Question for you students (anyone can contribute thoug)

[BobtheCkroach]

I've got this web application that I've written, specifically for myself, but I've been told to market it. It would allow you to log in and add Notes from class. You'd give it a date, class, topic, and the actual notes. From there, everything is saved in an online database.

The potential advantages are:

a) Saved online. You don't need to carry your papers around (if you keep paper notes) or your laptop around (if you keep electronic notes) in order to access your notes, since it's all saved online.

b) Totally searchable. You'd be able to search by Date, Class and Keyword. Say it's 30 seconds before an exam and you need to find notes about "database relations". You search for it and get all the notes you've written regarding the topic.

If one was dedicated enough to keep notes on paper, and then re-type them, the advantages could even be reaped by those lacking a laptop.

I wrote this for my own use, but upon hearing about it, my boss (I work @ a web design company) says I need to market it for about $10 for an annual membership - he thinks I could make some serious money. Bofore I drop the up front cash though, I wanna kind of test the waters...would you guys use this? Would it benefit you? If you vote and you don't actually have a laptop, vote from the mentality that you did, since that would be my primary target audience. I'd love to hear feed back (especially regarding whether you'd pay $10 a year for this/what you would pay...), etc. I have a small working version online now, and if you'd like to test it before you say, drop me a PM and i'll set up an account for you to try it.

Note: In no way am I trying to recruit, etc. I'm looking for input only...Please don't ban me SAL :P

Thank GM!

-BobtheCkroach

[TheMaster]

Voted.

[FUS1ON]

Let's see, how many pet rocks were sold? Man if consumers will buy a rock in a box, they will buy anything especially something useful.

Your bosses comment strikes me as unusual, if you design something along the lines of what the company you work for does, then most companies want the rights to it.

[BobtheCkroach]

Let's see, how many pet rocks were sold? Man if consumers will buy a rock in a box, they will buy anything especially something useful.

Your bosses comment strikes me as unusual, if you design something along the lines of what the company you work for does, then most companies want the rights to it.

Small company. My boss is the owner of the company, and I've known him for my entire life.

[SALvation]

Speaking as somone who makes a living programming and selling custom applications, I can honestly tell you there would be zero interest in that. There are already hundreds of programs like that, and it would take you years to develop, QA, and support an application that would be worth that much money, let alone an ongoing licensing fee.

It always seems easy for people outside the business to create and sell something, but the harsh truth is that it has most likely already been done, and is cheaper and more full featured than what you are planning.

[BobtheCkroach]

Speaking as somone who makes a living programming and selling custom applications, I can honestly tell you there would be zero interest in that. There are already hundreds of programs like that, and it would take you years to develop, QA, and support an application that would be worth that much money, let alone an ongoing licensing fee.

It always seems easy for people outside the business to create and sell something, but the harsh truth is that it has most likely already been done, and is cheaper and more full featured than what you are planning.

I'm a bit confused on some of what you're saying. The development is pretty much done, at least as far as basic functionality...all I do is waste my evenings currently anyways, so I don't mind putting more time into it as required. I've nailed the ongoing hosting and domain name fees to about 300 a year, probably a bit less. I'm not sure what QA is. I'm not sure what your idea of "that much money" is, but frankly, as long as I break even (which would be 30 members @ $300 / year and $10 / membership), I'm not concerned w/ how much more I make. Anything else just helps pay a bit towards college. I'm not looking to make a living out of this site by any means.

Frankly, when I've got something I want to do on the net, if I can code it, I enjoy the process of doing so, and I'd rather spend 20 or 30 hours doing that then paying for it. It means I get full control of every aspect of it. So I don't care all that much if I can find it cheaper. It'll have every feature I want, so as far as I'm concerned, it is fully featured. If I can sell it and make some cash, all the better.

[solid snake295]

i would use it if i had a laptop, sounds like a pretty good idea.
my notebooks always end up looking like they were in a car wreck so having everything stored online would be pretty cool. :thumbs:

[BobtheCkroach]

i would use it if i had a laptop, sounds like a pretty good idea.
my notebooks always end up looking like they were in a car wreck so having everything stored online would be pretty cool. :thumbs:

Same here. Generally I start losing pages by about 3 weeks into the semester.

[SALvation]

Wow, I wrote that hopped up on migraine medicine last night and even I barely understand what I wrote.

Basically what I was trying to say, is if this is just a hobby site or something that you would use or learn from, then by all means go for it. But if this is something that you are coding for the sole purpose of selling, I wouldn't pin your hopes on it. There are some very advanced apps out there already and trying to get a product like that off the ground without a sales team or other business behind you would be very tough.

[SoulReaver]

Sounds like a neat idea Bob. If you do decide to sell it, I would gladly help you out anyway possible. I could perhaps hang flyers around my town if you make a flyer. Just give me 5% :D j/k

[BobtheCkroach]

You've listed a few advantages...but what would be the difference of saving the info to a memory stick? It would seem to me to be more accessible, especially if you are lacking connectivity. If it's in Word or Access format, searching that is easy enough.

Don't get me wrong, it sounds like a neat concept..i'm just trying to understand the advantages to the consumer.

Well, I agree, if you can save on the memory stick all the time, portability is not an issue, however, if you're like me, it's really easy to forget/misplace memory sticks. So that's one argument. You can't "lose" online data. As long as you have a connection (which most people do, and the school definitely does), you can access the data. Additionally, if you wanted to share notes w/ a friend, you can just give him the URL and he/she can view them (great for when a friend is sick on day or something like that).

Secondly, the searching is a huge advantage. In addition to the text of the entry, you'll designate a class, a date and a topic. You can search by Date or Class, and you can also search by keyword, which will find all results that contain that keyword. This is a ton better than opening 50 different Word docs looking for the little section you wrote on a topic, when you're studying (or going through all your paper notes), since it's much faster, and you (or at least I) often miss the section when you're reading through notes anyways.

Those are the two big advantages. Those are the 2 things that I was looking to get out of it when I started it for myself.

[BobtheCkroach]

Wow, I wrote that hopped up on migraine medicine last night and even I barely understand what I wrote.

Basically what I was trying to say, is if this is just a hobby site or something that you would use or learn from, then by all means go for it. But if this is something that you are coding for the sole purpose of selling, I wouldn't pin your hopes on it. There are some very advanced apps out there already and trying to get a product like that off the ground without a sales team or other business behind you would be very tough.

Ok, I agree w/ what you're saying now. Last night I thought you were a jerk :P

I definitely am not looking at this as a way to bring in money (though I certainly hope it does, cause I like money). I'm definitely not betting the farm on this or anything, but after using it myself, and after having some friends test it, i've been told that they'd be willing to pay in order to use the app, so I decided I should consider that.

As for getting the name out there, I have a few ideas. I've got friends in 3 or 4 other universities, and I'm willing to give them some free memberships in exchange for a little promotion. I'm a member of "facebook", which gets you a lot of hits, so putting an ad there might help, and having those friends put ads up helps more (one of them has 500 listed facebook friends!) I'm not expecting 1,000 members or anything like that, but I think I can get the name out and get at least a little profit out of it.