Ask HN: Help me find a niche for my file sharing site

Posted by mcrittenden on Wednesday September 14, 2011 @02:47PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I launched Fileslap (http://fileslap.com) a couple months ago. The basic idea is that it's a better way to share small files (images, word docs, PPTs, songs, etc.) than emailing them which is what most everyone is currently doing, because Fileslap displays the file on the web without making the user download it.

The response has been lukewarm (lots of free users but only a couple paid users), so I recently started thinking maybe I'd see more success by targeting a specific niche.

One example that I thought of is targeting teachers who want to share assignments/docs with their students and maybe get assignments turned in through a website, rather than emailing back and forth with all of the students (like lots of college professors do).

Like I said, that's just an example (I'm sure there are already sites like that for teachers), and I'm wondering if anyone has any other ideas for niches that could benefit from an online file sharing/viewing site like Fileslap?

( 6 comments | 4 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Help me find a niche for my file sharing site by paulf on Wednesday September 14, 2011 @03:37PM (#2997559)

Congrats one two milestones: launching and having paid users. I think I first saw FileSlap on reddit - well done.

I like the simplicity of the audio player. I can't pinpoint a niche off the top of my head, but I can see the appeal of sending a quick link, "Hey, listen to this". I know a few musicians who might be interested in using FileSlap for that purpose.

While I'm here, may I offer a suggestion for your website? I would keep that slider for view demo/see examples visible by default. I just read that I can view files without downloading them...my next question is how, say, PDFs are going to look on your site. I actually missed your "see some examples" link the first time I scanned the page. (You could then remove the "View demo" button and have a bigger call to action, but I'll leave the details to you)

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Re:Ask HN: Help me find a niche for my file sharing site by mcrittenden on Wednesday September 14, 2011 @03:42PM (#2997579)

Thanks! Interesting feedback on the music uses. I'll post in a couple music subreddits and see what they think about it.

Great suggestion. I've been toying with the idea of leaving that open by default and switching the "Demos" button out with a "Try Now" button, so that people can actually upload a file before registering (and just have it expire after 5 minutes or something). I'll go ahead and get started on that.

Thanks again!

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Re:Ask HN: Help me find a niche for my file sharing site by mdgrech23 on Wednesday September 14, 2011 @03:43PM (#2997582)

So for image sharing you have Flickr, and for music/videos you have Youtube for sharing.Both are these services are well done, have big money backers, and are household names. That leaves document sharing opening, sure there is Scribd & Google Docs but I would argue neither are house hold names.

You could also change up your game plan to offer something like Posterous. It seems like you've already created a service that easily allows users to get content up on the web. Maybe it's just a matter of giving them additional tools to share that content?

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Re:Ask HN: Help me find a niche for my file sharing site by jolan on Wednesday September 14, 2011 @03:49PM (#2997598)

Rather than going for a niche, how about a wider audience? The majority of file sharing sites allow anonymous uploads and yours does not.

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Re:Ask HN: Help me find a niche for my file sharing site by mcrittenden on Wednesday September 14, 2011 @03:54PM (#2997616)

I originally allowed anonymous uploads (back when it was just a hobby site that I wasn't trying to make money off of) and took it away for a couple reasons:

- It was losing me tons of money because uploads were coming in like crazy and I wasn't making any money off of the site.

- I had no way to keep track of who's uploading what and interact with or analyze my customers and their usage.

I'm considering adding anonymous uploads that expire after a short amount of time (like 5 minutes or so) just as a way to let people try out the service before signing up. Do you see that as a good alternative? Or is even that not enough?

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Re:Ask HN: Help me find a niche for my file sharing site by jolan on Wednesday September 14, 2011 @04:14PM (#2997689)

> losing me tons of money

There are a lot hosts that charge for throughput and not actual bandwidth, i.e. https://www.gandi.net/hosting/

> I had no way to keep track

Cookies?

If you like reddit, advertise it there as "like imgur but for all file types"

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