== Help Me Out: With growth/marketing for ShelfLife.net, a social marketplace.
ShelfLife.net makes it easy for collectors of toys, action figures, video games, etc to buy, sell, and research collectibles, and track their collections. We've got a solid product built, and trying to figure out how to grow the userbase significantly.
We decided to postpone the deal because it was still quite early in ShelfLife's life and we want to grow our userbase. There's a write-up about it in the Financial Post.
More curators, collectors, and catalogs are the biggest goals right now. There's a critical mass of users that needs to be reached for the site to be useful for a majority of collectors.
Collectors for adding Haves and Wants, and for buying and selling. Curators (who are also collectors) for building catalogs that collectors are clamouring for.
Thanks! Nearly anything can be catalogued, provided there's information available for it (E.g. manufacturer, release date, etc), and it's not something like the sweater that your grandmother knitted you.
ShelfLife co-founder here. We're aiming to document to every collectible ever made, and provide collectors with the best tools for buying, selling, and tracking their collections.
You're spot on. Paying to participate is ridiculous. It also works against Salesforce by creating a barrier to entry for people who are on the fence about participating.
Plants are fantastic, by the way. They make the room feel much more natural and alive, and less institutional and synthetic.
My favourite plant is Pachira Aquatica. It's more commonly known as the Money Tree. They're hearty, improve oxygen levels, inexpensive, look great, and are low-maintenance.
I like minimalism. If there's a lot of stuff in the room, it can become quite distracting.
@blazzar's suggestion of a small couch is spot on. You'll probably feel like moving around. When I'm working at home, I stand at my desk, sit at my desk, move to the couch, or sit on my balcony. It feels good to change location.
Going one step further, when a user goes to your site for the first time, create an account for them behind the scenes. This will enable them to track beers immediately.
Later on, you can prompt them for an email address or password. For example, if a new user adds X beers, open a lightbox that says "Mmmm, beer. To make sure you don't lose your list, type in your email address and a password."
This is beneficial because by the time they've added X beers, they have more of a connection with the site, and likely to not want to lose the info they've plugged in.
There're many solutions, from installable software such as Redmine[1] to hosted services such as TenderApp[2], GetSatisfaction[3], UserVoice[4], ZenDesk[5], FreshDesk[6], Groove[7], etc.
Have you thought about contributing to one or more open-source projects? That's a great way to meet fellow hackers, hone your skills, contribute to the community, and begin making a name for yourself.
