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Location, location, location...for a web startup?

tedATintermztedATintermz subscriber Posts: 7
edited May 2008 in Grab Bag
I have been working on my site www.intermz.com on my own for about a year now. It has not had nearly the success I`ve been working towards having, despite receiving constant feedback that the concept is captivating, unique, and natural. I keep wondering if my lack of success is related to me working on it alone. I`ve tried to interest people I know and trust in working with me, but I seem to have made myself a side-career out of helping other entrepreneurs with their goals, while receiving very little assistence in return.
Could my inability to find a good partner be the result of living in areas without a high concentration of like-minded people? If I am doing a web startup, does where I live even matter?
Successful webpreneurs, please tell me whether where you live (or where you moved to) made a difference for you!
Thank you all,

Comments

  • stonesledgestonesledge subscriber Posts: 608 Silver Level Member
    Hi! I would like it if you could just explain a bit more about what you are doing, where you see it going and the target audience you are trying to reach. I am just trying to get a better understanding. Thanks Hope fully I can help a bit.
     
    Erin
  • tedATintermztedATintermz subscriber Posts: 7
    Hi Erin,
    Thanks for your reply. Intermz aims to help people learn anything they want to by leverage what they already know; it puts topics of interest "in terms" of topics users already have familiarity with. It`s based on the proven concept described psychologist Jean Piaget called assimilation.
    My goal is to attract a dedicated set of users who contribute high quality content that puts topics in terms of other topics, and provides a vast library of information. Essentially, a Wikipedia model.
    My target audience are: 1) students and knowledge/skills addicts (like myself) who want to improve what already know or learn new things, and 2) knowledge/skills mavens who see the relationships between various activities/subject-areas and can write about them.
    Please let me know if I can elaborate further.
    I appreciate your help very much!
  • tedATintermztedATintermz subscriber Posts: 7

    `What` means success to you? 

    Hello Janie,
    Thank you for taking a look at the site and for your positive feedback! At the moment, success means a constant stream of new articles being created, and used, at the site. Google ads are up on the content pages (although they are blocked by various ad-blocking plugins), but my primary focus now is the creation of useful content; this is the kind of site I would personally like to use on a daily basis. The only problem is, I`m writing the majority of the content, so I`m not learning much from it...
    The site is a tool used to map the relationships between any possible topics of interest and give people a charted path to new information, beginning with what they already know. As people learn more over time, they add new starting points that connect them to even more topics. I use this method in my everyday life to achieve a sort of hyper-accelerated learning ability. I think that the more we all know, the better we can be at everything we do, the more inventive we are, and the more interesting life will become.
    Ultimately, I hope that ad revenue will support the site`s existence, but I am also working through a mechanism for connecting users (knowledge/skills addicts) with the vendors who provide services tailored to their interests.
    For example, if a user is interested in mountain biking, the site would advertise the services of local bike shops.
    The twist would be that Intermz keeps track of not only the constellation of things each user is interested in, but how those things are related to each other. This kind of "psychological map" can give vendors a new level of insight into potential customers.
    Please let me know if there is anything else I can elaborate on.
    Thank you very much!
  • tedATintermztedATintermz subscriber Posts: 7
    Oh, yeah....and what does location have to do with this?

    Right, I was wondering if I need to relocate to find people/partners willing to try something novel and unique. But, because it is entirely web-based, I didn`t know how important physical location was in finding these kinds of people.
  • tedATintermztedATintermz subscriber Posts: 7
    Janie, I hope you are right! It would save me (and my wife) the big hassle of moving. Thank you for all of your feedback.
  • tedATintermztedATintermz subscriber Posts: 7
    Thanks, Craig, for your comment.
    You`re right that nearly everyone will associate various knowledge differently. That is why the site is open to any and all variations. The purpose is to provide readers with possible avenues of knowledge links and act as a reference - and not to act a curriculum.
    Yes, it is a mind map of sorts. The difference is that hyperlinks (like those used in Wikipedia) do not provide any contextual connection between two topics. They are simply a means to navigate - as you move from one topic to the next via a hyperlink, no connection remains to the previous topic. By contrast, Intermz`s gelz are the links between two topics, fully contextualized to provide a thorough description of how any two topics can be related.
    Please have a short look at Computer programming in termz of Musical composition to get a beter understanding of how a "gel" differs greatly from hyperlinks. Further feedback would be greatly appreciated.
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