Continue or pack it in - idea is validated but Community building too difficult
My idea was a community that lets Podcasters connect easily with each other to speak on one-another's shows.
As the topic states - I validated the idea and got interest from several users for my community project, but when it comes to signing up so people can get started, nobody is willing to do it since there aren't enough other users on the site. I have been doing a lot of indirect customer development (exploring what people want by making them tell me instead of pitching) and it seems the idea would help a lot but the community building aspect makes it too hard to get off the ground. Another issue is monetization, I could use ads but I'm thinking that switching to a new SaaS/AaaS idea is probably better and faster to become a self-sufficient business. Any thoughts on this? Should I continue to try and market this or start the next thing?
Glad to hear you reach out @borzi
I think your idea is still at the validation stage, given that people stop at sign up, you should definitely ask them why they refuse to onboard. You might want to improve the onboarding process and optimize that.
Even I'm doing a not innovative side hustle, proactively reach out and optimize conversion is a good way to drive long term success.
Re monetization: Maybe too early to consider without prior user traction and acceptance using a new product.
I agree with a lot of what you mentioned, thanks for the advice!
Hey Marc! I'm wondering if you'd have any interest in working together on this community building stuff.
I experienced the exact same issue as I was building my first project (Clipps) and have since put that on hold to go all-in on building a community of podcasters first. I think your idea for CastSpot is GREAT, and I think if we were to work together to build CasterCommunity we could both benefit from it's success.
What do you think? Feel free to email me as well if you have any questions.
I would be, thanks for reaching out! I sent an email.
I would suggest trying to capture emails from interested parties before you build anything, then when you launch, the idea is to get a rush of signups and hopefully get off the ground
Yeah that's a great idea I think.
Hi Marc, I know building a community is a real challenge! What platform are you using right now and can I ask how much time you have spent building awareness of your community? Also when you say 'sign up' - is this signing up for a member subscription? Or signing up to join the community? This is what I'm going to be focusing on next having spent time gathering an initial group of people to help test the concept - all of whom have signed up to join the community but I am now going to invest a small amount of money - $1000 on digital marketing to build brand awareness and to see if I can generate more traffic to the community platform, get people to sign up to join and then convert them to a paid membership from there.
I coded the platform from scratch, it's not a fullblown chatting type of community in that sense.