Could this website go viral?

**JustOneUK** · 10-28-2007 05:19 PM

Hey hey, been away - made a website or two... (well it's 6 actually) and came back again to see what you think, and obviously to ask for help.

I own the world and I want to sell it

I made a site that I think has every chance of being pretty successful. It has some good qualities, it's fun, quite addictive, there's incentives to make money, incentives to get visitors, repeat vistitors and votes.
There's also opportunities to promote your website, your business and even generate reveune from adsense and affiliate links...well actually the list goes on. It also has a pretty huge market and growth potential.

I would like to know if it's the kind of site that is worth talking about..would you blog about it or add it to social bookmarking sites - digg/technorati etc

The site is open and 99% finished, I haven't started to promote it yet and sold a few pages whilst building it (which is frankly a bit freaky)

Anyway, please cast your eye over it, let me know what you think in terms of - value for money - potential - earning potential - virability (is that a word?) - and anything that comes to mind. Sometimes it's hard to see the wood for the trees so anything may be an important comment.

The site is TownDeeds.com and also TownDeeds.co.uk (the UK version was online first) I only got the template on the US site a few hours ago.

http://www.towndeeds.eu is currently in the making as well as sites for the rest of the world, and a couple of other sites that remain secret for the moment

An example page of what a paying customer/business/website owner can get is here > New York

Thanks a lot for your thoughts.. it's appreciated.

James.

**dreamer4ever** · 10-29-2007 04:11 AM

The loading time is terrible here in the US

**JustOneUK** · 10-29-2007 06:20 AM

Thanks for pointing that out - can you give me an idea of just how slow it is PLEASE....
I have had to move it from one host already as the loading time was 18 seconds

, it just couldn't cope with the database.

thanks in adv....

**Creadiv** · 10-29-2007 07:30 AM

The loading time was slow, but it wasn't 18 seconds, probably 4 or 5 seconds for me.

They site has no color scheme, it looks like the color wheel vomited on my monitor. The white text on the light colors makes much of the site very difficult to read. The layout it of centered. Not quite left aligned and not quite centered. I am not sure if that was what you are going for.

As for making it big, I just don't see why I would personally ever use it, but that doesn't really mean anything because there are alot of really popular sites that I never use.

Good luck in your venture.

**JustOneUK** · 10-29-2007 07:42 AM

Originally Posted by Creadiv

The loading time was slow, but it wasn't 18 seconds, probably 4 or 5 seconds for me.

They site has no color scheme, it looks like the color wheel vomited on my monitor. The white text on the light colors makes much of the site very difficult to read. The layout it of centered. Not quite left aligned and not quite centered. I am not sure if that was what you are going for.

As for making it big, I just don't see why I would personally ever use it, but that doesn't really mean anything because there are alot of really popular sites that I never use.

Good luck in your venture.

Thanks for your reply Creadiv, 4 or 5 seconds is about right - I would like it to be quicker but that seems to be a normal drawback with the CMS I have used, so I've heard.

The colours are out of my control, the user can select the colour of their page to make it stand out if they want. Which is why it's on a predominantly grey page. I can't imagine Liverpool being any other colour that RED

Obviously out of interest, why wouldn't you be interested in using the site as an advertisement for your business?

thanks...
James.

**Creadiv** · 10-29-2007 07:54 AM

Because I would have to generate traffic to a site other than my own. I don't see how that would be helpful. When I advertise I put my advertisements in high volume areas that are going to get me clicks to my site. With this site I am going to have to get people to come to www.towndeeds.com/whateveriwant.

This means now instead of getting people to come to my site I am getting them to another site that tells them about my site. Why wouldn't I just want them at my site? Plus how will anybody find my page on your site? Will it appear in a search engine when they search for design? Or would it appear when the search for the city name? If it appears when they are searching for the city name chances are they are not looking for design needs. Because if that were the case they would have searched for design.

So now I have an unneccessary page that will generate me clicks from people who most likely aren't looking for my services. Plus I have the uneeded expense of advertising a page that advertises my site. When I could just be spending money on well placed links.

Sorry, but that is just my opinion.

**JustOneUK** · 10-29-2007 09:44 AM

Thanks Creadiv, I have no problem with your opinion, that's why I posted in the first place - to get opinions.

Ok, let's assume you have a design website (which I know you have)
You can write about it on your deed - just like a blog.
You will then get a link to your design site... which helps in the search engines. You also have 10 links available to you that you can (if you choose to) use for deep linking to your website...again helps in the search engines.
You can promote special offers or even specifically write something for the benefit of people in your town - contact me this week and get 50% off!. You can link to your portfolio, you can even promote other people and their websites if you choose - a bit like networking (I go on your deed if you go on mine) There's actually quite a lot of opportunities and you don't necessarily have to promote your website, you could just promote affiliate links if you want, it really is up to the person who buys the deed.

I guess there must be a few residents where you live that might need something designing? If you get just one sale over the entire 5 years then it would be worth the $10 cost?

Of course it also has a novely feel to it.. "I own my Town" and then there's a trading side - I own Chicago and you can have it for $5000 but in the mean time I will promote my own business...

Obviously I feel like I am trying to defend it already, but clearly it needs explaining so people can see the benefits..thanks for your post - I have to try and get all this info onto the site somewhere.

James.

**Creadiv** · 10-29-2007 12:40 PM

JustOne,

Thank you for your offer but at the moment I am still not interested. Although you have described your site in a much better light now. I understand what you are doing and can see why it would attract people. Thank you for taking the time to be reasonable about my responses and not just telling me to f off.

**JustOneUK** · 10-29-2007 01:59 PM

Originally Posted by JustOneUK

- contact me this week and get 50% off!.

I didn't mean that you contact me, I mean you can put something like that on your deed for your OWN customers

Sorry for any confusion, appreciate your opinions, glad you kind of understand the site a little better.

Any tips on how best to promote the site apart from discussing it in a few forum posts?

James.

**Creadiv** · 10-29-2007 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by JustOneUK

I didn't mean that you contact me, I mean you can put something like that on your deed for your OWN customers

Sorry for any confusion, appreciate your opinions, glad you kind of understand the site a little better.

Any tips on how best to promote the site apart from discussing it in a few forum posts?

James.

Ha, don't worry about any confusion.

I think the best way to promote any business, or at least it has been for me, is to help people in forums like this and put you site in your sig. I have gotten more business from this forum in the last month that I have from most advertising programs that I have done.

**exstatic** · 10-29-2007 06:30 PM

Whats to stop me from making a virtual titles web site, and selling the deeds also... do you have exclusive rights to those deeds?

**NewIQ** · 10-30-2007 05:35 PM

I've always had trouble getting my sites to go viral. It seems that some content is just more primed to pop, you know? I hope yours falls in that category!

**JustOneUK** · 10-30-2007 11:18 PM

Originally Posted by NewIQ

I've always had trouble getting my sites to go viral. It seems that some content is just more primed to pop, you know? I hope yours falls in that category!

Is that good or bad wishes?

pop = flop?
pop = do well?

James.

**exstatic** · 10-31-2007 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by exstatic

Whats to stop me from making a virtual titles web site, and selling the deeds also... do you have exclusive rights to those deeds?

... ? No answer?

Just wondering how this works?

**JustOneUK** · 11-01-2007 09:00 AM

Originally Posted by exstatic

... ? No answer?

Just wondering how this works?

There are a few virtual ownership sites out there already but I am the first (and only) one to sell Cities, Towns & Villages. In fact there was a guy that used to post here on this forum who was basically selling whole Countries on a site called buythemap.com, (but you don't get much for your money on that site). Do you think he owned those Countries?

I just sold one on the European site even though it's not quite ready yet

Why not buy your town exstatic?