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Show HN: Please Review Our Project "1 Million Valentines"

5 points by pseudorocker ↗ HN
For fun this Valentine's Day, a couple buddies and I decided to play around with the idea of digital Valentines. We cranked out the project in the month of January as a "nights & weekends" project.

We'd love any feedback in general! Our next step is to figure a way to seed this in key communities, to see if it has any chance of taking off.

The URL is www.1millionvalentines.com (or www.1MVS.com).

Thanks!

17 comments

[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 46.8 ms ] thread
buraksarica
Who would rent a valentine's pixel which will need to be scrolled x time to be seen? Please, would even you really buy it for 10 dollars/pix?
pseudorocker
Good questions / concerns. Yup scrolling works, but as well, if one shares a specific Valentine, then it will appear auto-popped / enlarged.

As for the value, the thinking is this is a public showing of one's affection, and real estate is limited / disappearing.

dgunn
What are you doing with the money? Is this a charity?
pseudorocker
No plans currently. Do you think that would help with someone buying a digital Valentines? Please lemme know if you have any suggestions of relevant charities!
sp332
You could pick something topical, maybe heart disease or eliminating conflict diamonds :)
pseudorocker
Clever. I like that. Heart Disease seems especially applicable. Thanks!
dgunn
You want people to pay $10 for nothing in return. Usually that sort of thing is reserved for charities. I wouldn't buy one of these just to line your pockets. I would buy one to support a cause I believe in assuming enough of the money went to said cause.

I feel like the fact that '1 million' is in your name says a lot about why you did this.

pseudorocker
Thanks for the feedback! And yup, we're being up front with it all (re: name, etc.). Seems like charity path might be the best way to try something like this (and do some good in the world).
onlyup
Why change the plan now based on a few comments? The point was to make money. The problems I see are:

* You launched too late. You have 9 days for this to build traction and then you have to wait until next year. * You're charging to much for 1x1 * The price seems to be the same for all squares no matter where they are * You have to scroll to see some squares * You should have given away a lot of free squares so it wouldn't just look empty

For something like this I think you need a lot of marketing. Here is how I would have gotten word out for cheap:

* Give free squares to facebook fan pages (ideally fans of people like Bieber, Twilight, 1D, etc) in exchange for posting the link * Do a competition on a large facebook fan page to give away free squares * When a valentine pic is added, an email is sent to the valetine telling them someone has added their pic and to come back on valentines day to see a roll-over note * Integrate Facebook so that you get people updating Facebook when they add someone

pseudorocker
Hey these are awesome ideas! Haven't changed the plan yet, still noodling over it all. I agree with your points. We're treating this as more of a prototype / MVP / test the waters. I think we're going to proceed with the free plan (similar to your idea), and in meantime (in the SHORT meantime) reach out to charities and some big stars to see about seeding / cross promotion.
onlyup
Cool, it sounds like you're taking the right approach. You can use what you learn for next valentines day. You could even do it for Xmas (leave a present under the tree for someone you love)
pseudorocker
Alright free squares implemented at www.1millionvalentines.com. We're looking at misc. non-profit partners as well. Thanks again. Go grab one :)
[dead] pseudorocker
Alright free squares implemented at www.1millionvalentines.com. We're looking at misc. non-profit partners as well. Thanks again. Go grab one :)
jtokoph
I feel like the milliondollarhomepage.com thing can only work once. There were a million knockoffs (exaggeration and pun intended) that didn't work out at the time. Even the original creator's next attempt failed if I remember correctly.

I would say it's possible for it to work again but you would need a lot of luck