[andrewcross]

If I'm understanding correctly, you are hoping this will become a site where people come for travel inspiration (e.g. I'm thinking of a trip to Thailand, so I come to your site, see the trips the travel bloggers have put up and go through them). If that's correct, you're going to have a tremendously hard time getting this off the ground.

Why don't you just focus on the travel bloggers side to begin with? Specifically, I think there's a need for a Soundcloud-esque embeddable widget that people can put directly in their blogs (naturally linking back to you). THAT provides real value IMO. Most blogs are highly entertaining, but they rarely have mapped content - you can provide that.

From someone that's founded a travel marketplace & failed, avoid network effects in the beginning if at all possible. It's a whole other level of pain, that in your case at least, I don't think is needed.

I'm actually going backpacking for 3 months starting next week, so if you come out with a widget, I'm more than happy to use the beta versions and give you feedback.

[doragcoder]

> ... avoid network effects in the beginning if at all possible. It's a whole other level of pain...

Can you explain what you mean by that? I thought network effects were good. No?

[andrewcross]

Network effects are great...when you have them. But in the beginning you won't. That's why if you can provide value to an individual user without requiring network effects, it will make your life a lot easier.

In this case, if you get bloggers using your product, logging their trips, etc, you'll slowly build up your content. Once it's comprehensive enough for travellers to get value from it, you'll be able to build network effects from a much stronger position.

[prayerslayer]

> I thought network effects were good. No?

They are. But you shouldn't rely on them in the beginning because they won't be there.