Last week I met Sandeep Ayyappan, editor of You and Your Energy. It’s this awesome, neat looking, well organized content (edited / aggregated) around Energy sector.
I thought of putting up few thoughts of what more can be done. Really don’t know the complete business model and roadmap what Sandeep wants to take up for YAYE, but here is what I feel can be done.
# 1. Get a mobile app
This is like the simplest task. There are tons of DIY solutions which you can use and get a branded YAYE Iphone/ Android application. I have listed few below (Disclaimer : I am not affiliated with any of them)
#2. Community, Community, Community
You need to involve people. Getsatisfaction, Quora or as simple as putting up your own user driven community portal may help.
#3. Have a dedicated video section
Video section would make a lot of sense where instead of reading, I can also see stuff.
#4. Personalization using Facebook/ Twitter
There is a lot of news one can get. YAYE also offers a lot of news in Energy sector. Do you think you can ask users to login using their Facebook so that they can “subscribe” to specific topics and follow them – less clutter, no?
#5. Company database (Think Crunchbase)
Big fan of Crunch base. Or think of Angel.co. If you can create and maintain an exhaustive Company database around energy sector, that will be so valuable. All the financial updates, new announcements, gossip, investments, diversification news, board changes can be done on this platform.
#6. Follow Companies/ Exclusive Research material
A small extension of #4 and #5. You can also start letting people follow companies, bookmark particular activities around companies.
#7. Stock Track
I don’t think you need any explanation on this. Can you run Ticker of Energy related companies, their financial news, a particular news affecting all these companies, past trends etc.
#8. Infographics, Timeline story
So I noticed there is a special story. However, you can build some cool, useful Infographics around several such news.
#9. Bit.ly and Twitter Integration
Get Twitter feeds of all these famous companies or people who write on Energy related topics.
#10. Give it back to society
Tie up with services like Change.org. When I say tie up, it can really be a mashup. There are several such niche community driven sites as change.org
#11. Pitch more and harder
Promote your blog and site on
http://alltop.com
http://www.quora.com/Whats-the-best-way-to-promote-my-new-blog
Several other news promotional platforms
#12. Education
Tie up with TED. Or environmentalist. Let them blog, talk, refer you. May be you can have sections talking about saving energy. Invite guest writers to come and write on YAYE
#13. Misc
A. Special feature : http://youandyourenergy.com/~youandyo/gulfoilspillfeature/
I see this. It’s quite good but can I get a PDF of it? Out of 15 pages, give 5 and ask to sign up/ pay/ tweet for the rest of 10 pages. (or you may as well just give it)
B. Use platforms like Storify to write about events which are going around Energy or atleast controversies going on. They will at least bring you more readers!
Hope this is helpful.
