would Sharksforum.com work in US ? 

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Clarification of Question by shark-ga on 13 May 2002 09:47 PDT

Sharksforum.com can be found at http://www.sharksforum.com/

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Request for Question Clarification by ldcdc-ga on 13 May 2002 15:50 PDT

Hi.

What exactly are you searching for? Examples of similar businesses
that made it (or not) online?
Please tell me a bit more about what you're searching for. That way
I'll be able to provide the answer that you need

Regards,

ldcdc-ga

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Clarification of Question by shark-ga on 14 May 2002 01:03 PDT

I need to know how Sharksforum can be made known in the US.

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Request for Question Clarification by ldcdc-ga on 16 May 2002 07:28 PDT

Hi.

You want to focus on US or simply promote your site to a wider
audience.
You need promotion guidance? You need links to sites that offer this
kind of advice?
What exactly are you searching for? I can't give you the right answer
if you tell me so little about what you want to do (know).

ldcdc-ga

Hi! Interesting question. 

Would a site like sharksforum.com succeed in the US? For the answer we
need to look at the performance of similar sites.

A review of the following sites by PC World can help you measure
yourself against the competition or could serve as a precedent to your
business so you could improve on it.

The main points that could help determine success in this field are
the following:

1. If it’s for immediate assistance its better to contact by phone.

2. Staff must be thoroughly knowledgeable about the site where the
answer could be found.

3. Email takes quite a longer response time so chat or telephone
advice is more instantaneous.

4. Email response should be quick and snappy. 

5. Provide easy to find advice files and a record of response so that
clients can choose which expert should answer her query.

6. The instant messaging section of Expertcity.com is appealing
according to the reviewer since it gives fast response.

7. Free services such as software updates are also ok.

In a nutshell what will make these sites successful are fast
responses, accurate answers and actually solves the problem.

Get Expert Advice on the Web
http://www.pcworld.com/features/article/0,aid,48118,pg,13,00.asp 
 
Accompanying Table Comparison of the reviewed expert sites: 
http://www.pcworld.com/features/article/0,aid,48118,pg,14,00.asp 

What your site should not be: An example comes from this article

On Your Side: Tech Advice Sites: Free or Fee? By Anne Kandra
http://www.pcworld.com/features/article/0,aid,18525,00.asp 

I am a marketing consultant at a service company as well but in a
totally different industry. I think it will be of paramount importance
to you to have an intimate relationship with your target market, the
PC users. These could be novice or intermediate users. Maybe you can
do the following to help your site become popular to this market
segment in the US or in any other countries in Europe. If you are
already doing these you are on the right track.

a. Partner with computer retailers to tie up your service as “add on
value” for every PC that is bought in their store. Make sure to put a
sticker on the PC for your website address.

b. Partner with software retailers especially business software in an
objective just like in letter (a).

c. Market your business specifically by contracting small businesses.
This is very appealing to those business owners who are not
tech-savvy.

Again for the question at hand. Will it succeed in the US? It is
highly possible if it incorporates important features such as instant
messaging and telephone support plus snappy, accurate service and a
closer relationship with its target market, the PC users.

I hope this would help you in your research. Again thanks for using
Google Answers.

Regards,
Easterangel-ga

An idea I was a part of similar to this in the US was tried and
failed.

Midnightmac.com (not currenctly active) was very similar to
sharksfourm.com but exclusively for macintosh. They offered everything
from simple tech support to detailed hardware recommendations to
completely farming out a project. They took unlimited support
contracts as well as individual questions. They even had a tool which
let the helper take over the desktop of the person who needed help.
All work was farmed out like it is at sharksfourm.com, but there was a
more in depth screening process.

 However, this site catered only to the macintosh community, a small
subset of the general internet population. A site like this, after the
inital design as few costs. The hosting, an admin or two, people
fielding comments in reaction to answers, and maintaining those who
answer questions (paying them).

 All costs except hosting, ads and one admin would be concidered
variable costs. They only increase when actual revenues come in.
Therefore, a site with a wider audience would have a better chance of
success. As people are willing to pay for answers here, they will be
willing to pay for support and IT contracts in a similar way. This
service is more likely to appeal to smaller projects, end-users or
small businesses with semi-savy computer people. Exposure to capture
these markets has to be rather large, as neither group actively
searches for tools they can not find from their portals such as
msn.com or related portals.

The current midnightmac.com does not relate to the former site refered
to in my post. I did not answer the question formally because I have
not yet been cleared.

it is not impressive that tasks that are overdue are still in the database:
http://www.sharksforum.com/q/175

Isn't sharksforum the same style/idea as this site we are on?
Also ibm's site hotdispatch.com seems to suck...

Michel

Hi

A site similiar to this which I have used on a trial basis which seems
to be very active is:

http://www.techrepublic.com

There they have a 'Technical Q&A Section' in a similar format to this
site but related more specifically to IT technical questions. The
difference there is that you pay an annual subscription fee rather
than pay on a question by question basis.

I think one of the draw backs with the Sharksforum.com site is that
not all the questions are written in English and I found it difficult
to navigate to questions in English.

If you are trying to penetrate the US market I think the dual language
questions may be a possible disadvantage rather than advantage.

Hope this helps,
Andy

Hi

I realise I didn't read your clarification above, and so my last
comment did not address your question.

The answer will depend on how much money you wish to outlay, if you
give an idea of your budget then I could give a better answer but here
are some ideas:

1) Submit your pages to all the major search engines such as Google,
Yahoo etc
2) Pay for advertising either online or in the published press
3) Use pay per view search engines where you pay only for those who
click through to your site
4) Banner exchange programs

Hope this helps
Andy