Image courtesy of D@vie.
With each of these Hundred Dollar Business projects, I attempt to learn something new about business… In this project, I wanted to practice:
- Marketing techniques
- Building a community around an idea
- Creating something of value for the reader
- Shifting from the mindset of an inventor “my idea is cool” to “this is something people can use”
- Market research– finding out what people think about different topics
So, here are some things I learned:
- Sending mass emails to friends & family is absolutely pointless. (Of the 40 I emailed, only 1 or 2 actually responded.)
- If you want people to return to your site, the content must be consistent, interesting, and relevant.
- The content has to attract the reader, not reflect the writer’s interests. At first, many questions were tech-related, because I like technology. But not all of our readers are interested in that….
- Marketing results are tied to marketing efforts. Do something interesting, people will come. Don’t, and they don’t either.
- Even “simple” and “small” projects can eat up a lot of time– so you have to watch how you’re using the time. Not all tasks are necessary or relevant to the goal. Often, I analyzed and reported statistics, when it provided no increased results in site traffic or responses. So I stopped doing that and instead focused on making the site more interesting.
- People are more likely to respond if there is a photo of some kind included in the post. No photos, less responses.
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The Sum-Up
I really like the Human Census Project. It’s been fun. Unlike some of the other projects I’ve done, I think it has long-term potential, although I’m not sure exactly what or how yet.
So I’m going to continue Human Census past the 30 days. There will be some changes (for example, I won’t be posting questions on the weekends anymore, since hardly anyone reads or responds to them), but we’ll keep it going.
If you don’t mind, check out our Day 31 Question and let me know what you think… 
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