Wow. Dunno if it's awesome or embarrassing to see reference to a document I wrote over 4 years ago in this article. Oh shit... I'm 31 now!
For those curious (I never got around to part 2), boompa ended well. After turning down an early exit, we shifted focus to comicvine.com and ended up growing that site to its current position as the largest comic book site on the web. Ethan and I eventually partnered with some other old CNET veterans and formed Whiskey Media, which runs giantbomb.com and tested.com, among other sites.
If there's anything I've learned in this business since I wrote that article it's that you're lucky if you can maintain a 50% win/loss ratio with each product your launch (though I applaud you lucky bastards that got it right the first time). My advice continues to be to ditch and move on if your product doesn't catch on within the first six months. If for no other reason than it keeps you engaged and excited on what's coming up next. Sometimes what you think will work just doesn't catch on and that's totally OK. Maybe your next idea will.
For those curious (I never got around to part 2), boompa ended well. After turning down an early exit, we shifted focus to comicvine.com and ended up growing that site to its current position as the largest comic book site on the web. Ethan and I eventually partnered with some other old CNET veterans and formed Whiskey Media, which runs giantbomb.com and tested.com, among other sites.
If there's anything I've learned in this business since I wrote that article it's that you're lucky if you can maintain a 50% win/loss ratio with each product your launch (though I applaud you lucky bastards that got it right the first time). My advice continues to be to ditch and move on if your product doesn't catch on within the first six months. If for no other reason than it keeps you engaged and excited on what's coming up next. Sometimes what you think will work just doesn't catch on and that's totally OK. Maybe your next idea will.
Keep on keeping on.