How to Avoid Irreparably Destroying Your Reputation Before You Even Have One(blogdesignguy.com)
blogdesignguy.com
How to Avoid Irreparably Destroying Your Reputation Before You Even Have One
http://blogdesignguy.com/how-to-avoid-irreparably-destroying-your-reputation-before-you-even-have-one/
10 comments
This reminds me of why Color flopped. When people hear you've raised a titanic sum of money prelaunch, especially from a VC firm like Sequoia, the expectations for your product are exponentially higher than if you raise a decent A round from angels and small VC firms. Color was a base hit when everyone expected a grand slam. From that moment on, they face an overwhelmingly tough task convincing people their first impressions were wrong.
Same with Cuil. I think by this point it’s safe to say this isn’t the best way to market your new service.
But these guys have webcam, chat, games, classifieds and ... much more! :-)
Yeah, and using their chat is as simple as signing in via Facebook!
From their Twitter stream:
> The most epic website launch of all time... The Facebook Competitor may reign supreme,,,, uh oh Zuckerberg
",,,,"? Why do people struggle with their language so much? I mean, all you need to do is get a sentence right, and I'm guessing they'd seen an ellipsis before.
> The most epic website launch of all time... The Facebook Competitor may reign supreme,,,, uh oh Zuckerberg
",,,,"? Why do people struggle with their language so much? I mean, all you need to do is get a sentence right, and I'm guessing they'd seen an ellipsis before.
It's ironic that you can like "Social Pog - The greatest social network of all time" on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-Pog-The-greatest-social...
It's ironic that the site is now struggling because of all the traffic it's getting ;)
And guess what, they're using Facebook Connect https://twitter.com/#!/kevinrose/statuses/80809855933353984
And guess what, they're using Facebook Connect https://twitter.com/#!/kevinrose/statuses/80809855933353984
I guess there's another lesson here - don't let anyone you don't know do promotional work on your behalf. "Anthony" apparently let someone do some promotional efforts for socialpog thinking "what harm can it do?" and then found out it can do a lot of harm. He probably spent money with for that promotional effort too, which makes this all the more tragic.
I can relate to Anthony. He seems like a nice guy who fell in love with an idea and let blind ambition get the best of him. When I was new to online entrepreneurship, I did things just as stupid, but they (thankfully) got far less attention.
Hopefully he learns from this and pushes forward with new and better projects.
Hopefully he learns from this and pushes forward with new and better projects.
Thanks JD.
I appreciate your understanding and support.
I have learned a lesson that most won't. Aspirations grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into a pile of poop.
I appreciate your understanding and support.
I have learned a lesson that most won't. Aspirations grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into a pile of poop.
everything is dead. the digg link is dead. the site http://www.socialpog.com is giving an error. the linked video is dead.
at the bottom of the page (the blog design guy link) the site owner appears, apologising. it seems like comments are from about 6 hours ago.
at the bottom of the page (the blog design guy link) the site owner appears, apologising. it seems like comments are from about 6 hours ago.
It comes up for me - half the time. The other half is a 500 error.
Also, their homepage is a screen requiring me to login. What? Why? I don't know anything about you, SocialPog - how about a page that explains what you are before asking me to invest.
Also, why is this required? http://i.imgur.com/avHf3.png And what happened here? http://i.imgur.com/Ou3Uv.png And why do I have to sign in using someone else's system to chat? http://i.imgur.com/td9zr.png
Also, their homepage is a screen requiring me to login. What? Why? I don't know anything about you, SocialPog - how about a page that explains what you are before asking me to invest.
Also, why is this required? http://i.imgur.com/avHf3.png And what happened here? http://i.imgur.com/Ou3Uv.png And why do I have to sign in using someone else's system to chat? http://i.imgur.com/td9zr.png
@pavel_lishin Excellent points, thanks for your constructive criticism.
I'll touch on the chat a little. Good idea or not, I'll let you guys be the judge. The chat feature was to connect everyone site wide. Then would be defined to location and friends if needed....Problem was integration. Without signing in through facebook/twitter it allowed users to create fake names which couldn't be allowed for obvious reasons. Plans to design new chat were in the works during this fiasco.
IDK, maybe future UI's for social networks will have this option. Personally I like this option, but understand it may be not for everyone.
I'll touch on the chat a little. Good idea or not, I'll let you guys be the judge. The chat feature was to connect everyone site wide. Then would be defined to location and friends if needed....Problem was integration. Without signing in through facebook/twitter it allowed users to create fake names which couldn't be allowed for obvious reasons. Plans to design new chat were in the works during this fiasco.
IDK, maybe future UI's for social networks will have this option. Personally I like this option, but understand it may be not for everyone.
I never really understood why people lie about their site in order to gain users. I mean, you can't fool them for very long, so your opportunity for whatever you plan is has to be very quick.
The only thing I can think is that they expect to earn a lot of money real quick to help fund development... But I really can't see that working.
The only thing I can think is that they expect to earn a lot of money real quick to help fund development... But I really can't see that working.
Absolutely no money was earned or was expected.
If my intentions were money driven I could have thrown up ads or offers to try and convert (or just a simple lander with one signup offer). 42,200+ unique views yesterday would make most marketers very happy. Those weren't my intentions at any point.
If my intentions were money driven I could have thrown up ads or offers to try and convert (or just a simple lander with one signup offer). 42,200+ unique views yesterday would make most marketers very happy. Those weren't my intentions at any point.
This is a reason why (to some extent) you should let users dictate your marketing for you. What I mean by that is to avoid touting yourself as this mega awesome site and just sort of go with the flow. Your users, if they exist, will take care of getting the word out. Doing things like this is cheap and not representative of a company that's interested in their own success. Also, the whole "Facebook" killer thing? Why has it become common practice for new social networks to have to "kill" their competitors? If they were truly intelligent, they'd develop some feature as the core of their service that Facebook lacks and then put that at the forefront. This, though, isn't helpful and doesn't draw any interest toward the product.
Thanks @rg
Couldn't agree with your comments more. Marketing and target audience was a bad idea from the beginning.
Couldn't agree with your comments more. Marketing and target audience was a bad idea from the beginning.
I run a web BBS, and we had to deal with my competitor spamming imageboards. It didn't do him much good (because he's finally gone), but he gained infamy because of the incident, thus ruining his real life and causing him much debt.
What's a web BBS? And can you elaborate more on what happened?
Hey,
This is "Anthony". Lesson learned absolutely. Not a whole lot to say except for gigantic mistake on my part. Let this be a lesson to all new webmasters. Shortcuts as JD has written are bad ideas. Respect is earned, and I in know way deserve it.
The article JD wrote was absolutely amazing. While reading I was just shaking my head at my self.
This is "Anthony". Lesson learned absolutely. Not a whole lot to say except for gigantic mistake on my part. Let this be a lesson to all new webmasters. Shortcuts as JD has written are bad ideas. Respect is earned, and I in know way deserve it.
The article JD wrote was absolutely amazing. While reading I was just shaking my head at my self.
HUH! I never think in that way!