A Thread For Everyone That's In/Been In College

[Restrikted]

Right now I'm developing a simple used book trading site for my university, which I hope to expand with many other features as time goes on. My question to you is this: What academic tools do you wish you had to help you during college?

So I'm kicking around a few ideas, and I just thought I'd share them to see what you guys think (please don't steal my ideas....)

First and foremost, the site is built around students trading their books to each other to combat the ludicrous prices the bookstore sets. I want to expand it so that each class has its own section, where students are free to post up anything related to the class, like past exams, homework answers, and just general help with the class. By doing things like this (helping people with the material, posting exams and such), they earn points, where if they earn enough, they can redeem them for a certain dollar amount towards the textbooks being traded on the site. As you get higher up in class level, the classes get much harder, so I thought this would be a good idea for people to seek help outside of the professor's office hours and such. So what do you think of this?

I know it's going to be tough to get going (getting people to actually come to the site), but assuming they do, what do you think?

What other ideas do you have to improve these ideas, and what would you like to see in such a site?

[Valeria]

Okay, wanna know what I think?

I think the idea has potential.

First, though, please don't limit yourself by saying it would be tough to get going. How do you know this?

Second, I think you should consider making it into a membership site. Get yourself some passive income. Well, it won't really be passive...you'll have to put energy into it. But it could be fun, and you might not have to charge very much to make it worthwhile.

Third, you'll want to be very careful with copyright issues. If people are posting things, there should be some way to monitor so they don't post things that could get you sued.

Good luck with your idea! Go for it...I'd get started now.

[Stu]

First, as a university student I would say definitely don't make it a payed membership site. Students are poor and there are already a ton of alternatives out there to what you're proposing.

And I agree about the copyright stuff. Academics takes plagarism and cheating VERY seriously and the last thing you want is people being expelled for using your service. I know up here in Canada a student was recently expelled I believe for posting some sort of answers on a facebook group related to a class.

Lastly, research your competition. I know for example at my university people buy/sell/trade textbooks on facebook, course union websites, bulletin boards around campus, and the used book store on campus. What can you offer that your competitors don't? Why will people want to use your service?

[Calculusaurus]

I agree with Stu.

Research your competition. I don't know enough to advise for or against this business area, but I do know you have a few solid competitors.

I forgot the name of the exact service, but there was a 3rd part program run at my college that had an interesting business model.
1. they weren't exclusive to just 1 college, I think they did business in dozens.
2. they hired students from my college to post flyers around campus.
3. they bought books at higher prices than my college bookstore.
4. if you wanted to sell a book, you would just go to one of 10 or so students that were hired by the service to collect books - those students would give you the money and all. the students lived in dorms, so it was convenient. then the service would drop by the school at the end of finals week and collect the books from those 10 students, pay them, etc.

I don't know how well his business did, since they just started it recently and I've been in the habit of keeping my upper level textbooks, but they were really good at getting into the minds of college students -- their service was much, much more convenient than the traditional bookstore buyback. maybe they even did school-targeted advertising through facebook?

Before that, my school had a student-run book marketplace website. It was sort of an underground way to buy/sell books by avoiding the middle man (i.e. the bookstore).

And now there's the facebook marketplace. I'm not sure how that has kicked off yet.

The point is, restrikted, is I think you are entering a business that has a lot of demand. Many students are frustrated with the low payback from college bookstores and are looking for alternatives.

But at the same time, your idea isn't original, and students already have other options. Perhaps you can find a way to get bigger exposure than your competition. Despite the alternatives that do exist, I was always shocked at the percentage of students that just went through the college bookstore anyway. I mean, you can get any textbook on amazon.com for sometiems as low as half the price the bookstore will sell it, yet so few people actually did that....

[Restrikted]

I know there are more than a fair share of sites similar to this, but at my time at the university, I never see advertisements or people talking about similar sites, so I figure if I advertise right and have quality service, I should be able to get noticed and come out on top. What else do you guys think I should add to aid to the students with their studies?