Need YOUR feedback for Cuttle Website

mwexler501

Cuttlefish
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Oct 20, 2004
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24
>> the following was posted by me as a reply in another thread. I wanted to start a discussion specifically about the web site I am going to build. I *need* your feedback, ideas, opinions etc as to what would make this work. Development will begin in the next few weeks when I have the requirements detailed (which will be based on your feedback). I estimate completion sometime beginning of July.

Just an idea of what to expect:

The goal (or mission) is to provide a resource that makes cuttlefish ownership as easy as possible for anyone.

The site will be built around the "cycle" of owning a cuttle. Starting folks off with deciding if owning a cuttle is right for them, what to know before hand, preperation, aquisition (of materials and the cuttles), feeding, maintenence, tankmates, breeding, etc - all in chronological fashion so people can easily jump to the portion of the site that applies to where they are in the stage of thier cuttle relationship. Each 'stage' will be complimented with articles, recommendations, discussions, products, etc appropriate to that stage.

Hybrid eCommerce: I will be building a custom eCommerce engine for folks to purchase anythng/everything they will need for thier cuttles' lifetime. I wont be actually selling most of the items myself - which is where the hybrid component comes in to play - it will link to websites that sell what I don't (directly to the product) - and can act as a passthru for selling items that can be drop shipped (i.e. you cuttle breaders will be able to sell your cuttles thru the site - the site will keep track of stock, expected availibility dates, backordering ,etc). All eComm components (direct selling, forward to other sites and pass-thru selling) will be presented via the same engine so it wont seem disjointed like mosts sites that attempt hybrid eComm.

Customized "your account" area for tracking your own progress, uploading pics, journaling your experience and requesting help from others.

Discussion Forums / Live chat tools / articles will also be included

If successful with cuttles, I will be duplicating the engine for other pet specialties.
 
Isn't this what TONMO.com is here for, minus your ecommerce ambitions (for now)?

(** Moved this thread from Cuttlefish Care Q&A to Marketplace)
 
I would mutch rather see both octopus and cuttlefish rater than just one but it does sound like not many people will come cunsidering thatthat is exactly what tonmo is and your advertising on tonmo sbjest you just ask tonmo for a job but what ever if you want to It does sound like a place I would go somtimes
 
I'm with Tony on this one...

Who are you hoping to write the articles?

cheers
Colin
 
I'm writing one now, Colin...
"how to keep cuttlefish in a 29 gallon Eclipse system"
colour pics and everything...
greg
 
ah found my thread

Wow I feel like everyone just ganged up on me...

My intentions are not to COMPETE with tonmo, my intentions are to COMPLIMENT tonmo. Seems that after the tonmo posting which incorrectly summed up my solution as "Tonmo + ecommerce" that everyone else just jumped on that band wagon and started bashing. The discussion component of the site will be a distant sidedish to the maincourse (which is why it was footnoted at the bottom).

Tonmo, Clownfish, Colin: your comments are based on an incorrect assumption - that I am building something to compete against tonmo, which I am not. So let start over...

Colin: to answer your question: in the beginning I would be writing most of the articles based on my cuttlefish ownership experience, as will several friends of mine who are also cuttle owners. Anyone who wishes to contribute is more then welcomed to.

Clownfish: Perhaps I may use the engine of what I build for an octopus focused web site, but I have no immediate plans to do that. It does not sound like you are my target market. You mentioned you would rather see octupus info, but then that wouldnt be consistent with the goal of the site "to make cuttlefish ownership as easy as possible".
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The goal of my site is to make Cuttle ownership as easy as possible. My underlying intention is to hopefully create a larger community of cuttle owners by demonstrating to people that this is a magnifacent animal that is not more complicated to keep then many of the mainstream exotic fish.

Where your site is the community and the 'anything and everything' you need to know abour cepholopods, by site will be more of the 'Cuttlefish for Dummies, or How-To' book. Where you are a huge source of information that folks can search through for details - my site is "We'll hold your hand to make this process as easy as possible". The format will be dramatically different, the content will be complimentary to your own.

Picture this: you've just decided a cuttle is right for you, what do you do now? One page in the site explains the preperatory process, what items you need to purchase, how to best set up and use those items, and the links to the vendors/online retailers to order those items.

Once your preperations are complete, another page would focus on aquisition and acklimation. How/where to get a cuttle (links to on line retailers, etc) and what to do to make the cuttles arrival and acklimation as successful as possible.

These are just examples of two of the "stages" I was discussing in the beginning of this thread, and I havent even gone into detail with either example. The web site would be set up in an easy "stage 1,2,3,4..." format. So folks would have centralized resources depending on where there are in the ownership cycle. What Tonmo does, it does very well and I have no intentions of copying or competing against it. As a matter of fact, I expect that anyone who uses my site would be a member of Tonmo as well. Get the basics from my site - get the specifics from Tonmo. I would even be glad to lob off the dicussion component of mine and just forward the visitors to tonmo if tonmo where interested.

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TO SUM THINGS UP
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I am not looking to compete with Tonmo, I am looking to compliment them. If you guys have any questons or ideas please ask, before jumping to any conclusions and ganging up against me ( I am not your enemy :smile: I am trying to expand the community ). I would love to discuss this further if you have any questions or concerns. Please let me know.

And Tonmo - If this works out, it should result in your site being more active and successful as well. Increasing the community of Cuttle owners by making ownership easier for them can only add traffic to your web site. Please don't look at me as compitetion. As a matter of fact, I would welcome opening up a discussion with you to get this rolling in a positive direction - for both of us. Your ideas and recommendations would be welcomed and appreciated.

Oh - and would it be pssible to move this back to cutlefish discussion since this is a cuttle specific topic an I am not trying to sell anything (which is what I assume the marketplace is for)?

-Mark
 
I think that's great, good luck with your venture, I'm just saying this belongs in Marketplace at best. TONMO.com is your one-stop shop for all things ceph; we don't "stop" anywhere, honestly. I'm not overly concerned about competition, it's all good -- but I am concerned about solicitations on TONMO.com, basically... TONMO.com is a strong, established community, I'm not sure it's appropriate to post solicitations for volunteerism for your non-existent site in our Cuttle Q&A forum, that's all. Thanks for your understanding - feel free to contact me directly with any questions. No hard feelings. Best -
 
clownfish said:
30 gallons hope its a small cuttlefish

NAH, you just need to cut off their arms...works every time, as long as the skimmer is kept on the inside of the tank.


Mark...you have to understand that it is like walking into a pet store and starting to hand out flyers for the store down the street, even though they aren't in direct competition, still kind of awkward (or shall we use "aukward" in respect to our southern members), wouldn't you say?
The amount of time and money Tony and the others have invested in this site is tremendous...there is surely room for you to post any and all topics regarding cephs here, without promoting another site...that being said, I do like an exchange of information, and wish you the best if you decide to go through with the startup...
greg
 
Mark,

Great enthusiasm!

Most of us have built first and then asked for evaluation. You might be putting the cart before the horse. Those of us with established sites will link to you if you provide useful content.

I’m all for increasing easy to access knowledge of these amazing animals. However, and I’ve published mistakes on this before myself, most species of adult cuttlefish need much bigger tanks than 30 gallons. S. officinalis certainly does.

Also, given the difficulty of just acquiring a cuttlefish, I’m not sure they should be promoted as easy (although they should be promoted!). Things are getting much better thanks to sites like TONMO and what you propose to build, however, we are still a long way from “cycle the tank and nip down to the local pet store and pick out a cuttlefish from the many species available”. Short life spans and the lack of animals from aquaculture sources are additional concerns. I personally don’t think people should be encouraged to keep these animals in their first marine system. It is getting easier but it isn’t THAT easy.

A site dedicated to hobbyists breeding, rearing the offspring and then making them available to others is an area where additional resources would be especially welcome. You would probably have the most impact if you worked with an already established site like TONMO to do this.

James Wood
 

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