So I’m checking out the Scoble interview of BrownBook.net.
They pay only the last contributor and only if the business in fact “adopts” their web page on BrownBook.net. Why would they not divide the payment between all of the contributors? The first man in would be the one who did the most work it seems to me.
What am I missing? Dave Ingram and Mark Lyne see something I don’t. Help me out!
I just added my first business, The Jant Group where I recently bought some great window stickers for a sports team. I loved the stickers and they were very affordable. I was actually able to simply give them away to the parents because they were so reasonably priced, so this business came to mind for my testing purposes. Maybe they’ll adopt their listing and I’ll make $4.40 a year off of it … or will someone else edit it after me and take the money? I also ordered some vinyl banners from them. Pretty cool business, so maybe they’ll benefit from a BrownBook.net listing.
They must have something going as BrownBook.net has only been on-line for six months and they have a lot of businesses already listed (“22,346,320 businesses and growing”). Maybe this is the new facebook … I don’t really get facebook either.
Note: In re-reading this it might not be clear what I don’t get. I get the business listing part and the ability to review (or pan) a business, and lots of people will probably use it for those purposes. What I don’t get is why the last person to suggest/edit a business is the one who gets paid if a business decides to adopt their listing.
I’m curious how many businesses do in fact adopt their listings. I’m guessing not too many on a percentage basis. But from their perspective I suspect it’s about how many, not what percentage.
December 7th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Hi Don,
Marc at Brownbook here, couple answers to your comments / thoughts…
We did consider dividing the payment between all contributors. Programatically, easy to do. The question that we asked ourselves was how can we keep it really simple, therefore making it easy to explain to people. The other consideration was that how do we make it so that we encourage continuous usage, rather than enabling people to do a bit of a land-grab on listings. Hence we decided on the last person to make a ‘significant change’ would get the 20% lifetime share.
You are right, someone else may nip in there just before it is claimed by the business owner and then you will get nothing. On other listings however you may win over someone else who has contributed.
Businesses adopting (claiming) their listing: you are right, its about how many businesses around the World claim their listing, ideally every business in the World would claim their listing, correct it and add more information to it so we can have one de facto directory of businesses rather than rely on the existing printed directory producers to try a centrally maintain all our details… lets do it ourselves…
Any comments / thoughts / suggestions, then please do drop me an email marc[AT]brownbook[DOT]net
Thanks.
Marc.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Thanks Marc for you answers. It is of course your business, but I have to tell you that I think you should give each contributor a stake in the “claim”. Sure maybe some will do a land grab, but they took the time to get you the info and that has value. I wouldn’t bother because I get nothing out of it other than maybe a lottery ticket. Some guy adds one fact or gives a quick review and they get the credit. Sure you SHOULD do something for contributors who keep it fresh as well.
One other thought, once it is claimed, what is a person’s incentive to give positive/negative/neutral reviews?
I’m not so worried about you sending out the emails to the company, but once I put someones email on your site, isn’t it then easily harvested? That is where I am really concerned about spam even though I was kidding around about it a little.
It’s great to see a company so responsive. It’s a great idea and well on it’s way obviously, but these were a few of my questions.
Don
December 8th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Hi Don
Valid point about the email, and well made, its crossed our mind too. I think your suggestion is sensible, and we’ll take a look at it and let you know when we’ve done something. Do us a favor, can you email me direct so i have your email address and can get back to you. I’m on dave[at]brownbook.net. cheers. Dave.
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