A "good" reddit submission is a bad article that makes the rest of your blog look iffy. 30k hits in a day, zero registration.
Seriously, if you want to make a good reddit submission, take an inflammatory/biased/extreme opinion pieces or research and quote the most provocative part of it as the title of your submission. Almost a whole paragraph.
Thanks a lot for your suggestions. You're most definitely right with the site being too locked up and I guess this is also the reason why the signup rate of visitors coming over the frontpage is rather low (in contrast to those who have been invited by other members). So I guess it would be better just to show on the frontpage what's going on inside?
Once they're in, users seem to feel quite well. The first thing they do is actually list their equipment and then see what other members use. They also come back quite regularly. I got the idea when I saw users on photo forums creating very elaborate badges showing their equipment in their signature. When you spend a lot of money for cameras and lenses, you're not only proud but you also like to know what others use and chat about it.
Good to know that you are seeing that kind of thing, and my comment about the equipment thing, you seem to be on top of it.
With respect to the 'badges' thing, that might be an opportunity to create a sort of game/score environment. Similar to HN, though i think stackoverflow does a better job of it. It gets people interested in who's saying what, what their qualifications are, etc.
I don't think that you should reason too much from the font somebody uses. Plenty of successful websites started out with an amateurish look and for some of them it's still a trademark.
thats the point, those countries are just starting out. You can just copy paste proven ideas from the states and make millions.
Like Mint? Angry that you missed the boat? Good news! Invest overseas in the same type of company, and watch it grow to become a market leader by having a monopoly. And you have a guaranteed exit lined up, when Mint enters your market and decides to buy you out.
Sure the core innovation will still come from the states, but the first innovator is rarely the guy who profits from the idea.
I agree with part of that. Look at the German LinkedIn competitor, which is a publicly traded company. It is the local leader, but that did not stop LinkedIn from moving in there. In the long run, the only strong brand is a global one. I do not see an opportunity for every region to have a successful me-too competitor.
I do not see an opportunity for every region to have a successful me-too competitor.
Don't forget though, that the cultural gap between the US and Asia is much bigger than between the US and europe. It's quite likely that a successful US product can be made successful in europe by the same people. It's a different story when you move from US/Europe to India, Japan or even China.
The japanese Facebook (mixi.jp) looks quite different to the US and european variants. Not only in terms of aesthetics but also in many subtile usability and feature aspects.
The Chinese facebook (xiaonei.com) is another good example of this - it started as a complete facebook ripoff, but has now gained more momentum than facebook has in that country, and is evolving its own feature set.
This goes to support the point that, for the next while at least, "me too" business models WILL work in developing nations.
Simplicity wins here! You can add all sorts of fun stuff later once you have a base of returning users (and you clearly don't lack creativity for that).
1) change to text color of the header (black on dark gray is not easy to read)
2) You have two search inputs - kick one and move the events section up.
3) To see event details you just have to click the row/div and not a link which is good - show it by highlighting on mouseover.
4) You have some gems for your target audience hidden in your footer - display them more prominently.
