Getting ODIs to a Tipping Point
So far, I think the ideas that have been generated are all very interesting and feasible to some degree. However, I feel that were no taking "tipping points" into account.
Two hurdles I see us having to jump for the ideas are:
- Visitor W-O-M. We need to make the idea compelling enough that people will visit the site and tell others, even in the beginning when there is little content.
- Visitor Contribution.Secondly, we have to make the site compelling enough that people will contribute content, votes, or even capital when there isn't much content and there aren't many visitors.
I think the MillionDollarHomePage.com is a perfect example of an idea that was able to overcome this hump without considerable effort. The creator simply sent the web site to everybody he knew and that was enough to get the momentum going. There was an incentive for advertisers to take a risk because the financial risk was small, while the benefits of being an early adopter include: less congestion, choice of ad placement, and more visitors over time as the idea grows. Furthermore, there is an incentive for advertisers to spread the idea.
A different case study is The Business Experiment. Their idea has generated a lot of chatter and publicity, but the contributions from its members haven't been large. In fact, there are a lot of free riders waiting to see if it is worth putting in more time. From this, I would argue that getting visitor contributions is perhaps the largest component in the beginning.
Perhaps we should focus on making crazy incentives for early adopters who are contributors. My sense is that if you can get people to champion the idea in the very beginnig, then the idea will reach tipping point sooner. At its most simple level, I think this can be accomplished by lowering the risks and increasing the potential upside. Ideas for accomplishing this can be seen at Qualities of Successful ODIs.
Posted at October 21, 2005 05:07 AM
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