theperfectpressie

[theperfectpressie]

Hi

I'm completely new to all of this. I have just registered a website name, with the idea of creating a site which enables people to make their own gift wish list (working in a similar way to a wedding list). Their list would be available for friends/family to view and select gifts for the individual, so that they are getting gifts that they want, and people aren't wasting money by buying them things that they don't really want at all.

How do you think this sort of site would be received?

Any comments would be greatly received.

[broadband-engine]

Hi

I had the same idea a while ago to do this for my directory site, I never actually went ahead with it even though I thought it was a good idea at the time. I think it could work well, and I suppose by building up a userbase helps keep the site bouyant, even when search engine results are being cruel to you - (like they are being to me at the moment :( ) a bit of foresight eh!

All the best with it, I would be interested in seeing how things progress.

Cheers

[epiphany]

Great idea I think I will make the site tomorrow! (keep stuff like this under wraps until you are closer to closing the whole thing up or someone could steal your idea)

I have seen a few of these sorts of things about already. In fact let me get the Google search results!

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=wish+list&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB

there, well there seem to be a few established ones. I guess that means the idea is viable so you have to ask yourself how easy is it going to either get their business or create new business. I wouldn't imagine many people would use a thing like this so you need to be sure you have ideas about how to get people to buy into the concept.

I hope that helps!

Terry

[theperfectpressie]

I've got a few ideas that will hopefully make the site stand out from the crowd. Once the site is live, i'll post the details.[/code]

[broadband-engine]

Basically get a good USP... unique selling point. It would be a good idea to follow the google link in Terry's post and see what other sites are doing and what you could do differently or better. You've probably got lots of thinking to do. So good luck.

[Cornish Steve]

I can imagine it would be great for parents who want to give ideas to other parents when their child is having a birthday party. You'd have no problem getting advertisers for a site like that.

Good luck with your venture.

[Rob Holmes]

Hi and welcome to UKBF :)

Your idea sounds great if it can be backed up by good suppliers and a credible website.

Depending on how deep into it (mainly financially) you want to go... I've had a number of ideas that sprang from the initial suggestion too - affiliate schemes, extra revenue generators, revenue generating features in the control panel etc etc..

So in respoonse to your question.. The idea is good - how well the site is received really depends on you - if done right then I personally think it could be good.

Rob

[SillyJokes]

One way people monetise this kind of idea is by being an affiliate for a lot of gift stores - that way you can pull in gift ideas from thousands of products and you get paid commission when people click through and buy.

You won't make as much money per sale, but you won't have any money in stock and the start up costs are very low - but you do have to be white hot at search engine optimisation to be a success.

If you haven't heard of affiliate sites you have probably heard of Kelkoo and essentially that is all they are.

[Jayne]

Hello,

Great idea! Maybe you could add a telephone service to up date lists too. There is only me and my sister who has the internet in our family, so maybe a list could be printed out from your site and family members could hand them around and people like my Gran could ring up and add to the list.

Best Wishes

Jayne

[broadband-engine]

Thinking about it more, if your site is general for gifts for any occassion, not targetted to lets say Weddings or Birthdays - then there is likely to be massive appeal to almost everyone. Maybe you could have ideas on the site for all the different types of occassion. Like Wedding gift ideas, for him, for her, a selection of Anniversary Gifts and maybe a list of traditional and modern Anniversary ideas, like paper, whatever the rest are to give people inspiration. I think potentially this a BIG idea that could work well over the Internet. It does need to stand from the crowd though as I know there are established sites out there already doing similar. The idea by Jayne in the post above sounds like a good idea - to broaden the appeal to those without internet access.

[bitsnstuff]

Hello,

I have seen the 'printed out list' idea somewhere else. They market it for children and suggest printing out the list of 'wanted' gifts and sending it with the invite, in the same vein as a wedding gift list.

Kate.

[theperfectpressie]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and support on this. I'm really pleased that it has been received so well and some of the suggestions are great. There is so much that I could do with this - lots of ideas, looking forward to getting it together. I think that the timing could be just right with Christmas not too far away!

Thanks! Rachel.

[SillyJokes]

I think you will really have to get yourself in gear if you are going to get this ready for this Christmas.

[broadband-engine]

Hi Rachel

I agree with Silly Jokes - you may capitalise on some Christmas traffic to your site, but I cannot imagine a landslide of visitors as soon as the site is launched. The reason is this, the site will be almost invisible for a while and will attract next to no search engine traffic. So since you are at the development stage, make sure that the SEO (search engine optimisation) of the site is done well from the offset, this will pay DIVIDENDS in the longer term. Due to the nature of what you want to do I think that the 'snowball' effect of people referring others will help the site get going well before search engines even take hold.

Cheers

[theperfectpressie]

Hi Phil/Silly Jokes

Thanks for the advice, I agree with what you're saying - I probably am being rather ambitious to expect things to be particularly successful for this christmas, however, if I can get a few people to use it, hopefully they will spread the word and that will encourage more people to sign up. :D

I've had some really good feedback on the idea so far, so i've decided to collect together names/email addresses of people who are interested in the website, so that when the site is up and running, I can notify them and they can have a look/register. People can log an interest by looking at the website.

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice so far!

[broadband-engine]

Hi Rachel

If you want any help with SEO, send me a PM and I'll pass on a guide I have.

All the Best

[theperfectpressie]

Hi everyone!

An update of progress to date of the website. I've had some help from a designer and he has come up with a couple of designs which I would really appreciate your comments on before making any final decisions.

http://www.theperfectpressie.co.uk/websites/index.html

When the page is displayed, you can click on it to display the other design and then click again to return to the original one!

Thanks for your help!

Rachel

[webit]

It’s good that others have already put the concept into the marketplace.

A. It proves the market may be viable (assuming they’ve done the initial market research)

B. It means that you wont have to do so much work in educating potential customers.

Even eBay or Amazon went the first in their fields in the marketplace; second, third mover can be a very good position. (and second, third biggest player in a sector is often considered to be the strongest position)

[webit]

Hi everyone!

An update of progress to date of the website. I've had some help from a designer and he has come up with a couple of designs which I would really appreciate your comments on before making any final decisions.

I like the purple. So many sites do blue - in fact it is the colour of choise for business sites.

Purple for me.