Businesses based on Websites

[FishBowl]

I wondered if anyone on here might be able to give me some advice about my website at www dot inafishbowl dot co dot uk

We launched the site a few months ago with the intention of it being a tool for budding entrepreneurs or business people to learn from the experiences of others through blogs and videos from the 3 featured businesses.

The site's been doing well, but we are currently planning stage 2, and I wondered if anyone has any advice or anecdotes on taking a website from it's initial stages to develop it to bring more traffic and, somehow, revenue.

Could anyone suggest anything for my website that is perhaps lacking or that it might benefit from? What do you think of it as a whole?

Thanks for your feedback. All suggestions welcome.

[akula]

hmmmmm....i'm really impressed...which is odd for me
blog networks are a proven category so it seems you really have business on your hands

i think you have a great concept with some pretty sticky online content
ummm...Owain and Dominic are cool
great job..i'm adding you to my reader
will you be adding more fishbowls?

[FishBowl]

There's certainly some exciting stuff to come in the next month or so... look out for In a Fishbowl Phase 2 soon. This will be more interactive and tell you even more about our businesses.

I am sure there will be more businesses in the bowls as we go forward, but we will always look at 3 at a time.

What do you think makes Owain and Dom appeal? Is it their business that you like or them as people?

You can follow everyone on Twitter too@
@fishbowlhq
@fishbowlone
@fishbowltwo
@fishbowlthree.

[Encrypted]

Site looks outstanding. Good luck.

[kameron]

Great site. I enjoy the concept

What is your current SEO and back linking strategies.

Also how are you currently monetizing the traffic at the moment?

[rogercbryan]

I like the idea. It gives the reader multiple people to follow not just a single poster like most blogs (including mine)...

The only question I ask is how are you going to make money? The best web ideas sometimes fall apart when profitability is brought into play...

[IAMedia]

Nice website and the idea is intriguing to say the least.

[FishBowl]

Thanks for the responses guys. Good to hear that you're positive about the site.

I agree with rogercbryan, that 3 is a good number of businesses to watch. Some people have suggested we need more, but I think that would be a bit much. I think these three businesses are varied and their experiences are very similar to any business just starting out.

With regard to making money, we do have a plan which I can't actually disclose just yet, but Stage 2 of Fishbowl is coming soon, so watch out for it around the end of February.

On that note, and having looked at the site, do any of you see anything which is lacking?

www dot inafishbowl dot co dot uk

[akula]

i think you need more fishbowls..like way more...it's 2010, people follow like 300 news feeds at a time...i'd really like to see hundreds upon hundreds of fishbowls on ur site..

...like i'm very specific about what kinds of people and ventures i'd like to follow..as i guess every body is..so to accomodate a large audience you'll need to provide lots of choice as far as content goes

that said, i don't know what your marginal costs are for launching each new fishbowl, you'd need to make them negligible or negative...which may not work

[FishBowl]

Yeah I see your point about people following lots of feeds these days, and as such it may be good to get more Fishbowls on the go. However, our initial concept was based on the idea that all start ups experience similar problems and issues regardless of the business type - raising finance, marketing the business, WIPs, balancing working life with home life etc etc. It is easier to do things this way than to try to represent every single possible business type. The general lessons to be learned are the same regardless. Do you agree?

[akula]

Yeah I see your point about people following lots of feeds these days, and as such it may be good to get more Fishbowls on the go. However, our initial concept was based on the idea that all start ups experience similar problems and issues regardless of the business type - raising finance, marketing the business, WIPs, balancing working life with home life etc etc. It is easier to do things this way than to try to represent every single possible business type. The general lessons to be learned are the same regardless. Do you agree?

nahh...not really...from a user's perspective - if i'm starting up a web dev workshop and i want to learn about funding or marketing..i would hands down preffer to follow the fishbowl of a web dev shop rather than a suit tailoring business..that's just common sense...it'd be hard to argue agaist this point

for me, it's not really the issue of whether the "lessons to be learned are the same"..but whether the lessons are relevant to users...as in, the readers can relate to the fishbowl they're following...and if my biz is diff to the fishbowl, then its harder to relate

so for example....i'm a technology entrepreneur...i only exclusively follow tech entrepreneurs. that's the only blogs i read...if there's some hospitality industry or healthcare services entrepreneurs out there writting blogs..i'm not interested. simply not relevant content.

i don't really know what you wanna do with this feedback though..

[FishBowl]

It's always good to hear feedback, and I think you make a valid point.

What we don't want to do at this stage is overload users with too much information. By limited the number of Fishbowls at this stage, I think we simplify the site and make it easier for new and returning users to understand the concept.

Moving forwards, however, we are certainly looking to bring in more businesses, quite probably in a rotational fashion at the moment as opposed to a site containing hundreds of businesses. So, still 3, but 3 different businesses.

So, if you're a start up business, or you know of a suitable start up who would like to be featured In A Fishbowl, let me know.

Otherwise, keep your suggestions coming in and keep your eye on the site - new version due in February with loads more features.

IN A FISHBOWL | Follow entrepreneurs as they make steps in their new businesses

[aculain]

Really good site,

Its entrepreneur reality TV without nasty dragon den people hehe.

[johng]

start with a small pay per click campaign on google and see how you do Look at your competitors, identify what they are doing to advertise their business

[FishBowl]

Really good site,

Its entrepreneur reality TV without nasty dragon den people hehe.

Ha ha - I so wish this was our slogan! :-)

Thanks for the feedback guys.

With regard to the pay-per-click campaigns, has anyone got any experience of how successful they are?

I think this raises quite an interesting discussion point that I hope you guys can help me out with. I'm trying to consider the idea of free publicity and PR versus paid for campaigns such as Google PPC.

Now, I use Twitter quite a lot to keep people up to date on what's happening with the Fishbowlers (@fishbowlhq), and tweet about things which I hope promote the site and which, according to Google Analytics, appears to be working in bringing in some traffic to the site.

Aside from that, we've got some more traditional PR stuff going on - features in local newspaper, a radio interview etc, plus some mentions in blogs which drove traffic too. Now obviously, all that happens at minimum cost, but gets people to the site who will hopefully want to return.

So how do you think this compares to paid for advertising/marketing? If you think paid for campaigns are more successful, how might you go about choosing the most suitable publications to appear in?

Marcela, one of our Fishbowlers, is considering this for herself at the moment: Follow Marcela and her Mexican Kitchen Business on in a fishbowl | IN A FISHBOWL. I think it's an interesting topic for discussion. Any thoughts?