Let's start a blogger's union

A blogger's union anyone?

I think it makes more sense if a bloggers union is formed.

It doesnt take much effort really to start one. Do we need an office? Not really. There are many bloggers and we can all easily divide simple tasks.

Marketing. What does Nuffnang do to attract advertisers? Spend 30k for one-day ad in STRAITS TIMES? NO!!! These days advertisers will come naturally to blogs because blogs have been proved to be a powerful media. Look at the Malaysian election! I dont think you need to do so much to get advertisers. What you need is a fax machine and blast to the ad agencies or potential advertisers like SingTel.

30% small? How do u know it's 30% in the first place? You think Nuffnang will disclose its exact figure? No way! They know that if they state so hig a figure, they'll risk their business and open a possibility of a blogger union. So I think, 30% is just BULLCRAP! It can be higher for all we know.

A blogger's union is more powerful than Nuffnang because we have a better sense of belonging and we are all friends who do not want to risk our shared credibility. We want to ensure ads are placed visibly and in return, we dont share 30-70% commissions to Nuffnang or others agency.
Not convinced? OK look. How much does it take to build a click-recording application plus websites etc? Less than $2000 to be honest with you.

Publicity? No problem. If bloggers unite newspapers will want to have a piece of the news. Talk about zero marketing dollars.

How much do Nuffnang get? And how much will the union gets? Companies like HP, Singtel, etc can spend 40k for one-day ad on ST. You think 30-50% is small so you can live with it? NOOO! It's not. If one year revenue is 5million, the union can get like 2 million. Thats why nuffnang can organize movie screening etc. There is money to be made.


Come on guys! Let's start a union.

Implement this on ping.sg to prevent ponging friends' entries

To ping.sg,

Please do not reveal who post the entries. This will prevent users from knowing who post it (but admin will know so that they can catch spammers etc).

This will also ensure that only readable materials get read. Something trivial like dinner will ever reach the top 10.

Just my 2 cents

YouSwop is going to fail!

I like new website ideas. But the idea behind YouSwop is certainly not new.

Those old enough to had used the internet back in 2000 when surfingbananas and interauct were still kings of Singapore online auctions might have realized that this concept was already there in around 2001 in the form of JuzSwap. The website failed of course, because it is difficult to match wants and haves. Most importantly, the society has always preferred to use money as a mode of exchange because it allows easier transactions and matching of haves and wants.

Patronising YouSwop is like going back against time and sooner or later the users (like our ancestors) realize that the correct way to do exchange is to involve money and not merely bartering one good for another.

The concept of ensuring credibilities of users is great because it allows user to transact safely. But this do not address the most important fact that matching is difficult. Once users realize that it is difficult to find what they want (cloth sizes, etc) they leave the website. And no one visits an empty website. The spiral continues and everybody leaves.

Hitchoo

Hitchoo is the date-matching service. This is how it works. You like a girl and you don't dare to say Hi. So you sneak a Hitchoo card into her bag or something. She will then check the card and log into Hitchoo site to see the stalker's profile.

Sounds innovative? Yes, but innovative does not always mean successful. And indeed this concept is not working. Hitchoo has already renewed its concept and now it offers event organizing service. Pretty good I think, although more marketing has to be done. The fact that the owner quit his high-flying job and spent so much to promote the initial concept makes me think that the business is actually cash-strapped.

A quick check into the event bidding system shows that there are only about 10 events in the next 30days in Singapore. No events is posted for Malaysia and other regional countries. It's Hitchoo's expansion plan I guess, but I don't think it's a good idea to show your weakness, that is low participation rate. If I were the owner, I would focus my marketing dollar on Singapore market. Showing Malaysia in the website is also bad when the section is empty. People like to participate in a website where participation rate is high.

The aftermatch of the business remains to be seen. But for me, finding a date will not be via Hitchoo.

Streetdirectory.com is down!

Remember the court ruling that Streetdirectory infringed Singapore Land Authority's (SLA) intellectual property by claiming that the maps in its website are theirs?

Streetdirectory intends to appeal of course, but since several days ago the website is down. Yup, when I need it most. Luckily got the new Mighty Minds bus guide, which is very good in my opinion in locating bus stops and their respectives buses.

My personal opinion about streetdirectory is never so good. They monolopized the online map business in Singapore and as you may have read, sued many companies for publishing their maps without permissions. The out-of- court settlements back then was quite high, in the region of tens of thousands I guess.

And they are making loads of money as well. I have checked their website for advertising rates. They charged like US$30 per one thousand impressions (CPM, M is not million btw). Can you imagine how many users actually view streetdirectory pages daily? Hundreds of thousands you might say. This translates into tens of thousands of revenues each day. All by doing practically nothing. Just hiring some IT staff to maintain the servers and probably some marketing and Search Engine Optimization.

Many online map providers have tried entering the market but failed miserably. Check out www.can.com.sg. It is dying. I'm not aware of any other map providers. Probably only yellowpages, which is not heavily publicized.

So now when streetdirectory got sued, I think they deserved it. They're making so much money by not paying the government the licence to publish the maps. It's like a turnkey website. Money is flowing freely without much cost.

How to deal with the absence of streetdirectory? No problem. Go to www.map.gov.sg. Not as good as streetdirectory, but I believe sooner or later streetdirectory will pay the goverment some fines and but the licence and everything goes back to normal. Only this time, the previously lucky owner will earn less.