3rd Year Enterprise & Entrepreneurship blog: May 2011

As written before, I need to look up the different online portfolio sites and analyse their strengths, weaknesses, their Unique Selling Point (USP) and how they get their money.

For the record, it's very difficult to isolate what a portfolio site's USP is when they in effect are doing the same thing, providing space for creative's to upload their work for companies and individuals to see.

Carlos asked me on Thursday 26th May are there any companies out there that I've looked at that are providing a similar service to what The Third Nexus is offering, I googled it and the only thing that I have found that is closest carlos' business idea is something called foliotek (www.foliotek.com) but this is more for an education institution use, for marking and examining students work, not to exhibit students work to make them look attractive as employees which is Carlos's idea.

Behance Network.

USP- Leading platform for creative professionals.

Strengths.

It's well established in two ways. 1) well known in the industry. 2) there are a lot of portfolios, so they have a large amount of customers.

Provides the user with some useful tools, you can import your flickr album and you can post your portfolio created on Behance on twitter and facebook.

Clean design.

Weaknesses.
Not many jobs for the UK, majority in America.

Very little filter control when searching for jobs, the user can only filter out results by industry, not by country or anything else.

Has the potential to be overwhelming to the user because there is so much on the site and on each page.

How do they make their money?
The Behance Network make their money from advertisers. These advertisers can advertise through the company's products- The Behance network, served sites, the 99% and newsletters.

Partnerships.

Small business solutions.

Carbonmade.

USP- easiest way to display and manage a portfolio online with professional portfolio designs.

Strengths.

Sasy to setup.

A good degree of personalisation

No advertising- this reduces the clutter on a portfolio.

Clean design

Well constructed and phrased sentences to make the user feel welcome.

Well known.

Weaknesses.

Limited space for photos and videos on the free portfolio scheme. This maybe a way to entice creatives to invest in the portfolio upgrade, which in that case is good business sense.

How do they make their money?

There is no obvious signs that carbonmade receives money from advertisers, this would lead me to conclude that their only source of income is from the portfolio upgrade.

Shown'd.

USP- a centralised hub to maintain a portfolio.

Strengths.

They have shown a sign of continuous improvement, this is visible through their blog. One of their posts was about "portfolio bug fix updates".

Allow companies to post jobs, thereby enticing creatives to join the site with a possibility of getting some work. (Could we offer something like this for "the third nexus" giving students a heads up of industry looking for talent? This will utilise Ravensbourne's contacts).

Shown'd has a wide variety of material, they have companies recruiting, this provides employers and employees with a service, which is free. In addition is provides the creative to see what companies are out there in that particular industry. They also have an articles page covering various different creative and technical topics.

Weaknesses.

The design of the site is very centralised, and if there is alot on the page (which more often than not is the case) it can give the pages a claustrophobic and cluttered feel.

With regards to the blog, on the other hand this was last updated in 2009, so they haven't kept it up to date.

Coroflot.

USP- "largest, most established, most diverse pool of professional creative portfolios in the world".

Strengths.

* What the user wants is laid out clearly in front of you.

* They have provided two services, one for the employee and one for the employer.

* Nice bold and clear design, light on the eyes to give it a clean look and to not overwhelm the user.

* They have a job section, with several filters. Coroflot has a country filter, but there isn't one for the UK, and so Coroflot is not targeting the audience who wish to work here. Perhaps one of The Third Nexus USP's should be that we have jobs for the UK, both London and wider.

* In addition, majority of these companies that I have researched are based in the states, perhaps another one of our USP's should be that we're local, we live in London/UK and so we're closer.

* They have a help section that is clearly laid out with several clear catagories and a contact email if the help requirement cannot be found.

* Portfolios have a nice clean, well laid out design, with an overview, portfolio, profile and activity sections.

Weaknesses.

* With regards to the filters, what I did notice was that, again like other portfolio sites majority of the jobs are outside the UK, majority are in the states. If The Third Nexus is to have a jobs section, there should be a search filter of whether you wish to work abroad or in the homeland (homeland being the UK because this service is for Ravensbourne).

* The page design on the Design Jobs page is very white, and very pale so it could have the potential to be boring.

Apart from these two weaknesses I struggle to find anything else that could be classified as a weakness for this website. Everything functions well.

How do They Make their Money?

Coroflot do not charge for membership nor is there an upgrade scheme. Coroflot receive their financial income from job advertisements. There are several packages- single $265, 3 pack $695, 5 pack $1,050 and 10 pack $1,750. Considering Coroflot is well established and has a large customer base it is not a stretch of the imagination that they enjoy a good flow of income from this because companies want a large audience.

Professional on the Web.

USP-

Strengths.

It's well known, when googling portfolio websites, this is one of the first to appear on blogs and to appear under the google search results.

Set up is easy and straight forward.

Weaknesses.

Not an attractive front page, it looks cluttered and unprofessional.

Overall site is cluttered looking, too "in your face" and bland.

How do they make their Money?

Professional on the web have advertising banners on the sides of their pages, just like Facebook.

Deviant Art.

Strengths.
Well structured site, has catagories to the side of the page. Catagories consist of- digital art, photography, traditional art etc.

Well established which can help attract attention of advertisers.

Weaknesses.
I couldn't find any weaknesses for this site, or how it is managed, it appears to be a well constructed website.

How do they make their money?
Advertising products for different sized companies, (users can either advertise on the homepage or on the individuals profiles):

The individual- artists or members who want to promote their work to the Deviant art community.

Small to medium sized businesses. For this section, Deviantart have different price plans (http://about.deviantart.com/advertising/). These price plans are from $50-$1000 USD (united states dollars)

You then have the advertising package for the premium brands, ad agencies and ad networks that have budgets more than $3000 USD.

Deviantart also make money through T-shirts and gear and print making.

Print making is done on the site, either by catagory or artist.

Print sizes vary from artist to artist. Price is also down to the discretion of the artist.

Deviantart have a clothing section called deviantwear.

Users can select from-

T-shirts- generally price $20.
Hoodies and jackets
DA pro series and bags
Emoticon stressballs
Collectibles
Trolface
and Active Wear.

Deviantart also make their money through premium accounts.
Here are there rates: £3 per month, £4.82 for 3 months and £18.15 for 12 months.

3rd Year Enterprise & Entrepreneurship blog

Friday, 27 May 2011

Company breakdowns.

Wednesday, 18 May 2011

Business idea and my research.