It looks well-implemented... Design is slick. In the "build something people want" vein -- why does anyone want this? If you can answer that question, you should add benefit statements to your home page... Or example use cases.
My gut response is that your most common use case is that a person wants to build a "best of" list that other people can contribute to... The end benefit being that you might discover stuff that you weren't aware of, right?
If I'm passionate enough about a subject area that I want to make a best-of list, is discovery a huge motivation? And if it was, wouldn't I head to a destination site centered around that subject area for that discovery? Or just google for "best sci fi books of 2007" or somesuch? It seems that you'd have a better chance finding great unseen movies on IMDB instead of creating a list on Seekler (given that movie buffs are likely to hang out on movie-centric sites).
This seems like a classic example of trying to appeal to all audiences. I'd suggest creating a 3rd level domain for the most list-centric audience you can find. If it's comics, create "comics.seekler.com" and see if you can make it fly.
Well, I'm pretty passionate about comics, but I'm always having trouble finding the next really great Batman graphic novel. We're trying to appeal to consumers who know something about an area, but are still looking to find new stuff within it.
The scenario we imagine is this: I'm looking for a new Batman comic. I google 'Best Batman Comics' and Seekler appears in the first page of results (we're not there yet, but we on the front page for a few of our lists). I go there, and hopefully quickly find something I hadn't heard of. But, during this process, I find that 'Batman: Year One' is ranked above 'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns'. I think that's obviously wrong, so I create my own list to rank the Batman comics I have read, putting TDKR on top and adding another Batman comic that wasn't even on the list.
So in our mind, the scenario is reversed - most people will come just to find new stuff on lists built by experts (who will be us and outside sources, initially). Eventually a small percentage of them will start contributing back to the site and make the lists even better.
Thanks for the feedback. You're right that we need to clarify the benefit on the home page - and narrowly targeting a list-centric audience is a great idea too, we're planning on doing exactly that.
Comments
It looks well-implemented... Design is slick. In the "build something people want" vein -- why does anyone want this? If you can answer that question, you should add benefit statements to your home page... Or example use cases.
My gut response is that your most common use case is that a person wants to build a "best of" list that other people can contribute to... The end benefit being that you might discover stuff that you weren't aware of, right?
If I'm passionate enough about a subject area that I want to make a best-of list, is discovery a huge motivation? And if it was, wouldn't I head to a destination site centered around that subject area for that discovery? Or just google for "best sci fi books of 2007" or somesuch? It seems that you'd have a better chance finding great unseen movies on IMDB instead of creating a list on Seekler (given that movie buffs are likely to hang out on movie-centric sites).
This seems like a classic example of trying to appeal to all audiences. I'd suggest creating a 3rd level domain for the most list-centric audience you can find. If it's comics, create "comics.seekler.com" and see if you can make it fly.
Well, I'm pretty passionate about comics, but I'm always having trouble finding the next really great Batman graphic novel. We're trying to appeal to consumers who know something about an area, but are still looking to find new stuff within it.
The scenario we imagine is this: I'm looking for a new Batman comic. I google 'Best Batman Comics' and Seekler appears in the first page of results (we're not there yet, but we on the front page for a few of our lists). I go there, and hopefully quickly find something I hadn't heard of. But, during this process, I find that 'Batman: Year One' is ranked above 'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns'. I think that's obviously wrong, so I create my own list to rank the Batman comics I have read, putting TDKR on top and adding another Batman comic that wasn't even on the list.
So in our mind, the scenario is reversed - most people will come just to find new stuff on lists built by experts (who will be us and outside sources, initially). Eventually a small percentage of them will start contributing back to the site and make the lists even better.
Thanks for the feedback. You're right that we need to clarify the benefit on the home page - and narrowly targeting a list-centric audience is a great idea too, we're planning on doing exactly that.
We are planning on adding some example use cases on the homepage, a box like "What can I find on Seekler?"
best movies featuring Morgan Freeman
best batman comics
favorite female American Gladiator
and having all the examples link in to the lists that answer these qeustions. Do you think that would help get the idea across?