As a wee schoolchild, I was told over and over to “write what you know.” It’s easier to write well, and convincingly, if you are familiar with the subject matter. That’s the idea, at least.
We don’t think websites are any different.
Many of the sites we use on a daily basis were obviously created by people who needed them. A perfect example is Lighthouse, a beautiful and simple issue tracker. While I can’t claim to know the motivations behind its creation, I’d wager the guys asked “what do we need?” rather than “what would be a big hit?” After all, they use Lighthouse to keep track of itself.
FamSpam started because our families were having trouble keeping in touch on a regular basis. It was getting done, but it was a tad sloppy. We needed a clean, simple, and efficient way to keep in touch with our families.
While it’s great to scratch your own itch, the advantages of creating something you need go much deeper. Because we wanted FamSpam for our families we were able to use them as the pre-beta test group. Anything they didn’t understand, we tweaked. Any good ideas they had, we implemented. Any wording they disliked, we removed.
When you’re the target audience, useful new features become obvious. Just the other day we added photo slideshows to FamSpam. Why? Because my mom uploaded 17 photos from Christmas and I wanted to see them in a slideshow, without having to click through each one.
So while it may seem lucrative to create a new social network for Alaskan King Crabs, you might be better off focusing on a site you’d actually use every day. That is, unless you’re a delicious Alaskan King Crab. In that case, crab on.
