Review My Startup: Bloggers-Circle | Hacker News Reader

Review My Startup: Bloggers-Circle

wordpress.org

Have you validated there is a market for this and which segment of bloggers that is? And that people would be willing to pay for reviews of drafts?

I'd imagine people like blogging for many reasons including:

* it's free-form and easy

* it's immediate, i .e. my thoughts on the interweb now

* it's free or relatively cheap (less hosting/domain)

This concept might fly in the face of some of these reasons so market need would be the first thing I'd validate.

Also, I'd likely want someone reviewing my drafts who has relevant domain expertise. So if I write about business, a blogger writing about celeb/pop culture may not be the best fit.

I'm unsure there is a large need, but I may just fall way outside of the target demo so just my $.02. Good luck.

BTW - Agree with JangoSteve that a 12 min intro video is way too long.

The huge amount of bloggers makes the market interesting enough.

But you are right about the categorization of reviewers.

Technorati reports 112M blogs, most are not super talented like PG or other top bloggers (OK essayists). I count my self in that category. So there's quite a few that would fit my target market.

Bloggers is a highly heterogeneous group so it's important to understand the true addressable market (how many on wordpress, how many write content that is review-worthy, how frequently do they write, do they have their own domain, are they trying to make money, etc etc). Otherwise, it's akin to saying "my market is internet users".

I think this is a good idea, as it's something I've struggled with. I started watching the video thinking I'd get the usual 2-3 minute intro, but instead was greeted with a 12 minute video for a Wordpress plugin!

It took 3 minutes just to recap the couple hundred words in the paragraphs leading into the video. You could probably skip the instructions on how to install a Wordpress plugin. Combined with the sub-par audio quality, I just ran out of patience.

I'll probably give it a soon though when I get back to the computer.

Video is too long. Check.

The concept is good.

* Get a clear simple landing page - take wordy.com as a guideline

* Focus more on repuation / P2P and less on paying in the explanation

* Let customers pay quicker pickup and response or if they insist to have it just reviewed by the "best" of the community

* Intro categorization of users if you haven't already (sorry video too long)

I hadn't actually considered the option of having customers pay for quicker responses. It's an interesting idea. Once it's reached the stage where billing is integrated this would make an interesting layer.

Just from a technical point of view: the distorted sounds and voice quality in the screencast is kind of annoying

Thanks, I'll try and redo the screen cast tonight! Also, do you think it's too long? Should I produce a short-short version?

Any plans for an API so users of other blogging software could implement it?

Yes! But only after there is a living community.

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