Ask HN: Could you review my Startup?

[amzini]

Amzini is a resource specialized to help you find, compare, and learn about the best social networks for your particular interests/needs.

We're looking for an honest assessment of the site and how effectively it achieves these goals.

http://www.amzini.com

Thank you!

[samgro]

I think it could be interesting for another startup founder in some niche area to find community websites in their niche. Is that the target audience? If so it's a really small niche that's probably not going to pay you a whole lot.

Also, calling it a "social network" search engine is misleading. Twitter and Facebook are social networks; the other 898 are online communities around special interests.

I'd think long and hard about what problem you are solving, and sell the benefits rather than the features on your homepage. Watch this video from the Instagram founders: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2738

My gut reaction is that this is a solution looking for a problem.

[amzini]

Thank you for the feedback. The site aims to help two core target audiences.

I) Small Business - Businesses are starting to recognize the value of using social media in marketing. Facebook and Twitter especially are 'musts' for most small businesses. While these 'shotgun' approaches are useful, getting involved in niche networks/communities provides a much more targeted environment where it is easier to establish your brand and connect with potential customers.

II) For regular social network users, there is value in having a community and platform that is specialized for a particular purpose. If I like reading books, I may like to join a community where my profile is a bookshelf and I share reading lists and favorite authors. If I use a traditional search engine to find one, I come across mainly dead links, sign up pages, and other clutter making it hard to easily find the best one for my needs.

Rawsyntax - The second point you make has been a major concern in initial feedback. One issue is that Amzini actually has to create awareness that there are social networks for almost any purpose before its value becomes apparent.

Initial monitoring and feedback suggests Amzini has been able to pique interest and acquire new visitors, but metrics for repeat visits have shown signs of problems.

Now that I've explained the value/target audience further, do you see a need for such a service? And if so, how could the site be changed to better convey the value to you from the onset?

[djb_hackernews]

It's got a nice clean design, but you are going to need a lot marketing capital to get people to use it. You are dealing with two kinds of people:

    1) The people who have found their niche and are happy

    2) The people who haven't found their niche

If they can't find their niche on their own, how will they find you?

[abbasmehdi]

Reminds me of the 1990's Yahoo! for the web. I like the site, keep it functional. Improve it don’t expand it. You need to figure out how to get recurring traffic (I have an idea or two - badass idea to be honest but also quite obvious so I think you might know already).

[amzini]

At this point, the emphasis is definitely on improving rather than expanding. I realize it's much better to do one thing very well than do everything okay.

I've been thinking a lot about the recurring traffic issue lately, but I'd love to hear your ideas. Even if I have thought of it, another perspective is always useful. Thanks!

[abbasmehdi]

Make it like the tweetdeck of Social Networking. So if I have 15 profiles on 15 different social networks, give me 1 user name and password, through your site, that gives me a window into all my profiles, kind of like tabs on a web browser or something, I can tab through each network through your site. So your site is the only place I go to check all my profiles. You shift from being a discovery tool to a profile management console = major recurrence.

[rawsyntax]

Is there a need for this?

I've never had a need to search for social networks that meet my interests

[CobraKai]

I find it easy to navigate and it is useful in discovering new sites if you're a neophyte (like me!). I've already found 2 interesting new websites that I've never heard of before that I have bookmarked.

OP: But how will you monetize this?

[amzini]

I'm glad you like it! All the interesting ways to monetize the site come after Amzini reaches a critical mass of users. The focus now is on usability and site improvement rather than CTRs and other Ad metrics.

If Amzini can get a large amount of traffic, we will be able to do things such as offering thorough sponsored reviews to give social networks/communities exposure, create industry reports and do other consulting-type work, offer premium plans for small business/marketers for additional features, and create interesting info-graphics or articles to help maintain high traffic.

The difficult part is getting to a 'critical mass' of users to establish Amzini in the market and allow more ways to monetize the site than Adsense.

[aaronbrethorst]

Who is this for?