I'm starting a similar website like fmylife and textsfromlastnight,the plan

[whiteeclipse]

I'm starting a similar website like fmylife and textsfromlastnight. Basically a website were visitors contribute content. I've done some research, fmylife was as it's peak in 2009 but till this day it still receives about 100k visitors per day, great success for them. Seems fmylife took off because of it's unique name and the content is funny. Many people saw fmylife success and came up with their own twist but not many had success, the only one that I can think of is givesmehope.com they been declining alot, I believe they are down to about 5k to 7k visitors per day. Looking at fmylife concept, got me thinking of starting my own website with a different twist, so I came up a really good name, then I though this domain name is already taken but after checking it wasn't so I bought the domain right away, it's short, easy to remember and people will understand it. So I start looking at competition and there appears to be a similar site concept that has been up and running for about 2 years and they are growing, 08/2012 they had about 5k visitors per day and now they are at around 13k visitors per day. But I feel I can do a better job, create more followers then the competition. So now I'm talking to a programmer and a web design to start the work on this project. I'm hoping first market to my friends on facebook, then invest about $1,000 into advertising, I believe banner impressions cost about $2 per 1,000 impressions which would create 500k impressions which I hope will make some type of impact. This will be my first attempt at starting a business.

 

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[whiteeclipse]

I'm also going to put logos of the website on my car and try to get web press releases.

 

[healthstatus]

A successful clickthrough rate on banner ads is .1% (that is one tenth of a percent), so if you are successful, you will get around 500 visitors from your $1000 ad purchase and at least 20% will go somewhere else immediately (1 page view then out).

 

[Nick]

Average cpc on facebook is around 0.80$ as i remember, so you will get about 1200 visitors from your 1000$ budget. (More like anywhere from 500 to 2000, depending on the ctr, niche, etc..).

Paying for advertising here is a bad business model - since you are not going to be able to monetize your users anywhere near the rate you pay facebook to send them to you, but if it's done in order to jumpstart your business you can justify the loss. I am not sure that 1000$ on facebook is the best way to start marketing though.

If you think a "unique name and funny content" are the reasons these websites took off, you will be in for a very rude awakening i am afraid.

 

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[whiteeclipse]

Nick, thank you for your feedback.

I do understand paying for advertising is the perfect business model but if 500 people like it and tell their friends then that will help jump start the business. It's a risky task that I may or not lose on.

I do understand it's not just the "unique name and funny content" reasons for a website to take off but it helps. It will take alot of hard work which I am ready for. One of the reasons those websites took off is because word of month.

 

[DennisD]

You guys sure? When I created the fan page for my ebook... I got 500 fans from $50 worth of facebook ads... they all interacted regularly and 10% became recurring customers.

I think it has a lot to do with your retention rate of new customers, making sure you have an engaging landing page with loads of content, etc.

 

[MikeC]

How are you going to make money?

 

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[whiteeclipse]

How are you going to make money?

That is the goal, focus on traffic first then post ads on the site then make it a brand, t-shirts, maybe those plastic bracelets.

Also the goal if this business takes off or another one that I will be working on, to have enough revenue to rent out office space and hire staff (customer service, programmers and so on).

 

[whiteeclipse]

You guys sure? When I created the fan page for my ebook... I got 500 fans from $50 worth of facebook ads... they all interacted regularly and 10% became recurring customers.

I think it has a lot to do with your retention rate of new customers, making sure you have an engaging landing page with loads of content, etc.

Did you pay more for advertising after that $50 you used up on facebook?

 

[whiteeclipse]

Paying for advertising here is a bad business model - since you are not going to be able to monetize your users anywhere near the rate you pay facebook to send them to you, but if it's done in order to jumpstart your business you can justify the loss.

One case to look at is search engine ask.com, they keep on investing millions into advertising so people don't forget about them, if search engines dogpile.com and mamma.com kept on investing into advertising like ask.com is doing now then they could of held up their positions but their visitor traffic keeps on declining.

 

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[DennisD]

Did you pay more for advertising after that $50 you used up on facebook?

I should have, but didn't.
I only have that one single experience with facebook ads, so it may have been dumb luck.... but I think it was more about me not having any competitors, nobody targeting the keywords I was, I was targeting fans of a videogame, etc.

I appealed to their sense of fun and love of the game, not my own product. The marketing of my product came after they were already regularly interacting.

I assume if you have the same social strategy (more about fun, less about selling) you'd have the same results. You should be able to see if your strategy works without having to spend $1K

 

[whiteeclipse]

@Dennis, it's going to be more fun and less selling.

One thing I came up with is to have a photo hoping people will share on facebook with their friends it will read something like this.
I feel good, I just _______. <----Don't want to say what it is just yet.
www.______.com <----My website name right now below it that saying.

 

[DennisD]

@Dennis, it's going to be more fun and less selling.

One thing I came up with is to have a photo hoping people will share on facebook with their friends it will read something like this.
I feel good, I just _______. <----Don't want to say what it is just yet.
www.______.com <----My website name right now below it that saying.

1) Nobody's going to take your idea
2) That can be good or bad.

Let's make it a game:
I feel good, I just had sex
I feel good, I just brushed my teeth
I feel good, I just quit
I feel good, I just changed my name to Adam Sandler as a conversation piece

Do you have your website online already?

 

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[whiteeclipse]

lol, the only thing I can say is it's something many people don't do that much nowadays because we are too busy living our busy lives.

@Dennis, the site is not running yet, I just emailed to fmyscript.com about a question I had, buying the script this week. I need to modify the script so I'm writing all the functions then I will post project job on a site like elance.

1. Not sure that will work, it would get boring real fast and I don't people will share that on facebook.
2. Brush teeth? No one wants to hear about that.
3. Could be interesting but no, someone should try that but I don't think many people would want to share that on facebook.
4. Don't think that will work either, I'm trying to target the masses.

 

[KirbyRaymund]

hold up... if you are located in New York, SGU Consulting is offering free services to start up business and small businesses. I just got their press release.

they offer the following services:
- web design and development (this is you)
- IT support
- VOIP
- cabling
- audio and video installation

i think their criteria, according to their press release are:
- start up or small business
- unique business concept or unique website concept
- something that has some sort of "social relevance"

email them at fraymundo@prestigetechnologies. com for inquiries.


also... is your concept similar to postsecret.com or theletters.org ?

 

[whiteeclipse]

No I live in Orlando, FL, thanks anyways.

No not similar to postsecret.com or theletters.org.

 

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[jayo2k]

I am not too sold on paying ads on facebook, the reviews I got was very bad. some ads on facebook appear on user feeds but you pay for them to appear and are not even sure if they will click on them. I chosed to focus more on SEO and free advertizing. Sometimes I get like 200 visitors a day etc. But all this free and my website is brand new

 

[SBS.95]

You said 2009 was the peak for them- a lot has changed since then. There are waaay smartphones out there today than 2009, yet less people are driving traffic to these sites... that looks like a dying market. Plus, the people still visiting these websites have been doing so for years, what are you doing that is going to make them switch and start submitting content and commenting on something new?