Geeks.co.uk has popped up on my radar several times in the last few months. I first came aware of the site after a couple of their posts popped up on the social bookmarking site Digg.com. Soon after this while researching my Dragons Den posts I found Online Dragon Shaf Rasul from the online Dragon’s Den had invested in Geeks.co.uk. Finally just the other week Geeks.co.uk announced that they had brought in 7Thingsmedia to “implement a branding and commercial strategy which will support the site in realising its ambition to become the most popular lifestyle gadget site in the UK.” 7Thingsmedia is managed by Chris Bishop one of my former work colleagues.
So I thought it was time I took a closer look!
Geeks.co.uk was formed in July 2009, it was around this time that online Dragon Shaf Rasul invested in the company. Shaf has become well known after starring in the Dragons Den online den where anyone can pitch a video to him asking for investment. He has an extensive portfolio of property and technology investments and is no stranger to website investments, which include Vuru a social networking site for entrepreneurs and Boffer a daily deal website.
Geeks.co.uk is run by a team of eight writers, who test and review the latest in gadgets, tech and games. The site is split into News, Lifestyle, Gadget reviews, Game reviews and forums. The site is quite an intuitive blog / magazine layout with the main page featuring the latest stories and the categories displaying a “feed” of posts in chronological order.
Site review
Clearly the site is still finding its feet, it has a message in the header saying it is in development and to report any issues, the design feels quite basic and at odds with it’s geek audience, I would have expected something more polished, also I found the drop down menus were very temperamental on Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer 8 – If I hover on one of the menu choices such as lifestyle but then move the mouse down to click on the menu, the menu disappears before I can click.
The articles are well written, I particularly enjoyed the “Geek World” articles such as “The top 50 Geekiest TV Shows” – a classic Top xx list which provokes debate and conversation in the comments stream. If your wondering I only watch 20 of the top 50 – though I could name a few shows which should make the top 50!
Equally the game reviews were good for giving an unbiased look at the pros and cons of the game. However I was disappointed by the gadget reviews I read, this is where I think the concept of the site is at odds with itself, the site is called “geeks” but the content is very mainstream, if I am a Geek I know where to find the best niche sites for all “geek reviews” eg AV forums is a brilliant resource for TV reviews and indepth details, but the geeks.co.uk reviews that I read didn’t even contain a full list of features.
I was also confused by the forums, there was a forum thread for every post, this left me confused, should I leave a comment on the post or should I write in the forum?
Overall though I think the site is fantastic for one that’s only three months old, there is obviously a lot of growth potential and in just three months they are already receiving an estimated 4,600 visits a day. Obviously they still have some way to get to the traffic level of wired.com and engadget who I would consider their competitors, but I would love 4,600 views a day on any one of my sites!
However once I sat back and forgot about the word Geek, I realised it’s a really fun site that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and while still small I can see it building a great community of constructive and engaged fans in the forum, whereas some other sites you feel scared to comment for fear of sounding stupid!
Charles’ 3 things
If I were running Geeks.co.uk here are three things I would do (partially with my consumer hat on and partially with my eCommerce / monetisation hat)…
1. Become an affiliate – Most of the posts on Geeks.co.uk relate to a specific product or are a top 10 list (which tend to drive most of the traffic to sites through social media). I would become an Amazon affiliate and link to those products on Amazon or other sites and make a small commission off of each sale – eg Top 10 Cameras, or Top 50 Geekiest TV Shows, link to the cameras or link to the boxsets, your readers will actually like that you are providing more information and a means to purchase and won’t mind / won’t know that you are making a small commission.
2. Revisit the site template design – there are a few frustrating things like the drop down menus not working which need to be sorted out now while the site is small as they may prevent users from coming back. (since writing this I have interviewed 7Thingsmedia Managing director Chris Bishop (see below) and discovered that this is also at the top of their list to do.
3. Don’t have a forum thread for each article, this is what the comments are for, having a forum thread aswell only confuses me as to where I should post, but the forum is great asset to see what your users are interested in and discussing to help form future posts.
Interview with Chris Bishop of 7Thingsmedia
As I previously mentioned Chris Bishop founder and managing director of 7Thingsmedia is a friend and former work colleague of mine, so when I heard that 7Thingsmedia had been brought in to boost the Geeks.co.uk Media strategy I asked if he’d be able to answer a few questions.
Can you tell us how you came to be involved with Geeks.co.uk?
It was via a personal referral to BBC Online Dragon, Shaf Rasul. He was passed my details and we’ve starting discussing several of his projects including his own businesses and some of his investments one of which was his investment in geeks.co.uk. A flight to Edinburgh, a speedy transfer in a Aston Martin and a quick meeting with Shaf plus the wider team led to us all agreeing on a set plan to achieve our goals.
Geeks.co.uk has strong competition from other sites such as Wired.com, and more specialist sites such as AVforums (in my opinion), what do you think differentiates it and makes it stand out from the crowd of geeky / tech blogs?
Our initial objective is to create a fun consumer resource that allows every day gamers and gadget users to create fun debate on the gadgets and technology we use very day. The website is in its infancy at the minute, but we are looking to quickly scale this with a goal to become a lifestyle portal and the most successful of its kind in the UK.
We are thriving in the early commentary and feedback from our early adopters; we always aim to reply and want to build a platform that will empower our audience to fully engage in their interests – the aim is to create a trusted news source with a knowledge opinion mixed with a dash of wit, charm or an element of a stand out experience – we are all aware to be successful it’s for our users to fall in love with us, not for us to sell it to them!
You’ve been brought in to “head the strategic development of the magazine” what does this mean? What does it encompass?
Geeks.co.uk is the first website property on the books at 7thingsmedia and part of the advantages of being a digital start-up is the degree of agility the business can have. We are onboard to set the online marketing and commercial plans for the website – we are currently in a process of making recommendations to the team and starting to build the ties with various media agencies and directly with brands.
Naturally the aim is to build a profitable trading website to ensure the online magazine can become a set above the rest in its genre – both in it’s reach and quality content, whether that be basic style & copy or new technologies such as augmented reality.
Can you give us a sneak preview of anything coming soon?
Our first priority is to review the current skin of the website therefore we are currently reviewing version 2 of the site and aiming to release a new look shortly with the aim build the geeks.co.uk brand, improve the community elements and customer experience whilst offering advertisers a range of opportunities linked to our members’ interests and passions.
Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
The one area which we love at geeks.co.uk is participation and discussion – I’d personally love to see a Charles Barsley article and/or a Barsley Brief reader writing an article for the online magazine or involved in a passionate debate on the forum – we are all know the web is the perfect vehicle for the joining of opinion and also discussion – so I’d to welcome the floor to all consider a contribution and contact Ally – ed@geeks.co.uk with your idea.
Thank you Chris for taking the time to answer these questions. I look forward to seeing version 2 of the site, and continuing to read the great articles, you never know there might be a Charles Barsley article there one day, if I can just find something inspiring to write about.
You can check out geeks at www.geeks.co.uk
I’d love to hear your thoughts of the site, this review (my first site review) or any other sites you think I should look at and review. Please leave a comment.