Destroy my site/model/idea

[ColtonJD91]

Hey guys.

Been on and off on the site for the last three or so years. Recently started kicking around an idea and realized this community may be able to give some solid advice.

The "pain" or "need" we are trying to focus on is the poor level of discourse that takes place on Social Media. If you think of your average critical thinker shaking their head at a fake news story or misleading headline a relative shared, that is the person we think we can create value for. Our idea to solve this is to create a nonfiction book club of sorts that meets and debates via an online portal. A fixed monthly cost grants you access to a copy of the book, materials we supply to enhance understanding, access to the debate portal, and (potentially) webinars or AMAs with respected individuals in the relevant field.

We have also tweaked the standard "upvote" system used by many social outlets to provide a bit more individuality when speaking with a user in our debate portal. The idea was to make it very easy to follow the flow of an argument between two individuals while retaining the ability for anyone to jump in and start a new argument with the original poster. This feature is live if you want to toy with it. You'd just need to follow through a basic sign up flow. We are not checking emails, so feel free to use a throw away if you do not want to get future updates from us.

We just rolled out the site and would love to get some feedback on the model, site, discussion systems, or anything else you have an opinion on. I hate the landing page as is and intended to rework it to either try to better communicate the pain we are solving or build it around an opt in we have created (A 20,000 word PDF that discusses how to effectively communicate with others online). Your thoughts again are welcome on any and everything you see.

Please feel free to check us out over at www.debatethegreats.com

Thanks!

 

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[Jon L]

Hey guys.

Been on and off on the site for the last three or so years. Recently started kicking around an idea and realized this community may be able to give some solid advice.

The "pain" or "need" we are trying to focus on is the poor level of discourse that takes place on Social Media. If you think of your average critical thinker shaking their head at a fake news story or misleading headline a relative shared, that is the person we think we can create value for. Our idea to solve this is to create a nonfiction book club of sorts that meets and debates via an online portal. A fixed monthly cost grants you access to a copy of the book, materials we supply to enhance understanding, access to the debate portal, and (potentially) webinars or AMAs with respected individuals in the relevant field.

We have also tweaked the standard "upvote" system used by many social outlets to provide a bit more individuality when speaking with a user in our debate portal. The idea was to make it very easy to follow the flow of an argument between two individuals while retaining the ability for anyone to jump in and start a new argument with the original poster. This feature is live if you want to toy with it. You'd just need to follow through a basic sign up flow. We are not checking emails, so feel free to use a throw away if you do not want to get future updates from us.

We just rolled out the site and would love to get some feedback on the model, site, discussion systems, or anything else you have an opinion on. I hate the landing page as is and intended to rework it to either try to better communicate the pain we are solving or build it around an opt in we have created (A 20,000 word PDF that discusses how to effectively communicate with others online). Your thoughts again are welcome on any and everything you see.

Please feel free to check us out over at www.debatethegreats.com

Thanks!

I like this. A lot. I love discussing stuff with people, and there are VERY few people out there that can discuss/debate things without turning into an idiot.

I'm not sure I would pay for it though. I wouldn't want to be forced to buy the book through you. What if you became an affiliate for Amazon? What if you set up your site like this one, where there's a free area where people can get a lot of value, but people can pay to be an INSIDERS.

The type of person you're going to attract is probably going to have money, so there is probably money to be made there somehow.

 

[minirich]

I can not see the added value of this page versus a moderated forum like this.

How are the other debates are getting started. I don't see the possibility to add my own debate/summary/question.

Can you set up a "fake" debate for this book you posted so that you maybe can demonstrate the advantages against an normal forum?

 

[ColtonJD91]

Can you set up a "fake" debate for this book you posted so that you maybe can demonstrate the advantages against an normal forum?

Yes, I will add some mock content in there and post back. Should have had that done before, sorry about that.

I'm not sure I would pay for it though. I wouldn't want to be forced to buy the book through you. What if you became an affiliate for Amazon? What if you set up your site like this one, where there's a free area where people can get a lot of value, but people can pay to be an INSIDERS.

The type of person you're going to attract is probably going to have money, so there is probably money to be made there somehow.

I am primarily looking at a pay-wall as our way to avoid the pitfalls of free social media. If someone is paying to be part of a community, they are significantly more likely to respect it. The pricing tiers we have worked out so far would be a premium tier w/ book for around $30 and a cheap tier without book for around $10.

Depending on the feedback we receive on the idea of building discourse around a specific book monthly... we are capable of abandoning that in favor of a separate model. One that has been kicked around would be a Meetup.com style setup. Pay to create discussion groups and control who can participate. Join any group willing to have you for free. Any of that resonate?

 

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[minirich]

Have you seen this page Discourse is open source and more can be found here Discourse (software) - Wikipedia

 

[ColtonJD91]

Alright guys. I made quite a few changes and would like to get your feedback.

1. Completely redesigned the landing page. Hopefully the value is a bit more clear there.
2. Took up the idea on Amazon Affiliate Links
3. Added some demo content. Signup -> throw away username / password gets you access to the backend.

The second video on the lander is currently being created. I used the first video as a placeholder for the moment. Going to make the second video a walk through of the site. So if you have a problem with the same video on there twice I am aware and will be fixing.

I also finished a PDF guide and broke it up into 4 parts. Roughly 20 pages of content as a free give away for joining our list. If any one wants to check it out I can email the whole series to them or you can join the site/list and receive a drip of the series over the next four days.

 

[JPMan]

Comment about the site: If you can make more space between sections, it might look better and also easier for people to read and scan through your website.

 

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[fhs8]

I just went to the website and here's my first impression: The website name sucks, I can't see debates without logging in, and it's not that good of an idea. In fact I at first was confused about what exact service was provided. Only until much later after looking on many pages did I finally figure out what service was being offered. There's already tons of debate websites and people in general do not want to join a debate website.

I would've clicked off within 30 seconds if I was a consumer because I would've determined that the website was wasting my time. However since I'm reviewing I'll read into it more.

Ok the whole idea is stupid. Nobody wants to be given books on topics they aren't interested in. Nobody wants to pay money to read books to debate. I'm shocked that you didn't put pricing before signup. I'm NOT going to enter my e-mail to find out pricing. This is a very small unprofitable niche even if it were to succeed.

 

[Gareth]

State – global opinion network tried something similar to this

Its site was free. A place for people to debate things.

Big launch etc.

Gone for now

Perhaps you can learn from their experience

 

[ColtonJD91]

Thank you for the feedback everyone.

Between here and some other sources I have been taking advice from, I am really starting to question the model of a paid subscription that includes books.

I feel I'm at a point where I can try pointing PPC or some other traffic stream at the site to try to prove the model, but I have already seen close to 300 impressions just from trying to get folks to critique the site. My concern is (even after asking people to click through and check out the back end) only a couple bothered to go through the signup flow.

I guess what I am trying to figure out is if the traffic I got was not important to measure considering it came from entrepreneur advice forums, if there is an still an issue with the landing page so large that it would cause such a miserable conversion rate, or if the model is simply broken.

What I have been looking into is a model that allows users free access, the ability to set up debates for their own books, and attempts to generate revenue off affiliate links to Amazon. The amount of traffic I imagine that would require is terrifying, however. I could also paywall the ability to add new books and set the monthly fee at something really nominal. Say $4.99 or something?

 

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[fhs8]

Thank you for the feedback everyone.

Between here and some other sources I have been taking advice from, I am really starting to question the model of a paid subscription that includes books.

Paid subscription doesn't work unless you really offer good value or something special/unique. There's tons of FREE debate forums/websites online and the books you offer won't be special.

I feel I'm at a point where I can try pointing PPC or some other traffic stream at the site to try to prove the model, but I have already seen close to 300 impressions just from trying to get folks to critique the site. My concern is (even after asking people to click through and check out the back end) only a couple bothered to go through the signup flow.

A lot of impressions can be caused by bots that masquerade their user-agent as some visitor. PPC would be hard to do because who would you target? People searching for what? 99% of people do not want to pay money to debate and there's people who don't have CC such as those under 18 so your CPA goes through the roof.

I guess what I am trying to figure out is if the traffic I got was not important to measure considering it came from entrepreneur advice forums, if there is an still an issue with the landing page so large that it would cause such a miserable conversion rate, or if the model is simply broken.

Both. I couldn't figure out what service you were providing within 10 seconds. In fact it took a couple of painful minutes. The model also is terrible. I knew within one second that the model was terrible and could never work.

What I have been looking into is a model that allows users free access, the ability to set up debates for their own books, and attempts to generate revenue off affiliate links to Amazon. The amount of traffic I imagine that would require is terrifying, however. I could also paywall the ability to add new books and set the monthly fee at something really nominal. Say $4.99 or something?

Here's the problem. You first require (or imply) that people read a book. Then you also target those people who want to debate based on a book and THEN you need that very specific group of people to go to your website and THEN you need them to signup. See how stupid it is? Good luck targeting those very few people just by seach queries.

Why have books? Why not just a website like debate.org?