As I mentioned recently, I bought GrantSidwell.com for the purpose of moving over to using it as my new blog and all round online presence. Well I've finally got a something together which I'm vaguely happy with as a starting point and it's up.
I will be dual posting for a short while, but eventually this site (thecolony) will change to serve a different purpose for my online activity.
So please go have a look and feel free to get back to me with any suggestions... I definitely need them. Also let me know if anything doesn't work, I've never proclaimed to be the most technically orientated individual so there is a good chance something's fooked.
A little while ago I gave an update on my company TASS Online and mentioned that our first site TopOf.co.uk, a popularity contest similar to HotorNot although instead of rating people it was purely based on the number of views a particular photo received.
Then when I got home this evening I glanced at TechCrunch to find the following post.
So NextorNot may not be exactly the same, and it is far superior to TopOf, but it does demonstrate to me that our logic was sound. I find it extremely encouraging that a company the size of MTV thought that an idea similar to mine was worth pursuing. It proves to me that I'm not just thinking up silly ideas and fooling myself that they have a commercial potential.
Thanks MTV you not-so-thieving-but-rather-encouraging-bastards!
Over the past couple weeks I've been observing how the SA blogosphere is obsessed with traffic and quite frankly I'm baffled. Now before you slate me in the comments section please understand that I spend all day every day dealing in traffic. I work with every online revenue metric, and web traffic in essence puts a roof over my head.
Now the SA blogosphere is riddled with people trying to get more people to read their blogs. My question is- Why?
Is it brag value? If so, there's no shame in that. (I also check my various rankings and like it when I go up.)
Are people trying to make money? If so then bloggers need to understand that internet revenue is not simply a case of getting your page impressions up. Put bluntly... traffic does not necessarily equal revenue. More importantly a worthwhile revenue.
So if it's not ego or money, then why the need for increased traffic?
As I said in the beginning, I'm baffled, and I don't have the answer.
Okay so... Some of you may now that I started a company late last year with some mates of mine. Essentially we're a group of like minded web entrepreneurs with absolutely no technical expertise (chuckle).
Our first site is up, but not finished. TopOf.co.uk Built on the cheap by an Indian development company, it is our teething site where we have learnt the essentials of getting a site up and running. There is still a few tweaks that need to be done to it (logos, buttons, etc), but the basic framework is there and we're testing it out. The idea of the site is very simple. It's a popularity contest aimed at 14-22yr old UK users. As a user you upload your photo into one of the categories and the more views you get the more popular you become. It's not a rating system, you simply have to get people to look at your photo. So, say at the end of the month you have the most popular photo, I'll give you an ipod! Revenue is generated from a mixture of CPM and CPA campaigns.
Our second site is about to go into development. As it will be SA focused we've opted for a local developer, and we're looking at a live date around the beginning of November this year. So what is it? Yip the highly original idea of a... Price Comparison site! Of course we've got a trick up our sleeve but as you can image that's our little secret. Yes, yes... there are these kind of sites already, and yes we've done our homework. That's where our little secret comes into play.
We've had a third site brewing, however the initial outlay to do it properly would mean we'd be punching above our weight slightly so it's been put in the sandbox.
So there you have it. Progress has been made and over the past year working on this very part-time I'm happy where we are. Our momentum has been steady and the passion has been, on the whole, constant. I know I've learnt a lot already, and it has caused me to want to learn more. Ironically, the tech side is the one area where I remain blissfully ignorant, and for now I'm happy with that. I can happily dream up stuff without the constraints and limitations of my own technical abilities. That- I'll leave to the experts.
I also find the title rather unoriginal but hey- I'm pushed for time here.
This post refers to the ongoing comedy show that is Trafficdepartment.co.za
Guy has managed to get his site back under control after it was defaced and has responded with some references to some of the points I have raised. The title to his post is:
In his post Guy has made reference to Corey Rudl who in the early days of the internet saw a gap in the market and capitalised on it very effectively. I don't agree with Guy in using this as a reason not to have a visually appealing site. After all, Corey's site was cutting edge in 1994, and it embraced all the technology available to him at the time. Using this logic, sites these day really should be utilising more advanced techniques. (PS, if coded corrected, flash can be SEO optimised)
With regard to "the real reason people have businesses" and "not having a clue", I'm going to have to disagree again. I'm involved in a range of online activity, and I can assure you not everyone has a website online so they can drive sales. I'm not trying to be a smart arse here, but there are various reasons to have a site online. Guy- it's a bit like TV... not everyone is a Verimark shop. (Okay, that was pretty smart-arsed)
With regard to your offering being 'valueless', I'll disagree- it's not valueless, however I don't think it represents good value for money. Guy- you have provided examples of 'traditional' costs of domain registration etc. Thank you for this as I'm a bit out of touch with the SA costs of these. However Guy, from what I gather when a client registers a domain with you, it is registered in your name. Why is this? Are your clients aware that in doing so they hold no rights to their domain? Are they paying for something and not owning it?
When examining your costs you failed to mention my suggestion of osCommerce.com (which is just one of many). You did bring up the point of having to have some knowledge of html and CSS, and whilst this is a valid point it still doesn't cost anything to ask for help in a forum. You've referred to the ego's of designers/developers quite a bit in your post, and you're right, they want nothing more than to show you how clever they are... might as well let them... for free.
I am not trying to prove how clever I am here... in fact take a look at my blog. Does it look like I have the first clue about design/development?
I have taken offence to the fact that you are charging people for your expertise when in fact I don't feel that you are in a position to. I believe that Trafficdepartment'sMulti-level marketing is borderline ponzi scheme, pyramid scheme, take your pick. Even if it is to two levels all of a sudden.
Once again, I think it is a very clever idea, however it just rubs me the wrong way.
Last night I wrote a post about Guy McLaren. Nic liked it and submitted it to Muti... wicked! Other people liked it and voted it up... wicked! It got up to the number two spot... wicked. Then all of a sudden it disappeared from the front page. Shock, horror!
Within 4 minutes the post had received 4 'down' votes... ouch! Statistically speaking without collusion this is not possible... (recommended reading on this type of thing: Freakonomics). This begs the question... was my post accurate enough to cause the legions of Trafficdepartment to act together to vote the submission off the front page?
Was my brief analysis enough to cause concern in the ranks?
Now as a start-up owner myself- I can understand that criticism can be scary. However... surely your business needs to be robust enough to withstand the hearsay of some dude 6,000 miles away in order to be sustainable? Surely the best way to damage control is to confront the points raised in my post and prove me wrong. I invited a response to be corrected, I gave Trafficdepartment the opportunity to engage in a dialogue which could lead to me eating my words. Nope, instead the issue has been hushed-up, and banished to the depths of the muti pages. (Reeks of Zimbabwean political tactics if you ask me.)
What great PR it would be for your business if you could address the issue and capitalise on the current awareness levels. Enjoy your 5min in the spotlight and use it to your benefit. This is currently not the case and you are avoiding addressing the issues in my post.
In doing so, I feel that my assumptions and guesses have been ratified, and now I feel confident that I was in fact correct. (Until I am proven otherwise... pssst... this is another invitation, wink wink nudge nudge)
It’s not often that I feel compelled to write about SA blogosphere topics on my personal blog, but recently I’ve seen something which is worth mentioning.
There is this chap in Nelspruit called Guy McLaren. Guy owns and operates a business called Trafficdepartment.co.za, which sells people websites and the promise of wealth. This I don’t have a problem with and I wish the man all the best in his venture- if he is able to get muppets... I mean- people- to buy his ‘solution’ then hell- why not.
My issue comes in his tactics, premise, and altogether blatant drivel that he is purporting. However this post is not meant to be a personal flaming of Guy but an analysis of his offering, revenue model, and marketing tactics. Albeit with a slightly negative tone. (I stand corrected on everything a say from here on.)
Offering
TrafficDepartment offer domain registration and hosting with their own CMS for R395.00. Fair enough- not a lot of money at all. In fact there is even a 30day money back guarantee! However… not much detail is given on what you get for your money. Ie. Is this shared hosting? Where is it hosted? Most people won’t need to know this info but it does make a difference when you’re trying to run a business which is after all what Guy is offering.
The R395.00 gets you the basic site, however if you want to actually be involved in e-commerce you’ll need to add on extra bits and pieces for just under R2000.00. So in other words your R395.00 gets you a blog! Ummm… did I miss something or did wordpress, blogger, et al just go out of business because I could’ve sworn it was free to setup, run, and maintain a blog. This has been addressed elsewhere and so I won’t dwell on it.
Let’s have a look at the ecommerce offering: It costs just under R2k however… you can get a better looking, more robust, highly trusted solution for the extreme sum of ZERO… free…gratis…osCommerce.
As for the statement that you will be listed on Google SA within 2 days… SFW… anyone can submit their URL to Google (or any major search engine) and the bots will crawl the site. Is Guy honestly charging for a service which anyone with 5 minutes to spare can do themselves?
I don’t know about you but if I had paid for Guys’ services I would be feeling rather bleak right now knowing I had been fleeced of my cash.
Revenue Model
So how is Guy making all this money? Selling websites? Yeah I suppose he’s squeezing a few quid out of this, but the trick lies in how these websites are linked together. Using the trafficdepartment ‘solution’ means you join a little circle of people who also have one of their sites, and their posts are fed into your blog. What happens here is that you get the same users floating around eachothers blogs/sites creating a little community… very sweet! The kicker is that, if, as a trafficdepartment site, you refer someone to buy a site… you get cash…cool… affiliate marketing! Well not really… it’s more multi-level marketing (MLM) made famous by the likes of Amway. Please note I haven’t said pyramid scheme. (But if it quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck???)
Marketing tactics
Now I don’t profess to be a SEO guru, but I like to think I know a thing or two about internet marketing having worked in CPC, CPA, and CPM environments. The marketing tactics of Guy McLaren are what initially grabbed my attention and prompted this post. Guy is traffic crazy, and will do just about anything to increase the number of visits to his site, or the sites of his clients. (He wants people to visit his clients because they like seeing the traffic figures, and he likes the exposure which could mean that people will want his product.)
All traffic is good traffic apparently! This post is long enough without having to go into the topic of traffic quality.
Guy submits his, and his clients stories to sites like Muti and others in order to promote them. Now I have nothing against people promoting their business, however these sites are not the place for it. These are community sites where users recommend content which the community is interested in. If people are interested in the content it gets voted up, if not it gets voted down- simple. Now Guy’s submissions are getting much love from these sites and in fact he has been condemned as a spammer. I have to agree with the community that when you consistently submit your ‘own’ content which has proved to be unpopular in the past then you really need to get the message or you will be branded a spammer. Guy has now taken to educating his clients on social network ettiquette.
My problem here is that Guys' clients look to him for professional advice... hell... they paid for it, and in my opinion... they're not getting it here.
All in all, I have to commend Guy McLaren on what is a very clever idea, however it just rubs me up the wrong way personally.
Well they've gone completely legit and renamed themselves Deezer.com. I can't stress how cool this service is. I was lucky enough to meet the owner of the site yesterday and I will be working with them with regard to their UK activity in about 2 weeks time. I'm super stoked! When Deezer goes mainstream and comes up in conversation the way that facebook does (are our conversations that boring that we have to fall back on facebook rather than the old faithful, "so how about this weather") I will be able to non-chelantly say... "Yeah I work with them ona couple things"- Man I'm cool! (Quietly calling myself a dork in my head)
I have been slowly growing my Deezer playlist ( Widget--------->) and discovered some wicked new artists. When I eventually get organised I'm going to start using the widget to let my dedicated reader (note lack of plural) know some of the music I'm currently tapping my foot to.
On the right of this page you'll see a new widget I have added to my blog. Blogmusik.net is a free service which streams legal music content. Literally all you have to do is register, create playlists, and away you go.
On the right of this page you'll see a new widget I have added to my blog. Blogmusik.net is a free service which streams legal music content. Literally all you have to do is register, create playlists, and away you go.
Yip.... I hang my head in shame. I setup another Muti account to submit my story about the perpetual motion machine. Being the clever ass that I am- I then commented using that username as myself. What a prat! Stupid, silly, uncalled for.... let the mockery begin.
Late last week I was catching up on my feeds and came across the following clip on YeahFi Now after you've watched it, try putting yourself into my shoes... I am a non-tech web entrepeneur, and this is the sort of genius which I will have to compete with once I get my little start-ups off the ground. S0... do I get intimidated....hell no!
Fortunately I am comfortable with the fact that I simply cannot compete with the sorts of people who operate on this level. Why am I confident?
Well for one thing, as cool as the tool in this clip is, who is going to use it? Why will they use it? How can I make money off it now? The answers to these questions are- nobody, they won't, and you can't. All this is, is a bunch of whizz kids flexing their muscles, and from my past experience in muscle flexing... it doesn't actually get you anywhere.
Don't get me wrong... I think this is fecking amazing... however I'm looking for the angle, I'm looking for my niche, I'm looking for the money honey... and failing that... how will it solve world hunger?
A crazy long weekend! Started off on Friday feeling rather poorly, but that what soon not an issue after watching SA crush England on Saturday. Being the great sports better that I am, I put cash on SA to win between 46-50 points @ 22/1...yeah boy. Pity I only £1 on, but it still paid for a couple drinks on Saturday which turned out to be a crazy day of partying, ending off with a night of 'best dancer ever' syndrome. Sunday was just as crazy, meeting up in town for a couple drinks and meeting some new peeps, and more dancing ensued... oooh this has got to stop! Monday was super chilled and I spent the whole day working on TASS online as we're desperately trying to figure out the best way for the users to interact with the site.
For a bit of fun here's a song I was sent this morning from Chicken... not the most lyrically challenging but when you picture Brian flying down the wing it brings a smile to your face.
I know I have been neglecting my blog recently, however there have been a lot of different things going on recently.
1.) Failed attempt at a relationship. 2.) Start of a new relationship. Shoo that was fast! 3.) Technical issues getting first site launched... (Super frustrating) 4.) New job, which is going well. 5.) Facebook takes up a lot of my internet time which would've been dedicated to blogging.
I'm currently seeing an particularily cute Zimbabwean girl, who makes me smile a lot and laughs at my jokes... even when they're not funny! Score... you know you've struck gold when this happens... especially if you've heard my jokes before.
TASS Online is having some technical issues at the moment as we try and get the site live. I'm not the most technical person but it's got to do with the database not being supported by our hosting company...which sucks! Otherwise, we have started planning site no.2 codenamed tazoo, and the initial spec should be completed by the end of the week. I'm very excited about this site as it is something that I have a lot of experience in, so I'm really confident it will be a winner. Initially it was going to be launched in SA only, however we have found a new way to launch it in the UK without it requiring too many man hours.
New job is a cracker, and I'm learning a whole bunch of new stuff about a part of the online world which initially I thought I knew about, but now realise I had no idea. This role is a lot more creative than many of my previous roles, and it this aspect that i am enjoying most at the moment. However I still have some way to go before I have a firm understanding.
Facebook... ahhh... how many hours have you devoured! Having just cracked the 200 friends mark (Man, I'm cool...do you wanna touch me!) I have got back in touch with a whole host of people I went to primary school with! Hectic! People have been posting pictures from Grd 2, and I have quite enjoyed trying to remember who all those little kids were... and are now!
It's a long weekend this weekend in the UK, and I'm really looking forward to a good lie in on Monday, especially seeing as there will be a fair bit of partying and working on TASS. Also looking forward to being able to talk about rugby again! (Single tear...trickles...down...cheek...sniff...so close!)
With such a dramatic title I really hope I can do it justice when trying to recall the events of last night at the 27 Dinner.
It was with much trepidation that I climbed into my sisters' Corsa last night and headed off to Melrose Arch. My nerves had been somewhat calmed by the invitation of Nic to come and introduce myself so I wouldn't look too lost. However all the roads in Jo'burg have changed ever so slightly and I managed to get myself lost, and it was only by blind luck that I literally stumbled upon the correct off ramp.
I walked into Primi Forum and immediately knew I was in the right place, and I must commend Mike, Dave, and everyone else involved in organising a really top event. I made my way straight to the bar and despite the less than optimal bar service I managed to get my hands on an ice cold peroni... I love spending pounds in SA! I then noticed a blatant spelling error on the about section of my blog as it was blown up 6x6 feet...doh!
Despite considering myself a complete extrovert I was decidedly nervous, fortunately I found Nic and immediately felt less spare. I was introduced to the Rhodes crowd and then found myself a seat at the bar. I enjoyed all the presentations however it was the mingling in between which I most enjoyed. I met Justin whom I had tongue-in-cheek...ily offered R100 for Grabble to. LOL- still sounds funny when I say it.
Once the presentations were over I got stuck into the beers again and had a chat to Dave and managed to introduce myself to Mike. I then had a good laugh chatting the guys from Chumpstyle about monetising their site.
All of a sudden it seemed the night was over and I found myself searching for my sisters car (I couldn't remember what level I had parked it on).
I had a great evening and really enjoyed being able to chat to guys whom I would not have been able to meet otherwise.
(Just so everyone knows the reason this post is so late is because I apparently picked up a bug from my sister and was man-down the whole of yesterday... that's my story and I'm sticking to it, it had nothing to do with the booze :p)
Only thing is that having been out of the country for so long, I am completely out of the loop... of everything. Just getting around is a mission. I know where I'm going but all my points of reference are either gone or have changed completely.
Everything feels like the first day at a new school where everyone knows how things work and where everything is, but you are however rather clueless!
Tonight is the 27 dinner and it is going to be interesting. Talk about 1st day at school syndrome... 100 odd people, many of whom will know each other on some level- and then there's gonna be me- propping up the bar...hehe. Chances are I'm going to be a bit late too... (having to organise to borrow cars)
Finally! My new internet connection is up an running.
This past week has been a royal pain in the arse and I know I have missed out on plenty of things. This morning I have trying to get through my feed reader but with over 400 posts to get through it is proving to be a little tiresome and many posts aren't getting my full attention.
I've been trying to get my head around why the SA Blog awards have proven to be such a hoohaa. WTF- calm done folks. Caught up on two episodes of Amplitude, and I continue to enjoy their content. Haven't been able to submit to muti, and now it'll take at least a week to familiarise myself with whats topical at the moment especially since the KuduRace has been started- I want that T-shirt!
No internet connection has meant that I haven't been able to look after my start-up properly and it has been a real stumbling block as we are soooo close to alpha launch and I haven't been able to play around. >:(
On a personal note I've felt like a real arsehole recently. Not exactly sure why I think that, (serious self-loathing going on), but I think I'm over it and slowly I'm regaining my god-complex. LOL. Just in time for my trip home, yeah boy! I think I've been feeling like a prick because I've been suffering from withdrawal due to lack of internet access. - problem solved!
Now I'm counting the days to SA, I fly in a week. Not looking forward to the flight, London-Madrid-Jo'burg (15hrs) on Iberia- should be...'interesting'. Might have to invest in a new game for my PSP to keep me occupied.
Not a lot to blog about at the moment. Had a really chilled weekend. A mates Birthday drinks on Friday, spent all of Saturday watching sport, and caught up with family yesterday. It was good to have a relatively booze free weekend, it really leaves you refreshed for the week to come.
A reminder that the nominations for the SA Blog Awards 2007 end today, so if you haven't already done so go and nominate now. If you click on the button on the right of this screen it will automatically fill in the nomination form to nominate me! ;)
TopOf should be finished by end of play today, and I'm really excited to get my hands on it to have a proper play around with it. On that topic, I have giving some serious thought to launching TopOf in South Africa. We originally decided against it because we didn't feel that the SA market wouldn't be suited to it. However over the past week or so I have been messing around on FaceBook and realised that the uptake has been excellent by people in SA. It wouldn't take much tweaking to get TopOf running in SA, however we would need someone on the ground to run it. So that is definitely something we will be looking at further down the line once we have got things up and running in the UK.
I'll start out by letting you all know that I am in the final stages before being able to unleash my first site in the world wide wilderness. TopOf.co.uk is busy having the final changes made by the developers as we speak, and if they can follow our instructions properly (things get a little lost in translation in India) I'm hoping it will be all done by middle to late next week!
That being said we have also started work on our next two sites:
Tazoo.co.za will be a shopping site for the Saffa market, and we have finished the business plan and are shopping around for quotes from developers.
Yuni.co.uk, is probably our most complex and ambitious project, and is aimed at the UK student segment. Yuni, is still in the planning stages, as we know it's going to cost a fortune to get it done the way we want it. We are considering a staged development process, slowly adding on the new features which will eventually come together to form the final site.
In other news, as you're probably aware I'm looking forward to my trip home (just a tad), and today I realised that my trip will coincide with the 3rd 27 Dinner in Jo'burg. Chuffed! So I'm all 'registered' to go. I do get the feeling though it will be the same vibe as when I go the monthly MiniBar meetings- me on my own desperately looking for people to talk to, and trying my hardest not to look like a loser. I find this rather humourous as a big part of my day job entails networking and I'm pretty damn good at it. In fact anything that revolves around drinking I'm good at.
So I can see it now- I'll arrive early (as always, can't bring myself to be 'fashionably' late), and hit the bar with a vengeance. Once sufficiently lubricated, I'll probably try and hit on a girl which will break the ice and I'll end up having a great evening. So in order to save some poor girl getting the 'Squirrel' treatment I am launching the 'Adopt Grant and save a poor girl from having to get rid of me' campaign. All that is needed is for someone to acknowledge my existence prior to arriving at 27. In other words I'm looking for someone to say, "Hey Grant, I look forward to meeting you at 27."- No Mom, you don't count, and no I don't think it will be cool if you come along to hold my hand while I try make friends!
Man, it's like the first day at school all over again!
Nic Haralambous has started a new blog dedicated to telling people the good news about South Africa. SARocks.co.za
From his intro: "This blog is dedicated to telling the world how amazing South Africa is. The people, the pastimes, the places and everything else. I am not saying our country is perfect, no country is, but I am saying that there is a lot more good in SA than people like to admit."
Go check it out, and contribute your rocking SA content. It's about time we remind ourselves and others just how awesome a country South Africa is. We're not ignoring the issues, but we are staying positive!
I started my weekend by attending a web 2.0 get-together called MiniBar, and rather than go into too much detail which won't interest too many of my readers (hi Mom and Dad) you can read more about MiniBar over at TheColonyPerspective.
The beer I received at minibar was the start of a very crazy weekend. After leaving the venue in East London (east of Trafalgar Square not east of Cape Town) I missioned off to Putney where I braved the crowds of Australia day with a couple mates. A particularly large women (I think) draped in an Aussie flag used as a top, proved to be all too 'exciting' for the motley crew I had joined and we changed venues for somewhere a little more civilized. Plenty beer was consumed at Thai Square before eventually putting myself onto a bus at some ungodly hour attempting to get home without falling asleep. I would have failed in this mission had it not been for the bus driver making a hard left turn which caused me to fall off my seat and well and truly wake me up as the roars of laughter from the people sitting behind me turned me bright red.
Saturday morning left me rather fragile as was to be expected, but could not deter me from meeting my business partners for a 5 hour marathon brain-storming session. Whilst keeping an eye on the cricket, we bounced ideas back an forth, and the whole experience just serves to motivate me more and more. Of course the beers helped the creative juices and it was not long before I was rushing home for quick shower and a change before heading out for the night.
I met the boys out for what was supposed to be chilled drinks in Wimbledon Village, but ended up at Zulu's disco dancing my ass off drinking SnakeBites by the pitcher. The music stopped at about 2am, and we were not in the mood to go gently into the night- and so hopped into a cab destined for a mate of Sean's house where we got some more liquor/cigarettes/pizza delivered and drank through the night. My evening finished with me walking in my door around 6:30am, knowing that I was staring a write-off of a day in the face! Crazy stuff, but no major regrets.
Working in the new media industry here in the UK exposes me to some pretty cool stuff. I'm fortunate enough to get paid to talk to some really interesting people who are really going some cool and groundbreaking things.
Over the past six months I have got the feeling that the industry has been on the cusp of something big. The advent of a clear understanding of the term web 2.0, and the the much publicized acquisitions on new media companies has seen a great deal of attention drawn to the industry. As positive as this all may seem, a few skeptics are now also now talking about the 2.0 bubble and the possible burst prior to it actually being fully realized.
My day job is in the area of comparison shopping, a growing industry which still has a long way to go before it can be classed as web 2.0
Realizing that my personal blog can no longer serve as both an outlet for my personal musings as well as a commentary on my opinions on New Media, I have started TheColonyPerspective This will allow me to voice my opinions without having to bore my mates who have no interest in the subject, whilst allowing readers who do have interest to not have to read about how much I had to drink over the weekend. LOL
Go check it out to read my first impressions on shopping comparison in South Africa, my compliments to a few South African evangelists (not in the religious sense), and the factors hindering South Africa from entering the web 2.0 revolution.
Now that there has been a few developments with my startup, I feel confident to shed some light on what it is that I'm/We're up to.
Myself and three mates have started a company called TASS Group Ltd, which was the result of a brain fart over lunch about 5 months ago. Being 4 young entrepreneurs, who hate working for other people we decided that since we spend so much time working and playing on/in/with the internet we should give it a shot. All in all we have about 4 different internet startup ideas in various stages of development, ranging from 'in development' to 'not even on paper yet'.
As we all know there little-to-no-chance that we will get it right first time, we have chosen one of our more fun and less complicated ideas to start off with. The idea being that we get some experience of what it takes to get things running, what to avoid, what to avoid next time, how much does it actually cost, etc.
TopOf.co.uk is a user generated content site we have thought up, and we are hoping to get it soft launched (love how I try to use the lingo) by the end of this month depending on how the developers get on. Building on the success of sites such as MySpace, Flickr, LastFM we are delving into the world of web 2.0. It is by no means 100% original, we're just taking elements of sites we like and adding a twist.
TopOf is in essence an online popularity site where users upload photos of themselves or others and the more people that look at their photo the more popular it gets. With the advent of sites like MySpace the idea of being popular and having lots of friends (regardless of if you actually know them) has because extremely popular, especially in the 14-24yr old market. So all the rusks reading this post don't worry, you're not expected to find this idea appealing. (I also fall outside the target audience). The twist is that we are making it localized. The trend is slowly shifting towards a more localized focus. More and more sites are now showing users who else is in their area etc, and that's where our focus is.
Recently I blogged about BuddyPing the service that geotags MMS's from your phone. I am hoping to open our API to these guys so that people can upload there photo's on the move rather than waiting to get home. Example: You're in a club and spot a hot girl, you snap a cheeky photo with your phone and send off to us. It is then uploaded to your gallery for the world to see and make popular. Simple hey!?!
TopOf is only going to be UK focussed to start with, due to bandwidth constraints of South African users and the maturity and ease of adoption of the UK youth user.
The site is split in categories (What are you TopOf?), and you can then search by location (Where are you TopOf?)
Tomorrow I sit down with my co-founders (I enjoy saying that) and we get started on site no.2 which is as yet unnamed.
Regular visitors to my blog will notice that I have added a cool little widget to the sidebar. The map shows my current location and is linked to my mobile phone. This cool little do-hicky was discovered on Friday night when I went to a MiniBar meetup. MiniBar is a social gathering of web 2.0 'geeks' who get together to talk about new thoughts, standards, widgets, services etc. My interest in this stems from my new startup which is now officially in production and slated for a soft launch mid to late Jan 2007.
Anyway, I arrived all by myself feeling a little uncomfortable as I knew that I was about to engage with a whole bunch of strangers who would undoubtedly know a whole lot more than me. Fortunately I arrived about 5 min early so a crowd had not built up, doing what came most naturally in these situations I headed straight for the (free) bar. There I somehow started talking to two guys, the first of which being a venture capitalist and the second being the founder of a service called BuddyPing.
Having made the initial contact I sat down with them and started making idle conversation which eventually lead to me explaining the basic outlines of my startup. The VC was very positive and interested in what I had to say, and it was only when I started talking to the guy from BuddyPing did I realise why.
BuddyPing allows users to take a picture with their phone and MMS it to a gallery online. The photo is tagged with all the location information which BuddyPing picks up from your mobile. If you click on the little camera icon below the map ----------> You will be able to see some photo's I've taken to test this out. This would integrate perfectly into my startup and as such I will be giving these guys regular input as to how we are getting on with development with a view to working together hopefully.
In travel news I hope to blog about my trip to Munich this week, and have brought along my camcorder so hopefully I'll able to upload some videos.
