Filed under: Web services, Social Software
How to build a website with $12,000 and lots of bad PR
When it comes to web 2.0 startups, it may be that there really might be no such thing as bad press.Last month Guy Kawasaki launched Truemors, a Reddit-like site that lets users submit rumors, which any user can vote on. The most popular rumors are pushed to the top. When we first told you about Truemors, we pointed out that it was severely lacking in quality control, and most of the rumors on the first day were spam. But the things is -- we did tell you about the site.
Now Kawaski has written a post that breaks down the site's launch by the numbers.
- Kawasaki spent just $12,107.09 on software development, legal fees, logo design and domain registration.
- He spent $0 on PR.
- TechCrunch wrote about the site 3 times (twice before it launched, and once to pan it when it opened).
- The Inquirer called Truemors the "worst website ever" two days before launch.
- Truemors got 14,052 visitors on its first day.
- The site got 261,214 page views on its first day.
- There were 405 posts on the first day.
- 218 of them were spam, which administrators deleted.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gary Lee said 12:50PM on 6-04-2007
A lot of people think that if you build a site, the masses will come in droves, but what I like to use as an analogy with some of my clients is that the website is like a car and the marketing is your gas. So, at the end of the day, you're gonna need some gas to get where you're going!
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Dave Chartier said 1:27PM on 6-04-2007
Another huge factor going for Truemors is that it's from *Guy Kawasaki,* not *John Doe in his basement office.* Kawasaki didn't spend any money on PR because he doesn't have to - he's freaking Guy Kawasaki!
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lroeder said 2:45PM on 6-04-2007
Wow! I wish I could get that many page views. You've got a good point. There's a lot in a name.
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