ExtJS Feed Viewer vs Google Reader
I hate Google Reader. I don’t mind using Outlook 2007 for reading RSS feeds, but it’s not something I can use on Linux and it’s not portable (online).
Here’s and idea to fix that problem. Use this viewer here: http://www.extjs.com/deploy/dev/examples/feed-viewer/view.html
It is an ExtJS Feed reader that was developed by the ExtJS group. It’s not exactly easy to understand, but once you learn Ext you can update and change this so that multiple users can use it.
You would need to update it so that multiple users can create accounts and then add their own feeds. The unlimited commercial license for ExtJS is only $330. Not too bad.
Then all you need is a cool flashy font-end site to market this application. Bloglines has a cool front-end site that you could model (http://www.bloglines.com/)
The last thing you would have to do is to monetize the site. You can do this a couple ways:
- Offer special features that only premium members can use. Charge the premium members $9.95 a month to use the service.
- Place Google Ads at the bottom of every summary post. This gives you a wide range of keywords with varying Earnings Per Click. And with an average user having 15 feeds you can have several hundred ad impressions through just one user depending on how many feeds he read in a given day.
- Another way to monetize the site without invading your user’s feeds would be to place Google Ads in the header of the ExtJS feed viewer and at the bottom near the footer.
- You could use a combination of Google Ads and Text Link Ads. With text link ads your income isn’t based on clicks its based primarily on Google PR and your Alexa rank.
I keep running across sites that I want to follow and read periodically but when I try to add them to my Google reader I get discouraged cause it’s such a mess. I only have 50+ feeds in there but its very difficult to organize them as cleanly as I can in Outlook 2007 or other feed readers.
So if anyone wants an almost surefire business opportunity this is one. In fact one could say that if it was done well, and you started building a following -within 6 to 12 months you would probably have Google approach you for a buyout. At the very least get Michael Arrington and his group to mention you on techcrunch.com – that should give you a good boost as well.
How to test your website idea for profitability with little development time
I hated English class –almost always got nailed on papers for plagiarism. And I know you’re not supposed to start a letter or a blog post with an apology, but hey this isn’t English class so I can do whatever I want. Besides I started this post with a slam on English class –so there.
Sorry I haven’t posted in a month, I have been very busy. I am still working with a group here locally on a new jobs site called ENG.com which is taking up some of my time and I am trying to finish up the initial draft application for Alliteration Plus. Anyway…
What if you have an idea which I usually do, but you are totally booked like the list I mentioned above plus a few other things that I didn’t mention. Wouldn’t it be nice to see if your idea had any merit?
Depending on the site you are thinking of building it may take you a couple hundred hours in development time, and then you have to hire out someone to skin it and make the site pretty for you. Not a lot of time there, but there is money spent –unless you skin it yourself which takes even more time. I suck at graphics and I rarely come up with a color palette that looks good –so I don’t do this anymore.
Building a new website like this is a waste of time especially since you have no idea if the site will work or not. Now you may think well if I don’t build it first class and pretty then no one will use it. Not true there were plenty of sites out there that sucked and they made it. In fact even after they made it the sites overall functional flow and look just blew. But it satisfied a need that people had and provided value –so they overlooked the obvious flaws. (I knew some girls like that –you know had obvious flaws but they satisfied a need. Just kidding –or am I?) So my point is that a simple website that performs the unique functions that separate this site from another is all you need to test your idea and determine the sites potential.
So knowing that doesn’t it make a lot more sense to build a web site as plain Jane as possible and get it online? Make it functional and get some backlinks to it, perform some SEO on it and then go back to your other projects. Don’t wait for the result or you will be waiting a while. But at least this way the concept application or website is up there and if it works it works and people will come and do whatever they are suppose to do on that site. As your member base grows you will see your profits grow. Then you can take “new” money and use it to put a face-lift on that web site.
What have you accomplished? Two things: you built a new website quickly, usually in under a week and you have had your web site tested by the market. They will decide whether it’s a good idea or not. If the market likes it, upgrade and optimize it. Then move on to the next one.
