Hey Nicholas, thanks so much for writing this up again! Really kind of you.
Good point about the FB stuff - we did have the option to browse, but that seems to have been missed in the latest update.
The SEO suggestion is spot on. It's something we've perhaps lost sight of a little in the throws of building the site, but in hindsight, it's something we should have been building in right from the beginning. Discrete geographic sections, as you suggest, could be great for this.
The social 'flow' too is something that's important which isn't fully developed yet. I agree with every post you should have the option to auto-tweet / post, in fact the app should lead you through this process & make it feel rewarding too.
The sharing buttons we have in there right now are (as I think you said in your original post) admittedly a bit half-baked - so also a great place to improve :)
In terms of community, it's a slow burn. We've been reaching out to a few local communities for whom Yoink really makes 'sense' - i.e. Burning Man, Freegans and Disaffected Freecyclers but as much as they've provided incredibly positive feedback, there's still a lot of friction to getting things listed. It's amazing how easy it is for someone to say they like something, but then the next step - taking an action - is immensely harder. Whilst some could see this as discouraging, we rather are trying to find out what the real 'mechanic' is for people who'd want to post. Ultimately I guess whatever we do it largely comes down to a lot of grunt work, which slowly builds inventory & traction.
I'll have more of a think about online communities, and potential ad partners.
Flyering has afforded limited success so far, Of ~500 flyers handed out to people, we calculated around 60 visits, 10 signups, 1 post.. So it doesn't seem to be the most efficient system just yet :) I wonder how effective it actually is.. if you think to yourself how many times have you ever taken a flyer and taken action...?
But a few interesting things to think about for sure! Really appreciate you taking the time to write this up again!
Indeed - so I'm taking from that, the notion of 'give things away' seem a little too abstract? How about if we suggested a select few types of item you might like to give - could that help?
Brilliant perspectives, thank you. I think you're right - gratitude is SO important in the transaction. In time, we hope a focus on that will be one of the most remarkable things about Yoink - and we can really amplify the intrinsic rewards people get from giving.
To help virality, Facebook integration should roll out in the next week, and regarding gamification - I guess we just need to get a decent number exchanges happening before all of those feedback components really come into their own. Some good ideas in there - really appreciate the feedback.
Completely agree - the blog has to offer value on it's own. I As a reference, the Kissmetrics blog is probably one of the best examples I've found of a blog done 'right' - I get a small rush of excitement every time a new post arrives in my inbox because I know that their content is also so insanely useful :) Far too many bloggers now write just for the sake of writing, and I wonder who exactly they're trying to help, other than themselves. Your advice is duly noted, thanks :)
Thank you - great idea! We explored the idea of closed groups a little while ago but hadn't thought of the 'push' angle.. could be a very interesting addition. Really appreciate the input :)
Hey Cedric! A blog is a fantastic idea, one of the potential downsides is that we're focusing on a pretty tight geographic area - and blogs have a very broad reach. Inbound marketing is definitely something we're keen to develop over time, but with with limited resources, I'm wondering what might have the most impact right now in terms of kickstarting things..
I guess to clarify a little we see two sides of the equation: We want to reach people in NYC with a large volume of things to give away (movers might be a perfect example). We need to a) reach these people at a time when they're in the mindset for passing things onto others, and b) equally have enough people who're keen to pick things up so the transaction's as efficient as possible. Classic chicken-egg :)
It's a neat plugin for your app that helps stop 1* reviews, with a companion app to feed you realtime sales data & other feedback on a live dashboard. Let us know if you'd find it useful & we'll start coding!