9- Designing

I have tried different layouts and backgrounds for my website but I don't happen to find the one yet. The ones I have chosen are either too dark making it overwhelming to look at or too simple making it boring. Today I put a background with all the brands that would sponsor these extreme sports. I thought it would be a good idea since it's related. I have uploaded new content from this week and going to continue uploading more content not just of me but of all my friends so they can see themselves and use the website for their enjoyment. What I need to work on is uploading content for the other categories that I have labeled. Finding it and putting it in the website is easy but finding fresh content might be somewhat difficult since I don't know much people that do the other sports. I'm going to have to do some brainstorming here and rearrange my business canvas, because I MIGHT just do it all about skateboarding...

8- Feedback

So yesterday I went to scalzi skatepark located in Stamford and then Norwalk Skatepark, with the objective of getting feedback about my business venture. As I walked around analyzing everybody in the park, I came to realized that most of them were on the their phones filming their friends. Some of them had professional cameras and some of them were just watching. Since I'm friends with most of them I approached to the ones with smart phones that were filming and asked "wouldn't be nice to have a website and app that focuses only on a certain community like our skateboarding community?". They replied confused asking what I meant. I started talking about imagining having an app where you could share your clips in an instant with everybody else but in a format like Instagram. Then I started talking about the app and all these cool features you could have and do with it if it existed. Some of them loved the idea without any feedback and some said that I should do a mix instead of only doing videos. However, I wouldn't want to make it about pictures and videos because then it wouldn't be original. Just videos!

When I got to Norwalk Skatepark, I was given a different perspective. They liked the idea however, they would want a subcategory page where you could be able to find the nearest skateparks and skate-shops around your current location. I did research on that to see if people came up with apps to find skateparks and skate-shops around your current location, and yes its already out there. However, what is not out there is combining these 3.


This is a clip from Norwalk Skatepark which I have put on my website.

7

Key Partners: Facebook, Youtube, Angel Investors

Key Activities: Grow user base, design, market content

Value Proposition: Take great videos and share instantly with your friends and the entire world.
Access to other videos for entertainment.

Customer Relationships: Extreme sports social network

Customer Segments: Android or iPhone users that like extreme sports videos

Key Resources: InstaXtreme platform, everyday new content

Channels: Website and App

Cost Structure: Marketing, Maintenance

Revenue Streams: Ad revenues, Free

Digging (Module 2)

I have spoken to multiple people about the idea but their feedback wasn't very helpful. I've been working on the website uploading existent content and trying to make it look more attractive. After finishing module one, I asked myself how would I able to make money off this.

The last thing I want is for people to visit the website/App and never return. Collecting emails will help "InstaXtreme"grow much faster because I simply email my subscribers whenever we post new content. I'm hoping to approve at least 30 videos per day to keep people coming back and sharing their experiences. It is 7 times harder to acquire a new visitor than to market to an existing one. I'm going to place a simple signup form on the website and app to collect visitor's emails. You can also use the subscriber list to generate revenue from advertisers and sponsors in the future. Also, I could buy a video sharing CMS script that will allow users to do the following:

• Upload a large amount of videos
• Easily scalable to handle millions of visitors
• Loads the site fast in both mobile and desktop browsers
• Good search engine optimization (SEO) factors along with SEO friendly page titles
• Social media friendly

I believe the best way to drive traffic to the website and App is by:

• SEO
• Social media
• Adwords/PPC
• Email marketing

Once I have decent traffic, then it’s time to think about monetization. Monetization should always add value to the user, not take away from the browsing experience. Here are some revenue sources as mentioned before:

• Advertising
• Sponsorships
• Product - Hoodies, T-shirts, etc..
• Adsense
• CPM networks
• Subscriptions
  I believe that for the website, the main source of revenue generators will be banner ads, sponsorships, product, and subscriptions.

I’ve chosen to get into extreme sports because I’m passionate about it. I’ve skated for over ten years, and even though I stopped, I still hop on my board once in a while. One thing I always found frustrating was waiting to get home to upload your skateboard videos on youtube. With my platform, you don’t have to wait. You will be able to upload your video immediately through an App.  I’ve created a website on “Wix” with the layout and way how I would want it to look if it was in an App form. Looking at it gives me enough motivation to get into the hot spot which is developing the App.
At first I thought I wanted to do a Real Estate App because I’m also passionate about it but suddenly changed my mind . Instead, I chose to create something I had more knowledge about. I liked the idea of creating the Real Estate App but didn’t know much about. Didn’t know if my idea was going to work since I didn’t have much developed yet. However, I feel more confident about the idea I have chosen and going to continue to work on it.

InstaXtreme

As mentioned before I'm planning on making my venture about extreme sports. I have looked at sport platforms and none of them offer what I'm trying to create. I want to put together youtube and instagram. The whole idea of this, is to be able to upload your favorite tricks in an instant without having to go home and upload it on youtube. I was thinking about doing pictures as well like instagram but decided to eliminate that. So the website and app will only focus on videos. I have been working on the website to get   an idea of how it will look in an app form. Now my only concern is how do i develop an app. I have looked at different websites on how to create one but no success. I tried to sign up on that website Professor Noble recommended but couldn't have access to it.


    

New Idea

So I thought of making something less complex because of how much stake I have on my plate right now. I'm going to create a platform like Instagram, however this will be completely different. My platform is going to be called "InstaXtreme", this will be only for people who are into extreme sports that would like to share their experiences through an app. It will have different subcategories like BMX, SKATEBOARDING, SURFING, SKIIN, SNOWBOARDING, HIKING, MOTOCROSS etc.. So if you are only interested in looking at a specific category then you will have that choice without having to go over every single video and picture others post. What makes this better than Instagram is that videos will play up to 25 seconds instead of 10 seconds. You will be able to comment and like pictures and videos. You will be able to follow other users and be followed. This could be a great opportunity for those with great talent that want to be considered for sponsorship by big brands like DC shoes, Nike SB, Lakai and others.