had any trouble with those factors. I also disagree with you that HTML and JavaScript can do what Flash does. Don't get me wrong I love JavaScript but it doesn't do animation anywhere near Flash.

I totally agree with you about cost and closed standards.

Why does everyone here hate Flash so much? I agree that Flash has weaknesses...but the combination of animation tools and concepts - combined with software controlled interactivity is a direction I wish the entire web would embrace. Flash is visually appealing... some of the movie sites like UP (http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/up/main.html) are simply amazing.

Its not that hard to do cold calls - if you really believe in the product. Here's a little about how I started if you're interested - http://troyyohn.com/?q=node/31 :)

If I had to venture a guess - you don't seem to understand your marketplace. I don't mean you don't understand online sales - I mean you don't understand small growers (specialty nurseries).

I grew up around small growers (Near Lancaster, PA). Most of the growers I know don't really use the web for sales (or much of anything) - you might think that's good since that's what you are offering but that means in order to sell to them you first need to educate them on the web and then try to make the sale.

Grower's don't live and breath the internet like we do...by trying to sell them through email you have cut your chances of a sale to almost nil - you might want to try snail mail, a phone call or better yet a sales call in person in this case.

Sorry if my comment came across as attacking you. I was trying to state that your "attack" on Heinz and it's CEO.. is unwarranted. I'd don't work for the company but I am a fan.

You are absolutely correct about bureaucratic crap getting in the way of innovation. I even agree with your point.

But I must say I am tired of hearing about how great Steve Job's is... He is great but Apple can't be the only company that has a focus on design and innovation.

Once again - sorry if I came across as attacking you - I didn't mean to...

"CEO, or the design director, or someone with a huge amount of power at Heinz should personally use every one of its products for some arbitrary amount of time before it is approved to be sold."

Do you really think the CEO doesn't use Heinz Ketchup in the new bottle? I love the new bottle! It has never "jammed" up for me and its a huge improvement over the glass bottle. I guess you should use those tiny ketchup packets if you're having a problem with getting ketchup out of the bottles. Did you know that Heinz is in the process or might have already released a bottle that doesn't let that "watery ketchup" come out when you first use it. It was their number one complaint from ketchup users. That's customer focused innovation!

I know that your an Apple fan boy but believe it or not - not "everything Apple" is god-like in fact I find the iPod Nano lacking and it was the first product I ever bought from Apple.

Getting back to the Heinz ketchup bottle - I eagerly await your better re-design...