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Ask HN: ClickTheVote.com – What do I do with it?

1 points by random_user ↗ HN
I've owned this domain for a while. I am now looking to do something with it. As an experiment I thought I'd put it out to HN and see what surfaces.

Due to HN submission length restrictions I am going to break this up into multiple posts with six ideas. Reply where appropriate.

Basic ideas:

    [1] Political discussion forum aimed at a younger audience
    [2] Political blog, again aimed at younger audience
    [3] Build something that Democrats or Republicans can use
    [4] A platform for voting and survey taking online
    [5] Sell the domain
    [6] Hold on to it
I think that's it. There are certainly combinations and permutations of the above that could be worth pursuing. One could start a site useful to political parties for upcoming elections while, in the background, so to speak, one is really building a voting-as-a-service platform of sorts.

If you want to comment about one of the above six options I ask that you do so under the relevant comment where I expand details for that particular approach.

I am eager to read your comments.

Thanks!

8 comments

[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 28.8 ms ] thread
random_user
[1] Political discussion forum aimed at a younger audience

    - Relatively easy to setup.  vBulletin or phpBB would do.
    - Needs seeding with lots of posts in order to even begin to pull
      real people in.
    - Fighting spam posts is a daily reality.
    - Site depends on converting enough eyeballs into posters
      (not just lurkers) in order to gain position and value
    - Monetization through AdSense
    - If it gets real traffic you can sell advertising space directly
    - Some affiliate potential
    - Liquidation is far more likely to take the form of selling
      through a site flipping service
random_user
[2] Political blog, again aimed at younger audience

    - Also easy to setup: Wordpress
    - Seeding with posts happens more organically than forum
      because one or two people write
    - Probably takes just as long as [1] to build an audience 
    - No need to depend on members for content, which can be 
      a big advantage
    - Possibly better SEO ranking due to issues with user generated
      content sites and how search engines treat them
    - The easiest ways to gain traction are the extremes:
      - Be the voice of reason: analytical, research and fact based
      - Be an asshole at one or another extreme of any issue
        (Howard Stern "shock jock")
    - Far more people will levitate towards extreme views than 
      sit there and read through well reasoned arguments backed
      with facts, calculations, models, etc.
    - Have to be comfortable with this reality and be able to 
      consistently be that persona under a pseudonym
    - Still competing with biggies
    - Monetization: AdSense, affiliate, etc.
    - Maybe even crazy ebooks
    - Not an appealing idea intellectually speaking but have to 
      recognize that in today's political climate the extremes
      probably convert better than a reasoned middle ground
    - Not sure about liquidation.  Could be a flipper site.
random_user
[3] Build something that Democrats or Republicans can use

    - Make it a useful get-out-the-vote tool for young people
    - Aim squarely at providing it as a service to one of the parties
    - Perhaps even look at selling the site to on of them
    - It still requires articles and becoming an educator of sorts
    - Lightweight content that is easy to digest by a younger audience
    - Not much effort in terms of immediate monetization
    - Focus should be on content and tools that bring that younger
      audience to the table
    - Not an easy task
    - Two major election events coming up in 2014 and 2016.  These
      will be highly contested and are potential opportunities for
      a brand like "ClickTheVote" to rise to the surface.
    - People getting more of their news and info online.  With elections
      taking place constantly a brand like "ClickTheVote" could be
      positioned to be the party-independent go-to resource for
      relevant information
    - Probably easier to liquidate than [1] and [2] but just as hard to
      build and position
random_user
[4] A platform for voting and survey taking online

    - Not necessarily limited to politics
    - Site provides the tools to organize voting for whatever purpose
    - Embeddable voting forms 
    - Possibly self-hosted solutions
    - Free and a couple, or more, paid tiers
    - Mobil integration
    - Aimed at C2B, clubs and any instance of needing to get people
      to vote or opine on something
    - Provide analytics, etc.
    - Not a new idea; many competitors
    - The engineer in me likes this far more than any of the above
    - Monetization is based on actually selling a product
    - Could also have ad-based revenue in the free tier
    - If approach is unique, intelligent and hits a nerve the service
      could be an attractive acquisition target
random_user
[5] Sell the domain

    - Less work
    - Far less money than a successful site could generate
    - Currently working on other products, including:
          - Redoing an existing mobile app to start monetizing
          - Planning another mobile app with a partner
          - Chipping away at two web projects
    - Only the right person or organization is going to put the right
      number on the table not to make me feel like a moron after
      selling it.  My guess is that this is somewhat unlikely to
      happen but you never know.
random_user
[6] Hold on to it

    - Do nothing right now
    - Elections and voting will never go away
    - Keep thinking and look for other opportunities to build a
      product or brand around the domain
adventured
[5] or [6]

If you have four build possibilities that you're putting up for a vote, then I'd argue most likely you shouldn't be doing any of them. It probably means you're not on to something particularly interesting, you don't have a particular interest in any specific one of them, and I'd consequentially argue your time is too value to treat that way.

Better to spend a little more time and find something you really, really, really want to do; or something that you've thought of that serves a pent-up need that isn't being well serviced (or similar angle).

Don't do something with this domain just to do it. That's a good way to lose six months, or years, of your life you'll never get back.

I don't say this to imply that you shouldn't do anything, but rather, that being selective about serious time investments is important.

random_user
I can't really argue with your logic here. Yes, ideally you want to do something you are passionate about.

Now, to be fair, that isn't always the case. I have a small business running almost in auto-pilot that is generating probably $10K a year. Not a ton of money. At the same time, it requires almost no attention. I am not passionate about it. It isn't a scalable business. With a lot of effort it might generate $20K, tops.

That said, yes, if something is going to scale and grow beyond a hobby business you really have to want to be in it because business is hard work. For me it is easy to become passionate about something if it starts making money. It might not be the love of my life, but I enjoy making money. I hope that's not a bad word on HN.