43 Things has launched. Kudos to the robots for building a solid team and an inspirational product in only a few months. This is the way to do things. Have the vision, find the people, and build. No BS. Building on rails helps too.
It was really a pleasure working with the Robot Co-op. Thanks for asking us to be involved guys. This was definitely one of our favorite projects ever.
So, go sign up and get started building your list so you can change your world.
A 500 error is being generated on the 43 Things server atm!
Could you please add padding: 0 to your body element? It's causing a minor display bug in Opera ( seen here).
I must be dense. But I don't see the point. It seems like just another "must-see" destination that really just adds to the Internet noise out there.
I'm getting 500 server errors as well...
The site is up. Help me achieve my worthy goal:
http://www.43things.com/people/view/asianmack
Hmm... a lot of 500 Server errors. Do you know the cause of this? Is there a load problem? Some server misconfiguration? Some error in programming or an error in the Rails platform itself?
This aspect of launching a web service is very interesting to me. Once you get everything straightened out, please let us know what happended!
Hmm... You've got to feel a bit sorry for the robots right now. Looks like the launch isn't going as smoothly as planned.
on the one hand, it is too bad the new site is going back and forth
on the other, have you tried downloading the windows ruby installer? --> http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=167 it's moving veeeery slow today (as if a LOT of people were downloading the file)
kinda ties it all together
on the one hand, it is too bad the new site is going back and forth
on the other, have you tried downloading the windows ruby installer? --> http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=167 it's moving veeeery slow today (as if a LOT of people were downloading the file)
kinda ties it all together
Not getting any errors but it does output some cruddy XHTML when you post to an external blog. It puts divs around everything, single quotes for attributes, no alt attribute on images, and it sends the actual Textile code instead of the HTML in some places.
It's early, I'm sure things will get better. It seems like a good idea so hopefully it improves.
We're working on those timeout errors, folks. Thanks for your patience. And the XHTML bug will be fixed. Us robots will make you proud in the end ;-)
I like the overall idea (my list has 7 things so far) and I think I get the premise behind the whole thing...I just don't understand where the money starts coming in...call me a Capitalist Pig if you want.
Make something private a public & social experience, get a bunch of visitors, then ... profit?
But seriously, where's the explanation behind the whole thing? I'd be interested to hear a straight answer from the people behind the site.
I kind of see this whole thing as a new trend, as this weekend I discovered sites that aim to share bookmarks, photos, etc - then make that experience social.
I get the revenue model behind Flickr, I just don't get the payoff for other sites of this type. Maybe I'm just stupid.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
It should not be hard to figure out the business model. The site is advertising supported. We target ads based on people's goals. We get paid when people click on the ads. The goal is to produce a page for less than we make showing it to you. The difference in revenue minus the costs is the profit.
This is the same business model used by search engines (like Google) or information portals (like about.com) or community sites (like friendster). These sites give away a service and monetize traffic with ads.
Maybe you are trying too hard to figure it out! Take a look at a page like Visit Italy and I think you'll get it. We aren't trying to knock the ball out of the park. Just build a useful site that is fun and interesting. About.com is a top 100 website - and we think we can make something at least as useful with 43 things.
Josh. Your ad sensing technology is top notch. No bullshit! Check out the ad served for my goal. Pretty amazing accuracy actually (totally serious, not joking).
http://43things.com/things/view/6210
Nice idea. Unfortunately I think there is no way to avoid duplicated/similar things... like visit New Zeland and Visit New Zeland... right?
Ah! So that's why there are Google ads on the SvN comment pages. (Especially good when blogging about web design, 'cos then you have adverts for potential competitors.)
Jamie - I liked the ad on your goal here even better
http://43things.com/things/view/8882
Marco - that lone Visit New Zealand looks like a remnant from an earlier bug. Thanks for catching it. Goals that differ only by capitalization and punctuation should now be the same.
now if someone can link 43things and flickr together we can get a "pictures of me working towards my goal". Now you get a sense that people are actually doing what they said.
Josh,
I was thinking there was more to it besides the ads. I guess just consider me skeptical of advertising as a business model on the web. I've seen it fail all too often - Really, how many companies are doing exceptionally well only off ads? I'm not sure, but I'd be willing to bet the number is low (companies like Google being the exception to the rule).
Not knocking your service, because I think it's novel and I'm using it. I guess mine is more of a concern of the business model as a whole...or maybe I'm just pissed I didn't think of it! :)
Anyone have information about how profitable ventures similar to this one are?
Anyone have information about how profitable ventures similar to this one are?
Often times companies don't go out of biz cause they can't pull in enough revenue, but rather because their costs are too high. It's really easy to be profitable if you keep your costs in check.
Often times companies don't go out of biz cause they can't pull in enough revenue, but rather because their costs are too high. It's really easy to be profitable if you keep your costs in check.
Werd.
I would bet 43things, if it stays at its current activity rate, can clear 15-20K/mo MINIMUM with advertising.
Not a fortune, but if they keep it up, it could be.
If they keep their costs down, it will be.
Great work guys, really cool idea! I'm just curious about the ads. They look like Google's Adsense, but they don't look like Adsense. How did you do this, get them separated into divs like that?