How To: Crowdsource Your Blog

Source

You've started a business, and you're really excited.  Like any fresh entrepreneur, you dive right in.  For the first few months, you're updating your website on a regular basis.  You've learned that it's important for you to blog to keep your content updated, and you're just overflowing with ideas.  

Then, right around month three or four, you start to slow down.  Blogging starts to take a backseat to all of the other work you have to do.  Not only are you busy, but you're starting to run out of blog topics and you find yourself writing the same things over and over again.  Your blog did its job, because now you have more customers than you know what to do with.  You don't mean to...but you start slacking on your blogging, just a little bit.  You get that annoying nagging voice in your mind telling you that you need to start blogging again or your business is going to suffer.  

What's really has to be on a business owner's to do? 

Luckily, there are many options for you.  In your situation, knowing how to crowdsource will help you tremendously.  Rather than just outsourcing, crowdsourcing opens up many more possibilities for you.  If you were to hire an individual blogger, you'd find yourself in the same type of predicament in a few months' time.  One person can only come up with so many ideas, and then they run out.  

Crowdsourcing allows you to tap the minds of hundreds of bloggers for your blog.  There are many great sites out there that offer crowdsourcing blog services.  Sites like BlogMutt or Media Room VIP don't cost very much, and you get high-quality, relevant content for your blog each and every week.  You'll have as much content as you want, and your blog will stay updated and fresh.

Crowdsourcing for your blog will free you up to focus on other areas of your business that need your attention more. You'll be thrilled to have that important item checked off your to-do list, and you'll reap the benefits without having to put in the effort.

For more great start-up advice for your business, contact us today!

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Join our first "Global Crowd Network" for Lean Startup funding! Connect with facebook on www.ufostart.com and calculate your Startup Value. Interested in how you can leverage the power of the crowd for your startup? Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!

UFOstart Live Community Chat 25-02-'13

Send in your questions about UFOstart either on Facebook or by tweeting to #ufostart. We will answer them in our Live Community Chat on Monday, 02-25-'13. Watch the Hangout on Air live on this blog at 9am PST/ 6pm CET or watch the youtube video afterwards to hear the answers to your questions!

How To: Crowdsource Ideas

Source: NPR

Tools for crowdsourcing ideas are all around us. From the comment box at the dry cleaner to the family dinner table brainstorm session, crowdsourcing isn’t a new idea. If you are looking for great ideas, you may be thinking of crowdsourcing but you aren’t sure how to start, how to identify great ideas or how to review them. 






Idea Bounty, GenCrowd or DiscoveryCast are great crowdsourcing tools for all of the above topics. They can help you with sparking ideas, getting feedback from professionals in the industry, or solving problems for areas where your idea might be lacking. You can tap into the creativity of the crowd to refine your current idea or to come up with a completely new one. These services offer a much farther reach than that comment box at the dry cleaner!

Many don't have issues with finding ideas, but rather with evaluating them. How do you, after crowdsourcing or brainstorming, identify whether the idea will really work? According to this 2011 research:

“Idea quality is a complex construct consisting of four distinct dimensions: novelty, feasibility, relevance and elaboration.”

These are four concepts to keep in mind when deciding if an idea is good or not. Is it novel: does it solve a problem in a new or interesting way? Is it feasible: can this idea be implemented practically? Is it relevant or useful: does it make money or create another benefit? Is the idea fully elaborated: is it complete and understandable?

A lot of ideas do not fulfill all four of these concepts. You will eventually realize - sooner or later- whether that is the case. By outlining your potential business operations, financial plan or drafting a first pitch, you can determine which of these concepts you have to work on. In that case, GenCrowd offers a way to crowdsource solutions to problems that might arise. Creative contributors will give you their feedback on the issue and might come up with an innovative approach to your topic.

Ideas are out there, and crowdsourcing services offer a great way to find, refine and prove them. If you've found an idea you would like to pursue, or would like to join a startup with a great idea, check out our first "Global Crowd Network" for Lean Startup funding! Connect with facebook on www.ufostart.com and calculate your Startup Value. Interested in how you can leverage the power of the crowd for your startup? Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!

-bmt

UFOstart Live Video Chat 02-18

Learn more about the UFOstart Enabler Round by watching our Live Video Chat. Questions were tweeted to #ufostart and included the following:

1. Why can't I upload xing contacts? Due to their API functionality we currently do not support xing contacts. We will add more APIs in the future and will try to cover the most commonly demanded social networks! 
2. Why is there no mobile app available? You can view any UFOstart project on your mobile phone using facebook (currently fixing some bugs). We are not planning a separate app at the moment. 
3. Does the Startup Value have an influence on my chance of getting the job? That depends on the founder, its an estimate of how much initiative you are willing to take for a venture (capital, contacts, assets). Its an indicator - it might be more relevant in the future. 
4. How can you assure that project information is trustful for investors and experts? The first barrier is convincing 20% of your own network before launching the project to the public. It's one of the reasons why we chose Facebook, people will try to uphold their digital identity and do not want their actions to negatively affect on their FB profile. 

Live Video Chat 02/18/13:

 

Thank you to everyone who contributed by tweeting questions. Stay tuned for future Hangouts on Air!

UFOstart Enabler Round

UFOstart is now on UFOstart!

In order to test our platform, and to eat our own dog food, we are launching the “UFOstart Enabler Round”. We want to introduce you to the product we are building and the concept we envision. And what better way to do that than explaining UFOstart through a UFOstart round?

Over the past two years we have developed a viable prototype and successfully conducted closed beta market tests. The main objective of this 30 day round is to establish market and public readiness for our official launch.  We want to lead by example and improve what we’ve built so far - with a focus on UX for round setup and management. This mission requires an excellent operative framework to guarantee for a smooth take off!

Since we believe in the power of the crowd, you are invited to be part of our extraterrestrial team. There are key positions to be filled and needs to be covered! Applications are now open, with tasks ranging from full time Co-Founders or project based SEO strategists to freelance developers.

Stay tuned for UFOstart’s product development and the series of rounds that are yet to come. Once we are finished with the groundwork, the “Public Test Round” will take UFOstart to new heights. Please use our forum for any questions, problems or feedback and be part of our product development by voting on new features here!

The UFO is preparing to take off - jump on board and get ready to launch!

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Join our first "Global Crowd Network" for Lean Startup funding! Connect with facebook on www.ufostart.com and calculate your Startup Value. Interested in how you can leverage the power of the crowd for your startup? Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!

YourSports on UFOstart!

UFOstart is pleased to announce a new round by YourSports on the platform! This round is aimed at growing YourSports' community and acquiring talent and investors to prepare for its public launch.

YourSports is a social network for sports fans. It's like Facebook for sports -a place to get the top sports news and commentary about your favorite athletes and teams all in a single place on the web. Its vision is to connect the world of sports online--down to the local neigborhood level. Once connected, YourSports can become the best sports marketing platform on the planet. This techcrunch article gives a great overview of the startup's mission and potential.

For go to market, YourSports will launch through the Twitter follower networks of several senior writers at ESPN. These top writers in sports (Twitter follower community of 350k) will be creating content on the YourSports network and will be cross-posting into FB and Twitter. Yoursports will launch V1 of the social platform and will make over 25,000 teams, athletes, publishers, and companies in sports natively "social". Want to be part of this new sports experience? Click here for immediate access to YourSports.

The objectives of this UFOstart round include growing the beta audience to 50,000 users and raising a new round of financing. Contribute to the round if you are looking to join a design-first engineering team, to invest and to be part of an industry-revolutionizing project!

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Join our first "Global Crowd Network" for Lean Startup funding! Connect with facebook on www.ufostart.com and calculate your Startup Value. Interested in how you can leverage the power of the crowd for your startup? Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!