Posted on December 20, 2006 - by Justin Hartman
Is bad publicity good? and why i do grabble
It has been said that any publicity, good or bad, is good either way. Well I experienced my first bit of ‘bad’ publicity today with Grabble and I’m still undecided if it’s good for Grabble or not. In a recent post by Uno De Waal about the Grabble search engine I got less than rave reviews and it seems as if the readers of Uno’s Blog were just as perplexed.
It would appear that my lack of revenue model on Grabble is coming up for some critism and I must admit Uno is not the first to do so. While he may be the first person to publicly state this revenue model issue I have had a few people comment on this issue on a personal one-on-one level.
The truth is Grabble does cost me a hell of a lot of money to run and operate. I have two dedicated web servers using in excess of 50GB worth of bandwidth each month and the indexing on the servers amount to well over 70GB worth of disk space. These figures grow daily now that the website is live and building up a larger database and I am already setting up a third web server to help with the load.
Of course these figures are just going to continue growing and with that comes additional cost. How will the project fund itself is a key issue which does need addressing. As I commented on Uno’s blog the concept or idea is not to make money. That is not why I started Grabble and it will not be something that I will ever be interested in. As discussed in my Profile page I have tried to make money out of the Internet before and I made a mess of that so I do things now simply for the joy of watching it grow and develop with time.
I have said these exact words to the people that have questioned my ‘business-model’ and it does seem a little odd I have to admit. At the end of the day I do have a plan to help cover the costs of this project but this plan can only start to work once I have critical mass using the service and a product that works and functions in a way that I feel comfortable with.
My plan does not include paid-for advertising on the grabble website but rather looking at dealings with corporate companies in South Africa. I will never include paid-for advertising on Grabble as long as I am involved with it.
I can almost hear you thinking that Google made a promise very similar to this but the short answer to this is that I am not Google and don’t have any investors to account to and show a ROI. I do this for me – very selfishly I might add – and I just love doing it.
Uno also brought up an issue about Google. Now there is already a misconception about Grabble in that I am not trying to be Google but rather the best local alternative to major SA search engines. I really got so frustrated with the junk that got spat out at me in search results locally that it just became easier to use Google. I would like to change that perception and make Grabble the first point of contact when looking for something local, if this is at all humanly possible.
There is so much more still to come with Grabble and I’m hopeful to have some key stuff launched by end of January. I am so excited about this project and the changes that will take place that I just can’t wait to see how it will be received.
12 Comments
I'd love to hear yours!
I am a seasoned entrepreneur and currently the CEO of 
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December 20, 2006
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I really see no reason why you should not be able to make some money with Grabble, even if it is to cover the costs of running the site. I think it is unrealistic to expect a service like that to be run solely out of your own pocket and still be any good.
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December 20, 2006
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I really see no reason why you should not be able to make some money with Grabble, even if it is to cover the costs of running the site. I think it is unrealistic to expect a service like that to be run solely out of your own pocket and still be any good.
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December 21, 2006
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Hey Justin
I was one of the readers on uno’s blog to criticise grabble’s lack of transparency. However, it seems clear that you are funding it personally.
One question though. Do you really find text ads to be so overly intrusive? I have to be honest here, I really don’t. In fact I prefer them. They are to the point because of the fact that they are PAID for. They are always relevant with regards to the search term.
I find it interesting that you have no profit motive for Grabble. With a site that had the potential to attract so much traffic, it would surely be wise to consider gaining ad revenue?
Regards
Stefano Sessa
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December 21, 2006
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Paul, you are correct in saying it should try and make money. As I’ve said before I do have a revenue model in mind but I want to try and keep this to a very specific, high-end niche rather than target the consumers.
Stefano, Thanks for your feedback. I personally don’t have a problem with Google ads however I do have a problem with just about every other type of advertising model in Search Engines. If we’re talking just about the Google ads then yes I don’t have an issue but I am trying to make a point with not including adverts on Grabble.
I believe that there are other business-models out there that can generate revenue for a site like grabble and I will certainly tap into those other markets once the site gains in popularity. I guess my immediate issue is to try and build up critical mass as quickly as possible so that these other revenue models can start to pay for the service.
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December 21, 2006
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Hey Justin
I was one of the readers on uno's blog to criticise grabble's lack of transparency. However, it seems clear that you are funding it personally.
One question though. Do you really find text ads to be so overly intrusive? I have to be honest here, I really don't. In fact I prefer them. They are to the point because of the fact that they are PAID for. They are always relevant with regards to the search term.
I find it interesting that you have no profit motive for Grabble. With a site that had the potential to attract so much traffic, it would surely be wise to consider gaining ad revenue?
Regards
Stefano Sessa
Visit My Website
December 21, 2006
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Paul, you are correct in saying it should try and make money. As I've said before I do have a revenue model in mind but I want to try and keep this to a very specific, high-end niche rather than target the consumers.
Stefano, Thanks for your feedback. I personally don't have a problem with Google ads however I do have a problem with just about every other type of advertising model in Search Engines. If we're talking just about the Google ads then yes I don't have an issue but I am trying to make a point with not including adverts on Grabble.
I believe that there are other business-models out there that can generate revenue for a site like grabble and I will certainly tap into those other markets once the site gains in popularity. I guess my immediate issue is to try and build up critical mass as quickly as possible so that these other revenue models can start to pay for the service.
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December 22, 2006
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Check out Google’s latest!
http://sessa.wordpress.com/2006/12/21/googles-tip-blatantly-deceptive/
I disagree with this move!
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December 22, 2006
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Check out Google's latest!
http://sessa.wordpress.com/2006/12/21/googles-t...
I disagree with this move!
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January 2, 2007
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I wouldn’t take Uno (‘Just use MySpace’)’s post too seriously. Whatever the local effort, he always seems to discourage it.
Long live competition, and good luck with Grabble.
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January 2, 2007
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Thanks gv. I personally don’t mind bad publicity – it certainly has the effect of keeping you on your toes and trying to improve the product. Either way anyone who blogs about grabble carries the name out into the world and I’m happy. People will at the end of the day make up their own minds about what they like
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January 2, 2007
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I wouldn't take Uno ('Just use MySpace')'s post too seriously. Whatever the local effort, he always seems to discourage it.
Long live competition, and good luck with Grabble.
Visit My Website
January 2, 2007
Permalink
Thanks gv. I personally don't mind bad publicity – it certainly has the effect of keeping you on your toes and trying to improve the product. Either way anyone who blogs about grabble carries the name out into the world and I'm happy. People will at the end of the day make up their own minds about what they like