Good idea only if it's advertised hella lot so everyone knows about it. Maybe if you had a deal with petsmart, petco and other places to get the word out. Otherwise what is going to make people look there?

I had an idea like that, but more of an all inclusive lost and found site. There are already a few around. The thing is that nooone knows about them so they are useless.

 

I am a dog owner and think this is a great idea. I also agree, as pointed out above, that you need to have links with various companies, e.g., PetCo, KV Vet, PetSmart, etc.

 

i agree, this site rocks, but needs to get the word out to various groups and shops for it to be effective. good job...

 

Hey Wes,

Nice site, what a great idea. You should do a sister site for cats. Linux rocks!!! I love open source! PHP/MySql and Linux are not bad to set up... most of the documentaiton is online and there are plenty of forums to find quick answers.


Dale

 

That's a neat site! Another good one is http://www.dogster.com

 

You have a good potential of making millions of dollars. However, it will take a while until your site gets the attention it deserves.

 

My suggestion would be for your site to display "Families Reunited! Thanks Fido Finder!" (or something like that) to show that your idea is a working/effective one.

 

I think that with a site like this name recognition as well as the name itself are key. You already have the name perfect. No one will mistake that for anything else. I can see fun being poked at a site like "dogster" is that a site to find friends for your dog?

Anyway hit up all the pet store (the major chains) if your site is a non-profit (which it seems to come close or might be) they should be happy to post signs as long as you provide them.
Also you might want to contact pet supply manufacturers directly (food, toys, bedding makers, collar makers) they might be able to do advertising on their packaging at a low cost.

Good Luck!

 

I do plan on having a list of reunited dogs on the home page. As of right now (it's only been a week) no one has said the site has helped them find their dog (it's setup to ask them when they change their dog's status from Lost to Safe), I'm just waiting for a few to be recorded (the database tables and code for recording them are already there) before I wrote code on the home page to show the most recent 5 "conversions".

People are using the site to contact other users who might have their lost dog, which is really exciting. It seems to me that people "get it", they understand that the site makes sense. So far all the feedback I've gotten has been really positive. I've yet to have someone tell me, "That doesn't make any sense to me."

I have been working some advertising angles. First try to get free stuff (articles in magazines, newspapers, etc) then I'll spend a bit more on advertising (right now spending some money on Google ads, getting 100 visitors a day for $5/day). I actually posted some free lost dog ads in papers around the country that just happened to mention that you should contact the "lost dog" owner via FidoFinder.com (I included the dog's ID number in the ad). I thought that a huge blowup dog with a sign on the side of the road for a day might be a cheap alternative to billboards or traditional advertising. I'm talking right now with a local newspaper about an ad.

The site actually is for-profit, but that's the beauty of the way the site is setup. It's not at all appearant that anything costs from the looks of things. In fact, you can post your lost dog and totally use the site without ever spending a dime. But, if you want an image of your dog on the site, or a reward to be advertised for your dog, you have to pay a couple of bucks. So, I can totally get the non-commercial groups to buddy up with me and be proud of what the site is doing, while making some money at the same time. It will take a while before anyone wants to spend money on some site they haven't ever heard of. Once the site is THE site to go to they'll spend a little cash to bring Fido home. Right now I have the site setup to give away free upgrades to half the registrants in a way to keep some listings having upgrades while not making them free for everyone. That's one of the good things about the site, it won't be used repeatedly by the same people. They have no real way of catching on to any marketing schemes and abusing them; they just flat out won't spend that much time on the site posting a bunch of lost dogs.

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone has good input on this...it helps a lot to hear everyone's ideas.