lists

Okay this will be the last on Lopico for at least 2 posts; here are a few of the new features of the site.

1. Design - completely redone, all css based, nearly table free (I’d say my design skil;s have improved, but I’m still getting better).
2. Picks - Adding places to your picks is like bookmarking them - I really like this feature, it allows me to keep all of the numbers of places that I call often on one page. Uses a little AJAX for this - see my picks.
3. Directory B - New feature that enables you to create custom categories.
4. Friends - This is sort of a social feature, and the last thing that I added - so it’s not quite perfect yet - this allows you to see reviews of people that you have added as friends.
5. hRev and hCard - Lopico now supports microformats.
6. Instant vote updating - old voting took time, this was first on my list to fix.
7. Now LAMP based - the old format wasn’t really working out, Lopico is now coded in PHP and much more functional and scalable. (I did all of the coding except AJAX code which is openly available).
8. Easier Reviews - old review used a content overlay and there was no direct link to review a business, new system is much easier and also updates automatically.
9. Homepage Experiments - I already blogged my theory on having the registration box on Lopico’s homepage, my other experiment is the “unpopular cities” - hopefully I’ll draw some attention to these cities and people will add more stuff.
10. Accounts - this may hurt more than it helps, but I’ll be able to do much more now that Lopico requires registration.

———–
Things I need to work on:
1. Creating passionate users
2. Photo Handling
3. IE7 problems
4. Social Features
5. Lopromo - local offers via RSS (only avail in Akron right now)
6. Business - I have a self serve ad program that I’m working on that will be done soon (1 ad, 1 day, 1 dollar)
7. SEO - The worst part about taking down my site for so long was that my search traffic plummeted. Luckily I think it’s even better this time around, just need to get back into all of the indexes.
8. PR / Marketing - I need to be much more active, this probably isn’t the proper forum, but there’s a lot more that I can do now that Lopico has a stronger architecture.

Last note - I submitted Lopico to TechCrunch, but doubt it will be reviewed, I know longer fit the TechCrunch niche, and that’s okay with me. If it’s on TechCrunch great, if not I understand TechCrunch is a business and should only put on the stories that are going to be the best for its business.

… no Lopico posting is going to be tough I have a lot more to say.

Not long ago I was talking to a friend about a possible web start-up that he was thinking of pursuing. I couldn’t get into the project for a couple of reasons, but I did give him some ideas and a list of sites that I felt would be useful to him. The list of sites is geared towards the type of start up that he was/is pursuing, but I thought that I’d post it for all to share.

1. Instant Domain Search (http://www.instantdomainsearch.com): His proposed site name was taken so I sent this link as a way to try to find a new name. This is one tool that I can’t get enough of.
2. TechCrunch (http://www.techcrunch.com): If you’re going to be in an industry you need to stay on top of what’s happening in that industry. TC was an obvious choice.
3. Base Camp (http://www.basecamphq.com): Great free project management software - essential for web developers.
4. del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us): You may not think of del.icio.us as a web start-up must have, but I do. del.icio.us led me to countless resources that helped further the progress of Lopico. Now, I mainly use it to tag great design examples or code examples - I wouldn’t waste the space on my browser favorites, but web bookmarks are perfect for these types of sites.
5. Cool Site of the Day (http://www.coolsiteoftheday.com): A very 1.0 choice in my mainly 2.0 list, but this site can be very helpful. I did CSOTD and it worked very well for me. $27 to get 5000 visitors that want to see your site. I think that’s a pretty good deal. No, it’s not the best deal ever, but it will introduce your site to an audience that may not otherwise have found out about it.
6. Seth’s Blog (http://sethgodin.typepad.com): An essential read for marketing on the web. I also threw in the idea virus e-book.
7. Okdork.com (http://www.okdork.com): This one was driven by the college focus of his proposed site. Noah, the blog’s author, has a lot of good insight into the college market having worked at facebook. Aside from that it’s just a good read for a young person wishing to get into the web business.
8. Techmeme (http://www.techmeme.com): I thought this one might be a little beyond what he was looking for, but like TechCrunch this is a great way to stay on top of what’s happening in the industry - okay the best way, but the scope was probably beyond what he needed (for now).

The only other suggestion that I had for him was a feed reader - which if I had to pick one, I’d go with Rojo.

Let me know what I missed. What sites would you tell someone to visit if they were trying to get into the internet business?

Not long ago I noted that the new thing in web 2.0 seems to be making lists of all the “web2.0 apps.”  Now the lists have gone 2.0

• web2list.com - allows users to vote on sites, review them, post them to delicious, and more
• buzzshout.com - also ran review site. TechCrunch disgustingly calls it yelp for web2.0 companies.
• AustinCast - now has a slideshow of 1400 web2.0 comapnies

Of the three I say go with web2list.