Hello Rodinhoods,
I am really very glad to be the part of RODINHOODS.
My dear fellows,I am here to seek help for our new start-up venture PASSION IN YOU & Co.
Me with my three friends implemented this idea last month over the WEB.
IDEA : We created a platform for Creative Professionals,like musicians,painters,dancers etc so that people of same interest can meet,discuss their thoughts ,share their ideas ,team up with each other for better opportunities.
We created a separate segments for each class of creative profession,member of these segments can check the news,photos,videos,opportunities,events,other members related to their profession only.
That means no more clustered information.
Here people can interact also through personal messages,can make friends,can follow oter talents.
That is why we called it “meaningful networking” : www.passioninyou.com
We face lots of problem during its making,
https://www.passioninyou.com/blog/the-story-behind-passion-in-you/
We did lots of planning for marketing,both online & offline but due to lack f funds and resources we were not able to execute it.Its been more than a month we launched this site,we get over 500+ sign ups…but frankly speaking..from this point we don’t know how to proceed further,its just that we are middle of the sea in this boat but don’t know how to row it..and in which direction.
Please review this site : www.passioninyou.com and suggest us how should we proceed further.
I don’t want to say this…but we are very much de-motivated…:(
asha chaudhry
hi anurag…
there are lots of seasoned digital entrepreneurs here who can guide you. being demotivated is a natural thing. but it is only a temporary thing!
hang in there.
all the best.
Adarsh Thampy
My first reaction was- not another social network. I mean, why would I need to join another network to connect with people? Isn’t that something FB takes care of (especially with their new graph search). Besides there are groups you can join to connect with like minded people.
While the idea is good, it’s not compelling enough to make me sign up. How will it help me discover myself and my passion? Do you use psychometric evaluations or other scientific methods? or is it that you are going to find people inside your system, connect with them, and go with my gut feel?
The start early slide gives an impression that it’s more for kids rather than for adults (is that the case?)
Good idea there. You’ll need to convince people. That’s going to be a tough task- but nothing that’s impossible to do.
Good luck.
Anurag Sood
Hello Adarsh,
Firstly,I would like you to thanks for spending your precious time.
No we didn’t use psychometric evaluations or any other scientific ideas,we just implememted an idea with an assumptions that every person have a passion for something…and no this is not just for kids..we added that slide of “Start early” to tell people that if we have any passion we must start early in order to make it our profession.
Can you please suggest that how can we convince people on this..or any other way of marketing…
Abey John
Anurag, good concept but totally cocked up execution. You are trying to cater to every passion under the sun. Impossible with a start up team of 4 people. Unlikely with a team of 400 people.
Each passion focus needs a curator and driver who will energize the community and keep the conversation going. Rodinhoods is a great example of that. Alok drove his passion for nearly 2 years (Asha can you spring the exact number?) almost singlehandedly before the spark caught fire and it is now more or less self sustaining with a lil garden tending and weeding by Asha. 🙂
Kill every topic which does not have a owner. You are four guys, so four topics and drive the conversation around that. Aur ruggedthay raho till the fire catches. Which brings me up to my next bit of grief. Terrible writing style. Please read Strunk n White – Elements of Style, Stephen King’s On Writing, and read at least one novel a week. Or hire a writer.
Web design. SEO. Excuse me while I scream. Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrghhhh. 31 results in google and all your topic pages are hidden. How is anyone going to find you? Did you read my article on Internet Marketing? Please do. To quote: “Watch out for the sooper cool fundoo design which does nothing for your conversion goals”. The 500 sign-ups I suspect are your pooled collection of friends. Please pour through your signs up and remove every friend that each of you know or are hooked through your social network. The remainder is your actual sign up. My prediction: Zero. And no its not magic. Your landing page tells me nothing about your site. Except some airy fairy shit which means nothing. Sorry, this is a time to be brutal. If I am kind you will not get shocked and you will try to salvage your ugly monster who will suck your time, energy, and money and by the time you are actually ready to pay attention to the thing that matters most in your case – your community – your passion is going to be all fagged out and grumpy and you will enter into a death spiral. My recommendation:
– switch to an open platform on WordPress or some other like Ning (which is what rodinhoods runs on);
– make sure all the search bots are sucking up your content
– each topic should have a human in the driver seat for the next two years at least, and while you are at it you should also think of a succession plan
– stop the self adulation and congratulatory self pats on the back for a job that is not yet done. Your platform is NOT “
‘Passion In You’ was launched in full glory in 2013 and has remained as one of the most visited website by passionate youngsters across India.”
YET…. get it?
I’d also like to know which advertisers paid you money for a product that’s not yet launched. Stop swilling crap and stick to the truth. I suspect its angel money from your family who you have taken from in return for advertising credits in the future. At the mo’ its angel money. However you may cook the label.
I was not able to complete the sign up process and I abandoned it at the step 2 stage.
Other questions to ask yourselves, please definitely use the “the fuck” modifier to each question as shown below.
Hard questions. When I look at the site. I see no answers that make me want to stay.
Of course, if you are that sure about your idea please ignore everything said above and plunge on. There maybe something I dont see which is worth pursuing. Worst case, we have a celebrating failure section where we can yell and cheer and have a good time. 🙂 Best case, you’ll throw us all a party and we’ll yell and cheer and have a good time. :))
At every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss. ~ Paulo Coelho.
Anurag Sood
Hello Abey,
I am just speechless after your comment….I know we had screwed everything…we had a great idea..but we are not able to execute it..yes you were right..out of 500 sign ups 80% of them our freinds..and rest 20% are friends of friends.
We didn’t do any seo yet..we didn’t ran any e-mail campaingns..no marketing strategy is implemeted yet..and one of the reason is..we were not sure the product we have created is worth putting more money or efforts…and after your valuble feedback..i think we guys were right…
We might put more money in this..if we had…as for now we don’t have any money..we didn’t ask any money from our families..we got placement from our college…we worked there in day time..so that at the end of the month we can get some money to put in our nights we spended while working on this project….While creating this site we had answer to ur questions..but today all those answers are of no mean…
After your feed back..i have understood that we need to optmize and improvize our project…but we need your guidance and support..
Thanks and Regards,
Anurag
Anurag Sood
Hi Rahul,
Appreciate your ideas…we thought of same..that we should approach some known professionals to our site and here they can hel the beginners with there ideas and experinece..but it didn’t worked out..for teh same reason you mentioned…we don’t have any carrot to offer them,…
But as you said..we can go to the college people…this is one thing we can do..but before doing that i guess we need to improvize our product,
thanks for your valubale ideas and time.
Regards,
Anurag
Aneja Raj
Hey Anurag,
Welcome to Rodinhoods! No one leaves this place Demotivated. We are all a team here to help.
First of all, Congrats on the launch. The Site looks good & great job so far!.
Do you remember My Space? It was huge hit before Facebook launched. The latest news is that it got bought over by a company called Specific Media and the actor Justine Timberlake. Its no longer a general social networking site, but a site with is specialized in connecting music lovers. Check out their site. Not that they are a 600 pound gorilla like Facebook is, but I heard they are doing reasonably well.
Now coming to your site, (I checked out your site but not have not yet signed up). Its not going to be easy to promote it. There are no short cuts, this will take time and resources, but it is possible.
Some comments below:
1) Launch MOde – Since your site is a launch mode, you need to provide more information on the home page regarding what it is, so people who visit the site can sign up. If you hadn’t told me what the site is about, I would have never known. I would have simply left
2) Visuals – Its all about visuals these days. The imagery used appears to be slightly distorted, use high def images if u can / budget permits. It always helps
3) SEO doesn’t look great. When I searched “passioninyou” I got the following site links – terms of service, about us, contact us, privacy policy etc. There was nothing that indicated me what the site was about. In other words nothing that motivated to click me through. Search for “SEO” in Google and learn about how to improve traffic to your site. This is a good link on how you can improve
https://socialmediatoday.com/judi-knight/549236/ten-simple-seo-tips
SEO is going to be a critical area for you to focus. It can work wonders for you. It will take time.
4) Whats is the Value to the User – Make sure the value you offer is outstanding. You mentioned about 500 sign ups. If your product is really good then these 500 users should become your advocates. They can spread the word for and bring in more traffic.
5) Use social media effectively – simple things like creating a Facebook page, Google + page or a twitter account should help. Especially Google+, they impact your search results
6) Offline promotions are always good. Rodinhoods is a living example. The Rodinhoods events that happen all over India has a profound impact on the online forum.
7) Check the following link for tips on how to get free traffic to your site
https://www.webconfs.com/how-to-get-traffic-article-30.php
8) Check this popst on email marketing
https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/email-marketing-how-to-make-100-000?xg_source=activity
There are a lot of other things you can do, but the above are some good though starters. Biggest question for you will be regarding your revenue model. Start thinking about how you can convert all this traffic into revenue.
asha chaudhry
we’re 4887 members and counting abey…
Anurag Sood
Hi Aneja,
Really very thanks for your ideas and links..but the problem we are facing is…lack of funds for marketing..coz we need money for optimization and improvisation of site also…
will follow this once we get some money..neways really very thanks to you for ur valuable time.
Abey John
Forget the SEO, forget the marketing, forget the money.
First clarify your objective. What is it? Help people develop on their passion? Or do you want to help people develop on a specific passion?
The first is more motivational and involves psycho babble pumping on the motor of human purpose; very difficult to execute without 2-3 degrees in psychology or a deep dose of spirituality and a little touch of madness. The second is harnessing the power of the crowd to help each other.
Pick one area of passion – I think I saw music and body building in your group. Create a group that caters to one of these segments. Make it the go to destination on the internet for everything related to that niche. Music is too broad, too competitive, BUT it is still an industry with no clear platform leader in India. Actually at the current point in the Indian internet there is no real platform leader in any community space except maybe in entrepreneurship (Rodinhoods obviously! :)) At least that’s what I think. You guys will need to get together and decide on which passion you want to pursue…
The objective is simple – what do people of that particular passion want? what do they need? Find out, give it to them. Along the way figure out how to charge a honest fee and make money.
If you are going to wait for the money to come to do things, nothing’s going to happen…
Puneet Sharma
Wow Abey!! Kudos to (fucking) awesome advice.
Anurag Sood
Hats off sir.
Thanks for your valuable advice…will start working on it asap..and in case i need your help..will poke u.:)
Coz i know you won’t say no to me now..:)
Regards,
Anurag
Abey John
🙂 All the best. 🙂
Aneja Raj
Hi Anurag,
Two things to consider, right-
What you can do internally on the site to improve it and,
What you can do Externally to drive traffic.
On the external piece, there are Free things you should do right away that can help you. Things like creating your company page on Facebook or a Google plus or book marking your site will not cost you a penny.
Ratnakar Gokarn
Abey,
That was like open heart surgery without anesthesia..lol.
Brutal but necessary.
New startups make the mistake of thinking passion is the only requirement for a startup.
I don’t think anyone could have put things any better than your “the F***” modifier.
Startups that leave it to later to answer these questions are doomed.
The aim of startups should be to make money. Period! Anything else is waste of time. Every startup should clearly identify and objectify market opportunity, revenue models and go to market strategy.
This should be a sticky IMO.
Abey John
“The aim of startups should be to make money.” not entirely Ratnakar there are enough edge cases to contradict that but yes in general you need to have a good handle on your revenue plan before launching.
One edge case I can recall but which never got off the ground was Nikolai Tesla’s electricity tower project. This tower (now almost mythical) would have allowed the provision of wireless electricity to the entire world. Or so Tesla claimed. Assuming that Tesla was wrong about its reach and that it could only provide for a few 100 or 1000 kilometers it is still a worthy project.
The financier was all ready to build it and they had progressed half way even before they threw the kill switch. Reason? There was no way to control who got the electiricty and who didnt and therefore the businessman couldn’t hope to “build once” and “charge fees forever” with Tesla’s machine. Or so the story goes.
(At the entropic level its seems an impossibility to generate power like that. But Tesla was a genius and I like to believe that he had actually found the loophole in the theoretical structure (because entropy is a factual truth but in reality a lie). In any case if that project had taken off we’d have all had practically free electricity.)
The point here is this: Sometimes you just have to ignore the hope of money at the end of the tunnel and build out on your vision.
Abhishek Gupta
I am sure lot of people might have ripped u apart and someone might have u praised as well. going by your lines
u-” We did lots of planning for marketing,both online & offline but due to lack of fundsand resources we were not able to execute it.”
Me- What does that mean , if you did planning, was funds not part of it ? what was ur bus plan
revenue model, explain that first.
u-“from this point we don’t know how to proceed further,” –
me- which point u are talking about ? did u have product plan ? if you had, u must know next stage?
whats your revenue earning model ?
Who has developed ur website ? ( landing page- images not clear, USP’s not clear ,photo of team members are – poor.)
what was your business plan, If it was or was it just a passion to develop a website. Find out ur business plan??
from where u will earn revenue ? HOW?
Whts your fund status, I know a creative head of good IT co, who can get things in place but chrages are professional
he developed http://www.skillsfactory.in in Rs 35000. So for your it may be in range of 50,000 .
first find out your Buzz Plan revenue model, tracking systems, Your reason to start it, Goal, Vision,
Anurag Sood
Hello Abhisek,
Thanks for replying on this discussion.
-We had a marketing plan..had funds also but being human we did mistakes and waste our fund in un-neccasry stuffs..
-We didn’t make any professional b-plan,but we did make a good revenue model.
-We hade a product plan..but as always we digressed from our path.
-Our website is developed by a team of interns we hired from college..initially we outsourced it to a company in cp but they wasted lots of our time and energy.
-We are clear with our goals..WE TRIED TO CREATE A PLATFORM WHERE CREATIVE PEOPLE CAN MEET,SHARE THEIR IDEAS,DISCUSS THEIR THOUGHTS,CAN CREATE OR GRAB OPPURTUNITY SO THAT THEY CAN TAKE THEIR PASSION TO A PROFESSIONAL LEVEL.
Frankly speaking,we guyz didn”t worked professionaly,and here i posted this discussion so that we can take stand and decide whether we should continue with this or not.
Our idea has a good potential,but it required lot of time to grow and most of us are in hurry…so we were not able to decide whether we should continue with this or not..but from the replies over here..we get liltle motivation and discussing how to improvize our product and what we can do in marketing without spending much.
Thanks for your reference,will surely contact them when required.,
Regard.
Anurag