June 28, 2007

Is It Time To Kill Marktd?

by Piers Fawkes

Marktd60Logo-1We launched Marktd, our ‘marketing news by marketers for marketers’ site, about a year ago. It’s built on a Digg like system where stories get voted on and the popular ones rise to the top.

The site now has 4,200 user submitted links on all aspects of marketing and advertising. And traffic is ok. But we’re thinking about killing it because:

* In the real world, people don’t seem to be compelled by the status of being top ‘Digger’. Maybe it’s something about already having perceived real world status.

* It’s not useful enough. Jack Cheng and I spent some time trying to make it more of a bookmark site by rebuilding the site in Ruby - a site where articles are ranked on how many other people have bookmarked an article rather than voted for it. But we realized we didn’t have the skills or time to build a system.

* The system is getting spammed by battery resellers in China and played by Google Rank consultants. There’s too much crap being submitted these days.

* We’ll say this publicly: Federated Media do a crap job at selling ads on the PSFK network. So no cash, no hiring of someone full time to edit the site. FM tell us that they still have to educate the market, we just don’t know an alternative to take our business to.

Would love to hear your thoughts on what we should do - in the comments section.

Article categories: Advertising & Branding, PSFK News

Article Link | Add To Delicious Add To Digg Add To Stumble Upon | Email This | Print This Post |

Popular Articles


Lessons Learned: Killing IF! - Relaunching Marktd
Some of you may have noticed a few recent changes at PSFK. Simply we relaunched our IF! marketing subscriber-only site as Marktd the free-for-all site. I did this for a number ...

Marktd Hates Latest Guinness Ad
The guys over at PSFK's Marktd site think that the new ad from Guinness is unbelievable: Unbelievable in the negative use of the word... Now we have an ad with people switching ...

Marktd - Week 1 Review
The first week of our new site Marktd seems to have gone pretty well. We got some nice comments from marketing commentators and the number of Marktd users suggests that people &...

We’re Off On Holiday, So You Write PSFK…
Gang, We love you dearly and we love the fact you come back time and time again for more. But after 2 years we need a break. Not for long. Just a week in the sunshine. A week i...

Marktd Talks To Ben Lerer Of Thrillist About Jet Vegas
We're often interested with the relationships between media and brands and we've investigated on occasion the topic of whether media titles could replace creative agencies (o...

Help Us Predict Blog Award Winners
Marketing Sherpa has just announced a rather long list of blogs for their annual awards. So who should you vote for? PSFK says, "Don't waste that vote!!" Check out who the popul...

7 Responses to “Is It Time To Kill Marktd?”

  1. ross
    Posted from: 64.132.56.2

    June 28th, 2007 at 8:52 am

    Piers,

    I totally agree with your thought track there. So many peer nominated sites, most of which piggyback off another. Plus i think your popular stories box will filter most of the more interesting reads. I find myself contributing more to marktd than reading it.

    I would love to see the environmental section come back up. Redesign looks excellent btw.

    ross

  2. jackcheng
    Posted from: 65.215.34.140

    June 28th, 2007 at 9:24 am

    Oops, the link to the environmental section disappeared from the sidebar. Fixed now.

  3. shawn
    Posted from: 167.167.15.254

    June 28th, 2007 at 11:13 am

    perhaps look into Gorilla Nation?

  4. Sam Michel
    Posted from: 87.194.34.236

    June 28th, 2007 at 1:04 pm

    Hello Piers.

    I feel your pain, especially on the sales front. We’ve tried using sales houses to sell our inventory and it’s never worked. The only way to get proper value from a niche site has been to sell directly, and more importantly build direct relationships with advertisers/sponsors who understand what they’re buying into.

    If you think it’s bad in the US, the situation in smaller markets like the UK is even worse.

    If you find the magic solution, do share!

  5. Nichelle
    Posted from: 24.239.155.105

    June 29th, 2007 at 7:17 am

    Please don’t kill Martkd! Despite the spam, there is good information there and it is good to encourage link contributions since comments are more likely to be more opinions.

  6. Rob Blackie
    Posted from: 82.111.146.18

    July 5th, 2007 at 7:09 am

    Please keep it - it’s one of the most reliable sources of interesting stuff to read around.

  7. Bozidar
    Posted from: 212.93.234.18

    July 6th, 2007 at 4:31 am

    Kill it… it’s getting sloppy.

Leave a Comment

We're open to critical discussion but not abuse or spam. Note that your IP address will be published alongside your comment.

Subscribe

Search PSFK

About PSFK

    PSFK is a global trends and innovation company that helps its readers, guests and clients make things better. PSFK publishes websites and reports; hosts conferences and events; and provides advice and consultancy. Contact us.