Dudspuds Blog

The 2008 FSTA Winter conference went well. I received great questions and feedback from writers, publishers and other businesses in the industry. It’s been a while since the show, so I wanted to provide an update on where things are today.

After neglecting Dudspuds the last few months (while doing paying work), I’m building my plan for the rest of the 2008 and 2009. I believe in this marketplace concept, and will continue to prove it out. Here are some things on the agenda:

Steady Content Flow

One major challenge I face is having a steady flow of valuable content from publishers and writers into the marketplace. Getting their content on the site is labor intensive. While this can be resolved through technology (i.e. XML) the effort isn’t feasible for publishers when there is no guaranteed revenues. My challenge is to minimize their effort, while getting their content loaded quickly for readers.

This sounds like the job for a custom web crawler that turns the article into a marketplace offering for that respective publisher.

Republishing Content

I plan to expand the marketplace by allowing writers to sell articles to publishers. This will cover re-publish rights, exclusive rights, online/off line rights and limited number of sales per article – all controlled by the writer.

Private Label Marketplaces

We’re working on allowing 3^rd party organizations to create their own, privately-branded marketplace using Dudspuds technology. Everything will work the same, except the marketplace won’t look like Dudspuds – it will have 3^rd party’s logo, colors and domain (http://xyzsite.dudspuds.com/).

Dudspuds is excited to announce our participation in the 2008 FSTA Business Conference on February 11th and 12th in Denver, CO.

We’ll be formally launching Dudspuds during the “Pitch Me” panel and we’ll have an exhibit at the conference where you can see a product demonstration, pick up some literature, and - most importantly - get one of our free aluminum bottle openers.

We’re excited to be involved in this event and hope to generate some buzz around Dudspuds.

With baseball season right around the corner, you’ll soon begin seeing premium fantasy baseball articles available in the marketplace. Be sure to check them out, and take advantage of our $2 sign-up bonus.

Yesterday, we released some enhancements to the site…

• Home page changes, showing the $2 sign-up promotion, and other information
• Separated out the watch list articles into the watch list area, so now you don’t get confused when looking at the home page; the home page always shows new articles
• Other back end changes that will allow easier editing of content, tips, instructions and text that supports the site

If you haven’t signed up, get to it! I’ve gathered some initial feedback from folks, but would still like more opinions on the overall concept and usefulness of Dudspuds.

Now that we’ve quietly launched Dudspuds, I hope to gather feedback from initial users of the system. For anyone who has tried out the marketplace, feel free to post your thoughts, comments and suggestions to this blog entry. Here are the questions I would like answers to…

Dudspuds Feedback Questions

• Did you find any helpful content?
• Does the value justify the price?
• Is paying per article an appealing concept, and how so?
• Would you use the site again? If so, for what?
• Would you recommend it to friends?
• Any other likes/dislikes/suggestions, etc?

I will update this list with more questions, as they arise.

Here’s our first ever incentive program, starting today.

• Sign-up Bonus
• Applies to all new sign-ups at Dudspuds.com
• $2 is automatically deposited into your account
• You can spend the $2 on any articles you want

We’ve done the math, you can buy roughly 8 articles with the two bucks (based on $0.25 average price).  This allows you, as a fantasy sports player, to try out the marketplace before using your own money.  The first group of articles are on the house, and we’re happy to offer them.

Just create an account and spend like a rock star.

Don’t forget to rate articles you read by clicking the stars on the article page (1 = “worthless” to  5 =  “very useful”).  The ratings are important as they tell others what’s good, and what stinks, and they tell the system what kind of articles you like.

We need feedback, so give us your thoughts at: info [at] dudspuds.com or post in the comments on this blog entry.