Last week we launched happysheep our free local classified site where you can advertise to people who live in your local area. Think of it as an online version of the public notice board that sits outside your local dairy.
We’ve been working on the site in between other projects for most of 2007 and it’s a great feeling to finally see real content and real members. Launching a web site and seeing people use it for the first time never gets old. It’s what it’s all about.
Compared to other sites that we’ve built happysheep was actually a lot of fun. We started with a blank piece of paper (or in our case a Google Doc) and focused exclusively on how the site would work best from a usability point of view. Business models, design and trying to meet other people’s (high) expectations didn’t factor into the equation.
I know a lot of people will wonder why we didn’t just integrate the site into Zillion with its existing traffic and signed up members. Well we actually spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make this work, but eventually decided that there would be too many compromises. For example auctions work best nationwide (you can ship stuff anywhere in New Zealand) where as classifieds work best locally (who cares about an event that’s happening at the other end of the country). It also affects smaller things like sorts, filters and methods of contact between members. It all added up to a big mess.
Launching happysheep as a standalone site meant that our vision was never compromised or watered down. We’ve finished up with a site that we’re all very proud of. I hope it goes well.