A project me and Simon started during the June University holidays of 2009: I’m So Nerdy. It was on the height of micro-submissions sites such as FML. This one focused on nerds being nerdy. It had a niche market and the idea was there. The site is still going, but I think a number of factors could have made and can still make this site popular.

The Site

Simon wrote the site from scratch. I designed the site, but did not end up coding the design. Since the start of the site, we were always trying to improve the design, but we never came round to it. At first the site was popular. It got a few mentions on forums. It was during the FML popularity last year. The site is basically a clone, however I think we got into it just a little bit too late.

Marketing the Site

We did almost no marketing for the site whatsoever. It basically got known via word-of-mouth from our Twitter accounts (@nieldlr & @shotbeak). I did experiment with some Adwords in January of this year to test it: never used it before. It got some hits and submissions from it. I think if Simon and I put some more effort into marketing the site, it can speed up again and gain some momentum.

What now?

The site is still there. It does get a few thousand pageviews a month, from Google and just general linkage. Submissions are however irregular. We need more submissions and quality ones to make it work. Thus, it gets sort of like a club, if the dancefloor is empty, no-one wants to dance. We need to reach a good level of readers and submitters. We have played with the idea of selling the site, so someone else can take over. However, I think we wan’t to hold onto it and try and juice it up in the future. The first thing on the agenda? A redesign!

So if you are a nerd and want to share your adventures in the real world. Submit one right now!