Hosting 2.0
A competition of ideas for startups was recently held here, and this idea was invented specifically for him in one evening. Since she did not fit, I decided to put it in open access in the hope that someone would find it interesting and useful.
One of the criteria of the competition was a clear monetization scheme, so I decided to start the discussion by finding out what a person would pay for most of all. Despite the general distribution, the scheme for paying for the rent of software is not quite obvious and many disagree with it.
When I give my money, I need to know that every request for a service will require certain costs, which should be adequate to the cost of the service. You can tell me that this is the stone age, to which I will answer, that this is psychology. It is easier for a person to give money when he knows that this money will go not only to the fund for buying a regular yacht and maintaining the project’s performance, but will also cover the costs of fulfilling his request.
Go ahead - what could these costs be? In an automated project - computing power and disk space. If you connect people, then ... But most of all, we do not need such a project, for which we still need to hire people, so let's stop at the automated one. So the service will be either in the provision of disk space, or in the provision of computing power. I don’t know to whom some computing power may be needed, so we’ll look the other way - towards the hosts.
')
Come on the other side. Who is willing to give money online? First of all, those who have such an opportunity - they have a virtual wallet and, accordingly, have experience of using it. That is, their occupation requires it. Of course, these are freelancers. If you think a little logical, their employers also fit this criterion. It seems to me that these people belong to the majority of e-wallet owners, so for the time being we’ll concentrate on them.
Now let's try to combine all this. The service should be to provide disk space to freelancers and their employers (often they are serious guys - businessmen).
So, why can you need a hosting for freelancers and businessmen? For the first - this is a portfolio, for the second - a web business card. How is this at the moment? If a person needs to publish his portfolio (business card) online, he hires people. Their job is to buy a domain, develop a design, write code, layout, etc. As you can see, this task requires knowledge in different areas, so usually several people do this kind of work - this raises its value. And in the end, a banal business card site will cost a tidy sum.
In my opinion this is unfair. So I propose to make a service that will simplify the process of creating a business card site or a portfolio (in fact, other not very clever sites) to such an extent that one person who is not familiar with the subtleties of web design can handle this. How it can look, further and the speech will go. But first I will clarify one detail - how should this project be positioned? Of course, I would like the level to be higher, so that the fact that a person keeps his portfolio on this service is not something shameful and humiliating. To the end result was, though not very heaped up, but made well.
The key point in this venture is the editor itself. Depends on the project. The editor must be flexible. So that on the one hand any housewife can make a page about herself in him, and on the other hand, so that the person initiated can show his knowledge and his taste.
The process of working with the editor should not resemble the compilation of an identikit or a trivial choice of a topic from the ten suggested. The philosophy of the editor should be to guide the user who does not understand anything about the design. This should NOT be like the Windows Forms editor, where a person has complete freedom and where he scatters ready-made interface elements anywhere. Work with the editor should be phased.
Each stage should contain tips and advice (professional, regarding typography and usability). This is reminiscent of the wizard. And now there is an idea. By default, you can make a couple of masters (guides) for the portfolio and some there for business cards. And to make it possible for users themselves to create such wizards, which can be used by unfastening the creator of the master (well, and of course, part of it is the creator of this project) —that’s the motivation to make the master. And it raced - the ratings of the masters, the ratings of the compilers of the masters ...
Also, the wizard’s work should not resemble the HOWTO’s work. Possible outcomes should be quite different, that is, while working, a person should have a wide choice at each stage. But at the same time, the master must limit, so that there is a sense to make new masters.
Unfortunately, I am not a designer, so I cannot describe work with a master step by step. I can only approximately and only for business cards. Stages of work: defining the boundaries of different areas (photos, about yourself, contacts and other small details), choosing a color palette, setting fonts, setting up a graphic design. At each stage, you need to perform certain actions: first, drag and stretch the frames, designating elements on the page, etc. For each specific action, the wizard should provide tips (regarding dimensions, distances, location) and possible options. So that, on the one hand, a person does not get lost, and on the other, he has a choice. So that he knows how it is possible, and how it is impossible, but so that there is no rigid framework. When choosing a color palette and fonts, you can use an example to indicate successful combinations and explain why they are. And provide an opportunity for self-selection.
As for the graphic design. Here you can not do without a set of different blanks - ready-made gradients, various separators, substrates, frames. On the other hand, it should be possible to twist their size or color. One thing remains - the logo. How to solve this problem, I do not know yet.
If in a nutshell, you need to simultaneously give a choice and limit it.
So what do we have in the end? The service for the automated phased creation of web pages (primarily portfolio and business cards, although you can do personal blogs), with the ability to select content items and their design. And you can also create masters (guides).
The main purpose of this service is not to create a super-duper original and clever sites. Basically, this is the development of the idea of photo hosting sites, photo album hosting sites, etc. from the same primitive opera. And the idea here is to create a full-fledged page, so that you can apply your creative vision and at the same time not overly complicate the creation process itself, do not require knowledge in the field of typesetting. Well, so that the end result was not ashamed to see and show others.
PS I will not deal with the implementation of this idea, so if someone is interested, use it, except to let me know, after all, it’s interesting to see the final result. I can even send additional ideas on monetization.
One of the criteria of the competition was a clear monetization scheme, so I decided to start the discussion by finding out what a person would pay for most of all. Despite the general distribution, the scheme for paying for the rent of software is not quite obvious and many disagree with it.
When I give my money, I need to know that every request for a service will require certain costs, which should be adequate to the cost of the service. You can tell me that this is the stone age, to which I will answer, that this is psychology. It is easier for a person to give money when he knows that this money will go not only to the fund for buying a regular yacht and maintaining the project’s performance, but will also cover the costs of fulfilling his request.
Go ahead - what could these costs be? In an automated project - computing power and disk space. If you connect people, then ... But most of all, we do not need such a project, for which we still need to hire people, so let's stop at the automated one. So the service will be either in the provision of disk space, or in the provision of computing power. I don’t know to whom some computing power may be needed, so we’ll look the other way - towards the hosts.
')
Come on the other side. Who is willing to give money online? First of all, those who have such an opportunity - they have a virtual wallet and, accordingly, have experience of using it. That is, their occupation requires it. Of course, these are freelancers. If you think a little logical, their employers also fit this criterion. It seems to me that these people belong to the majority of e-wallet owners, so for the time being we’ll concentrate on them.
Now let's try to combine all this. The service should be to provide disk space to freelancers and their employers (often they are serious guys - businessmen).
So, why can you need a hosting for freelancers and businessmen? For the first - this is a portfolio, for the second - a web business card. How is this at the moment? If a person needs to publish his portfolio (business card) online, he hires people. Their job is to buy a domain, develop a design, write code, layout, etc. As you can see, this task requires knowledge in different areas, so usually several people do this kind of work - this raises its value. And in the end, a banal business card site will cost a tidy sum.
In my opinion this is unfair. So I propose to make a service that will simplify the process of creating a business card site or a portfolio (in fact, other not very clever sites) to such an extent that one person who is not familiar with the subtleties of web design can handle this. How it can look, further and the speech will go. But first I will clarify one detail - how should this project be positioned? Of course, I would like the level to be higher, so that the fact that a person keeps his portfolio on this service is not something shameful and humiliating. To the end result was, though not very heaped up, but made well.
The key point in this venture is the editor itself. Depends on the project. The editor must be flexible. So that on the one hand any housewife can make a page about herself in him, and on the other hand, so that the person initiated can show his knowledge and his taste.
The process of working with the editor should not resemble the compilation of an identikit or a trivial choice of a topic from the ten suggested. The philosophy of the editor should be to guide the user who does not understand anything about the design. This should NOT be like the Windows Forms editor, where a person has complete freedom and where he scatters ready-made interface elements anywhere. Work with the editor should be phased.
Each stage should contain tips and advice (professional, regarding typography and usability). This is reminiscent of the wizard. And now there is an idea. By default, you can make a couple of masters (guides) for the portfolio and some there for business cards. And to make it possible for users themselves to create such wizards, which can be used by unfastening the creator of the master (well, and of course, part of it is the creator of this project) —that’s the motivation to make the master. And it raced - the ratings of the masters, the ratings of the compilers of the masters ...
Also, the wizard’s work should not resemble the HOWTO’s work. Possible outcomes should be quite different, that is, while working, a person should have a wide choice at each stage. But at the same time, the master must limit, so that there is a sense to make new masters.
Unfortunately, I am not a designer, so I cannot describe work with a master step by step. I can only approximately and only for business cards. Stages of work: defining the boundaries of different areas (photos, about yourself, contacts and other small details), choosing a color palette, setting fonts, setting up a graphic design. At each stage, you need to perform certain actions: first, drag and stretch the frames, designating elements on the page, etc. For each specific action, the wizard should provide tips (regarding dimensions, distances, location) and possible options. So that, on the one hand, a person does not get lost, and on the other, he has a choice. So that he knows how it is possible, and how it is impossible, but so that there is no rigid framework. When choosing a color palette and fonts, you can use an example to indicate successful combinations and explain why they are. And provide an opportunity for self-selection.
As for the graphic design. Here you can not do without a set of different blanks - ready-made gradients, various separators, substrates, frames. On the other hand, it should be possible to twist their size or color. One thing remains - the logo. How to solve this problem, I do not know yet.
If in a nutshell, you need to simultaneously give a choice and limit it.
So what do we have in the end? The service for the automated phased creation of web pages (primarily portfolio and business cards, although you can do personal blogs), with the ability to select content items and their design. And you can also create masters (guides).
The main purpose of this service is not to create a super-duper original and clever sites. Basically, this is the development of the idea of photo hosting sites, photo album hosting sites, etc. from the same primitive opera. And the idea here is to create a full-fledged page, so that you can apply your creative vision and at the same time not overly complicate the creation process itself, do not require knowledge in the field of typesetting. Well, so that the end result was not ashamed to see and show others.
PS I will not deal with the implementation of this idea, so if someone is interested, use it, except to let me know, after all, it’s interesting to see the final result. I can even send additional ideas on monetization.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/48589/
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