Side Project?

MentalClinic · #1 (**permalink**) 02-22-2008, 02:59 PM

I got my flatland site up and now I'm thinking of a 'side project' aka second site. I just want to make a site for wider audience this time, not just for so small group of people.
But I got no idea what to do at this point, so I'm asking you guys

What site would you like to see more often? I would like to make a time-killer site for people who get really bored from time to time. But I got no idea what exactly.. I don't want to do something that has been done thousand times before either (Which is really the hardest part..).

lisa · #2 (**permalink**) 02-22-2008, 03:21 PM

A time killer site could do well but you have to think about how you'd promote that. What keywords would you expect someone to find you with? (assuming you will be relying on SE traffic at first). When I start a new site I first try to do something that interests me but I also think in terms of "How will people find me?" So I guess that's a big part of a site like that.

Email forwards would be one way. I've seen a lot of those Flash sites get popular from people just sending it to their friends but other than that you'd have to have some kind of plan for marketing.

MentalClinic · #3 (**permalink**) 02-22-2008, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lisa

A time killer site could do well but you have to think about how you'd promote that. What keywords would you expect someone to find you with? (assuming you will be relying on SE traffic at first). When I start a new site I first try to do something that interests me but I also think in terms of "How will people find me?" So I guess that's a big part of a site like that.

Email forwards would be one way. I've seen a lot of those Flash sites get popular from people just sending it to their friends but other than that you'd have to have some kind of plan for marketing.

I'm not sure about time killer part. And actually one of the main reasons I want to make another site is because I want to try promoting it like a "regular" website. I knew from the beginning that the flatland site will be 99% advertised by word of mouth.. and to be honest that's kinda boring

I want to work on getting more traffic and potentially more income. There still is quite a lot of time until summer when I plan to actually start advertising the flatland site so the "side project" shouldn't be a bad idea.

I've accidentally found tons of sites I find myself surfing for hours at nights when I'm bored.. sometimes these sites are really the easiest sites imaginable with a lot of unique and cool photos for example. Something like this was in my mind when I made the thread.

It's really hard for me to find something specific to do a site about that I really could talk a lot about. I guess I'm what some would call Jack of all trades, master of none. I have done a lot of stuff over time, but nothing in-depth..

Actually, I've been thinking for a long time about making something 'addictive' or something a lot of people would find helpful and/or fun, but I simply don't know what it could be.
I've been actually even thinking about making a game (either something simple in flash or something more advanced in some C). Something really stupid like MyMiniCity or whatever. I would really like to develop something unique instead talking about stuff million people have already done before, I know I could do it, I'm just searching for that spark-idea to fire the gas fumes. I don't expect anyone to help me with that, but if someone has some idea on something like this I would be more than glad to hear it

MentalClinic · #4 (**permalink**) 02-28-2008, 09:06 PM

Umm.. Sorry, but:
BUMP

lisa · #5 (**permalink**) 02-28-2008, 09:19 PM

When I had my site that was based on a soap opera, I had a script that allowed you to warp an image. So I put up photos of the cast and let people warp their faces. That page got soooo much traffic and people loved it.

So something like allowing people to upload their own photos and then have them warp them would be fun.

And sites that allow people to dress up people are always fun too. There was a site I used to go a while back where you could dress up celebrities. You started with a naked mannequin and you could click and drag the clothes onto the person. You could choose from different style hats, shoes, pants, skirts, shirts, and each wardrobe fit whoever the person was.

So if it was Dolly Parton then there would be all these flashy dresses, big earrings, etc. that you could choose from. It was a very cool site and they had almost every celebrity you could imagine. The faces even looked like the real people. I think the site was done in Flash. Wish I remembered the URL.

When I was bored at work I would go on there and just play for what would seem like hours.

MentalClinic · #6 (**permalink**) 02-28-2008, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lisa

When I had my site that was based on a soap opera, I had a script that allowed you to warp an image. So I put up photos of the cast and let people warp their faces. That page got soooo much traffic and people loved it.

So something like allowing people to upload their own photos and then have them warp them would be fun.

And sites that allow people to dress up people are always fun too. There was a site I used to go a while back where you could dress up celebrities. You started with a naked mannequin and you could click and drag the clothes onto the person. You could choose from different style hats, shoes, pants, skirts, shirts, and each wardrobe fit whoever the person was.

So if it was Dolly Parton then there would be all these flashy dresses, big earrings, etc. that you could choose from. It was a very cool site and they had almost every celebrity you could imagine. The faces even looked like the real people. I think the site was done in Flash. Wish I remembered the URL.

When I was bored at work I would go on there and just play for what would seem like hours.

Heh, yeah.. these are "Dress-Up Games".. and actually this might not be a bad idea.
I don't mean dress-up game.. theres just too many. But online photomanipulation. Tinypic recently launched a project called TinyFX, you can upload a picture and then manipulate it, add different effects, crop it etc.

There are probably a lot of people who would like to do some simple "photo-tuning".. So maybe more advanced version of TinyFX would be good idea? I don't really want to say "more advanced", I can't make it much better than tinyFX, I can just add more options. And then let people save it to their own computer..
This way it wouldn't use a lot of bandwidth (I really can't pay for own server or tons of bandwidth at the moment.. Possibly later?) and shouldnt be THAT hard to code as well, I mean.. I got time, so no problem

What you think? I got some plans with Flash for my current site anyways, so I need to trim-up my "flash skills" anyway..

EDIT:
On second thought, flash doesn't have a lot options to apply filters and such to images. which is one of the key elements to photo manipulation. All it could do is add movement, like tinyFX has done, and that requires quiet a lot bandwidth, or simply move/crop images, and maybe do something like change hue or something which would be pretty pointless

So that wouldn't probably work..

And the photo warping was probably done with Java? I wonder if java would have more options for image manipulation, java is more of a scripting language so it would be harder to do, but at least possible..

augenauf · #7 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 07:36 PM

Quote:

And sites that allow people to dress up people are always fun too. There was a site I used to go a while back where you could dress up celebrities. You started with a naked mannequin and you could click and drag the clothes onto the person. You could choose from different style hats, shoes, pants, skirts, shirts, and each wardrobe fit whoever the person was.

I owned a dress up game once, and I plan to add something similar to my sites.

They're really fun! And popular with girls x3

MentalClinic · #8 (**permalink**) 03-03-2008, 04:59 PM

Me and a friend of mine were just walking around the town and I really saw some amazing stuff. Stuff that if I had a camera with me I would have made million pictures, no doubt.. It was because it was really one of a kind weather and we just went to places we normally don't go.

So I got this idea of making some photos

I would try to sell photos on stock photography sites, I will also try to do some art of my own. Also maybe make a blog about all this.
My goal would be a new year-round hobby that will pay for itself. I hope to earn from stock sites as well as stuff like adsense.. I also hope to earn enough to buy a tablet and my own, more professional cam later on to develop this even further.

I have always had this thing for photography and such, so why not start it, right?

At first I will probably suck real bad as I don't have any experience or anything. But you got to start somewhere.

So, what you all think? I don't know how much money there is in stock photography, but I know theres some and some is good for me

Plus I would like what I would be doing so money doesn't matter anyway.

lisa · #9 (**permalink**) 03-03-2008, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MentalClinic

So, what you all think? I don't know how much money there is in stock photography, but I know theres some and some is good for me

Plus I would like what I would be doing so money doesn't matter anyway.

I think it's a good idea if this is a hobby of yours. When I read this post it also reminded me of shutterstock.com. If you are handy with PhotoShop you can submit your own work and get paid when people download them. I actually thought about doing that myself. I've never been into the graphics/photo market much but I've heard you can make some nice dough contributing to these kinds of sites.

MentalClinic · #10 (**permalink**) 03-03-2008, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lisa

I think it's a good idea if this is a hobby of yours. When I read this post it also reminded me of shutterstock.com. If you are handy with PhotoShop you can submit your own work and get paid when people download them. I actually thought about doing that myself. I've never been into the graphics/photo market much but I've heard you can make some nice dough contributing to these kinds of sites.

Yes, that's what I had in mind. I always liked the idea of expressing myself and earning while doing that.
But I have always been afraid to start or something.. But now that I got nothing better to do.. so why not?

I also never liked the idea of doing this kind of stuff for money. I mean in form that someone says "Do this and do that". But with sites like that I could do whatever I want, and if people like it then I get paid for it which is much better

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